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Results for: VMA

Photo of NikNak beneath a blue, pink and purple spotlight

Turntablist NikNak has a unique style, cutting and scratching field recordings and samples into ambient tracks — but her latest album finds her leaning into the dance music you might hear in one of her club sets. Ben Murphy speaks to her about Afrofuturist sci-fi, trip-hop, pop, and why she loves found sounds

DJ, turntablist and producer NikNak approaches the decks differently. The Leeds-based artist’s debut album, ‘Bashi’, released in 2020, found her using turntables to manipulate field...

Various pieces of artwork for Bronski Beat's 'Smalltown Boy'

Released on 25th May 1984, ‘Smalltown Boy’ launched the gay synth-pop band Bronski Beat into the charts and onto dancefloors with its glorious synths, hi-NRG production and Jimmy Somerville’s soaring falsetto, which sang a story of rejection, pain and escape. Here, with the help of musicians, its iconic video's director and others, Bailey Slater explores how, four decades on, it remains an unflinching anthem of queer liberation

When you think of the voices that defined a generation, the 1980s had plenty of options. From Sade and Sinead O’Connor to George Michael and...

Black and white image of a graffiti'd wall that reads "Kitchen Top Floor"

In the midst of the ruinous Thatcher era, Manchester’s Hulme Crescents estate became a haven for squatters, anarchists and acid house ravers, who converged in the hedonistic flat-turned-studio and after-hours club, The Kitchen. Kemi Alemoru speaks to former residents, DJs and familiar guests from the Madchester scene about the lasting impact this space had on the city’s cultural landscape

Welcome to Hulme Crescents, Manchester, an inner-city public housing experiment that, in the ’80s, became an amphitheatre of chaos and creativity. In this estate, acid...

Photo of François K on a white background

After nearly five decades in music, nobody could blame François Kevorkian for taking it easy. But that’s not in the France-born, NYC-based polymath’s DNA. Shortly after celebrating his 70th birthday, Bruce Tantum hears his story, and learns about the curiosity and drive that keeps him going

As soon as he sits down for a long conversation with DJ Mag, François Kevorkian, the NYC-based dance-music polymath universally known as François K, brings...

Photo of Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter DJing sitting on a green sofa in a pink-lit warehouse

In early 2009, Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter launched Mister Saturday Night. The party formed the roots of what would eventually become the beloved nightspot Nowadays, a “by us, for us” club that’s become a community hub for NYC’s nightlifers. Following the release of a sprawling box-set to mark the party’s 15th anniversary, and alongside a mix recorded live from the club, Harkin, Carter and a few of the compilation’s featured artists fill us in on what makes Mister Saturday Night so special

It began, as many projects do, because of a nagging discontent with the way that things were. It was the late ’00s, and New York...

NQ x Abbey Road Studios

Through its nurturing of new superstars like Aitch and other young local talent, Manchester’s NQ has become a veritable institution of modern UK rap, helping elevate regional artists across the UK. James Keith meets members of the crew during a recent takeover at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, and heads to NQ’s northern base to discover the secret to its success

NQ is reshaping Manchester’s musical identity one mega-hit at a time. An entertainment company consisting of a record label, management and publishing house based in...

Album covers from electronic music film soundtracks

Exploring the history of cinema, Martin Guttridge-Hewitt compiles 11 landmark electronic music movie soundtracks, arranged in chronological order, each of which earned its place on sonic merit, and significance in the canon of music and movies

When Bebe and Louis Barron presented their music for Forbidden Planet, Fred Wilcox's 1956 adaptation of The Tempest, the sounds were so alien, even compared...

Bristol’s Livity Sound label has crafted a distinctive style and sonic blueprint, drawing from dub techniques but impossible to categorise. Celebrating a decade in existence...

In 2011, the dust from the dubstep explosion was still up in the air. The initial UK wave had split between a formulaic festival sound...

<p>A dance fest on every weekend this summer, we've picked the best of the bunch...</p>

Festival season is finally here! Meaning UK clubbers can enjoy a large-scale outdoor dance event without having to jet to Mexico, Miami or Goa —...

Is wealth and privilege damaging British dance music, and if so, what should we do about it?

WORDS: Matt AnnissPICS: Nicola Nodland & Jillian Edelstein

Since acid house swept the UK 30 years ago and united a generation, British dance has proudly proclaimed its egalitarian credentials. Many believe that the loved up, misty-eyed utopianism...

The Black Madonna is the real deal. Raised in Kentucky but born in the DJ booth of Chicago's Smartbar, she's unleashed the true spirit of...

It’s a Sunday in 2015 on the third day of UK festival Field Maneuvers, a back to basics ‘dirty little rave’ held in a eld just...

She’s the Paris-based New Yorker who’s overcome the struggle of addiction and dance music industry tokenism to forge her own path. Louisa Pillott, aka LOUISAHHH...

"Oh, I’ve done a lot of very different stuff,” LOUISAHHH!!! grins at DJ Mag across a backstage corridor. “I’m a certified cycling instructor, for example,”...

The Paris-based, NYC-born DJ/producer fronts this month's issue...

"Oh, I’ve done a lot of very different stuff,” LOUISAHHH!!! grins at DJ Mag across a backstage corridor. “I’m a certified cycling instructor, for example,”...

Following the massive 'Mr Spock', Dirtybird's Justin Martin finally gets the props he deserves...

San Francisco’s Dirtybird Justin Martin has been bubbling under for years as your favourite underground DJ/producer. But the amiable tech house nut has his sights...

A staple of Bristol’s hybrid bass/techno scene, Hodge has begun to branch out in recent years, resulting in a stunning debut album, ‘Shadows In Blue’...

Takumi Fujiwara is a tofu delivery driver. His father, Bunta, holds the record of the fastest downhill time at Mount Akina; he’s known as “the...