Style: “Progressive house and progressive trance.” Best known for: “Being the first Russian ever in DJ Mag’s top 20!” Tune of 2012: “Trance: Omnia & Ira ‘The Fusion’. House: Hardwell ‘Spaceman’.” Breakthrough DJ/producer of 2012: “Alesso.”
WHILE Bobina, or Dmitry Almazov, has had another busy year as part of the Russian DJing elite, with bookings and releases galore, his highlight of 2012 has a more personal tone. “The number one thing that happened this year was that I got married,” he says joyfully. Career-wise, 2012 has seen him release huge tunes like ‘Diamond Hell’, ‘The Space Track’ and ‘Quattro 372’, and collaborate with Richard Durand, plus there are at least two more singles in the pipeline before the year is out. He’s still found time to squeeze in some huge sets, though. “A State Of Trance 550 in the Netherlands was the highlight of the
year,” he says. “It was amazing because I don’t really play Europe much.” 2012 has also seen a shift in his musical direction. “I feel sad about it, but progressive house sounds much more interesting than trance now,” he says. “Actually, the progressive house sound nowadays is just slower bpm trance.” IAN ROULLIER
If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? “My wife says my brain because I was good at school. I was a clever guy!” Should you play to the crowd or for yourself? “I will never play a track that I don’t like, but the key is a mix of both.” What does EDM mean to you? “EDM means culture to me now. EDM was just a name, but if you look at what’s going on in Russia, America and Asia, it’s become a huge culture.” Should celebrities be DJs? “Some of them are really talented and some just hyped. So it’s hard to say yes or no to all celebrities.” Have you ever been thrown off the decks? “No.” Are you a DJ if you don’t beat match? “I don’t pre-synch tracks beforehand because I still play CDs. It’s fun to keep it a little bit old school, as in Russia not all the clubs have CDJ-2000s.” Where’s the next dance music capital? “I really hope it’s going to be Moscow.”
Style: “I try to make precisely produced electronic music with a pop sensibility.” Best known for: “Pressing lighting pads.” Tune of 2012: Porter Robinson ‘Language’.” Breakthrough DJ/producer of 2012: “Oliver.”
“ELECTRONIC music as a whole is a wonderful musical format because it’s vaguely defined. You are not limited by a specific set of instruments, structures, tempos or rules,” young French wunderkind Madeon tells DJ Mag. He should know. Hugo Pierre Leclercq shot to prominence just two years ago, in 2010, when a video he posted of himself playing Novation’s Launchpad went viral and gained millions of YouTube hits. Mashing up tracks by Daft Punk, Deadmau5, Justice and many more by playing different buttons on the multi-coloured chessboard that is the Launchpad, he was quickly signed up by Sony. He only released his first track earlier this year, but was fast- tracked onto the line-ups at Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Coachella in California,
Lollapalooza in Chicago and Electric Daisy Carnival in New York. “Playing Milton Keynes Bowl with the Swedish House Mafia for 60,000 people was also one of the highlights of my year,” he says. Still a teenager, Madeon has just been announced as the warm-up DJ for Lady Gaga’s next big tour, and his accessible big room electro-house sound surely means that he is going to be massive. CARL LOBEN
54
NEW ENTRY
If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? “Never having to sleep. It’s a constraint of life I still have trouble accom- modating.” Should you play to the crowd or for yourself? “It’s a matter of context, but if you are performing as an artist and people are coming to see you, they are giving you their trust and attention and it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to showcase a per- sonal side.” What does EDM mean to you? “The term itself appeared very suddenly and is doing a good job at capturing the current excite- ment around electronic music.” Should celebrities be DJs? “I’m sure there is an audience for personal appearances of celebrities, although I’m not sure to which extent it relates to music.” Have you ever been thrown off the decks? “I haven’t. The closest I experienced was when I played at a festival in Canada and the power went down in the surrounding area for a good 10 minutes.” Are you a DJ if you don’t beat match? “Of course! I argue that purists that are considering such a menial and non-artistic task as a key factor of credibility are degrad- ing their own art.” Where’s the next dance music capital? “Music spreads very globally nowadays. Scenes are getting less geographic.”