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“I love listening to a cool techno DJ, in a club, but if you go and see Swedish House Mafia DJ, for example, there’s no artistry involved. They are just getting behind the decks, with a finished CD, and pressing play then putting their hands in the air. This is something that is so wrong, because they get paid so much money for that.”

DJ Harvey is one of the UK originators of the dance music scene. From his beginnings in Cambridge punk band Ersatz, he discovered hip-hop and DJing on a fateful trip to New York City, and later alighted upon an eclectic mishmash DJ style inspired by the B-Boy everything-in-the-pot approach of the NYC scene's first DJs. 
Later becoming a leading light for house music in the UK, his night Moist at London's Gardening Club cemented his reputation as a true original, where his mammoth sets became the stuff of legend, and where he also invited the legendary likes of Larry Levan as guests.

In the mid-‘90s, drum & bass was the most futuristic, kick-ass, innovative UK-derived music around. After a gestation period in the underground, breakbeat science exploded into the mainstream, although that led to assorted TV ads and theme tunes and suchlike co-opting a d&b element to them. But because the scene itself was controlled by the DJs — Bryan Gee, Fab & Groove, Goldie, Hype etc — it was able to be steered back underground, so that by the end of the 20th century d&b was largely associated with the dark tech-step sound of No U-Turn et al.

The DJ market is awash with controllers covering various price points, from bargain basement to high-end luxury, but out in the middle ground, is there really that much difference in what your money will get in regards to control and ability? We take Denon’s MC3000 and pit it head-to-head against Vestax’s VCI-400 to find out if these two controllers are worlds apart.

ALY-US' 'Follow Me' gets re-released for the third time on Strictly Rhythm since its 1992 debut. This once haunting number now goes into the Harry...

Master beatsmith George Evelyn, aka DJ EASE, is a modern day production whiz. Like a latter day Quincy Jones, he's seen more musical...

47. The WMC & DMC DJ Spin Off

Reckon yourself as a bit of deck demon or just fancy checking some ill skills? Get on...

George Clinton stands alongside James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone as among the most visionary and influential black music pioneers to emerge from the...