Features

When various music circles started buzzing in early 2010 about a Brooklyn duo that fused elements of the American jam-band aesthetic with ecstatic trance, we approached with due caution. Fast-forward over the past three years and, what could have potentially gone so wrong has gone so right.

He's mixed this month's storming SW4 covermount mix, packed with fresh French artists, ahead of an appearance at the festival. Fired up by his country's dance renaissance, he talks to us about that and loads more...

With the release of a triple CD 'Masterpiece' compilation, Carl Craig shows why he's one of Detroit's most travelled and respect prodigies...

Once the leading light of trance, in the last few years Tiësto has switched up his sound to break the US. Now, he's leading the way again, leaving Ibiza behind to concentrate on his residency at Hakkasan in Las Vegas.

Mr G has led a tempestuous life with as many career triumphs as personal tragedies. From his roots in early UK housers KCC to techno years with The Advent, he's been an intrinsic link in dance music's evolution. And after all the tribulations, with a career retrospective for Rekids and more popularity than ever, it could be his time has truly come...

Pop music has always run from the sublime to the irredeemable. The charts have rotated from gold to grot since the dawn of the Hit Parade, and the model doesn’t look likely to change anytime soon. So whilst there are always dark periods when commercial radio is little more than a cemetery of tired ideas, dug up and forced to fandango one more time, every now and then a new generation of musicians kick down the door, reset the rules, and party ‘til the lights come on.

Mancunian prodigy Walton, whose heavy-as-lead debut album, 'Beyond', could be the blueprint for British dance music’s latest evolution.

In March 1913 Luigi Russolo, the Italian futurist, stormed out of a classical concert in Milan and published an open letter demanding a new form of modern music.

“I know what you mean, like on ‘Forest Funk’. I played that guitar! I just do what feels right. I mean, I’ve grown up around great music, especially jazz and funk and of course drum & bass, garage and everything else. I just like to play around. I’ll play with any instrument that I can get my hands on. A little bit of madness. I like to try and get my head working crazy, to make crazy music.”

He's been involved in house music, although in truth he is quite the family man. Now living in LA, he tells DJ Mag here the story of why he chose these tracks for this issue's covermount mix, where he digs for sample sources, and exactly what else he's been up to lately...

Following the 20-year cycle of cultural revival, it's not just '90s fashions and sample libraries that have come back around onto dancefloors. Buoyed by America’s repackaging of dance music as EDM and pop’s perpetual shapeshifting, house music is finally back at the top of the charts.

For many DJs, a residency at one of the major clubs in Ibiza would be a sign that they'd made it and entered the major league. To maintain that residency for well over a decade would be their dream come true: job done. But for Steve Lawler, while he’s loved dining out at dance music’s top table for such a long stretch, last year saw him leave his long-running residency at Space.

Legends is a word that is bandied around so lazily these days that it often loses all meaning, but with Todd Edwards and DJ EZ, the cap well-and-truly fits.

Bicep boys, Matt McBriar and Andy Ferguson, are childhood friends from Belfast and went to the same school through their teenage years before taking the leap to different universities. They recently mixed the DJ Mag covermount. Out now.

Groove Armada's Andy Cato looks back on the life behind his new 'Times & Places' album for R&S' Apollo imprint — a musical travelogue of his time touring the globe...

This years British festival listings

Programmed and mixed by Steffi, Panorama Bar’s latest mix CD makes it feels like the series is complete. The Dutch DJ/producer’s passion for music is rooted in her deep knowledge of electronic music, which transcends genres and lazy descriptions.

Maintaining the perfect blend of old skool rave and the finest contemporary leftfield sounds, as well as attracting one of dance music’s most passionate crowds, this year sees Bang Face celebrate its 10th anniversary.

In the music industry there are two types of meteoric rise. One is a scary, Susan Boyle-shaped process, where the basking lizard kings of pop pluck an unknown, polish them dumb, tell them what their new name, hairstyle and personality is, and thrust them mercilessly into the light, there to cavort for our pleasure.

Fred P is the underground DJ/producer from Brooklyn who's become synonymous with the real deep house sound purveyed by labels like Underground Quality and Strength. With a new album out now, we seek out the enigmatic house head to learn more about what make him tick...