Skip to main content

Search


Results for: Ideal

A lack of data, information, and will has left electronic music producers lagging way behind their commercial counterparts. DJ Mag outlines how that happened, how...

In July 2018, DJ Mag published a feature on why streaming in the booth will change DJing forever. It included this: “It’s an open secret...

Indira Paganotto in a red, white and black jacket

Spanish DJ, producer and ARTCORE label founder Indira Paganotto’s irresistible hybrid of techno and psytrance has made her a huge star on festival stages and in superclubs, but her rise to the top has been beset with challenges. Niamh O’Connor speaks with her about sticking to her principles, her love of psytrance, the importance of the underground, and the balancing influence of family

Few artists have fused the worlds of bright psytrance and booming techno as smoothly as Indira Paganotto. The Spanish producer, DJ and founder of the...

Photo of DESIREE wearing a purple hat and eye-makeup on an emerald background

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

“I’m finally home.” Those three words are among the first that the South African DJ and producer Palesa Desiree Shilabje utters when DJ Mag catches...

Inside the UK Afro house renaissance

The Afro house sound is an ever-growing presence in UK dance music, with new labels, club-nights and a dedicated radio station springing up. Alongside a mix from Mr Silk, Ria Hylton explores the sound’s history, and speaks to some of the scene’s key players about forging strong connections with their growing audiences, and their aim to nurture a unique UK Afro house identity

Afro house is steeped in the percussive materials of South Africa’s townships. For decades, its polyrhythms played out on traditional African instruments — bongos, congas...

Vintage Culture press shot in a yellow jacket

Vintage Culture has come a long way from a small town in Brazil to playing stadiums, topping dance charts and partying with football royalty. After suffering near-burnout from constant touring, he’s recharged and full of vitality, with a deeper sound he loves with all his heart, hundreds of tunes ready to go, Ibiza and Las Vegas residencies scheduled, and a set lined up at DJ Mag's Miami Pool Party

Lukas Ruiz grew up in Mundo Novo, a tiny municipality with under 20,000 inhabitants, right on Brazil’s border with Paraguay. His mum had always told...

DJ, producer and party founder Enzo Siragusa has come a long way from his early days raving in warehouses, but he’s never forgotten his roots...

We’re in the booth of Room One at Fabric, London, and Enzo Siragusa is two hours into his eight-hour set. Under the swirling smoke and...

2019 saw dancefloors embracing fast, syncopated and experimental rhythms, with jungle breaks and sounds from the Global South invigorating DJs and producers across the genre...

Dancefloor trends come and go. Familiar genre tropes, motifs and tempos reinstate themselves as dominant themes in clubs and festivals big and small, while inventive...

When Dax J made worldwide headlines last year for dropping an Islamic call to prayer sample during his set in Tunisia, it looked for a minute...

'Public indecency and offending public morality'. Before April last year, those words probably meant about as much to Dax J as his name did to...

Using data from Top 100 DJs voters and house/techno Beatport purchases, we present the Alternative Top 100 DJs 2020

This is the third year we’ve presented the Alternative Top 100 DJs list in association with Beatport. The list is compiled by combining votes in...

Jamz Supernova is spearheading the next generation of radio DJs with her residencies on BBC Radio 1Xtra and Selector Radio. While equally at home behind...

It’s an uncomfortable fact of the situation that some people have had a good pandemic. The rhythm of our daily lives has been disturbed, maybe...

DJ Mag’s annual Best of North American Awards poll gives our readers the opportunity to show their love to their favorite DJs, producers, labels, clubs...

Richie Hawtin is one of the most pioneering artists in electronic music, and a true proponent of techno’s future-focused ideology. As the winner of DJ...

The dance scene owes much to gay culture...

 

Earlier this year, Lithuanian producer Ten Walls was riding on a wave of global love with his big-room smasher ‘Walking With Elephants’. Then, in...

Lauren Flax: intention is everything

After years of devotion to New York's club scene, Detroit-born Lauren Flax is more passionate than ever, with acid techno tracks to be perfected, causes to be fought, and lives to be saved through her harm reduction initiative. This month, she shares her journey with Bruce Tantum

It’s a Friday night at Brooklyn’s Public Records, and Lauren Flax is in her element. The dancefloor is packed, the room is dark, the fog...

Windrush ship

Some of the most important DJs in the development of the UK scene are children of the Windrush generation. DJ Mag's editor-in-chief, Carl Loben, speaks to Black and mixed-race foundation DJs about their parents, racism, culture, and being pioneers in our beloved scene

This feature was originally published in 2018, at the height of the Windrush scandal, and on the 70th anniversary of the Windrush ship's arrival in...

Photo of Louie Vega wearing a black shirt and hat with a white blazer

After four-plus decades of DJing and with a incredible list of releases — much of it produced with longtime partner Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez as Masters At Work — the pioneering Louie Vega would seem to have little to prove. Yet he’s working harder than ever, with the same energy he had as a young kid coming up in the Bronx. In the run-up to his date at DJ Mag’s Miami Pool Party 2024 at the Sagamore Hotel on March 20th, Vega took some time out of his hectic schedule to talk about how he got to where he is today

Sitting in his Manhattan studio on a weekend evening, wide-brimmed hat on his head and, behind him, shelves crammed with thousands of records — most...