Ostgut Ton
further expanded its brand of no nonsense techno and old
school-indebted house outside of the confines of its Berlin home at the
famed
Berghain/Panorama Bar in 2011. The techno evangelism was largely due to the work of residents Marcel Dettmann and
Ben Klock. While Klock largely kept his head down in the clubs, Dettmann found time to put out a solid mix CD,
Conducted, on
Music Man and 12-inches through
50 Weapons and
Kontra-Musik.
These outside endorsements further emphasize that the world has warmed
up to the cold, steely techno that Dettmann loves so much.
Earlier this year, Lee Foss told
tracealine.com that "there will be a backlash, there's no way around it." As for now? Foss is riding high alongside
Hot Creations partner
Jamie Jones,
and an imprint that helped define 2011. With two solo EPs and a host of
DJ gigs, Foss was as personally responsible as anyone for the trend.
But he's no overnight success: He grew up in Chicago's hard knock scene,
honed his sound in Los Angeles and now makes his home in the UK. In a
few years, the backlash
will arrive. If there are more years like 2011 before then, though, Foss will undoubtedly have far more fans than detractors.
God is a DJ—but he only warms up for Sasha, reads the title of Brendan Blood's semi-biographical book on the UK veteran, a playful nod to the famous 1994
Mixmag
cover story. Sasha may not command quite the same levels of reverence
these days, but his latest appearance in our top 20 should go some way
to emphasizing his enduring relevance. After a nine year break, Sasha
got back together with
Lee Burridge and
Craig Richards to reform Tyrant this year, sprinkling some of that star power over
the final event in our
RA X series at
Trouw in Amsterdam.
It was largely business as usual for Sven Vath in 2011. Although when you consider that "business" includes running
a club, a booking agency,
a record label,
a weekly Ibiza residency and visiting the four corners of the globe to
DJ, you realise that there's nothing "usual" about this. Germany's most
famous techno DJ celebrated 30 years behind the decks, and while the
mythical status surrounding his marathon sets, Ibiza afterparties and
general debauchery continues to swirl, remaining steadfast might just be
the secret to his success.
In
a year when RA's DJ poll underwent some massive changes, Tale Of Us'
climb into the top 20 has to count as the most surprising. The group
barely
existed in 2010. Their
beloved RA podcast,
however, outlined exactly what they do in a club setting. Melodic,
bouncy and pitched at right around 120 BPM, they hit at a moment when
pop has been making a mighty comeback courtesy of
Hot Creations and
Visionquest —the latter of whom put out their
Dark Song EP this year. Something tells us, however, that they'll be around for a while: Catchy tunes rarely go out of style.
DJing
may appear pretty simple. Soul Clap remind us that even the simplest
stuff requires an expert hand to become something greater. The Boston
duo dole out classics at a regular clip. The secret is in the way that
they put them together. (Head down to one of their
'90s Jam nights, and you'll hear exactly what we're talking about.) Over the course of
two well-received mix CDs (
one alongside
Wolf + Lamb), they also showcased just how many future classics are on
the way from friends and family, and proved that their 2010 entry into
our DJ poll was anything but a fluke.
There's honestly not much to say about John Digweed at this point.
What's most amazing about the progressive house king's longevity,
however, is the longevity itself. Dance music is a young man's game, yet
Diggers continues to add colors and countries to his already voluminous
gig diary. Few DJs on this list have played
Macedonia,
Cyprus,
Israel and
Taiwan.
He did it in the past 12 months. It's Digweed's professionalism,
consistency and dedication that keeps him booked every weekend in clubs
around the world. The music, meanwhile, is what keeps crowds coming back
year after year.
Those who say that Ibiza is dead need look no further than
Cadenza's Luciano as a case study to the contrary. After spending a second season at the helm of his Sunday night shindig at
Pacha,
the label boss has positioned Cadenza as one of the most surefire
brands on the island (and the world). Quite simply, Luciano brings the
party like few others, whether it's via his label's tropical house sound
or a well-timed and well-known a cappella. This year saw further
success at Pacha, along with a continued nod to his underground roots,
bringing the likes of
Moodymann,
Larry Heard,
Daniel Bell and more along for the ride.
"I'm just expressing who I am, what I like to play and hear in the club," Marco Carola
told us this year.
The Italian veteran maintains his #11 placing in our poll this time
out, speaking to his continued dedication to pushing the purest forms of
the music he loves. Whether it's house, techno or something in between,
there's always something unmistakably "Carola" about his pared-down,
groove-based sets. As a
Cocoon
resident, Ibiza was a key territory for Carola this summer, while
further afield he continued to enjoy one of the busiest worldwide
touring schedules of any DJ.
It's
nice to know an artist as uncompromising as Ben Klock can be so widely
loved. Granted, he might throw in a few more house records than some of
his fellow
Berghain
residents, but his overall sound is techno at its most punishing, and
he always has the cojones to lay it on thick, even when he's playing
somewhere far away from his home base in Berlin (which has been
happening
more and more).
Few DJs could take such brutal rhythms and meld them into something so
compelling. It's that finesse that makes him one of the best.
When we featured her in the
RA podcast
in January of this year, we felt pretty confident that Maya Jane Coles
would have a strong year. What actually transpired was nothing short of
incredible. The young London house producer has gone from a talented
local name to a worldwide headlining force in what feels like the blink
of an eye. 2011 has seen
gigs stack up across Italy, Germany, Ibiza and the US, while labels like
Crosstown Rebels,
2020 Vision and
Hypercolour
have all played host to her classicist house sound. As for 2012? Let's
just say that there's really no limit to how far she can go.
"Drama" is the word that comes most immediately to mind with Dixon. In the catalogue of his label,
Innervisions,
nearly every track has a story to tell. It's the same way with his DJ
sets. Rarely does a mix go by without the Berlin-based jock leaving you
anticipating what's going to happen next. It's almost as if the
transitions are as (or perhaps even more) important than the tracks
themselves. A
standout mix CD
for Live At Robert Johnson proved this point. If his claims that it is
to be his last are true, look for his frequent club gigs to underline it
on a weekly basis.
Why
do people always apply the same adjectives—"muscular," "physical"—to
Loco Dice's sound? Well, firstly it avoids having to make an
embarrassing fist-pumping action, and secondly these words are as close
as it gets to describing something unique. See, the intriguing thing
about the German DJ—and very often what sets him apart—isn't
what he plays but the
way he plays. This could be to do with his hip-hop background (discussed
at length with us in January of this year) but what's certain is that Dice's take on house and techno is truly his own.
We described Jonny White and Kenny Glasgow's rise as "
meteoric" back in October, and for the proof look no further than their touring schedule. The Canadian duo played
a single gig in July 2010; the number of shows for the corresponding month this year?
18. What happened in between was a single of the year, "
Without You," and a standout album,
The Drawing Board, for
Crosstown Rebels.
The key difference between Art Department and so many other
"breakthrough" acts, however, is that individually they've been doing
this since the '90s—a fact that is only too evident from their artful DJ
sets.
It's safe to say Eric Estornel had a pretty killer year. After nearly two decades of DJing and making records––mostly as
Maetrik, more recently as Maceo Plex––he released
Life Index, a breakthrough album that thrust him into the limelight. A month later he played at
Get Lost in Miami and arguably outshone all of his fellow
Crosstown Rebels.
The rest, as they say, is history. Today he makes it into the top 100
for the first time all the way up in the top five, easily the highest
ranking debut since the RA DJ reader poll began.
It
could be said that Ricardo Villalobos enjoys a cult of personality: few
artists fill clubs so easily, and as a debonair artiste with a
hedonistic streak, he's underground clubland's perfect poster boy. But
that only accounts for a small part of his following. Some two decades
into his career, Villalobos still has that inimitable mad scientist
quality, whether he's boggling minds at
fabric or
remixing modern jazz records for ECM.
In some ways he's a victim of his own success—good luck catching him in
an intimate setting these days—but he remains one of electronic music's
true visionaries.
We
expressed wonderment last year that Richie Hawtin bothered to DJ at all
in 2010. The same was true in 2011: Taking his mammoth
Plastikman
show to smaller spaces and to another technological level might've been
enough. It clearly wasn't, if his diary was any indication. Without
three of his key compatriots—
Magda,
Marc Houle and
Troy Pierce left to
focus on Items & Things—it's
clear that Hawtin will have to be more focused than ever in 2012.
Judging by his work ethic, we'd be surprised if he weren't up to the
challenge.
In 2009, Seth Troxler told
Little White Earbuds that he'd "
retired"
at age 16 when he quit his job at The Palace in Detroit (they wouldn't
let him work with dreadlocks). Now 26, he hasn't held a "normal" job
since, but that doesn't mean he hasn't put in the hours. 2011 was a
dizzying year for Troxler—starting a label (
Visionquest), founding a charity (
Red Dot Relief)
and playing at countless parties around the globe. His class clown
persona might make it seem like he doesn't take any of it seriously, but
nothing could be further from the truth. Seth Troxler is one of most
driven DJs out there, and it pays off.
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