It’s a commonly held misconception that America and Europe have cornered the dance-music market. While this may have been true in the scene’s formative years, new sounds and their purveyors have continued to pop up all over the globe. Take Hernan Cattaneo, for instance, who has helped put his native…

Although Roger Sanchez became a house-hold name in 1989 with the release of his breakout track “Luv Dancin’,” he has left his mark on much more than just the club circuit. From producing tracks for Michael and Janet Jackson to writing music for the Blade movies and Cirque du Soleil,…

Andy C (slated to appear at the Church on Thursday, November 25) first made his mark on the drum-and-bass world at the age of seventeen, with a track called “Valley of the Shadows” that he produced with partner Ant Miles under the name Origin Unknown. “Valley” went on to become…

Blending music styles is a tricky and often unwelcome feat, because each genre of dance music has its hard-core audience firmly in place. Crossovers seldom happen, and artists who actually make it work are often regarded as a novelty, at best. The Netherlands’ Marco V (at the Church this Thursday,…

Richard West, aka Mr. C, has played a pivotal role in dance music since the late ’80s. His first DJ experiences came by way of the R.I.P. and Base events in London, some of the earliest illegal acid-house parties in rave culture. Then, as the frontman for dance-rock pioneers the…

While dance music has always been about exploring new sounds, it’s the hits that bring people to the clubs. Folks don’t generally go clubbing to hear some DJ strike an esoteric pose with his playlist; what they want to do is party and have a good time. Pete Tong plays…

White Girl Lust is what happens when rock music meets DJ culture. DJs Eric Kozak and Clay Meador have brought guitars back to the dance floor, creating custom set lists with innovative tools like Logic and Final Scratch. Rather than simply play song after song like other rock jocks, the…

It seems like everyone’s a DJ these days. And with the market so saturated, it’s hard to distinguish one jock from another. When Soto & Smith (aka Dave Soto and Aaron Smith) started deejaying at bars and clubs, they did whatever they could to distance themselves from cliches. They didn’t…

Female DJs are often regarded as, well, female DJs. Seldom given the same respect as the old boys’ network that dominates clubs and festivals, many rely on certain physical attributes to gain any attention at all. Sandra Collins is the exception — and has been since the day she first…

Before he even sprouted facial hair, J. Majik (aka Jamie Spratling) was already turning heads — Metalheadz, that is — in the dance world. In the early ’90s, “6 Million Ways to Die,” a monster anthem of the hard-core techno scene that he produced under the name DJ Dextrous, caught…

In recent years, trance has been riddled with cheesy predictable vocals, endless drum rolls and buildups — not to mention an overall painful lack of originality. Holland’s Armin Van Buuren (due Thursday, September 30, at the Church) started playing trance before it became a dirty word, when it was primarily…

When playing together, Scooter and Lavelle Dupree, the duo better known as San Diego’s LSDJs, possess a chemistry that’s more than simply two DJs taking turns at the turntables. Scooter and Lavelle met while playing out in San Diego. After constantly finding themselves being booked to perform at the same…

Tall Paul broke into London’s club scene in 1987 at the age of sixteen, playing house sets at Turnmills, which was owned by his father. When Turnmills became the first club in the city to obtain a 24-hour music and dancing license, Paul took over Saturday nights. It was a…

As a final project for his university marketing class in the early ’90s, Matt Darey chose “How to market a rave record” as his topic. He wrote a tune called “Overdose,” got a student loan, paid to have 1,000 copies pressed and shopped the records around to stores and DJs…

In 2001, John Digweed was voted the number-one DJ in the world by DJ Magazine, a periodical with a reputation for being an accurate barometer of what’s going on in electronic music worldwide. He has also maintained a spot within the top ten for more than a decade alongside the…

U.K. hard-trance DJ Scott Bond was initiated into his craft in 1989 at one of the rowdiest clubs in England, the Hummingbird. If the playlist didn’t meet the crowd’s fancy, glass bottles were thrown straight at the DJ’s head. Talk about being tossed straight into the lion’s den. You either…

Music journalists everywhere have been declaring the death of electroclash for quite some time now. Yet the music and the scene continue to thrive across America in the underground party circuit. This is largely thanks to the efforts of Gotham club impresario Larry Tee, who coined the term “electroclash” by…

When electronic music was first gaining a foothold in America in the early ’90s, Denver’s Eric Galavis, or DJ Hipp-E, was at the forefront of the movement, throwing raves and deejaying as part of the Energy Posse and A&E Productions. Hipp-E essentially put Denver on the map. Now based in…

When it comes to straight-up mixing — the most essential element in any DJ’s toolbox — there are few DJs who can hold a candle to the U.K.’s Mampi Swift. Swift has been sitting pretty as one of the top drum-and-bass DJs and producers since his days at the now-legendary…

Chris Fortier is one of the few truly old-school DJs on the circuit today. A pioneer of the Orlando sound, along with Icey and Kimball Collins, Fortier held a residency at the infamous Aahz club in Florida in the early ’90s. His night was the first to host the likes…

It’s amazing for a club night to last six months, let alone six years,” says Eric Kozak, better known as DJ D.ecco, as he faces the upcoming final night of Breakdown, a club phenomenon that he and partner Steve Blakley, aka DJ Fury, have helmed since the late ’90s. “You…

Over the course of the past ten years, Washington D.C.’s Palash Ahmed (left), along with his partner, Saeed Younan, have accomplished what every aspiring house jock daydreams about: They’re among an exclusive group of stateside house DJs who have attained international headliner status, playing frequently in club Meccas such as…