Skip to main content

Search


Results for: Freerange

On Cue is our newly relaunched flagship mix series, celebrating the pivotal DJs and producers whose influence has shaped the world of electronic music, both...

Mr. Mitch is enjoying making people dance.

A move away from the delicate aesthetics of his last EP, October 2018’s ‘Primary Progressive’, Mr. Mitch’s latest...

ESG logo

When the South Bronx dance-punk outfit ESG released their Martin Hannett-produced debut EP in 1981, they had no idea how pivotal their stripped-back, funk-fueled sound would be on the evolution of hip-hop and house music: ‘UFO’ has been sampled over 500 times; ‘Moody’ was a staple in Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage sets. Four decades later, ahead of their set at Melting Pot & Optimo’s Queen’s Park Spring Weekender, Daniel Dylan Wray tells their story

One day in 1979, a young Renee Scroggins imagined what it would be like if a UFO landed in the housing projects of the South...

How is the cost-of-living crisis hitting UK nightlife?

Post-pandemic, as UK clubs have attempted to regroup, they’ve been impacted by soaring energy bills, rising costs and hesitant ticket buyers. Jack Ramage talks to club owners and promoters about how they’re weathering the storm, and asks what can be done to ameliorate the situation?

“It’s terrifying... I wake up every day and hope that we find a way to keep going,” Kate Hodgkinson, co-founder of Cobalt Studios, an independent...

on a ragga tip xl recordings

Lifting the vocals from Jah Screechy’s reggae standard 'Walk & Skank’, SL2’s‘On A Ragga Tip’ surfed the hardcore rave wave at the turn of the 1990s before crossing over to bring breakbeats and bass into the pop charts. The track has transcended genres and styles to stand alone as an enduring dance classic. Joe Roberts calls up Slipmatt, aka Matt Nelson — the ’S’ in SL2 — to learn its story

‘Ey ey ba day ba wadladie day’ The opening lyrics to SL2’s ‘On A Ragga Tip’ immediately come up when you type its title into...

Stihia Festival Feruz Rustamov

Claire Francis travels to Stihia festival to find an event that serves as a vital platform for emerging DJs from within Uzbekistan, as well as supporting local sustainable development

In the desert in a remote corner of Uzbekistan, where rain is infrequent and water is scarce, an unexpected and ferocious downpour is unfolding. It’s...

Richie Blacker

​​DJ Mag heads to Belfast to take a tour around the hometown of rising DJ/producer Richie Blacker, whose music has appeared on labels like Skream's Of Unsound Mind and Anjunadeep

White Dragon Tattoo sits on Botanic Avenue in south Belfast, home to the renowned tattoo artist Chris Crooks, and where Richie Blacker has a studio...

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...

Ibibio Sound Machine

London’s Ibibio Sound Machine are back with their fourth album ‘Electricity’. Produced by Hot Chip, the release is more electronic than ever, but retains their classic Afro funk energy. Ben Murphy speaks to vocalist and songwriter Eno Williams and co-founder/saxophonist Max Grunhard about expanding their sound, mixing English and Ibibio lyrics, and the endless joys of playing live

"We started a lot of the songs not knowing what was happening, not knowing where the world was really going,” Eno Williams says, talking about...

DiY sound system

Throughout the ’90s, the DiY Sound System put on countless free events, ran a recording studio and two record labels, and took their hedonistic parties around the world. Here, Harold Heath speaks to co-founder Harry Harrison about his new book, Dreaming in Yellow: The Story of the DiY Sound System, and the collective's trailblazing legacy in the free party movement

The origins of DiY Sound System date back to a mid-‘80s England that was a very different place to how it is in 2022. In...

Putting on parties demands optimism even at the best of times. After an unimaginable 20 months, the limits of hope continue to be tested. Will...

Joshu Doherty has been putting on parties for nearly 15 years, but it’s never been this difficult. “The last five months,” he says, “have been...

With inventive production and animated lyrics in Spanish and English giving unique takes on violence and, of course, weed, Cypress Hill's 1991 debut introduced them...

Sen Dog hated driving all the way to Gardena. But as B-Real was buying the weed, Sen begrudgingly agreed to drive him home after every...

 

A decade in the making, Tom Middleton’s new LP as GCOM, ’E2-XO’, on !K7 boasts themes of space exploration, alien communication and utopian “super-habitable”...

“I’ve always been a star gazer, a total sci-fi nerd — always interested in what’s up there,” says Tom Middleton, reflecting on the galactic inspiration...

As dance music culture recovers from the pandemic, artists like Klein, Clark and Afrodeutsche are opening up new frontiers for themselves

“The expectations on musicians are higher than they’ve ever been,” says Chris Clark. “And the payoff is lower than it’s ever been.”The producer and composer...

DJ Mag catches up with three of UK rap and drill’s most active and influential engineers — Manon Grandjean, Dukus and Sean D — to...

The numbers don’t lie; UK rap and drill sits at the head of the top table of British popular music. Dave’s latest, ‘We’re All Alone...

Ultra Naté’s house anthem ‘Free’ went from club anthem to international pop hit in the late 1990s. Broken by Louie Vega at the 1997 WMC...

It's precisely 9am in Baltimore. Ultra Naté — her real name — is raring to go. “It's not super-early,” says the super-professional 53 year old...