Besieged by everyone from Saladin to Richard the Lionheart and Napoleon, Israel's second most populated city, Tel Aviv, is rich in history. Situated on the Mediterranean coast, the port city is probably better renowned for being the site of conquests and capitulations than cutting edge electronic music, but Garden City Movement are heading the vanguard of the area's burgeoning dance scene.
Having surfaced last year, the trio have already dropped a pair of promising EPs that showcased their fragile, spectral, delicate electronica bringing the likes of Apparat and Oval to mind. Their new release Modern West sees the light of day via The Vinyl Factory and BLDG5 Records later this month. Lead track "Recollections" is a gorgeously glitchy bit of deep blue sadness and has got us stuck somewhere in between sombre and excited.
While you get ready for that record, why not let the group transport you to the heart of Tel Aviv for a guided tour round the city that made them.
What's your favourite spot to pick up second hand records?
There's a few, each store has its own character. You can catch us digging crates at the Third Ear, Hor Beshahor, Off The Record, and over the last two years there's been an increase of record markets and they're quite festive - and of course lots of auctions on Facebook groups.
Where does the best evening drinks?
It depends on your vibe but we would say Port Said, Teder (only in summer), Diego San and Lucifer.
Teder (photo via)
Who serves up the nicest food?
What to expect down at Haachim (photo via)
That's an unfair question! Tel Aviv is one of the cities with the best cuisine in the world, so there's so many types of great places. We can pick Port Said and Diego San, but you can easily add Cafe Europa, North Abraxass, Casino San Remo, Haachim and really, the list can go on and on, and that's before even starting to talk about places outside of Tel Aviv or even getting to the holy grail - the hummus!
You've got all your best friends in town for the night: where do you take them to dance till dawn?
Pasáž, Radio EPGB, The Block (weekends), Kuli Alma, Buxa and the Breakfast Club.
Who's the native Israeli artist you think the world at large needs to know about?
One word - Ryskinder.
A summer's afternoon. Not a care in the world. Twenty dollars in your pocket. Where do you go, how do you spend it?
Stay home, Tel Aviv is way too expensive! Just go to the beach.
I'm in Tel Aviv for two days. I want to go to a gallery and buy a pair of shoes. Where do you head me?
For galleries you can come to Kiryat Ha'Melacha. It's kind of a rough part of town where our label and studio are based and there's a lot of cool galleries hiding inside this industrial buildings. For shoes you can try the SneakerBox, Story or just go the flea market in Jaffa.
Modern West is out on April 6 via The Vinyl Factory
Follow Garden City Movement on Twitter // SoundCloud // Facebook
Teder (photo via)
What to expect down at Haachim (photo via)
