The Top 100 DJs 2012 votes have been counted and you, the readers, have voted to elect your current favourite selectors. But beyond the confines of the poll, there’s a whole world of other DJs who are valiantly pushing their house, techno, disco and bass movements forward. These are the players who are making power moves in 2012, who DJ Mag would like to see in the Top 100 next year…
Words: ADAM SAVILLE, JOE ROBERTS, RAMONA ROBINSON STEFFI
A sentinel of Berlin’s deepest underground club scene, Dutch DJ Steffie Doms aka Steffi’s torch burns brighter than most for the 4/4 beat. As a producer, she’s electrified the sets of other DJs and clubbers with the soulful, deep vocal house cut ‘Yours’ and the sombre, melancholic ‘Sadness’ of late, and continued to put out impeccable underground cuts through her Dolly stable, but it’s as a DJ that she’s most famed. With a residency at Panorama Bar, arguably the world’s best club, and a whirlwind of DJ sets propelling her across the globe, Steffi is in high demand, and for good reason. Contrary to the perception of Berlin’s scene as being staunchly techno, Steffi is unafraid to play across the spectrum of dance music, from aquamarine house to disco,
BEN UFO
IT seems that DJs who don’t produce are rarer than hairy hen’s teeth today. But there are a few who don’t have to. Bristol’s Ben UFO is one of those illustrious few whose taste-making and technical wizardry make them more influential than any two-bit jack-of-all-trades. Known for his deep knowledge, vast music collection and eclecticism, where this intrepid voyager goes musically, others follow without question. Formerly considered a dubstep DJ, and a hugely important player in the formation of that movement, in recent years he’s pushed the harder strains of not just two-step garage
and sub-heavy house, but the glinting metallic extremities of techno.
Previously an unthinkable leap for many within the bass scene, with UFO’s influence, techno has begun to seep deep into the sets of former dubsteppers like Loefah and new skool producers like Pariah. With his killer radio show on Rinse, label Hessle Audio (that he co-runs with Pangaea and Pearson Sound), and a show-stopping ‘Rinse 16’ mix comp, Ben UFO represents not just the UK’s, but the world’s dance music cutting-edge.
EATS EVERYTHING
WERE the poll decided on hard work and technical skill alone, Bristol’s Dan Pearce aka Eats Everything would rank within the top 10 every year — his music ain’t bad, either. As partial to downing a fat beat as he is a can of Guinness, the biggest DJ not to make the poll — in a literal sense, at least — Dan also played his part as a jungle DJ throughout his youth (occasionally still does today). His conversion to the Eats Everything moniker came in 2007; the sum of teen years spent gorging on the house of Murk, Todd Terry and Rhythm Masters during the ‘90s.
In his productions today, both styles strike a fine balance — steady 4/4s reinforced with a seething undercurrent of sub bass — on labels such as Pets Recordings, Dirtybird and Moda Black over the past 12 months. The booth, though, is where he really lets it hang loose, his clipped DJ sets made up of his own bespoke chopped up re-edits, displaying command over CDJs more associated with proper turntablism than today’s stock of digital DJs treading the circuit, hunched over a laptop.
Detroit classics to stripped-back bassy modern techno. Truly diverse and a skilful operator, she’s become far more visible in the last two years and seems primed to break through — but Steffi’s clearly not in this for the adulation, fame or money.
Currently working with Italian bass techno innovators Analogue Cops as Third Side, and with a new, granite-tough tech EP for Ostgut Ton out, ‘Schraper’, it seems Steffi’s just as prolific a producer as she is an assiduous DJ. And, able to balance underground cred with an accessibility that can win over any crowd, she’s bound for the big time, underground cred intact.