Over the last few weeks I’ve notice a large increase in
tweets about peoples top 5 DJ selection for Djmag.com’s top 100 DJ list. Given that voting ends at midnight on August 30th I
thought I’d share with you my top 10. Now I know there will be disagreements
and I know some of peoples favorites are not on this list. I ranked the DJS not
only based on who I actually saw perform live at festivals, concerts and clubs
in the last year but also who I know a little bit about and how they
contributed to the industry as a whole. This is a very subjective post, so if
you disagree I encourage you to leave a comment down below.
10 Fatboy Slim – The last time I remember listening to
Fatboy Slim was in the late 90’s. That all changed in the last 12 months as
Ultra and Tommorowland both streamed his sets on Youtube. Which might I add he totally killed. It’s
good to see that he’s still got its (he’s 49). He sticks to mainly his own
stuff and plays an older style of house and EDM but he is mixing in some new things
to produce some fun mash ups.
9 Deadmau5 – Though he hasn’t been active much lately, at
least not anywhere near Chicago. Deadmau5 has always been a great producer. He
also collaborated with DJS in my top 10 before I had an idea who they were.
With the upcoming release (September 2012) of his 6th studio album
“>Album title Goes Here<” and the absolute greatness that is
“Professional Griefers”(featuring Gerard Way) I’m pretty sure he’ll have a huge
impact in the upcoming year.
8 Chuckie- Unfortunately I’ve only seen Chuckie perform live
once at the MiD but that was one the best EDM concert I’ve been to in Chicago. It’s
probably hard to believe especially with the amount of artists that have
visited Chicago in the last year but he just wrecked the place. It’s good to hear some Dirty Dutch house in a
market flooded with dubstep.
7 Nervo / Dimitri
Vegas and Like Mike - Yes it’s a tie. I
saw both duos perform live in Chicago in the past 8 months and they each worked
the crowd very well. This was emphasized for both when they played at Tomorrowland
2012. Dimitri Vegas and Like Mikes set stood out in particular but both groups
have a bit ways to go in order to make the top 5 in my opinion.
6 David Guetta – Like Fatboy Slim and Tiesto, David Guetta has
been in the game for years. Some say he’s “sold out” especially in his last album
“Nothing But The Beat” for making songs with the likes of Nicki Minaj, Usher,
Will I Am and others. But I’ll play devil’s advocate and say that if anything
that shows you how much other artists in other genres not only respect the fact
that EDM is on the rise but also HIS quality of work.
Time for the Top 5, You ready?
5 Wolfgang Gartner- I don’t know how he can’t be in the top
5 on this list. Almost every single song of his is a hit and you can’t go wrong
with that. He is releasing a CD in 2012 by releasing a few songs at a time and
thus far it’s all good, “flux” is nuts and “redline” is great as well.
Collaborating with other artists like Tiesto reinforces his standing in my top
5.
4 Skrillex - I cannot skip the king of Dubstep on my top 5.
Thought I absolutely love other Dubstep artists(Zeds dead, Doctor p, Excision ,
Borgore, Flux Pavilion just to name a few) as they bring different flavor to
the genre. Skrillex is the face of it
and he is paving the way for everyone else with his cult like following of
fans. It helps that many of his songs are catchy and well produced, plus almost
all remixes he puts out are great as well. He’s come a long way from opening up
for Deadmau5 a few years ago at congress to selling out his own shows or
headlining festivals.
3 Tiesto – I almost totally excluded Tiesto from my list
entirely for 2 reasons. 1) “Elelments of Life” and then later “Kaleidoscope”
which had a few hits each (in my opinion), never lived up to his earlier “Just
Be” album which was a complete album of hits it will never get old. The later
albums also showed he was moving away from trance and moved into more vocal
almost pop like sounding songs (which I didn’t like a few years ago). If you
are too young to know about “Just Be” release in 2001 look it up if you like
trance you’ll like it a lot.
2) The last
time I saw him was almost 5 years ago till randomly (split second decision to
go to Milwaukee’s Summer Fest 2012) and he was absolutely nuts. I didn’t know he started playing such hard
music, like his collaboration with Steve Aoki “Tornado” or “We Own the Night”
with Wolfgang Gartner. I can’t wait to see him when he visits Chicago in
October part of his college invasion tour, he’ll be playing at the UIC pavilion.
2 Swedish House Mafia –Yes I know it’s not one Dj. But it’s
3 really good DJs. All of which I’ve seen individually at 3 separate venues and
2 countries. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to see them 3 together before they
break up the group, we’ll see. Getting back on track what can I say they are
great and produce a great amount of good tracks that don’t really get old.
Being that they’re in a group it allows them to share each other’s music during
individual sets so you’ll never know what kind of mix you will get even though
you know what songs to expect.
1 Steve Aoki – Asian Jesus himself is my number one. I’ve
had the privilege to see him 3 times in the last year in 3 different venues in
3 different states. All 3 shows he absolutely killed. He uses almost all his
own produced tracks which only adds to the reason why he’s my number 1. He’s
known to toss in some Tommy Trash or Knife Party mixes for harder versions of
songs. You know what to expect when he performs: someone will get caked and he
will stage dive. He also likes to bring
his friends from Dim Mak’s record label which always guarantees a good time.
Leave some comments down below feedback is always appreciated. If
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