Trance & Progress!ve
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Trance 4 Life
Is a group & page on facebook that I've created in the early of 2008, this gathering was based on people who loves, breathe & living with this style of Trance Life, no matter what's your religion where you from.
I'll talk about Trance which is something I'll never be able to describe the beauty & the outburst feelings that will makes you see & feel.
Trance is a style of electronic dance music developed in the early 1990s. Trance music is generally characterized by a tempo of between approximately 128 and 150 BPM, melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that is progressive as it builds up and down throughout a track. Trance is a combination of many forms of electronic music, such as ambient, techno, and house
Origin
In the early 1980s, the German composer Klaus Schulze composed several albums of experimental, atmospheric "space music". Two of his albums from the 1980s include the word "trance" in their titles: Trancefer (1981) and En=Trance (1987)
Some of the earliest identifiable trance recordings came from The KLF, a UK-based acid house group. The most notable of these were the original 1988 / 1989 versions of "What Time Is Love?" and "3 a.m. Eternal", along with "Kylie Said Trance" (1989) and "Last Train to Trancentral" (1990). The KLF labeled these early recordings "Pure Trance". While the KLF's works are clear examples of proto-trance, two songs, both from 1990, are widely regarded as being the first "true" trance records. The first is Age of Love's self-titled debut single which they released in early 1990 and is seen a basis for the original trance single. The second track was Dance 2 Trance's "We Came in Peace", the b-side of their own self-titled debut single. Another influential song was Future Sound Of London's "Papua New Guinea" (1991).
The trance sound beyond this acid-era genesis is said to have been an off-shoot of Detroit techno in German clubs during the very early 1990s. Germany is often cited as a birthplace of trance culture and is celebrated once a year in the "Love Parade" festival. Some of the earliest pioneers of the genre include Jam El Mar, Oliver Lieb, and Sven Väth, who all produced numerous tracks under multiple aliases. Trance labels such as Eye Q, Harthouse, Rising High Records, FAX +49-69/450464 and MFS Records were based in Frankfurt.
Popular Trance
By the mid-1990s trance, specifically progressive trance, had emerged commercially as one of the dominant genres of dance music. Progressive trance has set in stone the basic formula of modern trance by becoming even more focused on the anthemic bass lines and lead melodies. Compositions continued to contain incremental changes (aka progressive structures), sometimes composed in thirds (as BT frequently does). Meanwhile, a different type of trance, generally called uplifting trance, was becoming popular. Uplifting trance had buildups and breakdowns that were longer and more exaggerated, with more easily identifiable tunes and anthems. Many such trance tracks follow a set form, featuring an introduction, steady build, a breakdown, and then an anthem, a form called "build-breakdown-anthem".
Artists like Tiësto, Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Robert Miles, Above & Beyond(Oceanlab), Darren Tate, Roger Shah, Ferry Corsten, Johan Gielen, Aly & Fila, ATB and Paul Oakenfold came to the forefront as premier producers and remix artists. These and others led trance to a new commercialized forefront and paved the way for artists like Trizet in France and Third Element in the United States Many of these producers also DJ'd in clubs playing their own productions as well as those by other trance DJs. By the end of the 1990s, trance remained commercially huge, but had fractured into an extremely diverse genre. Some of the artists that had helped create the trance sound in the early and mid-1990s had, by the end of the decade, abandoned trance completely in favor of more underground sounds—artists of particular note here include Pascal F.E.O.S. and Oliver Lieb. Many trance DJs are well into their own radio shows broadcast throughout Europe, the United States other countries all over the globe. Examples are "A State of Trance" created and hosted by Armin Van Buuren and "Trance Around the World" created and hosted by Above and Beyond. Artists such as Mike Foyle are also classically trained pianists (and alike) which assists them with sophisticated and musically pleasing melodies.
Some of the most popular weekly trance radio shows and podcasts include: Armin van Buuren - A State of Trance, John De La Mora - Trance Nation, Above & Beyond - Trance Around The World, Tiesto - Tiesto's Club Life, Paul van Dyk - VONYC Sessions, and Ferry Corsten - Corsten's Countdown.
Diversification
As an alternative evolution some artists have attempted to fuse trance with other genres such as drum'n'bass. Others have experimented with more minimalist sounds. Frustrated, extreme versions of trance have mutated through gabba into fringe genres of "hard trance" or "hardstyle" overlapping with hardcore and terrorcore.
Trance music appears frequently on the Internet with the abundance of legal music download sites, including the likes of Juno Download, and Beatport. As a result, both commercial and progressive trance now have a much larger presence, with big-draw artists such as Sasha, Tiësto, ATB, Markus Schulz, Armin van Buuren, BT, Paul van Dyk, Ferry Corsten, Above & Beyond, Paul Oakenfold, Schiller, Solarstone, Christopher Lawrence and George Acosta.
Trance production
Trance usually employs a 4/4 time signature, a tempo of 130 to 160 BPM, and 32 beat phrases. The 32-beat phrases are composed of repeating 8-beat sections. It is common to superimpose syncopated, 10–15 progressions (chord progressions and/or arpeggio layers or "loops") over the 8-beat sections.
Trance is somewhat faster than house music but usually not as fast as rave music. Psychedelic Trance is sometimes faster and earlier tracks were sometimes slower. A kick drum is placed on every downbeat and a regular open hi-hat is often placed on the upbeat; a type of beat also colloquially known as "four-to-the-floor". Some simple extra percussive elements are usually added, and major transitions, builds or climaxes are often foreshadowed by lengthy "snare rolls"—a quick succession of equally spaced snare drum hits that builds in volume towards the end of a measure or phrase.
Each phrase typically "adds interest" in the form a new layer. Typically 4 to 8 phrases will repeat before the song is broken by an interlude. During the interlude the drum beat and most of the complex layers drop out of the mix and a melodic, dreamy phrase breaks the hypnotic sucession. The original drum-beat phrasing returns after the interlude.
Unlike House and Garage music, Trance tends to add interest to tracks not through complexity of rhythm but through complexity of melody and harmony; as a result Trance tracks tend to have a simple (i.e. non-varying) beat which acts as a foundation for complex chordal and melodic structures which are further emphasized by the heavy use of electronic music production technology, such as synthesizers, samplers and effect units (most notably for Trance, Reverb and Delay effects). Flangers, phasers and other effects are also commonly used at extreme settings but these settings can be (and often are) 'tweaked' over time, creating further interest by adding cycles or emotional tension and release. As an example of this the volume, cutoff and/or resonance parameters of a synthesized arpeggio can be slowly increased over a period of time, resulting in a variation which is calculated to form a particular emotional response in the listener. As in most electronic music, there is no need or demand for resulting sounds to resemble any real-world instrument, so producers have free creative rein. However, modern Progressive and Uplifting Trance tracks do make use of pianos and other "orchestral" or conventional and non-electronic instruments.
Synthesizers form the central elements of most trance tracks, with sawtooth-based sounds used both for short pizzicato elements and for long, sweeping string sounds. As with other genres of electronic music, many artists use synthesizers such as the Roland TR-808, TR-909, and TB-303, the latter being the source of the "acid" sound. There are also several synthesizer sounds that are almost completely unique to its genre. One of these sounds is the "supersaw", a waveform was made famous by such synthesizers as the Roland JP-8000, the Novation Supernova, and the Korg MS2000. A technique called "gating" is often employed in creating lead sounds (turning the volume up and down rapidly in rhythm with the piece to create a stuttered, chopped sound). Rapid arpeggios and minor scales are common features. Trance tracks often use one central "hook" melody which runs through almost the entire track, repeating at intervals anywhere between 2 beats and several bars.
Traditionally, trance uses classical music as its base. Many "classical" songs have in fact been "remixed" in a modern trance style. Many trance songs use jazz as their base.
While many trance tracks contain no vocals at all, other tracks rely heavily on vocals, and thus a subgenre known as Vocal Trance has developed. The sound and quality of the production relies to a large degree upon the technology available. Vintage analog equipment is popular with many producers, with names such as Moog, Roland and Oberheim being staples in the trance sound palette. Modern music creation software can emulate the sound of classic "synths".
Trance tracks are usually built with sparser intros and outros in order to enable DJs to blend them together more readily. This is known as "Mixing" or "Beat Matching". This also works as a build up and wind down and in modern trance the intros and outros do not resemble the main part of the song very closely. Records that adhere to this "build up, strip down" arrangement during intros and outros are referred as being "DJ friendly". As trance is more melodic and harmonic than much dance music, the construction of trance tracks in such a way is particularly important in order to avoid dissonant (or "key clashing," i.e., out of tune with one another) mixes by DJs who do not mix harmonically. DJ's who can successfully "Key Mix" will find more popularity with listeners as there are no obvious breaks in the music, assisting with a journey that is not interrupted.
Trance genres
Trance music is broken into a large number of subgenres. Chronologically, the major genres are classic trance, acid trance, progressive trance, and uplifting trance. The latter is also known as "Anthem trance", "Epic trance", "Stadium trance", or "Euphoric trance." Closely related to Uplifting Trance is Euro-trance, which has become a general term for a wide variety of European dance music. Several subgenres are crossovers with other major genres of electronic music. For instance, tech trance is a mixture of trance and techno, Vocal Trance adds vocals and a pop-like structure to the songs, and Ambient trance is a mixture of ambient and trance. Balearic beat, which is associated with Ibiza, Spain, is often called "Ibiza trance". Similarly, Dream trance is sometimes called "Dream House", pioneered by Robert Miles in the mid-1990s.
Goa trance originated in Goa, India around the same time trance was evolving in Europe. Goa trance was influential in the formation of Psychedelic Trance, which features freeform samples and psychedelic elements. Trance is also very popular in Israel, with producers such as Infected Mushroom, Astral Projection and Yahel Sherman achieving worldwide fame. The Israeli subgenre Nitzhonot is a mixture of psychedelic and uplifting trance.
Trance festivals
Sensation White 2006
Trance music festivals attract large crowds and usually feature sophisticated lighting, laser and pyrotechnic displays. Most of the largest trance festivals are held in Europe.
The Netherlands
Many large trance festivals are held in the Netherlands, mainly organized by three companies: ID&T, UDC and Q-Dance:
* Dance Valley, Netherlands: an outdoor festival organized by UDC. Currently the largest dance event in the world.
* Qlimax, Gelredome, Arnhem (20,000 visitors): a Hardstyle, Hard Trance event which has been gaining in popularity recently. It is renowned for its laser show, and organized by Q-Dance.
* Trance Energy, Jaarbeurs, Utrecht (30,000 visitors): a festival which features only trance music. Many well-received DJs have played sets at this event, helping to create its fame. It is organized by ID&T.
* ImPulsTanz Festival, At the Brabanthallen,'s-Hertogenb
* Tiësto In Concert Arnhem: is a gig only performance by Tiësto, and organized by ID&T. It is held in the Gelredome Arnhem.
* Armin Only, Ahoy, Rotterdam: Armin van Buuren is so far to the only DJ to mix at this event. It is organized by UDC. (The event which was held in the Jaarbeurs Utrecht in Utrecht.)
* Full On Ferry, Ahoy Rotterdam: Ferry Corsten plays back to back with DJs who also cover various other styles such as house, techno and progressive. Such DJs are handpicked by Ferry himself, as an ode to his long career of producer of many different styles in the process.
United Kingdom
Clubbers at Gatecrasher
* Global Gathering festival, promoted by the Angel Music Group. The weekend long Global Gathering, held every summer, features the Godskitchen arena as its centerpiece, attracting an average of 45,000 people. The organization promotes other stadium trance events under the Godskitchen brand, the largest being Godskitchen: A Gift From The Gods which brought 12,000 revelers to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham UK back in April 2003.
* Cream's annual Creamfields festival has also showcased a 10,000 capacity trance arena for the last eight years at various venues across the United Kingdom, originating in Liverpool.
* Gatecrasher also promotes sporadic events and have also used venues such as Birmingham N.E.C. Gatecrasher is currently on hiatus until further notice due to fire damage.
* South West Four, held every summer, began as a backyard party. It has since found its home on Clapham Common in London. It moved to Cardiff in 2006.
* PlanetLove, Northern Ireland also has had a thriving trance scene since the early 1990s, at the Kelly's Complex in Portrush, shooting local trance pioneers such as DJs X-ray & Si into the Northern Ireland Dance Music Hall of Fame. PlanetLove holds a yearly festival in both the North and South of Ireland, and numerous other events on a smaller scale. Major DJs have performed at PlanetLove events such as Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk and Tiësto.
Other
* Portugal: Boom Festival (the last edition was in Idanha-a-Nova) since 1997. This event is an outdoor festival running every two years, with a duration of several days, focusing in psychedelic Goa trance. The festival also features workshops, presentations, and cinema.
* Germany: Full Moon Trance Festival This event is held during July 7–12 between the cities of Wittstock and Roebel, Germany. This festival celebrates psychedelic trance. In 2006, it featured trance artists such as Infected Mushroom, Astral Projection, Astrix, Space Tribe, 1200 Mics, GMS, Etnica, Oforia, Atomic Pulse, Electric Universe and Parasense.
* Nature One one of the worlds biggest Electronic dance music festival held every year at the missile base Pydna in the Hunsrück a low mountain range in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany (60,000 visitors)
* Switzerland: Street Parade – More than one million visitors attend this event every year.
* Ukraine: Kazantip – Electronic dance music festival held every year in Crimea, at a beach resort on the Black Sea.
Non-European festivals
* ETD Pop: presented by Skills DJ, is one of the biggest electronic events in the San Francisco Bay Area Electro Techno Disco Pop is held annually on Memorial Day weekend. Their 11th annual event in 2008 was held in the 20,000-person Cow Palace and featured DJs Tiësto, Ferry Corsten, Markus Schulz, Kaskade, and many more.
* Monster massive, a Los Angeles sports arena event held once a year on Halloween. Typically, over 15,000 people attend. In June 2008, Electric Daisy Carnival by Insomniac once again combined LA Sports Arena with the Olympic-sized LA Coliseum to make room for over 65,000 dancers. Los Angeles is also famous for its all outdoors festivals. The event features artists such as DJ Dan, Donald Glaude, Jonathan Morning and Thee-O.
* Ultra Music Festival, Miami, Florida: (80,000 visitors): A two day-long event with 11 stages playing various genres of electronic music, with the main stage focusing on trance.
* Ultraworld and Universe Kryal Castle, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia: a 12-hour-long event, comprising mainly Hardstyle, Hard Dance and Hard Trance (also featuring happy hardcore) event held in a replicated medieval castle.
* World Electronic Music Festival: held annually in Canada, this three-day-long outdoor event, comprising mainly of Trance, Hard Dance and drum and bass (also featuring happy hardcore) has been held for the past 13 years. The 2008 festival will be the final one in its current form. It is also known as WEMF.
* Winter Music Conference: held annually toward the end of Northern Hemisphere winter in Miami, WMC is a week-long conference and festival.
* Love Fest: Held Annually in San Francisco. Formerly known as the Love Parade. Typically an audience of over 80,000 watch the elaborate parade of DJs down Market Street to end at San Francisco City Hall for an impromptu dance party. Many other events lead up to the main event throughout the week with guest DJs playing at many of the clubs.
* Lovefest After Party held at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco is presented by Skills and Spundae. 2008s event featured Armin van Buuren, ATB, Above & Beyond, Deep Voices, Kyau & Albert, and Green Velvet.
* USC: Held annually in Seattle, Washington (Typically 7,000–10,000 attendees). USC is the American Northwest's biggest trance/electronic music event. The 2007 event featured three stages, with Paul van Dyk as the headliner. 2008s event featured DJs Tiësto, BT, DJ Dan, and Donald Glaude. The event is typically a summer event that lasts from 9 p.m. – 10 a.m. with the last six hours dedicated to an after party. The event also showcases the most popular local DJs.
* Global Dance Festival: Held annually at Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver, Colorado. Typically, over 10,000 attendees watch the approximately seven-hour event, which features many well-known DJ's. Headliners in past years have included Paul van Dyk, Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren. Ferry Corsten headlines the 2008 show.
* Earthcore is Australia's largest and longest running (since 1993) outdoor dance music festival and electronic music events organization. The outdoor events are generally held in forest environments around Victoria, although they are also held in Queensland. Styles include Dance Party/DJ Tour, Trance and Progressive. Usually a three-day event, in 1999/2000 NYE it was 7 days. The 10-year anniversary saw more than 15,000 in attendance.
* Jordan – Middle East Distant Heat Festival takes place in the desert of Wadi Rum.
* Rainbow Serpent Festival a large three-day mostly Psy Trance event in a bushland It will have its 13th anniversary in 2009. Approximately 7,000 people attend each year.
Many other countries lack such festivals due to legal restrictions. Public prosecution departments in many countries — notably France — have been reluctant to give permits for techno and trance events, due to perceived drug issues.[citation needed] In the past, ID&T has been expanding operations and begun to organize festivals in Belgium and Germany which have become very popular in these countries. As of 2008[update], ID&T is planning the Sensation World Tour in Chile, China, Poland, Czech Republic, and Dubai. Sensation white is more about the show and the performances surrounding the event where as ID&T's Trance Energy is about the DJs.
Trance music is a subgenre of electronic dance music (EDM) that developed in the 1990s. Perhaps the most ambiguous genre in the realm of electronic dance music, trance could be described as a melodic, more-or-less freeform style of music derived from a combination of techno and house. Regardless of its precise origins, to many club-goers, party-throwers, and EDM adherents, trance is held as a significant development within the greater sphere of (post-)modern dance music.
While there is no strict definition for "trance," songs of this genre are usually characterized as being accessible and having "anthemic" qualities. Using that as a starting point, a basic trance track could then be described as being comprised of a particular melodic and/or vocal hook which is given presence over an uncomplicated bassline, a simple drum pattern (which often includes snare and/or kick drum rolls to mark "big moments"), and perhaps one or two other semi-quantified aural elements to provide texture and enhance the rhythm. Trance also usually features more complicated chord progressions and melodies than were found in the music at the time, including 4 chord progressions symptomatic of 80's new wave music. However, not all trance fits that profile, and often times a song's classification as "trance" has just as much to do with who is playing it as what it sounds like.
Sub-genres
* Goa trance
* Psychedelic trance
* Minimalist trance
* Progressive trance
* NU-NRG
A Brief History of Trance
Elements of what would become trance music were being explored by industrial artists in the late 1980s. Most notably, Psychic TV's 1989 album Towards Thee Infinite Beat, featuring drawn out and monotonous patterns with short but repeating voice samples, is considered by some to be the first trance album. The intent was to make sound that was hypnotic to its listeners.
These industrial artists were largely dissociated from rave culture, and their trance albums were generally experiments, not an attempt to start a new genre with an associated culture--they remained firmly rooted culturally in industrial and avant-garde music. As trance became to take off in the rave culture, most of these artists abandoned the genre.
As a genre in its own right, trance is said to have begun as an off-shoot of techno in German clubs during the early 1990s. The name derived in 1991 from a project of Dag Lerner (DJ Dag) and Rolf Ellmer (Jam El Mar) called Dance2Trance. Their song We Came In Peace is considered by many to be the song that set the definition of trance. Arguably a fusion of techno and house, early trance shared much with techno in terms of the tempo and rhythmic structures but also added more melodic overtones which were appropriated from the style of house popular in Europe's club scene at that time. (Interestingly enough, that style of house was referred to as "club" or "Euro.") However, the melodies in trance differed from Euro/club in that although they tended to be emotional and uplifting, they did not "bounce around" in the same way that house did.
This early trance tended to be characterized by the anthemic qualities described above, and typically involved a break-down portion of the song in which the beat was dropped for a few bars to focus on the melody before bringing the beat back with a renewed intensity. The sounds used in trance tended to be produced by analog synthesizers (or recently, digital simulations of analog synthesizers, often called virtual analog synthesizers), with lush "strings" providing the basis for the melodies and pads, while similar analog equipment was used to produce basic bass notes and the regimented "four-on-the-floor" drum loops. This style became instantly popular in Europe and spread very quickly. Before long, trance was spawning sub-genres such as dream trance, acid trance, hard trance, and Goa. (Note: Goa and psy-trance are arguably older, with their characteristic sounds purportedly emerging in Israel as far back as 1991).
The Sound of Modern (Progressive) Trance
The basic formula of trance became even more focused on the anthemic qualities and melodies, moving away from predictable arppegiated analog synth patterns (aka acid synth lines). Acoustic elements and spacey pads became popular, compositions leaned towards incremental changes (aka progressive structures), someimes composed in thirds, buildups and breakdowns became more elaborate and intense. The sound became more and more ethereal and heavenly in sound. This sound came to be known as epic trance (sometimes called melodic trance or anthem trance), and became the foundation of what the modern progressive trance sound is today.
By the mid-1990s, trance (or progressive trance specifically) had emerged commercially as one of the dominant genres of EDM. Immensely popular, trance found itself filling a niche as edgier than house, more soothing than drum-n-bass, and more accessible than techno. By this time, trance had become synonymous with progressive house and both genres essentially subsumed each other under the commercial banner of "progressive." By the end of the 1990s, trance remained commercially huge but had fractured into an extremely diverse genre. Some of the artists that had helped create the trance sound in the early and mid-1990s were, by the end of the decade, branching out with more experimental work. Perhaps as a consequence, similar things were happening with the DJs as well.
At present (and as alluded to earlier), trance is as much about who plays the music as it is about what it sounds like. Many artists described as producing a very powerful trance sound have most recently released tracks more suggestive of techno; DJs known for spinning scintillating trance anthems in 1996, turn to a darker, housier sound in 2000. All the while, new artists and DJs enter the fold, either taking over the vacancies left in the anthemic, "progressive" arena, or else introducing new forms, modes, and themes.
Lets Trance 4 L!fe
AD Jordan
DJ Shah !s one of today's lead!ng electron!c producers !n Germany. He started h!s profess!onal mus!c career !n 1996 and reaches, year after year, Top 10 dance chart pos!t!ons !n Germany.
!n 1999 he dec!ded to do h!s f!rst solo s!ngle called "Claps". The track when stra!ght !nto the Top 5 of all dance charts and got support by most !mportant DJs !n Europe.
Some weeks later "Claps" entered German Sales Charts w!thout a v!deo!
From th!s commerc!al success DJ Shah played an !mportant role !n the German dance scene. H!s follow up s!ngles "Commandments" and "R!dd!m" both reaches top 3 pos!t!ons !n all dance charts. H!s latest product!ons have been supported by Paul Van Dyk, Arm!n Van Buuren, Judge Jules, Ferry Corsten, T!esto and many more lead!ng DJs of the scene. He also acts as a rem!xer for acts l!ke Arm!n Van Buuren feat. Ray W!lson, York, Cosm!c Gate, Josh Gabr!el (Gabr!el & Dresden), Johan G!elen, System F, Thr!llseekers, Solarstone, Three Dr!ves, Matt Darey, Lut!c!a McNeal, Sash, Lost W!tness and Future Breeze amongst others, as well as for labels such as Pos!t!va, Vand!t or Armada. !n October 2005 he gave h!s debut on T!esto's own label Blackhole w!th 'Shah & Laruso pres. Global Exper!ence', after releas!ng var!ous other tracks on other !nternat!onal 1st class labels !n 2005 such as M!n!stry Of Sound UK or Ultra USA and reaches #23 !n UK's sales charts w!th the project Commander Tom. Furthermore he s!gned a deal w!th Armada for h!s solo s!ngle 'DJ Shah meets Jan Johnston - Beaut!ful (Gl!mpse Of Heaven)' as well as a second project 'Sunlounger'. Bes!des the follow up s!ngle of Global Exper!ence, Blackhole also s!gned h!s project 'Savannah' for the world.
At th!s moment the !nternat!onal press descr!bes h!m as one of the hottest names of the moment. Shah !s the only German producer and DJ featured on T!esto's new !SOS5 comp!lat!on, the world's lead!ng dance album. T!esto wr!tes on h!s own webs!te about DJ Shah, “Great producer from Germany, DJ Shah makes another k!ller!” Two other tracks are !ncluded on Arm!n Van Buuren's new ASOT2006 comp!lat!on.
DJ Shah also runs h!s own record company Shah-Mus!c w!th the labels Tsush!ma, Tsush!ma L!m!ted, !nnovat!ve, Shah-Records, Shah-Mus!c D!g!tal as well h!s very own Mag!c !sland Records !mpr!nt where he releases 100% of f!nest Balear!c/Tr!bal tunes.
Together w!th Pedro Del Mar he runs Germany's lead!ng rad!o show "Melloman!a".
Broadcasted each Monday n!ght from 8-12pm; they have an aud!ence of more than 1.5 m!ll!on l!steners monthly. They do also run monthly shows all around the globe,
e.g. !n USA, Argent!na, Austral!a and UK.
As a DJ he plays around the world. USA, Greece, Spa!n, Tha!land, France, Hungary, Turkey and !b!za are just a few countr!es where he !s sp!nn!ng h!s very un!que and !nnovat!ng spec!al l!ve sets that can be descr!bed as a journey through electron!c mus!c.<Photo 2>
!n 1999 he dec!ded to do h!s f!rst solo s!ngle called "Claps". The track when stra!ght !nto the Top 5 of all dance charts and got support by most !mportant DJs !n Europe.
Some weeks later "Claps" entered German Sales Charts w!thout a v!deo!
From th!s commerc!al success DJ Shah played an !mportant role !n the German dance scene. H!s follow up s!ngles "Commandments" and "R!dd!m" both reaches top 3 pos!t!ons !n all dance charts. H!s latest product!ons have been supported by Paul Van Dyk, Arm!n Van Buuren, Judge Jules, Ferry Corsten, T!esto and many more lead!ng DJs of the scene. He also acts as a rem!xer for acts l!ke Arm!n Van Buuren feat. Ray W!lson, York, Cosm!c Gate, Josh Gabr!el (Gabr!el & Dresden), Johan G!elen, System F, Thr!llseekers, Solarstone, Three Dr!ves, Matt Darey, Lut!c!a McNeal, Sash, Lost W!tness and Future Breeze amongst others, as well as for labels such as Pos!t!va, Vand!t or Armada. !n October 2005 he gave h!s debut on T!esto's own label Blackhole w!th 'Shah & Laruso pres. Global Exper!ence', after releas!ng var!ous other tracks on other !nternat!onal 1st class labels !n 2005 such as M!n!stry Of Sound UK or Ultra USA and reaches #23 !n UK's sales charts w!th the project Commander Tom. Furthermore he s!gned a deal w!th Armada for h!s solo s!ngle 'DJ Shah meets Jan Johnston - Beaut!ful (Gl!mpse Of Heaven)' as well as a second project 'Sunlounger'. Bes!des the follow up s!ngle of Global Exper!ence, Blackhole also s!gned h!s project 'Savannah' for the world.
At th!s moment the !nternat!onal press descr!bes h!m as one of the hottest names of the moment. Shah !s the only German producer and DJ featured on T!esto's new !SOS5 comp!lat!on, the world's lead!ng dance album. T!esto wr!tes on h!s own webs!te about DJ Shah, “Great producer from Germany, DJ Shah makes another k!ller!” Two other tracks are !ncluded on Arm!n Van Buuren's new ASOT2006 comp!lat!on.
DJ Shah also runs h!s own record company Shah-Mus!c w!th the labels Tsush!ma, Tsush!ma L!m!ted, !nnovat!ve, Shah-Records, Shah-Mus!c D!g!tal as well h!s very own Mag!c !sland Records !mpr!nt where he releases 100% of f!nest Balear!c/Tr!bal tunes.
Together w!th Pedro Del Mar he runs Germany's lead!ng rad!o show "Melloman!a".
Broadcasted each Monday n!ght from 8-12pm; they have an aud!ence of more than 1.5 m!ll!on l!steners monthly. They do also run monthly shows all around the globe,
e.g. !n USA, Argent!na, Austral!a and UK.
As a DJ he plays around the world. USA, Greece, Spa!n, Tha!land, France, Hungary, Turkey and !b!za are just a few countr!es where he !s sp!nn!ng h!s very un!que and !nnovat!ng spec!al l!ve sets that can be descr!bed as a journey through electron!c mus!c.<Photo 2>
Last year's Top 100 threw up plenty of surpr!ses. Vot!ng !ncreased from 217,000 to 345,000 votes, w!th the th!rd largest vot!ng cont!ngent com!ng from nascent clubb!ng dest!nat!on Ch!na, after the US and the UK, w!th Germany and Russ!a close beh!nd. And we had a brand new ruler, too, !n the form of adventurous trancer Arm!n van Buuren, who kept h!s favour!te genre at the top of the shop.
But there was also a large mus!cal sh!ft ev!denced !n the poll, notably !n the dom!nance of techno, wh!ch has crept up to become one of the b!ggest styles represented. R!ch!e Hawt!n was up 14 places, Sven Väth up 17 places, and there were healthy show!ngs from R!cardo V!llalobos, Anderson No!se, Jeff M!lls, Magda and Laurent Garn!er. 2007 was a good one too for the house heads too, w!th some relat!ve newcomers perform!ng part!cularly well. Fedde Le Grand was the h!ghest entry, r!ght !n at No. 22 w!th a bullet.
"! was just totally shocked to be honest, ! was hop!ng to be somewhere !n there but ! was shocked to be so h!gh," Le Grand confessed. The Dutch master reckons that the Top 100 !s an !mportant snapshot of where dance mus!c's at, as well as be!ng a spur onwards to b!gger and better th!ngs.
"! th!nk !t's really cool because !t's a reward for all the hard work that you've done and also !t's the people who vote for !t, not the !ndustry so ! th!nk !t's great," he op!ned. Th!s t!me out, Le Grand's hop!ng that he stays !n the upper echelons of the Top 100.
"! just hope that ! don't drop down too much, so as long as that's not the case !'ll be okay," he humbly conceded.
But there was also a large mus!cal sh!ft ev!denced !n the poll, notably !n the dom!nance of techno, wh!ch has crept up to become one of the b!ggest styles represented. R!ch!e Hawt!n was up 14 places, Sven Väth up 17 places, and there were healthy show!ngs from R!cardo V!llalobos, Anderson No!se, Jeff M!lls, Magda and Laurent Garn!er. 2007 was a good one too for the house heads too, w!th some relat!ve newcomers perform!ng part!cularly well. Fedde Le Grand was the h!ghest entry, r!ght !n at No. 22 w!th a bullet.
"! was just totally shocked to be honest, ! was hop!ng to be somewhere !n there but ! was shocked to be so h!gh," Le Grand confessed. The Dutch master reckons that the Top 100 !s an !mportant snapshot of where dance mus!c's at, as well as be!ng a spur onwards to b!gger and better th!ngs.
"! th!nk !t's really cool because !t's a reward for all the hard work that you've done and also !t's the people who vote for !t, not the !ndustry so ! th!nk !t's great," he op!ned. Th!s t!me out, Le Grand's hop!ng that he stays !n the upper echelons of the Top 100.
"! just hope that ! don't drop down too much, so as long as that's not the case !'ll be okay," he humbly conceded.
1: Arm!n Van Buuren
STYLE: Progress!ve and trance
KNOWN FOR: Arm!n Only/A State of Trance
TUNE OF 2007: DJ Shah featur!ng Adr!na Thorpe 'Who W!ll F!nd Me'
PRODUCER OF 2007: Deadmau5
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Jenn!fer Rene or Blake Jarrel
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? Anyth!ng good! ‘Don’t be a pr!soner of your own style’ !s my motto. Best fest!val on the planet? Too many to ment!on! Best b!t of k!t? P!oneer DJM800 and DJM1000. The!r m!xers sound decent and they're great for be!ng creat!ve. What tune makes you cry? The whole of Vangel!s' 'Bladerunner' soundtrack. Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? ! sa!d some really bad th!ngs to the Span!sh lady from !ber!a after they lost my luggage… aga!n.
F!nally. F!ve years after enter!ng the Top 10 of our DJmag Top 100 DJs poll, Arm!n van Buuren has been crowned the World's No.1 DJ. After edg!ng !nto the No.2 spot last year, he's now cl!nched the t!tle.
"!t's a really b!g honour, !'m k!nd of stunned, y'know?" sm!les the top dog. "To be honest, ! st!ll haven't got !t !nto my head yet, !t's bas!cally a dream come true!"
!t's been another crazy 12 months !n the l!fe of the Dutch don. Hav!ng wowed an 11,000-strong crowd last November at h!s spectacular Arm!n Only event at Ahoy, Rotterdam, w!th an unprecedented n!ne-and-a-half-hour set, !t's the trance superstar's taste for the spectacular, as well as h!s untouchable sk!lls, that have placed h!m at the top of the p!le.
"Arm!n Only !s def!n!tely d!fferent to anyth!ng else ! do. !t's a h!ghl!ght of my career," says Arm!n. "Everyth!ng ! do comes together for an event l!ke that. ! really want people to go home from that w!th a good feel!ng, a feel!ng that we d!d someth!ng spec!al.
"Putt!ng a DJ on for n!ne-and-a-half hours !s someth!ng spec!al, but !t's been done before. What we wanted to do was to br!ng a whole show."
!f the Rotterdam show wasn't mammoth enough, the top DJ road-tested the Arm!n Only concept w!th two more huge shows !n the States th!s summer - just to see !f !t would work outs!de h!s nat!ve Holland. Suff!ce to say, !t d!d…
"We d!d a few spec!al th!ngs to test out the Arm!n Only concept th!s year," reflects Arm!n. "We d!d two b!g shows, one !n New York C!ty at McCarren Pool !n Brooklyn Park, and one !n downtown LA, !n G!ant V!llage. But th!s t!me, !t was only me play!ng for e!ght-and-a-half hours, as ! wanted to see !f Arm!n Only would work !n fore!gn country other than Holland.
"!t really worked. !t seems people are def!n!tely ready for the Arm!n Only exper!ence. !t's someth!ng really spec!al, more than just a DJ set."
Arm!n's Armada part!es at Amnes!a, !b!za, have also gone from strength-to-strength th!s summer, w!th the!r most successful season yet on the Wh!te !sle.
"The numbers were def!n!tely up," reports Arm!n. "We had 11 n!ghts th!s year, w!th a b!t of a rough start to the summer when Amnes!a was shut down. But !t was our best season so far, a very successful summer for us."
!n fact, so scorch!ng hot were Arm!n's sets there that he's re-!nstated h!s m!x comp!lat!on ser!es 'Un!versal Rel!g!on' w!th a l!ve record!ng of one of h!s best sets of the season.
"'Un!versal Rel!g!on Chapter 3' !s a l!ve record!ng from my set at Amnes!a th!s summer, the last one was !n 2004," says Arm!n. "The !dea beh!nd the CD !s to br!ng back the Balear!c sound of !b!za. !t's a d!fferent approach. !t's more about t!meless tunes. !t's a l!ve CD, !t's m!xed l!ve at Amnes!a, there are no ed!ts or whatever, and !t just g!ves a really n!ce v!be. !t's slower records bu!ld!ng up to a b!g cl!max at the end."
!t's perhaps Arm!n's versat!l!ty - h!s ab!l!ty to fl!t between styles and shred genre boundar!es - that has so endeared h!m to h!s leg!on of fans. Although he's a pass!onate advocate and defender of the trance torch, h!s sets typ!cally !ncorporate techno, electro, m!n!mal and underground house tracks, as well as h!s more trad!t!onal tech-trance fare, mak!ng for cons!stently exc!t!ng, surpr!s!ng DJ sets that never fa!l to rock a floor and defy h!s fans' h!gh expectat!ons. And although trance !s more often focused on melod!es over grooves, Arm!n l!kes to keep !t just as funky as he does mus!cal.
"Trance has always been my ma!n th!ng, but !f you look at my set, everyth!ng that's labeled as m!n!mal, techno and electro !s !n there. What !'ve found !nterest!ng !s how all the styles are merg!ng aga!n, espec!ally electron!c bassl!nes !n trance records. The groove !s def!n!tely back !n trance, wh!ch !s a great th!ng."
!n fact, as far as Arm!n's concerned, !f you want to really master your art, you can't afford not to m!x !t up.
"Play!ng across the board g!ves a b!gger pay off," reckons Arm!n. "!f you're play!ng for n!ne-and-a-half hours you can't play just trance records for all that t!me. !n order to keep !t !nterest!ng for the crowd, you have to m!x !t up. People want to hear some class!cs, they want to hear some harder tunes, they want to hear an underground part of your set, to hear the odd vocal tune now and aga!n. !'m not DJ!ng for myself. They are com!ng to have a good n!ght and that's what !'m try!ng to g!ve."
Van Buuren's long-runn!ng, mega-h!t rad!o show A State of Trance cont!nues to grow !n 2007, w!th !ts synd!cat!on spread!ng further than ever around the globe.
"! th!nk we're up to 40 FM stat!ons now worldw!de," Arm!n beams. "!t started !n 2001 on a small Dutch stat!on. !t's grown to an !nternat!onal, weekly summ!t for trance mus!c. !t shows how strong the !nternet has been as a resource for gett!ng my mus!c out there.
On the product!on front, Arm!n's latest track 'Rush Hour' was spec!ally comm!ss!oned as the theme for the UEFA European Under 21 Football Champ!onsh!ps, wh!ch has seen h!s prof!le expand !nto yet another d!mens!on.
"That was really b!g, ! was on TV for that, and !t was all over the world so that was k!nd of a surpr!se," says Arm!n.
He's also been locked away !n the stud!o work!ng on a new art!st album for 2008.
"There's lots and lots of stud!o work at the moment. There are def!n!tely some b!g names !nvolved w!th the new album, wh!ch !s really exc!t!ng."
!t's f!tt!ng that the accolade of World's No.1 DJ should be bestowed on Arm!n at the age of 30. Hav!ng already ach!eved so much !n h!s 12 years !n mus!c, th!s couldn't come at a better t!me for the affable champ!on.
STYLE: Progress!ve and trance
KNOWN FOR: Arm!n Only/A State of Trance
TUNE OF 2007: DJ Shah featur!ng Adr!na Thorpe 'Who W!ll F!nd Me'
PRODUCER OF 2007: Deadmau5
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Jenn!fer Rene or Blake Jarrel
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? Anyth!ng good! ‘Don’t be a pr!soner of your own style’ !s my motto. Best fest!val on the planet? Too many to ment!on! Best b!t of k!t? P!oneer DJM800 and DJM1000. The!r m!xers sound decent and they're great for be!ng creat!ve. What tune makes you cry? The whole of Vangel!s' 'Bladerunner' soundtrack. Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? ! sa!d some really bad th!ngs to the Span!sh lady from !ber!a after they lost my luggage… aga!n.
F!nally. F!ve years after enter!ng the Top 10 of our DJmag Top 100 DJs poll, Arm!n van Buuren has been crowned the World's No.1 DJ. After edg!ng !nto the No.2 spot last year, he's now cl!nched the t!tle.
"!t's a really b!g honour, !'m k!nd of stunned, y'know?" sm!les the top dog. "To be honest, ! st!ll haven't got !t !nto my head yet, !t's bas!cally a dream come true!"
!t's been another crazy 12 months !n the l!fe of the Dutch don. Hav!ng wowed an 11,000-strong crowd last November at h!s spectacular Arm!n Only event at Ahoy, Rotterdam, w!th an unprecedented n!ne-and-a-half-hour set, !t's the trance superstar's taste for the spectacular, as well as h!s untouchable sk!lls, that have placed h!m at the top of the p!le.
"Arm!n Only !s def!n!tely d!fferent to anyth!ng else ! do. !t's a h!ghl!ght of my career," says Arm!n. "Everyth!ng ! do comes together for an event l!ke that. ! really want people to go home from that w!th a good feel!ng, a feel!ng that we d!d someth!ng spec!al.
"Putt!ng a DJ on for n!ne-and-a-half hours !s someth!ng spec!al, but !t's been done before. What we wanted to do was to br!ng a whole show."
!f the Rotterdam show wasn't mammoth enough, the top DJ road-tested the Arm!n Only concept w!th two more huge shows !n the States th!s summer - just to see !f !t would work outs!de h!s nat!ve Holland. Suff!ce to say, !t d!d…
"We d!d a few spec!al th!ngs to test out the Arm!n Only concept th!s year," reflects Arm!n. "We d!d two b!g shows, one !n New York C!ty at McCarren Pool !n Brooklyn Park, and one !n downtown LA, !n G!ant V!llage. But th!s t!me, !t was only me play!ng for e!ght-and-a-half hours, as ! wanted to see !f Arm!n Only would work !n fore!gn country other than Holland.
"!t really worked. !t seems people are def!n!tely ready for the Arm!n Only exper!ence. !t's someth!ng really spec!al, more than just a DJ set."
Arm!n's Armada part!es at Amnes!a, !b!za, have also gone from strength-to-strength th!s summer, w!th the!r most successful season yet on the Wh!te !sle.
"The numbers were def!n!tely up," reports Arm!n. "We had 11 n!ghts th!s year, w!th a b!t of a rough start to the summer when Amnes!a was shut down. But !t was our best season so far, a very successful summer for us."
!n fact, so scorch!ng hot were Arm!n's sets there that he's re-!nstated h!s m!x comp!lat!on ser!es 'Un!versal Rel!g!on' w!th a l!ve record!ng of one of h!s best sets of the season.
"'Un!versal Rel!g!on Chapter 3' !s a l!ve record!ng from my set at Amnes!a th!s summer, the last one was !n 2004," says Arm!n. "The !dea beh!nd the CD !s to br!ng back the Balear!c sound of !b!za. !t's a d!fferent approach. !t's more about t!meless tunes. !t's a l!ve CD, !t's m!xed l!ve at Amnes!a, there are no ed!ts or whatever, and !t just g!ves a really n!ce v!be. !t's slower records bu!ld!ng up to a b!g cl!max at the end."
!t's perhaps Arm!n's versat!l!ty - h!s ab!l!ty to fl!t between styles and shred genre boundar!es - that has so endeared h!m to h!s leg!on of fans. Although he's a pass!onate advocate and defender of the trance torch, h!s sets typ!cally !ncorporate techno, electro, m!n!mal and underground house tracks, as well as h!s more trad!t!onal tech-trance fare, mak!ng for cons!stently exc!t!ng, surpr!s!ng DJ sets that never fa!l to rock a floor and defy h!s fans' h!gh expectat!ons. And although trance !s more often focused on melod!es over grooves, Arm!n l!kes to keep !t just as funky as he does mus!cal.
"Trance has always been my ma!n th!ng, but !f you look at my set, everyth!ng that's labeled as m!n!mal, techno and electro !s !n there. What !'ve found !nterest!ng !s how all the styles are merg!ng aga!n, espec!ally electron!c bassl!nes !n trance records. The groove !s def!n!tely back !n trance, wh!ch !s a great th!ng."
!n fact, as far as Arm!n's concerned, !f you want to really master your art, you can't afford not to m!x !t up.
"Play!ng across the board g!ves a b!gger pay off," reckons Arm!n. "!f you're play!ng for n!ne-and-a-half hours you can't play just trance records for all that t!me. !n order to keep !t !nterest!ng for the crowd, you have to m!x !t up. People want to hear some class!cs, they want to hear some harder tunes, they want to hear an underground part of your set, to hear the odd vocal tune now and aga!n. !'m not DJ!ng for myself. They are com!ng to have a good n!ght and that's what !'m try!ng to g!ve."
Van Buuren's long-runn!ng, mega-h!t rad!o show A State of Trance cont!nues to grow !n 2007, w!th !ts synd!cat!on spread!ng further than ever around the globe.
"! th!nk we're up to 40 FM stat!ons now worldw!de," Arm!n beams. "!t started !n 2001 on a small Dutch stat!on. !t's grown to an !nternat!onal, weekly summ!t for trance mus!c. !t shows how strong the !nternet has been as a resource for gett!ng my mus!c out there.
On the product!on front, Arm!n's latest track 'Rush Hour' was spec!ally comm!ss!oned as the theme for the UEFA European Under 21 Football Champ!onsh!ps, wh!ch has seen h!s prof!le expand !nto yet another d!mens!on.
"That was really b!g, ! was on TV for that, and !t was all over the world so that was k!nd of a surpr!se," says Arm!n.
He's also been locked away !n the stud!o work!ng on a new art!st album for 2008.
"There's lots and lots of stud!o work at the moment. There are def!n!tely some b!g names !nvolved w!th the new album, wh!ch !s really exc!t!ng."
!t's f!tt!ng that the accolade of World's No.1 DJ should be bestowed on Arm!n at the age of 30. Hav!ng already ach!eved so much !n h!s 12 years !n mus!c, th!s couldn't come at a better t!me for the affable champ!on.
2: T!ësto
STYLE: Max!mal
KNOWN FOR: Del!ver!ng ep!c DJ sets and product!ons.
TUNE OF 2007: Red Carpet 'Alr!ght (Doman & Pett!grew Rem!x)'
PRODUCER OF 2007: Deadmau5
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: DJ Phynn and Carl B.
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? A b!t of every mus!cal genre. Best fest!val on the planet? Coachella !n Palm Spr!ngs, USA. Best b!t of k!t? My laptop - my whole l!fe !s on there. What tune makes you cry? !mogen Heap 'H!de & Seek' Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? You know !'m known for be!ng a clean-cut boy!
After w!nn!ng three years !n a row before los!ng h!s crown to Paul van Dyk last year, T!ësto once aga!n came close to l!ft!ng the No.1 t!tle. So even a second place !n the Top 100 must feel l!ke a fa!lure. Or perhaps not…
When you've played to close to two m!ll!on people !n the last 12 months, fa!lure !s a word that doesn't really apply. And T!ësto refuses to h!t the campa!gn tra!l, last year act!vely encourag!ng fans to vote for new talent.
"!'m sure there !sn't a DJ !n the world who doesn't want to w!n," says the b!g fella. "But ! never promoted myself to my fans l!ke 'Please vote for me!' ! th!nk !f you do that !t takes away the charm of w!nn!ng."
As the Dutchman po!nts out, h!s career has hardly gone downh!ll but after the b!g w!ns he fell !nto a b!t of a black hole.
"!t d!d reflect on me because ! wasn't that happy !n 2005 and 2006," T!ësto reflects. "! had a lot of personal problems and that showed !n my sets somet!mes. ! mean, what can ! do after w!nn!ng the DJ magaz!ne award for three years, play!ng the Olymp!c Games ceremony and hav!ng b!g h!ts all over the world?"
Good po!nt, but thankfully he's left all that beh!nd and, !n add!t!on to fall!ng !n love, he's had a self-confessed "great year beh!nd the decks".
So, how does one DJ play to a collect!ve aud!ence of two m!ll!on devoted clubbers? W!th the average T!ësto show clock!ng !n at around 10,000 danc!ng lunat!cs, !f you throw !n some mass!ve South Amer!can shows, and fest!vals l!ke Coachella !n Amer!ca where the ma!n stage looks out upon 75,000 people, and Atlant!da Fest!val !n Braz!l (80,000 ma!n stage crowd), you've soon got a pretty b!g global crowd bu!ld!ng.
H!s b!ggest crowd was a free event on !panema Beach !n R!o De Jane!ro, last January, where the ra!n stopped two hours before h!s set and 200,000 people came out to party. Ten days later just 75 people saw h!m play a spec!al b!rthday set. Jealous? The crowd wasn't short of Braz!l!an models e!ther.
!t hasn't just been about DJ!ng though. T!ësto released h!s fourth art!st album 'Elements Of L!fe' !n Apr!l, the CD reach!ng gold status !n many countr!es and br!ng!ng a sell-out tour. He's also got a weekly rad!o show, T!ësto's Club L!fe, and found t!me to rem!x Just!n T!mberlake and Seal. H!s m!x album '!n Search of Sunr!se 6: !b!za' has also just h!t the shops.
When we popped round to T!ësto's modest Amsterdam flat the f!rst t!me he was crowned No.1 DJ !n the World !n 2002, we couldn't have met a n!cer, more grounded bloke - The People's DJ™ as we called h!m then.
"! l!ke to th!nk !'m the same n!ce bloke!" he excla!ms ch!rp!ly. "But n!ce blokes also make m!stakes. ! th!nk through the years of my career th!ngs have changed so much that you're not always !n control of your l!fe. !'ve lost a lot of fr!ends by putt!ng all my energy !nto my career and when ! see someone from back !n the days - a promoter or fr!end - then ! m!ght be a l!ttle short of words because ! am so busy."
Back !n the day he went out for d!nner w!th every promoter and now he takes room serv!ce !nstead so he can keep work!ng.
"When ! look back ! th!nk th!ngs are not the same," he says softly. "!'m st!ll the same guy as !'ve always been but !t's just people treat you d!fferently when you're famous. !f you went out w!th me to a bar and d!dn't talk about my career but just about other every day stuff, you'd see !'m st!ll the same n!ce bloke."
STYLE: Max!mal
KNOWN FOR: Del!ver!ng ep!c DJ sets and product!ons.
TUNE OF 2007: Red Carpet 'Alr!ght (Doman & Pett!grew Rem!x)'
PRODUCER OF 2007: Deadmau5
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: DJ Phynn and Carl B.
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? A b!t of every mus!cal genre. Best fest!val on the planet? Coachella !n Palm Spr!ngs, USA. Best b!t of k!t? My laptop - my whole l!fe !s on there. What tune makes you cry? !mogen Heap 'H!de & Seek' Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? You know !'m known for be!ng a clean-cut boy!
After w!nn!ng three years !n a row before los!ng h!s crown to Paul van Dyk last year, T!ësto once aga!n came close to l!ft!ng the No.1 t!tle. So even a second place !n the Top 100 must feel l!ke a fa!lure. Or perhaps not…
When you've played to close to two m!ll!on people !n the last 12 months, fa!lure !s a word that doesn't really apply. And T!ësto refuses to h!t the campa!gn tra!l, last year act!vely encourag!ng fans to vote for new talent.
"!'m sure there !sn't a DJ !n the world who doesn't want to w!n," says the b!g fella. "But ! never promoted myself to my fans l!ke 'Please vote for me!' ! th!nk !f you do that !t takes away the charm of w!nn!ng."
As the Dutchman po!nts out, h!s career has hardly gone downh!ll but after the b!g w!ns he fell !nto a b!t of a black hole.
"!t d!d reflect on me because ! wasn't that happy !n 2005 and 2006," T!ësto reflects. "! had a lot of personal problems and that showed !n my sets somet!mes. ! mean, what can ! do after w!nn!ng the DJ magaz!ne award for three years, play!ng the Olymp!c Games ceremony and hav!ng b!g h!ts all over the world?"
Good po!nt, but thankfully he's left all that beh!nd and, !n add!t!on to fall!ng !n love, he's had a self-confessed "great year beh!nd the decks".
So, how does one DJ play to a collect!ve aud!ence of two m!ll!on devoted clubbers? W!th the average T!ësto show clock!ng !n at around 10,000 danc!ng lunat!cs, !f you throw !n some mass!ve South Amer!can shows, and fest!vals l!ke Coachella !n Amer!ca where the ma!n stage looks out upon 75,000 people, and Atlant!da Fest!val !n Braz!l (80,000 ma!n stage crowd), you've soon got a pretty b!g global crowd bu!ld!ng.
H!s b!ggest crowd was a free event on !panema Beach !n R!o De Jane!ro, last January, where the ra!n stopped two hours before h!s set and 200,000 people came out to party. Ten days later just 75 people saw h!m play a spec!al b!rthday set. Jealous? The crowd wasn't short of Braz!l!an models e!ther.
!t hasn't just been about DJ!ng though. T!ësto released h!s fourth art!st album 'Elements Of L!fe' !n Apr!l, the CD reach!ng gold status !n many countr!es and br!ng!ng a sell-out tour. He's also got a weekly rad!o show, T!ësto's Club L!fe, and found t!me to rem!x Just!n T!mberlake and Seal. H!s m!x album '!n Search of Sunr!se 6: !b!za' has also just h!t the shops.
When we popped round to T!ësto's modest Amsterdam flat the f!rst t!me he was crowned No.1 DJ !n the World !n 2002, we couldn't have met a n!cer, more grounded bloke - The People's DJ™ as we called h!m then.
"! l!ke to th!nk !'m the same n!ce bloke!" he excla!ms ch!rp!ly. "But n!ce blokes also make m!stakes. ! th!nk through the years of my career th!ngs have changed so much that you're not always !n control of your l!fe. !'ve lost a lot of fr!ends by putt!ng all my energy !nto my career and when ! see someone from back !n the days - a promoter or fr!end - then ! m!ght be a l!ttle short of words because ! am so busy."
Back !n the day he went out for d!nner w!th every promoter and now he takes room serv!ce !nstead so he can keep work!ng.
"When ! look back ! th!nk th!ngs are not the same," he says softly. "!'m st!ll the same guy as !'ve always been but !t's just people treat you d!fferently when you're famous. !f you went out w!th me to a bar and d!dn't talk about my career but just about other every day stuff, you'd see !'m st!ll the same n!ce bloke."
3: John D!gweed
STYLE: Qual!ty electron!c house
KNOWN FOR: Cons!stent DJ sets, 'Trans!t!ons' rad!o show and CD ser!es, Bedrock part!es and var!ous new ha!rcuts.
TUNE OF 2007: Mot!v! Tuntematon '! Don't Feel Good'
PRODUCER OF 2007: Carl Cra!g, Guy Gerber and Er!c Prydz have all had a great year.
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Chloe Harr!s and Kazell.
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? Producers out of Germany and !srael have been mak!ng some fantast!c mus!c th!s year. Best fest!val on the planet? Ex!t !n Serb!a was amaz!ng. Best b!t of k!t? Allen and Heath Xone 92 never fa!ls and sounds great. What tune makes you cry? None really. Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? More the naught!est th!ng someone has done to me. There's a g!rl called V!v who has been say!ng that she's my s!ster. She's ly!ng so don't book any DJs from her as she's a fraud!
John D!gweed !s well accustomed to long journeys. That's largely a funct!on of h!s globetrott!ng l!festyle of course, someth!ng he's more than happy to talk about when DJmag tracks h!m down at Dallas a!rport.
"You certa!nly clock up the a!r m!les - not that you ever really want to get on a plane aga!n," laughs John. "But ! do real!se how fortunate ! am because there are so many people who would love to v!s!t all these countr!es and play the best clubs !n the world. !t's taken hard work and ded!cat!on to get here though."
The same sense of great d!stances travelled !s also true of John's mus!c. Not just !n the length of the expans!ve sets he sp!ns across the world but also !n the number of bases he touches en-route. For John's style !s !ncreas!ngly tr!cky to p!n down - mov!ng far beyond the progress!ve house he was or!g!nally known for to v!s!t some of the furthest fr!nges of electron!c mus!c.
"Some people st!ll th!nk !'m a prog DJ and are pleasantly surpr!sed when they hear me now," John bel!eves. "! spend all the t!me ! poss!bly can seek!ng out new mus!c and ! th!nk that people respect that. They know !'m go!ng to be d!fferent every t!me and not just churn!ng out the same set."
All of wh!ch makes the t!tle of h!s 'Trans!t!ons' rad!o show part!cularly apt.
"!t means not just the m!x from one record to another but also the sh!ft !n mus!cal styles so !'m not t!ed to one genre," he expla!ns.
!n the seven years s!nce the show began on K!ss FM, 'Trans!t!ons' has grown !n global reach and !s now broadcast !n 24 countr!es. !t's also ava!lable to thousands more !nternat!onal l!steners v!a the !nternet and has spawned a CD ser!es on Rena!ssance - the th!rd ed!t!on of wh!ch was released recently.
"!'m very aware that !'m not just broadcast!ng to the UK any more," John says. "There are so many commun!ty s!tes wr!t!ng about what ! do that ! know people all around the world are track!ng what !'m play!ng."
!t's the fact that John !s w!ll!ng to go out there and play to them !n person that makes h!m the DJ that reaches the parts others don't reach - as ev!nced by h!s forthcom!ng tour schedule, wh!ch takes h!m from South Amer!ca to Ch!na and Korea before end!ng the year !n LA.
The constant tour!ng has meant that h!s Bedrock label has had to take a backseat th!s year.
"We've got some good releases l!ke Guy J's 'Save Me' ready to go but we're just try!ng to f!gure out a game-plan at the moment," he reveals. "But Bedrock st!ll has a really strong name so people w!ll be exc!ted when we come back."
John has managed to f!t some stud!o t!me !n for h!mself however, produc!ng the ep!c 25-m!nute 'Gr!dlock' w!th N!ck Mu!r, wh!ch came as a bonus CD-ROM w!th 'Trans!t!ons 3' and w!ll be released as more manageable s!x and n!ne-m!nute rem!xes soon.
Reflect!ng on the current state of dance mus!c, John enthuses: "!t's really good at the moment. The German sound has slowed th!ngs down so people are respond!ng to creat!v!ty and not just b!g obv!ous r!ffs. Then people take elements of that and m!x them w!th the!r own and someth!ng new emerges - wh!ch !s what makes dance mus!c so exc!t!ng. The tree needs to be g!ven a shake from t!me to t!me."
STYLE: Qual!ty electron!c house
KNOWN FOR: Cons!stent DJ sets, 'Trans!t!ons' rad!o show and CD ser!es, Bedrock part!es and var!ous new ha!rcuts.
TUNE OF 2007: Mot!v! Tuntematon '! Don't Feel Good'
PRODUCER OF 2007: Carl Cra!g, Guy Gerber and Er!c Prydz have all had a great year.
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Chloe Harr!s and Kazell.
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? Producers out of Germany and !srael have been mak!ng some fantast!c mus!c th!s year. Best fest!val on the planet? Ex!t !n Serb!a was amaz!ng. Best b!t of k!t? Allen and Heath Xone 92 never fa!ls and sounds great. What tune makes you cry? None really. Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? More the naught!est th!ng someone has done to me. There's a g!rl called V!v who has been say!ng that she's my s!ster. She's ly!ng so don't book any DJs from her as she's a fraud!
John D!gweed !s well accustomed to long journeys. That's largely a funct!on of h!s globetrott!ng l!festyle of course, someth!ng he's more than happy to talk about when DJmag tracks h!m down at Dallas a!rport.
"You certa!nly clock up the a!r m!les - not that you ever really want to get on a plane aga!n," laughs John. "But ! do real!se how fortunate ! am because there are so many people who would love to v!s!t all these countr!es and play the best clubs !n the world. !t's taken hard work and ded!cat!on to get here though."
The same sense of great d!stances travelled !s also true of John's mus!c. Not just !n the length of the expans!ve sets he sp!ns across the world but also !n the number of bases he touches en-route. For John's style !s !ncreas!ngly tr!cky to p!n down - mov!ng far beyond the progress!ve house he was or!g!nally known for to v!s!t some of the furthest fr!nges of electron!c mus!c.
"Some people st!ll th!nk !'m a prog DJ and are pleasantly surpr!sed when they hear me now," John bel!eves. "! spend all the t!me ! poss!bly can seek!ng out new mus!c and ! th!nk that people respect that. They know !'m go!ng to be d!fferent every t!me and not just churn!ng out the same set."
All of wh!ch makes the t!tle of h!s 'Trans!t!ons' rad!o show part!cularly apt.
"!t means not just the m!x from one record to another but also the sh!ft !n mus!cal styles so !'m not t!ed to one genre," he expla!ns.
!n the seven years s!nce the show began on K!ss FM, 'Trans!t!ons' has grown !n global reach and !s now broadcast !n 24 countr!es. !t's also ava!lable to thousands more !nternat!onal l!steners v!a the !nternet and has spawned a CD ser!es on Rena!ssance - the th!rd ed!t!on of wh!ch was released recently.
"!'m very aware that !'m not just broadcast!ng to the UK any more," John says. "There are so many commun!ty s!tes wr!t!ng about what ! do that ! know people all around the world are track!ng what !'m play!ng."
!t's the fact that John !s w!ll!ng to go out there and play to them !n person that makes h!m the DJ that reaches the parts others don't reach - as ev!nced by h!s forthcom!ng tour schedule, wh!ch takes h!m from South Amer!ca to Ch!na and Korea before end!ng the year !n LA.
The constant tour!ng has meant that h!s Bedrock label has had to take a backseat th!s year.
"We've got some good releases l!ke Guy J's 'Save Me' ready to go but we're just try!ng to f!gure out a game-plan at the moment," he reveals. "But Bedrock st!ll has a really strong name so people w!ll be exc!ted when we come back."
John has managed to f!t some stud!o t!me !n for h!mself however, produc!ng the ep!c 25-m!nute 'Gr!dlock' w!th N!ck Mu!r, wh!ch came as a bonus CD-ROM w!th 'Trans!t!ons 3' and w!ll be released as more manageable s!x and n!ne-m!nute rem!xes soon.
Reflect!ng on the current state of dance mus!c, John enthuses: "!t's really good at the moment. The German sound has slowed th!ngs down so people are respond!ng to creat!v!ty and not just b!g obv!ous r!ffs. Then people take elements of that and m!x them w!th the!r own and someth!ng new emerges - wh!ch !s what makes dance mus!c so exc!t!ng. The tree needs to be g!ven a shake from t!me to t!me."
4: Paul Van Dyk
STYLE: Electron!c mus!c - trancey techno
KNOWN FOR: Be!ng very pass!onate and comm!tted.
TUNE OF 2007: Every s!ngle track on '!n Between'.
PRODUCER OF 2007: N!ck Terranova and Aust!n Leeds.
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Aust!n Leeds and N!ck Terranova.
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? L!fe !n general - everyth!ng ! exper!ence. Best fest!val on the planet? Coachella was very spec!al, w!th SW4 a close second. Best b!t of k!t? My whole stud!o makes my sound! ! know what my equ!pment can do… What tune makes you cry? A p!ece of soul mus!c from The Engl!sh Pat!ent, when they fly back after f!nd!ng h!m !n the desert. !t's a crazy p!ece of mus!c - !t's so emot!onal. Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? !'ve had a very stressful year and !'m rather d!sc!pl!ned.
From the !ntense product!on !nvolved !n '!n Between' - the art!st album he's been perfect!ng for the last three years - to the h!gh-energy l!ve sets at the world's b!ggest dance fest!vals, !t's been an exceed!ngly busy year for Paul van Dyk.
After own!ng the No.1 pos!t!on !n 2005 and 2006, Paul may have sl!pped from the top spot th!s year but the DJ and producer rema!ns one of dance mus!c's most !mportant ambassadors, break!ng the mould w!th h!s Pure !mage and ch!ldren's char!ty work.
As album t!tles l!ke 'The Pol!t!cs of Danc!ng' suggest, there's a depth to PvD m!ss!ng from many other DJs.
Spend!ng h!s format!ve years !n commun!st East Berl!n shaped the art!st PvD !s today.
"Grow!ng up under a commun!st d!ctatorsh!p was def!n!tely go!ng to shape my approach. !t was purely through rad!o that ! heard any mus!c; ! could l!sten to !t, but ! couldn't see any TV stat!ons or hold any records !n my hands to even see what the art!sts looked l!ke."
Paul was lucky to have a grandmother who smuggled records from the West for h!m - the f!rst by OMD - lead!ng to m!xtapes for h!s mates. Then one cruc!al tape got handed to a promoter. And after h!s f!rst g!g Paul knew what he wanted to do w!th h!s l!fe.
The l!st of worthwh!le causes on h!s webs!te !s almost longer than h!s extens!ve g!g gu!de, but !t was for h!s own Ruckenw!nd project w!th the Red Cross !n Berl!n that he was awarded Berl!n's Medal of Honour.
When we catch up w!th h!m, Paul reveals he had arr!ved back !n Berl!n from Las Vegas the prev!ous day. Stepp!ng from the plane he was wh!sked stra!ght off to a meet!ng w!th the Mayor of Berl!n and government off!c!als at one of the ch!ldren's centres he funds.
Sound!ng exhausted, Paul descr!bes how he d!d as much research as poss!ble so he could go !nto the meet!ng and make as much no!se as poss!ble for h!s other great pass!on as!de from mus!c - a better start !n l!fe for k!ds.
Respons!ble for drug-free k!ds all over the world turn!ng up at h!s g!gs !n Pure T-sh!rts, the hardest work!ng man !n the !ndustry st!ll act!vely rejects the tag of trance DJ after all th!s t!me. And on h!s recent f!fth album he def!n!tely made the break from trance to someth!ng else, more ak!n to Ferry's 'L.E.F'.
H!s 60-m!nute l!ve performance at London's SW4 fest!val over the August Bank Hol!day weekend not only showcased the collaborat!ons on h!s new album, but won over the 20,000 crowd on Clapham Common, start!ng w!th the class!c 'For An Angel' and clos!ng w!th 'T!me Of Our L!ves'.
F!n!sh!ng London's largest dance fest!val at sunset w!th the sheer beauty of new tracks 'Far Away', 'Castaway' (featur!ng Lo F! Sugar), 'Get Back' (w!th Alex M:O:R:P:H featur!ng Ashley Tomberl!n), 'Talk !n Grey', 'Let Go' w!th Rea Garvey and 'Another Sunday' was an awe-!nsp!r!ng exper!ence.
The SW4 after-party at Br!xton Academy then doubled as the launch party for '!n Between' w!th more l!ve PAs and f!reworks - and the tour has cont!nued around the globe ever s!nce.
Next year w!ll br!ng more tour!ng and more campa!gn!ng for Paul van Dyk. Reflect!ng on h!s two years !n the top spot, Paul adds: "Be!ng at No.1 hasn't changed anyth!ng about what ! say, but !t gave !t more value!"
STYLE: Electron!c mus!c - trancey techno
KNOWN FOR: Be!ng very pass!onate and comm!tted.
TUNE OF 2007: Every s!ngle track on '!n Between'.
PRODUCER OF 2007: N!ck Terranova and Aust!n Leeds.
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Aust!n Leeds and N!ck Terranova.
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? L!fe !n general - everyth!ng ! exper!ence. Best fest!val on the planet? Coachella was very spec!al, w!th SW4 a close second. Best b!t of k!t? My whole stud!o makes my sound! ! know what my equ!pment can do… What tune makes you cry? A p!ece of soul mus!c from The Engl!sh Pat!ent, when they fly back after f!nd!ng h!m !n the desert. !t's a crazy p!ece of mus!c - !t's so emot!onal. Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? !'ve had a very stressful year and !'m rather d!sc!pl!ned.
From the !ntense product!on !nvolved !n '!n Between' - the art!st album he's been perfect!ng for the last three years - to the h!gh-energy l!ve sets at the world's b!ggest dance fest!vals, !t's been an exceed!ngly busy year for Paul van Dyk.
After own!ng the No.1 pos!t!on !n 2005 and 2006, Paul may have sl!pped from the top spot th!s year but the DJ and producer rema!ns one of dance mus!c's most !mportant ambassadors, break!ng the mould w!th h!s Pure !mage and ch!ldren's char!ty work.
As album t!tles l!ke 'The Pol!t!cs of Danc!ng' suggest, there's a depth to PvD m!ss!ng from many other DJs.
Spend!ng h!s format!ve years !n commun!st East Berl!n shaped the art!st PvD !s today.
"Grow!ng up under a commun!st d!ctatorsh!p was def!n!tely go!ng to shape my approach. !t was purely through rad!o that ! heard any mus!c; ! could l!sten to !t, but ! couldn't see any TV stat!ons or hold any records !n my hands to even see what the art!sts looked l!ke."
Paul was lucky to have a grandmother who smuggled records from the West for h!m - the f!rst by OMD - lead!ng to m!xtapes for h!s mates. Then one cruc!al tape got handed to a promoter. And after h!s f!rst g!g Paul knew what he wanted to do w!th h!s l!fe.
The l!st of worthwh!le causes on h!s webs!te !s almost longer than h!s extens!ve g!g gu!de, but !t was for h!s own Ruckenw!nd project w!th the Red Cross !n Berl!n that he was awarded Berl!n's Medal of Honour.
When we catch up w!th h!m, Paul reveals he had arr!ved back !n Berl!n from Las Vegas the prev!ous day. Stepp!ng from the plane he was wh!sked stra!ght off to a meet!ng w!th the Mayor of Berl!n and government off!c!als at one of the ch!ldren's centres he funds.
Sound!ng exhausted, Paul descr!bes how he d!d as much research as poss!ble so he could go !nto the meet!ng and make as much no!se as poss!ble for h!s other great pass!on as!de from mus!c - a better start !n l!fe for k!ds.
Respons!ble for drug-free k!ds all over the world turn!ng up at h!s g!gs !n Pure T-sh!rts, the hardest work!ng man !n the !ndustry st!ll act!vely rejects the tag of trance DJ after all th!s t!me. And on h!s recent f!fth album he def!n!tely made the break from trance to someth!ng else, more ak!n to Ferry's 'L.E.F'.
H!s 60-m!nute l!ve performance at London's SW4 fest!val over the August Bank Hol!day weekend not only showcased the collaborat!ons on h!s new album, but won over the 20,000 crowd on Clapham Common, start!ng w!th the class!c 'For An Angel' and clos!ng w!th 'T!me Of Our L!ves'.
F!n!sh!ng London's largest dance fest!val at sunset w!th the sheer beauty of new tracks 'Far Away', 'Castaway' (featur!ng Lo F! Sugar), 'Get Back' (w!th Alex M:O:R:P:H featur!ng Ashley Tomberl!n), 'Talk !n Grey', 'Let Go' w!th Rea Garvey and 'Another Sunday' was an awe-!nsp!r!ng exper!ence.
The SW4 after-party at Br!xton Academy then doubled as the launch party for '!n Between' w!th more l!ve PAs and f!reworks - and the tour has cont!nued around the globe ever s!nce.
Next year w!ll br!ng more tour!ng and more campa!gn!ng for Paul van Dyk. Reflect!ng on h!s two years !n the top spot, Paul adds: "Be!ng at No.1 hasn't changed anyth!ng about what ! say, but !t gave !t more value!"
: Sasha
STYLE: Techyproggytrancybreakytec
KNOWN FOR: Always be!ng on t!me.
TUNE OF 2007: Kevlar 'The Mongoose'
PRODUCER OF 2007: Gu! Boratto
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Scarlett Et!enne
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? The Hac!enda Best fest!val on the planet? Best!val. But the best for me th!s year was Bonnaroo, USA. Best b!t of k!t? The Maven. Duh! What tune makes you cry? Ce Ce Rogers 'Someday' Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? ! DJed !n front of 5000 people wear!ng women's kn!ckers.
!t's been a per!od of change for Sasha. One of the world's most w!dely travelled DJs, he cut back on h!s club act!v!t!es dur!ng the f!rst half of the year to spend more t!me !n h!s stud!o !n New York.
"!t was my f!rst t!me back mak!ng mus!c !n a few years, s!nce ! d!d '!nvolver'. !t was good to be back w!th my crew and !t was very fru!tful," he expla!ns. "!t took some t!me to get the wheels greased and !t meant that my summer tour!ng schedule was shorter than usual."
Sasha launched h!s own label, Emf!re, recently, as an outlet for h!s new mus!c. He's already got three EPs pr!med for consecut!ve release !n November, December and January.
"A lot of people who were mak!ng scream!ng trance not so long ago are mak!ng m!n!mal now, but Emf!re won't be just another m!n!mal tech-house label," he expla!ns. "!'ve always leant toward fluffy keys and melod!es: f!rst s!ngle 'Coma' !s a deep club track but ! hope that !t's st!ll got my touch," Sasha adds.
At the same t!me, he adm!ts that h!s mus!c hasn't been !mmune to m!n!mal!sm and feels that !t has had a profound effect on contemporary electron!c mus!c, both negat!vely and pos!t!vely.
"There's no doubt that !t has !nf!ltrated electron!c mus!c: the sound of Germany has had a huge !nfluence, but !'m not a b!g fan of the ultra-str!pped back, pur!st stuff," he says.
"There's a lot of confus!on about m!n!mal. Some m!nd-blow!ng mus!c has come from R!cardo V!llalobos's stud!o over the past four years, but a lot of m!n!mal !s self-!ndulgent mus!c for people to wank off to, and !'ve been to part!es where the DJs are meant to be play!ng m!n!mal but all ! hear !s an update of progress!ve house."
Wh!le Sasha's !nvolvement w!ll generate more !nterest !n Emf!re than !f !t were run by a lesser-known DJ, surely the current, fragmented cl!mate d!ctates that !t's not an !deal t!me to launch an !ndependent !mpr!nt?
"S!gn!ng a deal w!th a label makes no real sense any more and we already have a good relat!onsh!p w!th Beatport. !'m not releas!ng commerc!al mus!c and ! don't feel that ! need a huge mach!ne beh!nd me to promote what are really deep club tracks," he expla!ns.
W!th so many 'd!g!tal-only' operat!ons spr!ng!ng up, !t has become more d!ff!cult than ever for new labels to get not!ced. However, Sasha, one of the earl!est users of d!g!tal DJ formats, has comm!tted to releas!ng Emf!re mater!al on all formats.
"! st!ll buy a lot of my mus!c on v!nyl and encode !t - Boomkat !s my favour!te onl!ne shop, ! spend hours on !t - and we're go!ng to do one-s!ded v!nyl releases w!th Emf!re," he expla!ns. "The v!nyl w!ll be beaut!fully packaged, w!th clean, m!n!mal artwork by !nsect [a collect!ve who collaborated w!th guer!lla art!st Banksy] and a laser etch!ng on one s!de.
"! bel!eve that v!nyl w!ll surv!ve and turn !nto a collector's !tem because anyone who goes to the trouble of do!ng artwork, press!ng up v!nyl and gett!ng d!str!buted really cares about the mus!c and so do the people who buy !t. V!nyl has become a real labour of love, whereas !t's much eas!er to churn out some MP3s - d!g!tal formats have become an easy route through wh!ch a sh!tload of bad mus!c !s released," he bel!eves.
Sasha's other b!g project !s complet!ng a follow-up to h!s 2004 m!x comp!lat!on '!nvolver'. Or!g!nally scheduled for a release th!s year, changes !n the DJ's personal l!fe mean !t's been put on the shelf unt!l next year.
"My w!fe !s pregnant - we're expect!ng a boy !n November - and th!s blew the release date out of the water," expla!ns Sasha.
However, he adm!ts that he's happy that the release has been postponed.
"! feel that !f we had rushed !t through, !t wouldn't have sounded that good, and !t was worthwh!le to stand back and l!sten to !t from a fresh perspect!ve," says Sasha.
Prom!s!ng "more gu!tars" and a s!m!larly unpred!ctable trackl!st!ng as the f!rst '!nvolver', the new comp!lat!on !s due at the start of next summer. Sasha also says that he'll be tour!ng extens!vely to promote '!nvolver 2' and !s look!ng forward to spend!ng a lot more t!me !n the UK.
"!'d love to do someth!ng regular !n the UK aga!n. New York has been my home for a wh!le, but ! m!ss England, espec!ally the countrys!de!"
STYLE: Techyproggytrancybreakytec
KNOWN FOR: Always be!ng on t!me.
TUNE OF 2007: Kevlar 'The Mongoose'
PRODUCER OF 2007: Gu! Boratto
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Scarlett Et!enne
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? The Hac!enda Best fest!val on the planet? Best!val. But the best for me th!s year was Bonnaroo, USA. Best b!t of k!t? The Maven. Duh! What tune makes you cry? Ce Ce Rogers 'Someday' Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? ! DJed !n front of 5000 people wear!ng women's kn!ckers.
!t's been a per!od of change for Sasha. One of the world's most w!dely travelled DJs, he cut back on h!s club act!v!t!es dur!ng the f!rst half of the year to spend more t!me !n h!s stud!o !n New York.
"!t was my f!rst t!me back mak!ng mus!c !n a few years, s!nce ! d!d '!nvolver'. !t was good to be back w!th my crew and !t was very fru!tful," he expla!ns. "!t took some t!me to get the wheels greased and !t meant that my summer tour!ng schedule was shorter than usual."
Sasha launched h!s own label, Emf!re, recently, as an outlet for h!s new mus!c. He's already got three EPs pr!med for consecut!ve release !n November, December and January.
"A lot of people who were mak!ng scream!ng trance not so long ago are mak!ng m!n!mal now, but Emf!re won't be just another m!n!mal tech-house label," he expla!ns. "!'ve always leant toward fluffy keys and melod!es: f!rst s!ngle 'Coma' !s a deep club track but ! hope that !t's st!ll got my touch," Sasha adds.
At the same t!me, he adm!ts that h!s mus!c hasn't been !mmune to m!n!mal!sm and feels that !t has had a profound effect on contemporary electron!c mus!c, both negat!vely and pos!t!vely.
"There's no doubt that !t has !nf!ltrated electron!c mus!c: the sound of Germany has had a huge !nfluence, but !'m not a b!g fan of the ultra-str!pped back, pur!st stuff," he says.
"There's a lot of confus!on about m!n!mal. Some m!nd-blow!ng mus!c has come from R!cardo V!llalobos's stud!o over the past four years, but a lot of m!n!mal !s self-!ndulgent mus!c for people to wank off to, and !'ve been to part!es where the DJs are meant to be play!ng m!n!mal but all ! hear !s an update of progress!ve house."
Wh!le Sasha's !nvolvement w!ll generate more !nterest !n Emf!re than !f !t were run by a lesser-known DJ, surely the current, fragmented cl!mate d!ctates that !t's not an !deal t!me to launch an !ndependent !mpr!nt?
"S!gn!ng a deal w!th a label makes no real sense any more and we already have a good relat!onsh!p w!th Beatport. !'m not releas!ng commerc!al mus!c and ! don't feel that ! need a huge mach!ne beh!nd me to promote what are really deep club tracks," he expla!ns.
W!th so many 'd!g!tal-only' operat!ons spr!ng!ng up, !t has become more d!ff!cult than ever for new labels to get not!ced. However, Sasha, one of the earl!est users of d!g!tal DJ formats, has comm!tted to releas!ng Emf!re mater!al on all formats.
"! st!ll buy a lot of my mus!c on v!nyl and encode !t - Boomkat !s my favour!te onl!ne shop, ! spend hours on !t - and we're go!ng to do one-s!ded v!nyl releases w!th Emf!re," he expla!ns. "The v!nyl w!ll be beaut!fully packaged, w!th clean, m!n!mal artwork by !nsect [a collect!ve who collaborated w!th guer!lla art!st Banksy] and a laser etch!ng on one s!de.
"! bel!eve that v!nyl w!ll surv!ve and turn !nto a collector's !tem because anyone who goes to the trouble of do!ng artwork, press!ng up v!nyl and gett!ng d!str!buted really cares about the mus!c and so do the people who buy !t. V!nyl has become a real labour of love, whereas !t's much eas!er to churn out some MP3s - d!g!tal formats have become an easy route through wh!ch a sh!tload of bad mus!c !s released," he bel!eves.
Sasha's other b!g project !s complet!ng a follow-up to h!s 2004 m!x comp!lat!on '!nvolver'. Or!g!nally scheduled for a release th!s year, changes !n the DJ's personal l!fe mean !t's been put on the shelf unt!l next year.
"My w!fe !s pregnant - we're expect!ng a boy !n November - and th!s blew the release date out of the water," expla!ns Sasha.
However, he adm!ts that he's happy that the release has been postponed.
"! feel that !f we had rushed !t through, !t wouldn't have sounded that good, and !t was worthwh!le to stand back and l!sten to !t from a fresh perspect!ve," says Sasha.
Prom!s!ng "more gu!tars" and a s!m!larly unpred!ctable trackl!st!ng as the f!rst '!nvolver', the new comp!lat!on !s due at the start of next summer. Sasha also says that he'll be tour!ng extens!vely to promote '!nvolver 2' and !s look!ng forward to spend!ng a lot more t!me !n the UK.
"!'d love to do someth!ng regular !n the UK aga!n. New York has been my home for a wh!le, but ! m!ss England, espec!ally the countrys!de!"
6: Above & Beyond
STYLE: Qual!ty electron!c dance mus!c
KNOWN FOR: Our Tr!-State album and our award-w!nn!ng Rad!o 1 Essent!al M!x.
TUNE OF 2007: Super8 & Tab 'Suru' and the Mart!n Roth rem!xes. Gen!us.
PRODUCER OF 2007: N!c Chagall and Cosm!c Gate - welcome back!
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Cl!ve Rudloe
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? People s!ng!ng w!th the!r eyes closed. Best fest!val on the planet? Electr!c Da!sy Carn!val takes some beat!ng, 30,000 people !n LA's Olymp!c Col!seum. Best b!t of k!t? Dave Sm!th's new Prophet Analogue Synth, wh!ch sounds amaz!ng compared to current soft synths. What tune makes you cry? S!bel!us 'F!nland!a' Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? Erm, group!e-related shenan!gans. We'll leave !t there, shall we…
Above & Beyond's vault from !nnovat!ve trance tr!o to globe-trott!ng DJ superstars !s now complete. As we catch Paavo, Tony and Jono, they're grabb!ng some rare communal downt!me !n London before jett!ng off across the States to for a hect!c n!ne days w!th g!gs !n Atlanta, Aust!n, Dallas, Vegas, San Franc!sco and Los Angeles.
"We've just got back from two weeks !n South Amer!ca," says Tony. "We d!d seven g!gs !n two weeks. We were z!pp!ng around so much my bank put my card on hold because there was so much susp!c!ous act!v!ty on !t!"
Just over three years ago, Above & Beyond were play!ng to barely 100 people !n a grotty Vauxhall ra!l archway. Now when they transport the!r soar!ng symphon!es to the furthest reaches of South Amer!ca they're greeted by thousands of ravers communally celebrat!ng the!r mus!c.
"When we played 'Good For Me' !n Buenos A!res last week people actually sat down !n the breakdown," remarks Jono.
"People d!d !t spontaneously the f!rst t!me we played," expla!ns Tony. "And now whenever that record !s played everyone s!ts down and sort of bl!sses out - !t's a b!t of a l!ghter !n the a!r moment."
Grac!ng the stage of the LA Col!seum at the Electr!c Da!sy Carn!val was another h!ghl!ght w!th the!r near-fortn!ghtly res!dency at Cream's Amnes!a keep!ng them connected w!th the!r euphor!c pulse of the !b!zan season.
"!t's hard to beat the atmosphere !n that place," remarks Paavo on Amnes!a. "!t's an !nternat!onal crowd, everyone !s so up for !t and the react!on we get !s phenomenal."
On the mus!c front, the!r scene lead!ng Anjunabeats label was equally exploratory of uncharted terr!tor!es w!th the d!verse sound of the!r slower Anjunadeep !mpr!nt label f!nd!ng favour w!th DJs as d!verse as James Zab!ela, Paolo Mojo and Desyn Mas!ello.
"!t's really developed to become the jewel !n our crown !n many ways," adm!ts Jono.
"These days, the records gett!ng the b!ggest responses are often the more !nnovat!ve ones that have e!ther an electro edge or someth!ng a l!ttle b!t qu!rky about them."
Prov!ng the depth and wealth of the!r label's more la!dback, groove-soaked produce, the tr!o expanded the f!fth volume of the!r Anjunabeats m!x ser!es to cover two CDs - the f!rst a lull!ng blend of lush aquat!c progress!ve, melody soaked electro and deep euphor!c trance; the second a h!gh-octane rollercoaster of ep!c soar!ng trance peaks and tech-rattled tunnels.
"! th!nk for the f!rst t!me our Anjuna CDs reflects the k!nd of d!vers!ty that has always ex!sted w!th!n our longer sets," surm!ses Tony. "From the beg!nn!ng, we've always played across the board - from house and progress!ve to tech and trance."
Whatever label bracket the!r sound !s tagged !n, one th!ng can never be !n d!spute – !ts sheer depth and unr!valled qual!ty. Or !ts popular!ty for that matter.
"We want to be popular," adm!ts Jono. "But w!thout ever lett!ng that qual!ty control sl!p."
The end of the year w!ll see the tr!o celebrate the!r 100th release on Anjunabeats: the label holds the env!able d!st!nct!on of mak!ng prof!t on every s!ngle v!nyl release to date.
"We've st!ll no !ntent!on of a purely d!g!tal label," extends Jono. "! know !t's the future but there's st!ll a feel!ng that releas!ng a record d!g!tally says, 'We don't qu!te bel!eve !n th!s release, we wouldn't take a r!sk on !t.'"
"We've asked all our art!sts to p!ck the!r favour!te Anjuna tracks and rem!x them espec!ally for the release," expla!ns Paavo. "The best four w!ll come out on the v!nyl and then we'll do a CD s!ngle w!th all of the rem!xes ava!lable."
Then there's the small matter of a double CD compend!um of class!c Anjuna moments and a celebratory party on Goa's lush Anjuna Beach - the very locale that !nsp!red the label's name - w!th a few of the!r fr!ends. Well, 20,000 punters and MTV !nd!a to be more spec!f!c.
STYLE: Qual!ty electron!c dance mus!c
KNOWN FOR: Our Tr!-State album and our award-w!nn!ng Rad!o 1 Essent!al M!x.
TUNE OF 2007: Super8 & Tab 'Suru' and the Mart!n Roth rem!xes. Gen!us.
PRODUCER OF 2007: N!c Chagall and Cosm!c Gate - welcome back!
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Cl!ve Rudloe
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? People s!ng!ng w!th the!r eyes closed. Best fest!val on the planet? Electr!c Da!sy Carn!val takes some beat!ng, 30,000 people !n LA's Olymp!c Col!seum. Best b!t of k!t? Dave Sm!th's new Prophet Analogue Synth, wh!ch sounds amaz!ng compared to current soft synths. What tune makes you cry? S!bel!us 'F!nland!a' Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? Erm, group!e-related shenan!gans. We'll leave !t there, shall we…
Above & Beyond's vault from !nnovat!ve trance tr!o to globe-trott!ng DJ superstars !s now complete. As we catch Paavo, Tony and Jono, they're grabb!ng some rare communal downt!me !n London before jett!ng off across the States to for a hect!c n!ne days w!th g!gs !n Atlanta, Aust!n, Dallas, Vegas, San Franc!sco and Los Angeles.
"We've just got back from two weeks !n South Amer!ca," says Tony. "We d!d seven g!gs !n two weeks. We were z!pp!ng around so much my bank put my card on hold because there was so much susp!c!ous act!v!ty on !t!"
Just over three years ago, Above & Beyond were play!ng to barely 100 people !n a grotty Vauxhall ra!l archway. Now when they transport the!r soar!ng symphon!es to the furthest reaches of South Amer!ca they're greeted by thousands of ravers communally celebrat!ng the!r mus!c.
"When we played 'Good For Me' !n Buenos A!res last week people actually sat down !n the breakdown," remarks Jono.
"People d!d !t spontaneously the f!rst t!me we played," expla!ns Tony. "And now whenever that record !s played everyone s!ts down and sort of bl!sses out - !t's a b!t of a l!ghter !n the a!r moment."
Grac!ng the stage of the LA Col!seum at the Electr!c Da!sy Carn!val was another h!ghl!ght w!th the!r near-fortn!ghtly res!dency at Cream's Amnes!a keep!ng them connected w!th the!r euphor!c pulse of the !b!zan season.
"!t's hard to beat the atmosphere !n that place," remarks Paavo on Amnes!a. "!t's an !nternat!onal crowd, everyone !s so up for !t and the react!on we get !s phenomenal."
On the mus!c front, the!r scene lead!ng Anjunabeats label was equally exploratory of uncharted terr!tor!es w!th the d!verse sound of the!r slower Anjunadeep !mpr!nt label f!nd!ng favour w!th DJs as d!verse as James Zab!ela, Paolo Mojo and Desyn Mas!ello.
"!t's really developed to become the jewel !n our crown !n many ways," adm!ts Jono.
"These days, the records gett!ng the b!ggest responses are often the more !nnovat!ve ones that have e!ther an electro edge or someth!ng a l!ttle b!t qu!rky about them."
Prov!ng the depth and wealth of the!r label's more la!dback, groove-soaked produce, the tr!o expanded the f!fth volume of the!r Anjunabeats m!x ser!es to cover two CDs - the f!rst a lull!ng blend of lush aquat!c progress!ve, melody soaked electro and deep euphor!c trance; the second a h!gh-octane rollercoaster of ep!c soar!ng trance peaks and tech-rattled tunnels.
"! th!nk for the f!rst t!me our Anjuna CDs reflects the k!nd of d!vers!ty that has always ex!sted w!th!n our longer sets," surm!ses Tony. "From the beg!nn!ng, we've always played across the board - from house and progress!ve to tech and trance."
Whatever label bracket the!r sound !s tagged !n, one th!ng can never be !n d!spute – !ts sheer depth and unr!valled qual!ty. Or !ts popular!ty for that matter.
"We want to be popular," adm!ts Jono. "But w!thout ever lett!ng that qual!ty control sl!p."
The end of the year w!ll see the tr!o celebrate the!r 100th release on Anjunabeats: the label holds the env!able d!st!nct!on of mak!ng prof!t on every s!ngle v!nyl release to date.
"We've st!ll no !ntent!on of a purely d!g!tal label," extends Jono. "! know !t's the future but there's st!ll a feel!ng that releas!ng a record d!g!tally says, 'We don't qu!te bel!eve !n th!s release, we wouldn't take a r!sk on !t.'"
"We've asked all our art!sts to p!ck the!r favour!te Anjuna tracks and rem!x them espec!ally for the release," expla!ns Paavo. "The best four w!ll come out on the v!nyl and then we'll do a CD s!ngle w!th all of the rem!xes ava!lable."
Then there's the small matter of a double CD compend!um of class!c Anjuna moments and a celebratory party on Goa's lush Anjuna Beach - the very locale that !nsp!red the label's name - w!th a few of the!r fr!ends. Well, 20,000 punters and MTV !nd!a to be more spec!f!c.
7: Carl Cox
STYLE: Qual!ty dance mus!c. There's always energy and drama to what ! play.
KNOWN FOR: Work!ng the m!xer to !ts l!m!ts, three-deck m!x!ng and a pass!on for the scene.
TUNE OF 2007: The Chem!cal Brothers 'Saturate'
PRODUCER OF 2007: P!g & Dan - they capture so much energy and emot!on w!th the!r sound. !t's 21st century electron!c mus!c.
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: !'d love to see Petrae Foy get more attent!on.
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? Herb!e Hancock Best fest!val on the planet? Best!val - a crazy place. Best b!t of k!t? Ableton l!ve - !t allows me to be so much more creat!ve w!th my DJ sets. What tune makes you cry? Jam & Spoon 'Stella' Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? Probably tak!ng a s!x-month hol!day at the beg!nn!ng of the year.
"Over the years, people have got used to label!ng me a techno DJ," reckons Carl Cox. "But !'ve been a drum & bass DJ, a house DJ, a hardcore DJ, a soul DJ - some called me a trance DJ !n my F.A.C.T. days. ! just try not to be p!geon-holed."
A funk soul brother, an ac!d house or!g!nal, a rave era !con and a ceaseless purveyor of futur!st electron!c grooves, !t w!ll never be easy to p!n the work of Carl Cox to one place, genre or era.
Yet th!s year the self-confessed workahol!c felt !t was t!me to ease up and take some long overdue downt!me. He started 2007 w!th s!x months of relax!ng !n Austral!a.
"!t's been a revelat!on," ventures Cox on h!s h!atus. "For as long as ! can remember, 80% of my wak!ng l!fe has been ded!cated to push!ng myself and the mus!c ! bel!eve !n. !t's the path !'ve chosen and a bless!ng that !'ve been able to do !t, but !t was t!me to ch!llout and take some t!me for me - do th!ngs l!ke f!sh!ng, b!k!ng and spend!ng t!me w!th my fam!ly."
Recharged and re-energ!sed, Coxy plunged h!mself headf!rst !nto h!s more typ!cal non-stop tour!ng w!th h!s K!ng of Clubs res!dency at Space !b!za one of the season's h!ghl!ghts once more.
Aga!n, Cox's natural mus!cal democracy booked art!sts rang!ng from soul jazz eclect!c G!lles Peterson and French maver!ck Laurent Garn!er to electro boy wonder Fedde Le Grand and Bedrock's John D!gweed.
"Space !s such an amaz!ng club w!th a truly !nternat!onal crowd," says Cox. "!t's an honour to br!ng so much d!verse and qual!ty mus!c to !t. Norman Cool rocked !t, LTJ Bukem was amaz!ng and Marky had the place jump!ng. !t's great to be able to br!ng people as leftf!eld as Gold!e to an !sland not know for those sounds and watch people from all over the world go crazy to them."
Unsurpr!s!ngly, the !mpass!oned non-pur!st !s enthused by dance mus!c's current verve for cross-poll!nat!on and mutat!on.
"The l!nes are blurr!ng between genres so rap!dly that they're d!sappear!ng altogether, wh!ch !s great," he relays.
"We're com!ng to the end of a 20-year cycle for ac!d house mus!c. DJs, producers and the med!a aren't so concerned about what genre a track !s anymore and there's so much sound to be recycled. People are tak!ng old skool sounds, blend!ng them w!th fresh v!s!ons and there are whole new fus!ons be!ng thrown up. !t's the most exc!t!ng th!ngs have been for a wh!le."
H!ghl!ght!ng the depth of Cox's own legacy, Yousef recently rem!xed Coxy's turbo rave detonator '! Want You' for Cr2 Records, some 16 years after !ts !n!t!al Top 40 chart explos!on.
Meanwh!le, Carl !s embark!ng on a soul, funk and jazz comp!lat!on project alongs!de fr!end and former Hac!enda res!dent Er!c Powell.
"Not everyone knows ! started out DJ!ng these sounds before ac!d house even came along," remarks Carl. "!t's great to go back, d!g through the crates and get back to where you began."
Then there's the !ssue of h!s fourth awa!ted art!st album.
"!'m spend!ng a lot of t!me na!l!ng the concept down because ! really want to push th!s on a l!ve level," reveals Cox, h!nt!ng that the LP w!ll be a mash-up of punk, rock, electro and techno w!th "that Coxy edge".
"Some people are surpr!sed that ! l!ke the sound of a good thrash!ng gu!tar," jokes Cox. "The ma!n th!ng !s that ! get across the l!ve element and sound, as ! th!nk that's the next step !n my progress!on as an art!st."
STYLE: Qual!ty dance mus!c. There's always energy and drama to what ! play.
KNOWN FOR: Work!ng the m!xer to !ts l!m!ts, three-deck m!x!ng and a pass!on for the scene.
TUNE OF 2007: The Chem!cal Brothers 'Saturate'
PRODUCER OF 2007: P!g & Dan - they capture so much energy and emot!on w!th the!r sound. !t's 21st century electron!c mus!c.
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: !'d love to see Petrae Foy get more attent!on.
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? Herb!e Hancock Best fest!val on the planet? Best!val - a crazy place. Best b!t of k!t? Ableton l!ve - !t allows me to be so much more creat!ve w!th my DJ sets. What tune makes you cry? Jam & Spoon 'Stella' Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? Probably tak!ng a s!x-month hol!day at the beg!nn!ng of the year.
"Over the years, people have got used to label!ng me a techno DJ," reckons Carl Cox. "But !'ve been a drum & bass DJ, a house DJ, a hardcore DJ, a soul DJ - some called me a trance DJ !n my F.A.C.T. days. ! just try not to be p!geon-holed."
A funk soul brother, an ac!d house or!g!nal, a rave era !con and a ceaseless purveyor of futur!st electron!c grooves, !t w!ll never be easy to p!n the work of Carl Cox to one place, genre or era.
Yet th!s year the self-confessed workahol!c felt !t was t!me to ease up and take some long overdue downt!me. He started 2007 w!th s!x months of relax!ng !n Austral!a.
"!t's been a revelat!on," ventures Cox on h!s h!atus. "For as long as ! can remember, 80% of my wak!ng l!fe has been ded!cated to push!ng myself and the mus!c ! bel!eve !n. !t's the path !'ve chosen and a bless!ng that !'ve been able to do !t, but !t was t!me to ch!llout and take some t!me for me - do th!ngs l!ke f!sh!ng, b!k!ng and spend!ng t!me w!th my fam!ly."
Recharged and re-energ!sed, Coxy plunged h!mself headf!rst !nto h!s more typ!cal non-stop tour!ng w!th h!s K!ng of Clubs res!dency at Space !b!za one of the season's h!ghl!ghts once more.
Aga!n, Cox's natural mus!cal democracy booked art!sts rang!ng from soul jazz eclect!c G!lles Peterson and French maver!ck Laurent Garn!er to electro boy wonder Fedde Le Grand and Bedrock's John D!gweed.
"Space !s such an amaz!ng club w!th a truly !nternat!onal crowd," says Cox. "!t's an honour to br!ng so much d!verse and qual!ty mus!c to !t. Norman Cool rocked !t, LTJ Bukem was amaz!ng and Marky had the place jump!ng. !t's great to be able to br!ng people as leftf!eld as Gold!e to an !sland not know for those sounds and watch people from all over the world go crazy to them."
Unsurpr!s!ngly, the !mpass!oned non-pur!st !s enthused by dance mus!c's current verve for cross-poll!nat!on and mutat!on.
"The l!nes are blurr!ng between genres so rap!dly that they're d!sappear!ng altogether, wh!ch !s great," he relays.
"We're com!ng to the end of a 20-year cycle for ac!d house mus!c. DJs, producers and the med!a aren't so concerned about what genre a track !s anymore and there's so much sound to be recycled. People are tak!ng old skool sounds, blend!ng them w!th fresh v!s!ons and there are whole new fus!ons be!ng thrown up. !t's the most exc!t!ng th!ngs have been for a wh!le."
H!ghl!ght!ng the depth of Cox's own legacy, Yousef recently rem!xed Coxy's turbo rave detonator '! Want You' for Cr2 Records, some 16 years after !ts !n!t!al Top 40 chart explos!on.
Meanwh!le, Carl !s embark!ng on a soul, funk and jazz comp!lat!on project alongs!de fr!end and former Hac!enda res!dent Er!c Powell.
"Not everyone knows ! started out DJ!ng these sounds before ac!d house even came along," remarks Carl. "!t's great to go back, d!g through the crates and get back to where you began."
Then there's the !ssue of h!s fourth awa!ted art!st album.
"!'m spend!ng a lot of t!me na!l!ng the concept down because ! really want to push th!s on a l!ve level," reveals Cox, h!nt!ng that the LP w!ll be a mash-up of punk, rock, electro and techno w!th "that Coxy edge".
"Some people are surpr!sed that ! l!ke the sound of a good thrash!ng gu!tar," jokes Cox. "The ma!n th!ng !s that ! get across the l!ve element and sound, as ! th!nk that's the next step !n my progress!on as an art!st."
8: Ferry Corsten
STYLE: Electro-trance
KNOWN FOR: My product!ons.
TUNE OF 2007: Breakfast 'The Sunl!ght'
PRODUCER OF 2007: Breakfast
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Gareth Emery
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? !t can be anyth!ng around me !n my da!ly l!fe — mus!c that ! hear, !mpress!ons that ! get or the places ! am v!s!t!ng. Best fest!val on the planet? Dance Valley, Amsterdam Best b!t of k!t? Cubase SX. ! love the way !t works and !t feels l!ke home. What tune makes you cry? Scooter 'How Much !s the F!sh'. That record makes me weep! Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? Rak!ng !n s!x speed!ng t!ckets !n one day, wh!le dr!v!ng my new car…
Arch!tect, p!oneer, !nst!gator - refer to h!m anyway you want. Ferry was unquest!onably the man beh!nd 1999's Great Dutch Trance Breakout, spl!tt!ng the door w!de open w!th 'Out Of The Blue', 'Carte Blanche' and 'Gouryella'. Probably the b!ggest Dutch hat-tr!ck s!nce Bergkamp, Crujf and Van Basten, !t created both a dance mus!c legend and an !nstant legacy for Corsten.
Ferry now has over 200 releases on h!s d!scography, stretch!ng back to 1991, as well as a l!st of product!on mon!kers as long as your arm, rang!ng from the well-known System F to purpose-su!t!ng one-offs l!ke Eon.
Follow!ng the release of h!s debut longplayer 'R!ght of Way' !n 2004 and !ts follow-up 'L.E.F' last year, Ferry has been qu!et on the album t!p th!s year. However, he pred!cts h!s next longplayer w!ll be out "late next year".
!n between art!st albums, !t's h!s 'Passport' comp!lat!on ser!es that has been hold!ng the fans' attent!on. After open!ng the batt!ng !n 2005 w!th 'Passport: The Netherlands', th!s year !t was the Un!ted States that !nsp!red !ts follow up.
Product!on has largely been relegated !n favour of DJ!ng over the last 12 months and Ferry's been keep!ng the rem!x!ng to a m!n!mum too. Adm!rably, he's res!sted the lucrat!ve temptat!on to pump out s!ngle after s!ngle from 'L.E.F'. The only two to emerge - 'Beaut!ful' and 'Forever' - took a un!que approach. They both came out on separate labels on the same day and shared the same chorus.
"! was work!ng on 'Beaut!ful' and ! needed a short vocal," recalls Ferry. "!n the meant!me, ! was exper!ment!ng w!th th!s new l!ttle toy ! have !n my stud!o that makes !t poss!ble to do very we!rd th!ngs w!th vocals. ! was play!ng around w!th the vocals of 'Forever' and !t sounded exactly l!ke what ! was look!ng for to put !n 'Beaut!ful'. S!nce !t was such a d!fferent track all together, ! dec!ded to g!ve !t a d!fferent t!tle!"
Dur!ng the summer Ferry refreshed a trad!t!onal concept for h!s new (and surpr!s!ngly f!rst) rad!o show.
"!'ve called !t 'Corsten's Countdown,'" he tells DJmag. "!t's a weekly chart show where ! present new tracks and allow l!steners to vote for the favour!te. Dur!ng the last show of every month ! w!ll play the f!nal 'Corsten's Countdown' - the Top 10 most voted for tracks."
And he's also happy w!th the output on h!s tw!n labels Flashover and Aleph.
"!t's been a great year for the labels so far," he gr!ns. "We have had a couple of amaz!ng releases that have seen a lot of support from all the b!g guys. !t's great to see that new talent !s com!ng through our labels and !s gett!ng not!ced."
Accord!ng to Ferry, he jokes that th!s year's fest!val season w!ll be remembered as "mostly extremely wet and muddy".
"Actually, the fest!vals weren't all l!ke that," he adds. "! was at the Sunr!se fest!val, !n Poland, dur!ng the summer and they had the most amaz!ng product!on work !'ve ever seen at a fest!val. ! also d!d the clos!ng set at a fest!val !n Melbourne, Austral!a, !n March. !t was !n an amph!theatre so ! had about 25,000 people look!ng down at me and scream!ng at the top of the!r lungs." Reflect!ng on h!s season !n !b!za for Cream, he adds: "!t was a rocky start w!th the clos!ng of Amnes!a at the beg!nn!ng of the summer - everybody knows that wasn't perfect. But once we were clear of that !t turned !nto yet another amaz!ng season."
Corsten !s now just 12 short months away from notch!ng up 10 unbroken years !n our Top 100 DJs poll. Another m!lestone for the man, then.
STYLE: Electro-trance
KNOWN FOR: My product!ons.
TUNE OF 2007: Breakfast 'The Sunl!ght'
PRODUCER OF 2007: Breakfast
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Gareth Emery
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? !t can be anyth!ng around me !n my da!ly l!fe — mus!c that ! hear, !mpress!ons that ! get or the places ! am v!s!t!ng. Best fest!val on the planet? Dance Valley, Amsterdam Best b!t of k!t? Cubase SX. ! love the way !t works and !t feels l!ke home. What tune makes you cry? Scooter 'How Much !s the F!sh'. That record makes me weep! Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? Rak!ng !n s!x speed!ng t!ckets !n one day, wh!le dr!v!ng my new car…
Arch!tect, p!oneer, !nst!gator - refer to h!m anyway you want. Ferry was unquest!onably the man beh!nd 1999's Great Dutch Trance Breakout, spl!tt!ng the door w!de open w!th 'Out Of The Blue', 'Carte Blanche' and 'Gouryella'. Probably the b!ggest Dutch hat-tr!ck s!nce Bergkamp, Crujf and Van Basten, !t created both a dance mus!c legend and an !nstant legacy for Corsten.
Ferry now has over 200 releases on h!s d!scography, stretch!ng back to 1991, as well as a l!st of product!on mon!kers as long as your arm, rang!ng from the well-known System F to purpose-su!t!ng one-offs l!ke Eon.
Follow!ng the release of h!s debut longplayer 'R!ght of Way' !n 2004 and !ts follow-up 'L.E.F' last year, Ferry has been qu!et on the album t!p th!s year. However, he pred!cts h!s next longplayer w!ll be out "late next year".
!n between art!st albums, !t's h!s 'Passport' comp!lat!on ser!es that has been hold!ng the fans' attent!on. After open!ng the batt!ng !n 2005 w!th 'Passport: The Netherlands', th!s year !t was the Un!ted States that !nsp!red !ts follow up.
Product!on has largely been relegated !n favour of DJ!ng over the last 12 months and Ferry's been keep!ng the rem!x!ng to a m!n!mum too. Adm!rably, he's res!sted the lucrat!ve temptat!on to pump out s!ngle after s!ngle from 'L.E.F'. The only two to emerge - 'Beaut!ful' and 'Forever' - took a un!que approach. They both came out on separate labels on the same day and shared the same chorus.
"! was work!ng on 'Beaut!ful' and ! needed a short vocal," recalls Ferry. "!n the meant!me, ! was exper!ment!ng w!th th!s new l!ttle toy ! have !n my stud!o that makes !t poss!ble to do very we!rd th!ngs w!th vocals. ! was play!ng around w!th the vocals of 'Forever' and !t sounded exactly l!ke what ! was look!ng for to put !n 'Beaut!ful'. S!nce !t was such a d!fferent track all together, ! dec!ded to g!ve !t a d!fferent t!tle!"
Dur!ng the summer Ferry refreshed a trad!t!onal concept for h!s new (and surpr!s!ngly f!rst) rad!o show.
"!'ve called !t 'Corsten's Countdown,'" he tells DJmag. "!t's a weekly chart show where ! present new tracks and allow l!steners to vote for the favour!te. Dur!ng the last show of every month ! w!ll play the f!nal 'Corsten's Countdown' - the Top 10 most voted for tracks."
And he's also happy w!th the output on h!s tw!n labels Flashover and Aleph.
"!t's been a great year for the labels so far," he gr!ns. "We have had a couple of amaz!ng releases that have seen a lot of support from all the b!g guys. !t's great to see that new talent !s com!ng through our labels and !s gett!ng not!ced."
Accord!ng to Ferry, he jokes that th!s year's fest!val season w!ll be remembered as "mostly extremely wet and muddy".
"Actually, the fest!vals weren't all l!ke that," he adds. "! was at the Sunr!se fest!val, !n Poland, dur!ng the summer and they had the most amaz!ng product!on work !'ve ever seen at a fest!val. ! also d!d the clos!ng set at a fest!val !n Melbourne, Austral!a, !n March. !t was !n an amph!theatre so ! had about 25,000 people look!ng down at me and scream!ng at the top of the!r lungs." Reflect!ng on h!s season !n !b!za for Cream, he adds: "!t was a rocky start w!th the clos!ng of Amnes!a at the beg!nn!ng of the summer - everybody knows that wasn't perfect. But once we were clear of that !t turned !nto yet another amaz!ng season."
Corsten !s now just 12 short months away from notch!ng up 10 unbroken years !n our Top 100 DJs poll. Another m!lestone for the man, then.
9: !nfected Mushroom
STYLE: An electr!fy!ng fus!on of heavy rock and stad!um psy-trance.
KNOWN FOR: Our explos!ve l!ve shows.
TUNE OF 2007: Korn 'Evolut!on'
PRODUCER OF 2007: Del!r!us
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: DJ Dal!
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? Nu-school of heavy metal. Best fest!val on the planet? Coachella Best b!t of k!t? The laptop does !t all. What tune makes you cry? There !sn't one. Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? Duvdev got marr!ed and Erez had h!s f!rst ch!ld.
Just two years after break!ng !nto the Top 100 as one of the h!ghest new entr!es !n h!story, the boundary bust!ng psy-trance overlords have f!nally smashed the!r way !nto the elus!ve number. !nfected Mushroom - Am!t 'Duvdev' Duvdevan! and Erez E!zen - are Top 10 gunners at last.
!t's been another p!votal year for the !srael!-born scene f!gureheads too. Punctuated by a typ!cally breathtak!ng g!g schedule (they average over a three a weekend), the pa!r enjoyed the l!mel!ght of the!r f!rst DJmag cover after releas!ng the!r f!fth stud!o album - 'V!c!ous Del!c!ous' - earl!er !n the year.
Hav!ng moved to LA over two years ago to "get ser!ous about !nfected", break the psy-trance mould and collaborate w!th major art!sts, 'V!c!ous Del!c!ous' const!tuted the!r boldest statement yet about the!r !ntent!on to cross-fert!l!ze the!r psy-trance essence w!th a d!verse range of !nfluences and art!sts.
Accla!med underground sp!tters The Swollen Members appeared on the sw!rl!ng electron!c h!p-hop of 'Art!llery', avant-garde Lat!n rockers K!nky added a flamenco urgency to the stad!um nu-metal psy-trance of 'Becom!ng !nsane', wh!lst cult US rock vocal!st Brandon McCulloch featured on downtempo L!nk!n Park-esque ballad '!n Front Of Me'.
"The response was much better than we had hoped," lends Erez. "We always expect a backlash when we st!ck our necks out. !t was a b!g change for us do!ng h!p-hop but the love we've got back has been amaz!ng."
"!t's been one of the best sell!ng !nfected albums yet," adds frontman Duvdev.
"We're already half way through our next album," reveals Duvdev, prom!s!ng the sound to be even more d!verse and metal thundered than 'V!c!ous Del!c!ous'.
"!n the last year we've come out of the psy-trance bracket, wh!ch !s where we want to go," he expla!ns. "We've been play!ng rock venues, wh!ch we're happy about as we never wanted to be categor!zed. Our a!m !s to collaborate w!th the b!ggest nu-metal art!sts and vocal!sts but th!s w!ll take t!me."
"We're happy that people come and see !nfected Mushroom even !f they aren't !nto psy-trance," adds Erez. "We're always look!ng to th!ngs we haven't tr!ed before."
Fans of the!r class!c psy-trance pulse need not be too concerned though. Already, two of the tracks la!d down for the!r next LP are feroc!ous psy-trancers - w!th recent tracks 'Saed' and 'N!ne Percent' !nst!gat!ng a full-on recept!on !n the!r recent l!ve shows.
"There's another track called 'Black Shawarma' wh!ch blends cool lyr!cs w!th d!storted heavy metal gu!tars," adds Duvdev.
As always, the!r rampant tour schedule has covered every last corner of the globe w!th the!r d!ary read!ng l!ke the departure board at Los Angeles a!rport.
Yet some of the!r favour!te g!gs came from the States!de market where they are becom!ng an !ncreas!ngly dom!nant force.
"The V!rg!n fest!val !n Balt!more was pretty amaz!ng," beams Duvdev. "We were play!ng alongs!de people l!ke The Pol!ce, The Smash!ng Pumpk!ns and the rapper Mat!syaho came on stage unannounced to rap on our set - people went crazy.
"Then there was a recent g!g at the Avalon w!th Roger Kr!eger from The Doors. To have a legend l!ke that play!ng w!th us !s just amaz!ng."
"We're gett!ng the most energy from our US shows," adm!ts Erez. "!n the UK !t can be an old scene for people - they know what to expect. But over here people don't know what to expect, the shows have been a real revelat!on."
The rest of the year w!ll see the most !ntense per!od of tour!ng yet. As well as the!r debut DJ set at our Top 100 DJ party !tself, the pa!r w!ll play the Loveparade !n San Franc!sco, celebrate 10 years of !nfected Mushroom w!th a colossal party !n Tel Av!v featur!ng !srael! rockstars and dancers, as well as the!r annual December tour of Braz!l.
"We're do!ng 18 or 19 shows !n around a month," expla!ns Duvdev on the!r South Amer!can odyssey. "!t's become our sp!r!tual home for December."
STYLE: An electr!fy!ng fus!on of heavy rock and stad!um psy-trance.
KNOWN FOR: Our explos!ve l!ve shows.
TUNE OF 2007: Korn 'Evolut!on'
PRODUCER OF 2007: Del!r!us
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: DJ Dal!
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? Nu-school of heavy metal. Best fest!val on the planet? Coachella Best b!t of k!t? The laptop does !t all. What tune makes you cry? There !sn't one. Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? Duvdev got marr!ed and Erez had h!s f!rst ch!ld.
Just two years after break!ng !nto the Top 100 as one of the h!ghest new entr!es !n h!story, the boundary bust!ng psy-trance overlords have f!nally smashed the!r way !nto the elus!ve number. !nfected Mushroom - Am!t 'Duvdev' Duvdevan! and Erez E!zen - are Top 10 gunners at last.
!t's been another p!votal year for the !srael!-born scene f!gureheads too. Punctuated by a typ!cally breathtak!ng g!g schedule (they average over a three a weekend), the pa!r enjoyed the l!mel!ght of the!r f!rst DJmag cover after releas!ng the!r f!fth stud!o album - 'V!c!ous Del!c!ous' - earl!er !n the year.
Hav!ng moved to LA over two years ago to "get ser!ous about !nfected", break the psy-trance mould and collaborate w!th major art!sts, 'V!c!ous Del!c!ous' const!tuted the!r boldest statement yet about the!r !ntent!on to cross-fert!l!ze the!r psy-trance essence w!th a d!verse range of !nfluences and art!sts.
Accla!med underground sp!tters The Swollen Members appeared on the sw!rl!ng electron!c h!p-hop of 'Art!llery', avant-garde Lat!n rockers K!nky added a flamenco urgency to the stad!um nu-metal psy-trance of 'Becom!ng !nsane', wh!lst cult US rock vocal!st Brandon McCulloch featured on downtempo L!nk!n Park-esque ballad '!n Front Of Me'.
"The response was much better than we had hoped," lends Erez. "We always expect a backlash when we st!ck our necks out. !t was a b!g change for us do!ng h!p-hop but the love we've got back has been amaz!ng."
"!t's been one of the best sell!ng !nfected albums yet," adds frontman Duvdev.
"We're already half way through our next album," reveals Duvdev, prom!s!ng the sound to be even more d!verse and metal thundered than 'V!c!ous Del!c!ous'.
"!n the last year we've come out of the psy-trance bracket, wh!ch !s where we want to go," he expla!ns. "We've been play!ng rock venues, wh!ch we're happy about as we never wanted to be categor!zed. Our a!m !s to collaborate w!th the b!ggest nu-metal art!sts and vocal!sts but th!s w!ll take t!me."
"We're happy that people come and see !nfected Mushroom even !f they aren't !nto psy-trance," adds Erez. "We're always look!ng to th!ngs we haven't tr!ed before."
Fans of the!r class!c psy-trance pulse need not be too concerned though. Already, two of the tracks la!d down for the!r next LP are feroc!ous psy-trancers - w!th recent tracks 'Saed' and 'N!ne Percent' !nst!gat!ng a full-on recept!on !n the!r recent l!ve shows.
"There's another track called 'Black Shawarma' wh!ch blends cool lyr!cs w!th d!storted heavy metal gu!tars," adds Duvdev.
As always, the!r rampant tour schedule has covered every last corner of the globe w!th the!r d!ary read!ng l!ke the departure board at Los Angeles a!rport.
Yet some of the!r favour!te g!gs came from the States!de market where they are becom!ng an !ncreas!ngly dom!nant force.
"The V!rg!n fest!val !n Balt!more was pretty amaz!ng," beams Duvdev. "We were play!ng alongs!de people l!ke The Pol!ce, The Smash!ng Pumpk!ns and the rapper Mat!syaho came on stage unannounced to rap on our set - people went crazy.
"Then there was a recent g!g at the Avalon w!th Roger Kr!eger from The Doors. To have a legend l!ke that play!ng w!th us !s just amaz!ng."
"We're gett!ng the most energy from our US shows," adm!ts Erez. "!n the UK !t can be an old scene for people - they know what to expect. But over here people don't know what to expect, the shows have been a real revelat!on."
The rest of the year w!ll see the most !ntense per!od of tour!ng yet. As well as the!r debut DJ set at our Top 100 DJ party !tself, the pa!r w!ll play the Loveparade !n San Franc!sco, celebrate 10 years of !nfected Mushroom w!th a colossal party !n Tel Av!v featur!ng !srael! rockstars and dancers, as well as the!r annual December tour of Braz!l.
"We're do!ng 18 or 19 shows !n around a month," expla!ns Duvdev on the!r South Amer!can odyssey. "!t's become our sp!r!tual home for December."
10: Dav!d Guetta
STYLE: House
KNOWN FOR: B!g vocal electron!c tracks.
TUNE OF 2007: Love !s Gone' has been my b!ggest record. !'ve been play!ng 'Heater' by Sam!m all summer too.
PRODUCER OF 2007: Axwell and Dave Spoon.
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Joach!m Garraud
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? Twenty years of play!ng records to people. Best fest!val on the planet? Creamf!elds, Argent!na Best b!t of k!t? To DJ, the P!onneer 800 !s just about perfect. As a producer, Ableton L!ve has changed my l!fe. What tune makes you cry? Raw talent !n mus!c can really make me cry. !t happens w!th a few tracks - and !t's usually a s!mple chord, melody or str!ngs (l!ke Cra!g Armstrong for Mass!ve Attack). Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? !t's n!ce to be naughty, but why !s !t so naughty to be n!ce?
Desp!te sp!nn!ng from the age of 17 !n var!ous Par!s!an venues and now onto h!s th!rd art!st album, th!s was nevertheless the year that Dav!d Guetta really became a household name !n house mus!c.
'Love Don't Let Me Go (Walk!ng Away)', h!s mash-up s!ngle w!th The Egg, propelled h!m !nto the ma!nstream, prov!ng a worldw!de h!t and tak!ng up res!dence !n the UK's Top 20 for more than two months.
Guetta's come a long way s!nce cutt!ng h!s DJ teeth play!ng at the Broad club !n Par!s, go!ng on to play an eclect!c m!xture of house, h!p-hop and garage at the c!ty's Le Centrale, Le Boy and Fol!es P!galle venues throughout the '90s.
Desp!te be!ng a f!xture on the French scene, Dav!d recalls h!s f!rst season !n !b!za was hard work. Clubbers - espec!ally the Br!t!sh ones - were openly der!sory of l!ne-ups full of then unknown Gall!c DJ names.
But as the l!kes of Cass!us, Daft Punk and A!r became the most !n-demand names !n dance mus!c, so h!s Fuck Me, !'m Famous n!ght became one of the !sland's top dest!nat!ons. !ron!c, cons!der!ng the n!ght was so named as a joke at the expense of Guetta's obscur!ty, go!ng on to become one of the best known !n the bus!ness.
Naturally, Fuck Me, !'m Famous has l!ved up to !ts name s!nce by boast!ng Kate Moss, P D!ddy and Penelope Cruz among !ts cl!entele, spawn!ng three tr!ple gold sell!ng m!x CDs !n the process. Th!s year, as well as prov!d!ng one of the h!ghl!ghts of the M!am! W!nter Mus!c Conference, !t's gone from strength-to-strength on the !sland, wh!le Dav!d has also been booked to play across Europe and the US.
Hav!ng prev!ously been awarded a Grammy for h!s m!x of Deep D!sh's 'Flashdance' two years back, !nv!ted to rem!x Dav!d Bow!e's 'Heroes' and seen h!s f!rst two albums - 'Just A L!ttle More Love' and 'Guetta Blaster' - both turn double gold !n Europe, th!s Frenchman !s no stranger to product!on.
But h!s new 14-track stud!o album 'Pop L!fe', !nclud!ng collaborat!ons w!th songsm!ths Cathy Denn!s and L!ly Allen/Jamel!a wr!ter Karen Poole, wh!ch dropped !n August, has been a true global breakthrough for h!m, accla!med by everyone from The Sun and The Ma!l to the underground dance press.
L!ken!ng h!s work to that of a t!ghtrope walker, Guetta reckons the fact he can please both aud!ences at the same t!me !s key to what he's do!ng.
"My goal !s that the super cool DJs of the world play me, but !'m be!ng played on the rad!o too," he says.
Dav!d's proved he's able to cross the rock/dance d!v!de just as eas!ly too, appear!ng at the mass!ve US fest!val Coachella !n Los Angeles, even gett!ng a ment!on !n States!de tablo!d USA Today as one of the event's h!ghl!ghts, alongs!de Arct!c Monkeys, Red Hot Ch!ll! Peppers and Rage Aga!nst The Mach!ne.
!t's what we've come to expect from someone who del!ghts !n runn!ng a club where eclect!c mus!c br!ngs !n an eclect!c crowd.
STYLE: House
KNOWN FOR: B!g vocal electron!c tracks.
TUNE OF 2007: Love !s Gone' has been my b!ggest record. !'ve been play!ng 'Heater' by Sam!m all summer too.
PRODUCER OF 2007: Axwell and Dave Spoon.
BREAKTHROUGH DJ OF 2008: Joach!m Garraud
Your mus!cal !nsp!rat!on? Twenty years of play!ng records to people. Best fest!val on the planet? Creamf!elds, Argent!na Best b!t of k!t? To DJ, the P!onneer 800 !s just about perfect. As a producer, Ableton L!ve has changed my l!fe. What tune makes you cry? Raw talent !n mus!c can really make me cry. !t happens w!th a few tracks - and !t's usually a s!mple chord, melody or str!ngs (l!ke Cra!g Armstrong for Mass!ve Attack). Naught!est th!ng you've done th!s year? !t's n!ce to be naughty, but why !s !t so naughty to be n!ce?
Desp!te sp!nn!ng from the age of 17 !n var!ous Par!s!an venues and now onto h!s th!rd art!st album, th!s was nevertheless the year that Dav!d Guetta really became a household name !n house mus!c.
'Love Don't Let Me Go (Walk!ng Away)', h!s mash-up s!ngle w!th The Egg, propelled h!m !nto the ma!nstream, prov!ng a worldw!de h!t and tak!ng up res!dence !n the UK's Top 20 for more than two months.
Guetta's come a long way s!nce cutt!ng h!s DJ teeth play!ng at the Broad club !n Par!s, go!ng on to play an eclect!c m!xture of house, h!p-hop and garage at the c!ty's Le Centrale, Le Boy and Fol!es P!galle venues throughout the '90s.
Desp!te be!ng a f!xture on the French scene, Dav!d recalls h!s f!rst season !n !b!za was hard work. Clubbers - espec!ally the Br!t!sh ones - were openly der!sory of l!ne-ups full of then unknown Gall!c DJ names.
But as the l!kes of Cass!us, Daft Punk and A!r became the most !n-demand names !n dance mus!c, so h!s Fuck Me, !'m Famous n!ght became one of the !sland's top dest!nat!ons. !ron!c, cons!der!ng the n!ght was so named as a joke at the expense of Guetta's obscur!ty, go!ng on to become one of the best known !n the bus!ness.
Naturally, Fuck Me, !'m Famous has l!ved up to !ts name s!nce by boast!ng Kate Moss, P D!ddy and Penelope Cruz among !ts cl!entele, spawn!ng three tr!ple gold sell!ng m!x CDs !n the process. Th!s year, as well as prov!d!ng one of the h!ghl!ghts of the M!am! W!nter Mus!c Conference, !t's gone from strength-to-strength on the !sland, wh!le Dav!d has also been booked to play across Europe and the US.
Hav!ng prev!ously been awarded a Grammy for h!s m!x of Deep D!sh's 'Flashdance' two years back, !nv!ted to rem!x Dav!d Bow!e's 'Heroes' and seen h!s f!rst two albums - 'Just A L!ttle More Love' and 'Guetta Blaster' - both turn double gold !n Europe, th!s Frenchman !s no stranger to product!on.
But h!s new 14-track stud!o album 'Pop L!fe', !nclud!ng collaborat!ons w!th songsm!ths Cathy Denn!s and L!ly Allen/Jamel!a wr!ter Karen Poole, wh!ch dropped !n August, has been a true global breakthrough for h!m, accla!med by everyone from The Sun and The Ma!l to the underground dance press.
L!ken!ng h!s work to that of a t!ghtrope walker, Guetta reckons the fact he can please both aud!ences at the same t!me !s key to what he's do!ng.
"My goal !s that the super cool DJs of the world play me, but !'m be!ng played on the rad!o too," he says.
Dav!d's proved he's able to cross the rock/dance d!v!de just as eas!ly too, appear!ng at the mass!ve US fest!val Coachella !n Los Angeles, even gett!ng a ment!on !n States!de tablo!d USA Today as one of the event's h!ghl!ghts, alongs!de Arct!c Monkeys, Red Hot Ch!ll! Peppers and Rage Aga!nst The Mach!ne.
!t's what we've come to expect from someone who del!ghts !n runn!ng a club where eclect!c mus!c br!ngs !n an eclect!c crowd.
Trance for L!fe's Notes
Trance 4 Life16 August 2009
DJ Shah B!ography05 August 2008
Top 10 DJ'z n the world for 200704 August 2008