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Balearic trance

Ibiza played a central role in spreading a new take on trance around the turn of the millennium — a more soothing vein of the sound that captures the mood of a Mediterranean sunset. As clubs in Ibiza are opening again for the first time since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, DJ Mag dives into the roots of a genre that was inspired and shaped by the island’s unique appeal: Balearic trance

Long before turning into a global clubbing destination, Ibiza appealed to crowds looking for spiritual growth — with those from the hippie movement settling in...

12 emerging artists you need to hear this June

The latest and greatest DJs and producers rising to the top this month. From hard-hitting techno and soulful house anthems to ravey post-punk bangers, here's June 2022's list of upcoming talent you should be keeping track of

Berlin-based DJ and producer Anna Kost’s debut EP ‘The Very End Of You’ on Hotflush-offshoot Who Whom is the ideal intro into her raw but...

Selections: BFTT

In this series, Selections, we invite DJs, producers and label heads to dig into their digital crates and share the contents of their collections. This week, Mutualism and YCO's BFTT spotlights cutting edge club music, playful sound design and Celine Dion-sampling ambience

BFTT described his 2020 mix for DJ mag as “super fun but fucked up”. The same could be said for his contribution to the Selections...

The Sound Of: Kindergarten Records

New York’s Kindergarten Records has become an essential outpost for hard-to-define, easy-to-dance-to club music in just two short years. Alongside a mix from its catalogue, founder Ma Sha tells Sophie McNulty how friendship and a sense of fun are at the heart of the imprint

“When people open up our Bandcamp page, they can expect this welcoming vibe that’s like, ‘Are you ready to go on an adventure with us?’”...

Jamie Jones

After eight seasons at DC-10 in Ibiza and two lost to the pandemic, Jamie Jones makes his grand return to Ibiza this summer, and is moving his flagship party, Paradise, to Amnesia Ibiza. For his DJ Mag cover feature, Anna Wall speaks to the Hot Creations boss about coming up in the East London after-hours scene, mentorship, and becoming a dad

It was a humid summer night in June on the white isle back in 2005. Jamie Jones had just returned from Barcelona’s annual Sonar festival...

Octo Octa in a red cut out top against a blue background

From her first release as Octo Octa in 2011, there’s always been an element of rapturous freedom inherent to Maya Bouldry-Morrison’s music. But since coming out as a trans woman and meeting her life/work partner Eris Drew, that feeling is rendered in brighter shades than ever. Taking time out from a European tour, Bouldry-Morrison details her road to house music happiness

This feature originally appeared in print in the June issue of DJ Mag North America. It has been amended for online publication, due to two...

Alok performing against a purple background

DJ Mag spends some time with the Brazilian DJ sensation while he’s over in London for a show at Ministry Of Sound, and learns about his journey from hardships to huge success — and how being in a plane crash changed his perspective on life for the better

Purple and pink hues stretch across the London skyline as the first stars tattoo themselves above the landscape. Outside the Ritzy cinema in Brixton, South...

Keith McIvor and Jonnie Wilkes

Keith McIvor and Jonnie Wilkes, aka Optimo (Espacio), have helped define Glasgow’s musical landscape for over two decades with their eclectic and dynamic dancefloor selections. As 2022 marks Optimo’s milestone 25th anniversary, a tour of their home city reveals the ethos behind their inimitable sound

A love of dancing runs deep in Glasgow. And no one better embodies the city’s enduring passion for getting together on the dancefloor than Keith...

Fresh Kicks 178: Amy Dabbs

Amy Dabbs records a mix of uplifting, festival-ready house for the Fresh Kicks series, and speaks to Kamila Rymajdo about overcoming uncertainty to seize her moment as a DJ and producer

London-born Amy Dabbs grew up around music. On the way to school, her dad — a Northern soul DJ from Blackpool — would play Motown...

Selections: Aquarian

In this series, Selections, we invite DJs, producers and label heads to dig into their digital crates and share the contents of their collections. This week, Aquarian spotlights broken techno, fluorescent rave sounds, electro, juke and more

Like a fine wine, Berlin-based Canadian Aquarian’s music is only improving with time. While his early ‘10s productions for UNO were nothing to sniff at...

Iceboy Violet press shot

Get acquainted with Iceboy Violet, the Manchester-based artist infusing their take on hip-hop with emotional realness

“I was really into J Dilla and Madlib — like, really, really into them,” says Iceboy Violet. “I want to make something as special as...

Lady Shaka

Global club beats, queer femme energy and Pacific Island identity come together in Lady Shaka’s joyful Recognise mix.  Ahead of her appearance at Sónar Festival this month, the DJ and interdisciplinary artist speaks to Anna Cafolla  about building connections around the world, uplifting her communities, and her Pasifika club sound

“Kia ora!” Lady Shaka greets New Zealand’s debut Boiler Room show. This is FILTH, a radical club community that centres QTBIPOC, and their first post-Covid...

Album of the Month: 700 Bliss ‘Nothing To Declare’

Philadelphia’s Moor Mother and DJ Haram pair up on Hyperdub with a visceral noise rap album made for the club

It’s a regrettable truism of the times that a great number of the albums reviewed on these pages begin with ambient intros. This one does...

plugin subscriptions

As subscription models have begun to make their way into our DAWs, we look at the three different models for using plugins — outright ownership, continual rent, and rent-to-own. Here, Declan McGlynn asks: are subscription models better for producers? And are we heading towards an even heavier onslaught of abundance over efficiency? 

Subscriptions are everywhere, whether we like them or not. In fact, a report ominously titled The End of Ownership in 2020 said that 78% of...

DJ Leisureware standing in an alley looking at the sky, wearing a raincoat and alien print tshirt

Leisureware “puts the lairy in Balearic” in his blissed-out, two-hour Fresh Kicks mix, and chats to Eoin Murray about “low intervention” DJing and The Occasional Feel-Good party and Soho Radio show

“Much like makers of trendy natural wine, I’ve adopted the ‘low intervention’ principle,” says William Smith, more appropriately known as the London-based DJ Leisureware. “While...

Castlemorton 1992: photographing the Illegal rave that changed UK dance music forever

2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the biggest and the most infamous illegal rave that ever took place: Castlemorton – a week-long, 20,000-person party deemed so anarchistic that it shook Middle England to its core. Here, photographer Alan Lodge tells his story of capturing a week changed UK dance music forever

It started on a particularly sunny bank holiday weekend, on the 22nd May 1992. A ramshackle convoy of vehicles, which served as the rag-tag homes...

Selections: Gabrielle Kwarteng

In this series, Selections, we invite DJs, producers and label heads to dig into their digital crates and share the contents of their collections. This week, Panorama Bar regular Gabrielle Kwarteng spotlights jacking and enchanting house tracks for the dancefloor

If you’ve been to Berghain’s Panorama Bar recently, there’s a good chance you’ve danced to a DJ set from Gabrielle Kwarteng. The New York-born, Berlin-based...

INVT header image

In this month’s Brand Focus, Florida-based artists and co-founders Luca Medici and Delbert Perez speak about their multimedia brand INVT, its thrift store roots, and using their home city of Miami to find inspiration

Miami-based clothing brand and multimedia art project, INVT, has been focused on two things since its beginnings in the early 2010s: utility and individuality. As...

Compilation of the Month: Various Artists ‘Stay True Sounds Vol.4’

The fourth compilation on Kid Fonque’s Stay True Sounds label is an enthralling testament to South Africa’s underground house scene

South Africa’s ascendance to the forefront of global house music has been something to behold. The SA house scene emerged following liberation from apartheid and...

Festival crowd artwork

Most DJs love playing festivals, but what should you do when you’re asked to play one for free, and even cover certain costs yourself? Ria Hylton speaks to DJs Sheba Q, Harold Heath, Charlie Dark and others, along with festival organisers, to find out

Imagine this: you’ve been playing lowkey sets around your hometown for some years, run a small but well-loved party series and have landed a regular...