It is time for another MENA Local Heroes update, which means we are once again entering the emotionally complex territory of asking people with extremely good taste what they listen to. This is public service journalism, but with better basslines.

MENA Local Heroes is STR’s monthly guest-curated playlist series, curated exclusively for Apple Music, spotlighting the people, spaces and communities shaping the region’s sound from within.

For the first edition, we invited Honeycomb Hi-Fi, Dubai’s finest listening bar, known for treating music with rare care. Their takeover set the tone with pre-club selections that mapped the emotional build-up before a night out.

For the second edition, KLO delivered a comfort-zone mix of neo-soul, R&B and self-care energy. The third saw UAE athlete Noura AlKhalaf raise the tempo with a high-energy selection built for focus, movement and momentum.

Now, for the fourth edition, we turn to Made in the Emirates – Volume II, a compilation curated by Shadi Megallaa — music producer, DJ, founder of The Flip Side record shop and Ark to Ashes label, and one of the key names behind the UAE’s vinyl and underground music culture.

Made in the Emirates – Volume II documents a snapshot of the UAE’s evolving electronic underground: voices shaped by the dancefloor, experimentation and a deep commitment to independent music culture. Curated with an emphasis on rhythm, texture and process, the compilation moves fluidly between club functionality and exploratory sound design. Which is a very elegant way of saying: yes, you can dance to it, but you may also find yourself staring into the middle distance thinking about signal chains. Both are valid.

For Shadi, the record isn't trying to be a grand historical statement with a laminated plaque and a heavy institutional tone. It is something more immediate.

“This is a document of a scene,” he says. “A group of artists shaping the sound of the UAE in real time. Everyone on this record is a friend, a collaborator and part of a growing story. It isn’t the beginning and it isn’t the end — it’s the now. Turn it up!”

That sense of “the now” is exactly what gives the project its pulse. Made in the Emirates – Volume II isn't interested in presenting the UAE underground as one neat genre, one mood, or one tidy exportable sound. Instead, it lets the scene be what it actually is: layered, restless, generous, slightly obsessive, and built by people who have spent years showing up in rooms, record shops, studios, clubs and after-hours conversations where entire ideas are born because someone said, “Wait, play that again.”

The STR x Apple Music playlist expands that world by asking artists from the compilation — including Adam Rahman, Rhythm Plate, Tarik Omar, Bood, Megadon Betamax, Hameed and Jayesh — to choose the tracks and influences that sit behind their own work. The result isn't a clean museum label. Thank God. It is a messy, soulful, very alive map of references: techno, deep house, dub, ambient, disco, soul, jazz, modular textures and local electronic music that refuses to sit politely in one category.

For Adam Rahman, the sound he represents is direct: “Techno.”

A Dubai-based DJ, producer and promoter, Adam has been active since the late 1990s and is recognised as one of the pioneers of the techno and electronic music scene across the UAE and India. For this playlist, he chose Sydro’s “Vexatious Flux” and Karim Malek’s “Disembodied”, describing them as “two tracks that represent the two sides of techno I am really into at the moment.”

“The storytelling is what inspires me,” he says. “These homegrown talents are, in my opinion, some of the few artists representing this sound really well. Big props to both of them.”

What connects those selections to his own work is “the deepness and the raw approach”. As for when to listen, Adam keeps the instruction clean: “These are best enjoyed after sunset, when you are in the mood to lock into a good techno vibe.”

Not during a spreadsheet. Not while pretending to answer emails. After sunset. When your responsibilities have become slightly less aggressive and the bass is finally allowed to speak.

Tarik Omar, a UAE-based producer whose sound sits between club-ready electronics and experimental textures, takes a more winding route. He describes the sound of the Emirates he represents as “open format”, something that can take you “on a journey from jazz to acid house and back again”.

His selection includes Boards of Canada’s “You Retreat in Time and Space”, a track he loves for its shifts and texture. “I wouldn't say this track by Boards of Canada directly influenced my track,” he says, “but if you listen to my track on Made in the Emirates, there are quite a few connecting threads.”

His recommended listening environment is also beautifully specific: “At night, after a hard week, reclined and eyes closed.” There is a small shred of hope in the track, he says, after having your head “wrecked” by the first hour of the album.

Honestly, few recommendations understand modern fatigue better. Reclined, eyes closed, spiritually horizontal — this isn't just a listening note, it is a lifestyle intervention.

For Bood, the sound is the Emirates’ underground itself — “which has been around for a while but is often overlooked.” His choice, “Untitled A” by Ron Trent and Chez Damier, comes from a place of deep respect for craft. He calls it “a lovely song in the genre” and “an inspiration in general”.

“There is no common connection to our track other than sharing a four-on-the-floor beat,” he says. “They are top producers with much to learn from by listening to their productions.”

It is the kind of answer that feels very true to underground music culture: humble, nerdy, slightly allergic to overstatement. When and where should people listen? Bood says the track can be enjoyed “almost anywhere with people who love music,” thanks to its soulful vocals and wider appeal.

A modest but essential reminder that not every track requires an elaborate setting, a concept dress code and a 17-slide moodboard. Sometimes good music just needs people who aren't determined to talk over it.

Megadon Betamax, the not-so-secret identity of Australian DJ and producer Mostyn, brings a very particular energy to the compilation. A co-founder of boutique imprint Voyeurhythm Records and a fixture of Dubai’s underground scene, he blends disco, boogie, house and wonky Italo into synth-forward sets and live performances — always funk-infused, deeply eclectic and built for an enthusiastic dancefloor.

Asked what sound of the Emirates he represents, he answers: “Myself.”

Efficient. Accurate. No notes.

For the playlist, he chose “Don’t Ask”, which he says “sums up Megadon’s history, personality and vibe in a lot of ways”, and “Anotion”, a soulful collaboration with Hamdan Al Abri, Adriano K and Megadon himself. The track, he says, highlights “local talent and inspirational friends”.

His suggested listening setup is arguably the strongest in the whole project: “When the sun goes down, on a sofa, between animal friends.”

We don't know whether this is an instruction, a dream, or a soft manifesto, but we support it entirely.

Hameed, part of the spontaneous and wonderfully named OHFFF project with Bood, Omar Fayyad and Ahmed Hameed, connects his sound to the city itself. “Living in a vibrant city such as Dubai, I guess my sound is reflective of that and everything I have absorbed, and continue to absorb, from the people and experiences around me,” he says.

His selection is “Full Moon” by Mr. Fingers, from Larry Heard’s Cerebral Hemispheres. Heard, one of the legends of deep house, returned to the Mr. Fingers name after 25 years with a record that Hameed describes as patient and honest.

“‘Full Moon’ doesn't rush anywhere — a steady bassline, a bit of piano, saxophone drifting through it,” he says. “It is an honest record from someone who never needed to chase a trend, and that is the standard I aim to hold myself to.”

There is something quietly radical in that. In a culture that is often desperate to name the next thing before the current thing has even finished loading, patience becomes its own kind of rebellion. A track that doesn't rush anywhere suddenly sounds almost luxurious.

Hameed doesn't believe it needs the perfect setting, either. “Whether you are driving alone, winding down after a long day, or playing it for friends, good music doesn't need the perfect setting to land,” he says. “It is less about curating the moment and more about just letting the track do its thing, wherever you happen to be.”

Then there is Rhythm Plate, the UK duo of Matt Rhythm and Ant Plate, whose connection to deep house comes with crate-digging spirit and a healthy dose of humour. Known for releases on labels including DiY, Lost My Dog, Mantis and Flat & Round, and for remixes of artists such as Mark Ronson and Amp Fiddler, they bring a warm, soulful sensibility to the wider map.

Their selected tracks, YSE’s “Bounce Back” and Ex Veil’s “Floating”, “both ooze soul,” they say. “They live equally well today as they might have done decades ago, yet sit nicely at different ends of the same night.”

As for how to listen: “Now. Outside In. New best friends.”

Looking forward, Jayesh sees the future of Made in the Emirates moving towards “the more leftfield edges of the Emirates’ music scene”: beats, ambient, electronica, experimental and sound-design-based work that doesn't necessarily fit neatly into a genre.

“The UAE is a meeting point for so many cultures and musical influences,” he says, “and we are interested in artists who are pushing sonic boundaries. If we are predicting the future, we think it will sound less defined, more adventurous and distinctly its own.”

That, perhaps, is the point of this whole edition. Made in the Emirates – Volume II captures a scene that isn't waiting to be neatly defined before it matters. It is already happening: in clubs, studios, record shops, living rooms, late-night listening sessions and probably at least one sofa occupied by animal friends.

The UAE’s electronic underground isn't one sound. It is many overlapping instincts: deep and raw, soulful and strange, patient and high-energy, local and borderless, built for the dancefloor but not trapped by it. It values curiosity over convention, and it understands that sometimes the most interesting cultural stories aren't announced with a grand entrance. They build slowly, track by track, until suddenly you realise a scene has been speaking all along.

Listen to the fourth edition of MENA Local Heroes: Made in the Emirates now on Apple Music.