Cielo Club, New York. Sure, I’ve never had the pleasure, but Francois K plays there every Monday, Louie Vega is a regular, and hell, why else would Oliver Huntemann choose this to be the venue for the third instalment of his Play series? (That and the fact that the pictures online look, well, awesome.)

Recorded in the club, it opens with the crowd cheering for the man they’d all come to see. The soft dark sounds of Confuzzled by Extrawelt take you in, and as the crowd noise dies, the music kicks in and we embark on our NYC journey. With almost two and a half hours to come, the H-Man has no problem letting us wait, as he sets the mood, before some sweet techno kicks in. 2000 Miles from Martin Landsky and Airplane Electronique from Josh Wink lead the charge, the bass heavy and dirty; the drops even more so. Huntemann throws in his own – appropriately named – NYC (Keep On Playin’), complete with a touch of deep, dark despondence to it. That said, this is for the city that doesn’t sleep, and with it comes a range of emotions. Speaking of darkness, his collaboration with Dubfire, the so-called ‘Prince of Darkness’, Fuego is the epitome of it and a track that not surprisingly is getting quite some airplay on dancefloors across the city, and without doubt, the globe.

The release is spread over two discs, but in a nice touch, the end of disc one and start of the second run seamlessly together. Cold comfort if you’re listening to it on CD, but great if you have the digital variety. Disc two delivers much of the same, albeit with a slightly bouncier touch to it. Galactic Suite (wicked tune) gets us rolling and just as you can almost smell a serious melody coming your way, before it is seemingly ripped out of your hand and replaced with bass. Lots of it, coming in the form of Magma from Andre Winter setting us into another tech-infused spiral. Good fun. Never forgetting that this is a release recorded for a club, you can feel yourself bopping away.

Space Drone from Roberto Bosco puts its hand up as one of the tunes of the release, with the Italian getting just that nice touch of melody and techno happening, much to this reader’s delight, before Huntemann slams some straight up techno: neat, no ice, straight back in our face. Again, good times.

All up, the release is jam-packed with some wicked tunes from the likes of Wink, Maetrik, Dubfire, Octave and of course Huntemann himself. The German puts it altogether in absolute style, and leaves you wanting more. A solid release, and a very welcome addition to the Play series.

Play 03: Cielo, New York is out now on Ideal Audio/Intergroove.