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Cover feature

Nastia is the techno outlier going against the grain

Submitted by Chandler Shortlidge on Mon, 2019-02-04 10:38

When DJ Mag meets Nastia in the lobby of her upscale Berlin hotel one rainy winter’s afternoon, she doesn’t smile, and almost looks a little worried. “I woke up at 2pm,” she says, as though she’s done something wrong. “I’m still jetlagged from my American tour.” As hotel management find us a quiet place to speak, she shows us pictures on her phone of her recent gig in New York City, where she played with Richie Hawtin and Amelie Lens at Avant Gardner. DJ Mag asks her how it was. “It was okay. Americans are different,” she says, sounding a little disappointed. 

Of course, Topolskaia isn’t really all that normal. When it came time for her young daughter’s bring-your-parent-to-class day at her primary school in Kiev, Topolskaia showed up with her DJ equipment at the request of the teacher, who said it was progressive and modern. Naturally, the kids loved it, and the story exploded in the press, though Topolskaia thought it would be boring. “I didn’t find it so special, because for me it’s normal,” she says flatly, still looking a little confused.

“I hate festivals... I don’t really get big stages, because there is no energy. No vibe. You’re so disconnected with people, alone on the big stage, so far away you don’t even see the faces. I don’t think it’s good for the culture. I don’t even know if it’s good for money.” 

The haunting techno of Rebekah

Submitted by Joe Roberts on Wed, 2019-01-16 15:54

It’s 1997 and a 17 year old Rebekah Teasdale is just finishing work at a French restaurant in the centre of Birmingham. With 30-odd pounds worth of tips in her bag as she steps out into the cool night air, she fixates on the crowd of people waiting to get into the nearby Que Club. Towering above her in its home of an ornate former Methodist church, she’s passed it night after night, fascinated since she started DJing a year ago.


ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Robert Hood's sanctuary in techno

Submitted by Rob McCallum on Mon, 2019-01-14 13:28

In the early hours of the morning on November 10, 1938, anti-Semitic rioting raged across Nazi Germany, in a pogrom that saw more than 100 Jews killed and 267 synagogues destroyed by SA paramilitary, alongside thousands of Jewish businesses. The violent attacks, which would go on to become known as the Night Of Broken Glass, or Kristallnacht, saw Jewish homes, hospitals and schools burned and looted, as German authorities watched on. The events would eventually lead to the Holocaust, one of the largest genocides in the history of humanity.

“We see hate coming to a boil, and if we’re not careful it’s going to encompass all of us,” he continues. “In politics there’s so much division. For us, the music is that bridge to bring us together. So, we boldly play these tracks to plant seeds in people’s spirits. The music we’re doing is symbolic of tearing down walls. We’re agents of change. We’re about spreading love, the gospel and good news to a lost world.” Hood constantly refers to St.

“I knew the experience was invaluable and what I was learning was precious, watching the speed and the accuracy of how [Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills] worked, and how many hours they put into their studio time. They were making history, and that was my example. I wanted to be like that”

Nicole Moudaber is one of techno's most hard-working ambassadors

Submitted by DJ Mag Staff on Wed, 2018-12-05 08:07

Nicole Moudaber loves to keep moving. Everything about the DJ, producer and label boss evokes constant motion, from her propulsive, percussive music to her trademark mane of raven hair, which shakes as she DJs as if blown by its own wind. Even when  not behind the decks, in the studio, or plotting her next festival stage takeover, she’s behind the wheel of a sports car, substituting beats-per-minute for miles-per-hour. 

But even for the multitasking mother of Mood Records, 2018 was especially hectic. 

ASCENT 

MOOD MUSIC 
In 2013, Moudaber launched Mood Records with her own ‘In The Mood’: a slinky floor-filler with a sassy vocal hook — “I’m in the mood; you know you want it” — that nodded to her late nights at Trade. She also released her debut album, ‘Believe’, on Adam Beyer’s prestigious Drumcode label, cementing her status as a rising star with a set that added new colors to her palette, from the slow tech-house grooves of ‘Big Love With No Apology’ to the pattering, melodic synths of the beguiling ‘Lumiére Tamisée’. 

Maceo Plex talks electro, EDM and going back to his roots as Mariel Ito

Submitted by Ben Cardew on Mon, 2018-10-29 11:55

When Eric Estornel, now best known as techno titan Maceo Plex, was just three- years-old, things in his native Miami started to change. From April to October 1980 more than 100,000 Cubans reached Florida by sea, often in dangerously overcrowded boats, where they sought exile from Fidel Castro’s rule. The Cubans traveled from Mariel Harbor, 25 miles west of Havana, in what became known as the Mariel boatlift, an event that marked a milestone in Cuban- American history.

DJ Koze: DJ Mag UK Cover Feature

Submitted by Declan McGlynn on Thu, 2018-05-10 12:40

It makes sense that DJ Mag has landed in Barcelona to meet DJ Koze. It’s a city where the abstract and traditional happily co-exist, where snake-like, meandering streets flow into strict, rigid grids and modernist architecture complements classic design. A symbol of independence for many, it’s a place constantly under construction, where cranes loom over half-finished concepts and where individualism is celebrated at every turn, with parks and museums dedicated to experimental icons.

Dax J: DJ Mag UK Cover Feature

Submitted by Ben Hindle on Wed, 2018-04-11 18:47

'Public indecency and offending public morality'. Before April last year, those words probably meant about as much to Dax J as his name did to anyone outside of techno. The poster boy for the return of a fast, industrial sound - a counter to the stagnating mainstream - he maintained underground appeal while earning ever-bigger bookings. But a single incident looked set to change that. 

But there’s only so long anyone can hack being around tunes they hate, and after a few weeks “playing crap music” in San Antonio, Dax was ready to pack it in and head home — before the season had even started. Luckily, a friend convinced him to stick with it and finally, like so many ravers in the long illustrious history of Ibiza, his epiphany came in Space.

DARK, DRIVING TECHNO

By the end of Dax’s first season, he’d replaced his Hed Kandi comps with a record box full of “dark, driving techno”. He was addicted; constantly hunting through DJ sets, researching online, discovering new music — or, in many cases, old music, as the current scene was growing increasingly minimal and harder tracks that grabbed his attention mainly came from the ‘90s and early 2000s.

BERLIN

"If you’re playing average music, if you’re making average music, then there’s so many other people doing good stuff that you’re not gonna get heard.” 

MR. G COVER FEATURE: THE TECH-HOUSE ENIGMA TELLS ALL

Submitted by Rob McCallum on Mon, 2017-01-09 23:59

It’s Tuesday night in early October 2005 and Colin McBean is lying dead on an operating table at Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London.

Just under an hour ago, he felt the first murmurings of a massive heart attack whilst getting in bed. After being raced to hospital and rushed through triage, over the past few minutes his body has begun to shutdown entirely.

First his speech went, then his hearing, before he was deemed immobile, meaning prior to his heart stopping he had only been able to watch as the medical team frantically tried to save his life.

THE ROYAL ACOUSTICS OF ABOVE & BEYOND

Submitted by DJ Mag Staff on Wed, 2016-06-08 11:11

The artist’s green room in London’s Royal Albert Hall doesn’t quite match the scale of grandeur its main arena boasts. But for the talent fortunate enough to pace its floors in anticipation of a pending performance, it is special by association.
 
The room is bright, lit to assist the fine details of makeup and costume preparation.

MR SCRUFF: INFECTIOUS PERSONALITY

Submitted by Ariane Peixoto on Tue, 2014-07-29 09:10

To describe Andy Carthy as a one-off is probably to understate the situation. He designs all his own album covers and artwork. He's launched his own brand of tea and has a pop-up tea shop set up at many of his gigs selling brews and biscuits. He lugs boxes of vinyl, his own decks and a mixing console around the world in an era when it's quite de rigueur to turn up with nowt but a pair of headphones and memory stick in your pocket.

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