From under warm Southern Hemisphere skies, Zankee Gulati is a rising star in the Australian electronic music scene.

With his distinctive brand of underground house, and a dash of techno thrown in for good measure, the Sydney based artist continues to develop a growing fanbase comprised of fans and DJ glitterati alike. Raised in Hobart, Tasmania, a move to New South Wales provided new opportunities to captivate club-goers with pristine DJ sets full of verve and craft across the state capital with appearances at leading clubs and festivals, alongside a raft of industry icons that include Hernan Cattaneo, Guy Mantzur, Eelke Kleijn, Tim Green, Nick Warren, and more…

Zankee also has growing production portfolio that features on some of the industry’s finest record labels such as The Soundgarden, Plattenbank, onedotsixtwo, and Balance Music, which illustrates a burgeoning talent with a bright future.

Balance Selections 208: Zankee Gulati

Tracklisting:

1. Domingo +, Eric Lune – Sentimental Fool
2. Zankee Gulati – ID
3. Li-Polymer – Mellifluous (LoQuai remix)
4. Zankee Gulati – ID
5. Zankee Gulati – ID (ID remix)
6. Kasper Koman – Fruit (Original Mix)
7. Jelly For The Babies, Ignacio Corazza – My Heart Is Heavy (Weird Sounding Dude remix)
8. Hot Tuneik – Guateque Nights (Zankee Gulati remix)
9. Rudra – Bhavishya
10. Liam Sieker – Soft Serenade (Fabri Lopez remix)
11. Dmitry Molosh – River Pond (Andrea Cassino remix)
12. Dabeat – Torus (Subandrio remix)
13. Mike Rish – ID
14. Abity – Sinerxia (Zankee Gulati remix)
15. Luka Sambe & Zankee Gulati – Burning Sage (Original mix)
16. Luka Sambe & Zankee Gulati – Civic Path (Original mix)
17. Lucas Rossi – Everflow (Original mix)
18. Luka Sambe – 7 Days (Original mix)

Balance Selections Q+A

Name: Manan Gulati
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Alias/Producer name: Zankee Gulati
Labels affiliated with: The Soundgarden, Balance Music, onedotsixtwo, Mango Alley, Plattenbank, Clubsonica

My last 3 releases:

Luka Sambe & Zankee Gulati – Civic Path

Abity – Sinerxia (Zankee Gulati Remix)

GMJ & Zankee Gulati – Eraya

What music did you listen to as a child?

Being born in India, my childhood mainly consisted of Hindi and Punjabi music. I was in the music group of my school where I used to play the Keyboard and Xylophone and sometimes sing.

When was the first time that you realised that you liked electronic music?

I was introduced to dance music by my older brother, and I remember him showing me Armin Van Buuren’s Album ‘Imagine’ and Tiesto’s Album ‘Just Be’. The beautiful haunting melodies and vocals got me hooked. Trance music has played a huge role in my musical journey, which is what I used to play when I started DJ’ing.

When was the first time you saw a DJ in a club?

My first clubbing experience was in Hobart, Tasmania. Not many nightclubs there but I used to do some weekend bar work at this club called ‘Plan B’ where a lot of electronic music artists played, with the likes of Jaytech, Infected Mushroom, TJR, Marlo, and many more. It was also the club where I played my first gig and made some amazing friends.

Which producers/artists/acts inspire you?

Well, this one is easy. It’s the magician Guy J. The music he creates is just on another level. So much detail, variety and beautiful sounds. His album ‘1000 words’ is my all-time favourite, and I keep coming back to it especially for long drives. Eric Prydz was also a big inspiration during my transition from Trance to Melodic Prog House. Another melodic wizard that guy.

Special mention to Forerunners, Nicolas Rada, Ezequiel Arias, and my fellow Australians Jamie Stevens, GMJ, Matter, Luka Sambe, and Mike Rish. We really have some amazing talent in Australia.

What was the last album that you downloaded/bought?

haha It’s been a little while since I’ve actually downloaded/bought an album. Last one was ‘Starchild’ by my good friend and very talented Matter. Excellent music on that one and I highly recommend it for fellow melodic lovers.

What is your current production and DJ set up like?

My setup is pretty simple. I use Ableton on my 16 inch M1 max laptop plugged into a Alienware 34 inch curved screen with Adams A7X studio monitors. The Audio interface I use is MOTU Ultralite mk5 and the keyboard I use for midi is Komplete Kontrol 61 by Native Instruments.

Some of my favourite plug-ins I use mostly on my tracks are Omnisphere, Pigments, Diva, Repro and also effects from Baby Audio, Soundtoys and Fabfilter.

What releases do you have on the horizon?

I’ve just released my debut ep with Luka Sambe on Balance Music. My second Ep on The Soundgarden is releasing later this year which I am super excited about. I’ve also got a release coming on Meanwhile Horizons.

Jamie Stevens and I are working on an EP, which is sounding super good and we can’t wait to release it.

Where can we hear you perform?

I am playing at one of my favourite clubs in Sydney ‘ Universal ‘ this Sunday with Eli Nissan. There are few other exciting shows that I will be playing at later this year which haven’t been announced yet, so stay tuned on my socials for more information.

Tell us more about the podcast you made for Balance?

I’ve always wanted to record a mix for Balance so it had to be special. I usually don’t play a lot of my own music but this mix includes a lot of my upcoming tracks which I’ve mentioned above and also a lot of my favourite tracks that I am playing out right now. This 2 hour mix was recorded at my apartment on Pioneer CDJ’s.

My Recommendations

The top track in my DJ wallet currently is:

Kasper Koman – Fruit ( Original Mix)