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Last month, 16,000 ravers attended Belfast's AVA Festival at its new home on the Titanic Slipways. DJ Mag traveled to AVA to discover how the event is creating a sense of unity, community and a second wave of rave in the city

Three decades and nearly 200 records into his  career, jungle maverick Paradox is still breaking new ground, and earning new fans in the process. Ben Hindle speaks to him about using an old Amiga computer for his productions, keeping the funk in his breakbeat samples, and his dedication to performing live

Having cut her teeth as part of the alternative rock group Ultraísta, and as solo artist FEMME, Lau.ra is now making waves as a dance music DJ and producer. With her tracks getting regular play on radio, and with gigs in Ibiza and elsewhere internationally on the agenda, she shares her journey from rock to rave with Niamh O’Connor

J-Shadow blends weightless rave experimentation with depth-charge bass, breaks and garage in his 100% productions mix for the Fresh Kicks series, and speaks to Ben Hindle about storytelling through music, the influence of science and nature, and his new album for Keysound

Out of club music’s modern-day practitioners, few go deeper than Francis Harris and Anthony Collins. Producing under the Frank & Tony banner, working in the grand tradition of the sound’s pioneers, the duo has just released ‘Ethos’, their first long-player since 2014’s ‘You Go Girl’. Here, they speak to Bruce Tantum about their creative partnership, the uniting power of the house groove, and melancholic beauty of everyday life

Soaring ascents, the kind that can take an artist from obscurity to stardom in what seems to be the blink of an eye, don’t occur often, in dance music or elsewhere – those who are lucky enough to have that experience often disappear just as quickly. But there’s little chance of a quick fade for South Africa’s Palesa Desiree Shilabje, the DJ and producer known to the world as DESIREE, who in just a few short years has proved to be one of the international festival circuit’s most exciting new stars. Here, Bruce Tantum hears her story, and about how her evolution through music has been as organic as they come

1st May 1994 was the first big London protest against the looming Criminal Justice Bill, the piece of legislation that first proscribed a genre of music — rave music, “wholly or predominantly categorised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats” — in law. Despite widespread demonstrations at what was seen as draconian power-grabs by the UK authorities, the Bill became law later in 1994. Here, Harold Heath looks back at the reaction from the dance music community at the time, and the Act’s lasting impact on the rave scene today

With its high-energy beats, infectious dance routines and community ethos, Jersey club has become a global phenomenon. Tice Cin reports from New Jersey on some of the people pushing the sound forwards, the special moments they create, and their hopes for the future of the music