From soot-soaked techno to day-glo grime — jackin' house grooves to colourful drum & bass jams — the future is looking bright for dance music in 2016. These are just some of a litany of names out there ready to blow up!

January is a notoriously slow month in clubland — a time when gym memberships take priority over all-nighters and pennies are scraped together. Many top flight DJs disappear off to warmer climes (Mexico etc) for the month. Bastards.

Initially, 2015 was a big year for label anniversaries, with Kompakt turning 20, Planet Mu 25, and Tri Angle five — putting out a host of standout compilation releases. While in the US, vinyl sales reached a 26-year high, reflecting the increasing desire to own wax.

Bicep, Koze and Woolford are just a few names that have become reassuringly prevalent in our end-of-year pages in recent times — and, yes, there's some new names too.

While naturally we've focused on tunes that have made the biggest splash, there is, of course, extra points for ongoing consistency. Just because a track by an artist included in the top 10 isn't your personal favourite, it doesn't mean others haven't been taken into account and considered.

Making it as a successful DJ is a tough gig. It takes commitment, passion and most of all, persistence. No one knows this better than London-based DJ/producer Kiwi (aka Alex Warren), he's gone from booth sideliner to international selector in just two short years.

It's thanks to his dogged determination that he's managed to break away from the pack, coupled with a knack for crafting cuts that have usurped many of his more experienced contemporaries.

“I hear things in pieces.” 
Kerri Chandler is on the phone in his studio, talking about how he processes music after thirty-plus years in the game. “The only stuff I can hear normally is acoustic recordings, because I know how they’re done,” he tells DJ Mag. “I can’t hear a normal song properly without breaking each channel down in my head so I can listen to just one particular instrument. It gets exhausting sometimes.”

Jacques Renault plays NYC's The Lodge alongside Walker & Royce this Saturday, 5th December. Secret location, limited tickets. Facebook event / Tickets here.

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On Saturday 21^st November, we're are honoured to welcome two of the most respected names in deep house to Egg LDN for the next DJ Mag Sessions. (got tickets?) One hailing from Detroit's first wave, the other a more recent New York talent inspired by it.

DELANO SMITH
Detroit first wave don still strong

The trailblazing selector, who recently told DJ Mag that he’d be hanging up his headphones and playing his last ever set at Space next year (and has been busy releasing turtles back into the wild) has revealed that he’s curating a new event which will be hitting the southern hemisphere in April 2016.  

Dim Mak boss Steve Aoki has admitted to taking a break from making EDM/electro/pop to release four successive house tracks early next year.

Si Murray and Chris Barker are gearing up to release their new full-length, ‘Memory’,  the first from the atmospheric house duo despite dropping 12”s and EPs for close to a decade.

The pair, who we interviewed for a feature in this month’s magazine, have been DJing as a duo since 2005, and felt it was about time to produce an LP after accumulating of a load of new hardware.Arriving on their own Use of Weapons imprint, it's all dubby keyboards, squelchy acid lines and finely diced vocals.