Hamburg born, Berlin based jackin’ house and techno talent Sidney Charles has just released his new album entitled ‘House Lessons’ through AVOTRE; a label he assisted in constructing.
Whatever shade of house or techno the Sankeys resident is producing, it always seems to be packed full of rigid grooves, authentic sounds and sophisticated beats which always get the dance floor bumping.
Two of the UK’s most promising house talents have combined for all night back-to-back sessions across the country. Josh Butler (DJ Mag's Best Breakthrough Producer 2014) and Bontan present ‘Be True’ a tour, which will take the duo to 12 different locations between 13th February and 5th April.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “natural selection” as “the process by which plants and animals that can adapt to changes in their environment are able to survive and reproduce, while those that cannot adapt do not survive”. Championed by naturalist Charles Darwin “natural selection”, simply put, is a key mechanism of evolution.
If you do something long enough, no matter what the reaction the outside world has in the beginning, trends will keep changing, and the best trendsetters continue to do what they think is right, stay persistent and true to their craft and it will eventually catch fire. Avicii did it not so long ago, right?
I’ve been hearing that all week at CMJ.
The music industry machine will never swallow up certain acts. Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden have maintained an underground appeal over their 10-year+ partnership as both Organized Nature label heads and as the DJ-production duo known to most as simply, Gabriel & Dresden. The West Coast dyad boasts a slew of steadfast fans in the US who follow the pair from club gig to festival stage as they perform electro classics like “As The Rush Comes” or “Zocalo” with Armin van Buuren.
The last few years have seen seismic shifts in dance music culture. Large swathes of the scene seem to have abandoned their heady underground ideals and have grown more concerned with being featured in The Sun’s Clubz section and scoring mainstream hits.
Take former counter-cultural icon Richie Hawtin: DJ Mag remembers a time when he was lambasted for having his own t-shirt range, but nowadays no one blinks an eye when he teams up with Deadmau5 and continues to push sake sales as much as techno treats.
Carlo Dal Anese and Diego Logic are the Brazilian duo from Sao Paulo who are making massive waves in their home country. We caught up with the affable duo behind ‘that’ XX Remix, to find out why Brazil is one of the most exciting places to be a dance music fan right now.
Howie B has often found himself at the frontier. Whether it's been at the Africa Centre as Soul II Soul carved itself its place in British soul history. Or manning the desk while Björk became one of the most unlikely pop sensations in decades. Or forging the sound of the iconoclastic Tricky on 'Maxinquaye'. Or helping U2 to embrace bigger, more bombastic beats on their 1997 album 'Pop'. But the minute he can be categorised, or second guessed, that's it, he's off doing something else.
American DJs love doing a bit of it. The Dutch are always at it. Danny Tenaglia’s been known to have a go. And lately, if you turn up at a big festival abroad, it seems like every house/electro/trance DJ is up for a bit of the kind of MC action you’d only previously have seen at a garage or d&b rave. Indeed Belgian house duo Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike have based their entire CDs, decks and FX live show around that format.
