There hasn’t been a period in the history of the world when man hasn’t danced. Since the cave man days, when dancing was a mating ritual. Or to appease a spirit, probably around a campfire, with wild boar on the spit! Or in 8th century Greece, when the Games at Olympia were inaugurated with dancing by the temple virgins (I wonder where we can find those today…)
Which was all great, but they lacked one key component – a DJ to “drop that mother f*cking beat”!
Luckily for us here in the present, we have multitudes of great and not-so-great DJ’s churning out thousands of great dance music to suit every palate. So many in fact, that it’s kinda hard to keep up with, and finding great music and artists among the clutter of the thousands of music producers and DJ’s out there may be trickier to navigate than the Eastern Express highway at rush hour!
But do not fear, the King Of Clubs has you covered! We figured who better to give us the lowdown on “DJ’s to look out for in 2016” than some of the biggest names in the music scene in India, and so we talked to some of our friends in the bidness and got them to give us their picks, which we will feature in the weeks to come, starting today.
And so we’re kicking off this series with the man who brought Electronic Dance Music to a “club near you”. The man behind Submerge Music, the brand that brought some of the greatest DJ’s in the world like Tiesto, Hardwell, Swedish House Mafia and Armin Van Buuren to India, who conceptualised the first music festival in India SUNBURN, and the man who spearheads the epic SUPERSONIC Festival in Goa….*drum roll please*….the one and only Nikhil Chinapa!
Here are Nikhil’s Top Ten DJ’s to look out for in 2016. These are artists that you won’t find on any popular EDM charts, but are redefining dance music as we know it, and winning thousands of fans in an alternative scene:
Hannah Wants
Birmingham resident who’s exploded onto the scene about a year ago. Really cool mix tapes on Soundcloud. She doesn’t stick to any one genre and kicks ass live.
Yotto:
Stunning tune from the Finish producer and DJ. He’s going to be someone to look out for in 2016. he played the most incredible sunset set on Day 4 at Vh1 Supersonic.
Stephan Bodzin;
Has had a massive release last year with his album “Powers Of Ten”. If you ever get the chance to hear him live – GO!. This is a mad tune from that album called “Wir”. Turn off the lights and let this tune play out – you’ll know what I mean.
Gramatik
Love Jazz, funk and soul – but also get your groove on to a downtempo hip-hop beat? Why didn’t you say so earlier?
Franky Rizardo
The finest exponent of house music today – the way house is supposed to be played. If you want to hear the perfect party vibe for the beach – this is it!
Jamie XX
Just discovered Disclosure but not sure what else is out there? Have no fear, Jamie’s here.
Camelphat
Somewhere between Future House, Synth pop, Deep house, Techno and Brokenbeat is an artist called Camelphat. Actually, there’s two of them and their live sets are insane.
Henrik Schwarz
If driving techno can be made to sound operatic, Schwarz is the man to blame. His live set at Awakenings last year was one of my top sets of the year.
Joris Voorn
By far my most favourite Techno / Tech House DJ. I’ve heard him 4 times in the past 3 years and he’s always been on point. This edit he did of a Fatima Yamaha track was his highlight of 2015.
Maetrik / Maceo Plex
I prefer Eric Estornel’s house-ier alias Maetrik to his driving Techno avatar Maceo Plex (like many prefer Eric Prydz’s Cirez Dalias – but that’s another story). For now, try and catch Maetrik’s set in 2016.
Check out the music and tell us what you think, and maybe we’ll give you a chance to rage it at the next Supersonic!
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