Skip to main content

Search


Results for: DJ Equipment

Soul II Soul

Soul II Soul helped give Black British music and UK club sounds a truly unique identity. Collective founder Jazzie B talks about their ground-breaking debut, ‘Fairplay’, and traces his journey from London soundsystem culture to global star with Ben Osborne

When, after a series of near misses, Jazzie B and DJ Mag finally connect, Jazzie’s in a taxi heading for a video shoot. “I’m not...

From the Minimoog to the Roland TR-808...

Some of the most important innovations in electronic music came about by mistake. Whether it be the way that Roland's TR-808 and then the TR-909...

Chrissy

San Fran-based DJ and producer Chrissy outlines his guide for ripping vinyl so they sound full, loud and powerful on a club system. With tips and tricks around needles, preamps, turntables, software and file formats, it's a go-to guide for anyone who wants to digitise their record collection

Recently I've had several people ask me about my process for ripping vinyl. As a DJ and record collector who LOVES vinyl but HATES carrying...

Artwork depicting 'Lunatic Harness' record sleeve

Released in 1997, μ-Ziq’s ‘Lunatic Harness’ mixed jungle and out-there electronica in a way few had heard before. Here, Mike Paradinas talks to Ben Murphy about the influences that went into creating this genre-meshing gem, and his new album 'Magic Pony Ride'

“THE PIRATES were the only way you could get to hear the jungle stuff,” says Mike Paradinas, aka µ-Ziq, reflecting on the mix of influences...

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...

Paranoid London’s acid reign

Acid duo Paranoid London new album boasts a beefier sound than ever, and a host of new collaborators. Here, Joe Roberts meets them and learns how a chance meeting, faster tempos and the politics of the moment have shaped their new approach

It’s a dark, wintery evening in far North London and Paranoid London are in full flow at DRUMSHEDS, London’s latest super-venue. Opened on a former...

Since the international rise of acts like Black Coffee and Culoe De Song, the spotlight is shining once again in the direction of the South...

A nation defined by its innate love of house music, the Rainbow Nation is going through a renaissance which has helped spur GQOM OH! —...

JakoJako in a blue top and green shirt in Berlin

Berlin-based modular obsessive and Berghain resident, JakoJako, shows Niamh O'Connor around her hardware-heavy studio, the famous local synthesiser store where she works, and her favourite place to grab a bowl of pho

Sibel Koçer comes bounding down Kottbusser Tor street when DJ Mag meets her on an overcast morning in July. She’s here to take us inside...

Some high-profile DJs have been criticised for playing big, crowded legal shows — dubbed ‘Plague Raves’ — in Europe during the COVID-19 crisis. Some have...

As society has been tentatively emerging from various forms of COVID-19 lockdown over the last few months, each of us has been faced with a...

It wasn’t their song and they didn’t play any instruments, but Saint Etienne’s Balearic classic ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ caught the tailwind of...

In a period when the divide between the UK’s club scene and indie kids was as wide as it was bitter, Saint Etienne managed to...

The Martinez Brothers: reaching new heights

As they kick off their Tuesday night headline residency at Hï Ibiza, New York natives The Martinez Brothers catch up with DJ Mag Ibiza's Mick Wilson about  their love for the White Isle and their big plans for the coming season

Straight outta the Bronx in New York City, The Martinez Brothers — and yes, they are actually siblings; Stevie is three years older than Chris...

He was the Electrifyin’ Mojo of the indie disco. The bootleg king. The electroclash god. But when each of those scenes imploded, Erol Alkan stepped...

Erol Alkan was 27 when he received his first album offer. Kylie Minogue had just performed his ‘Can’t Get Blue Monday Out of My Head’...

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...

Soundsystem artwork 1

Sound systems have driven the development of music in the UK, powered by hard work, passion and innovation. But preserving UK sound system culture, its knowledge and history, while also pushing it forward, is no easy task today. Ria Hylton traces its path through ska and reggae at blues dances in West Indian households, to soul, boogie, hip-hop and house in ’80s warehouses and at the Notting Hill Carnival, to nationwide tours and global popularity, and finds out how initiatives like the Sound System Futures Programme are seeking to secure its future 

It’s the Thursday before Notting Hill Carnival and Linett Kamala, board director of Europe’s biggest street party, is weaving through the streets of Kilburn. Her...

The flamboyant electronic sound of San Francisco’s dancefloors soundtracked gay liberation in the '70s and '80s, even as its community faced decimation as a result...

Deep in the vaults of the San Francisco GLBT Historical Society and Museum Archives, a modest wooden crate glows with the importance of a sacred...