Every year at the Westword Music Showcase, we enlist our army of Backbeat wordsmiths to host various stages. In addition to their emcee duties, we ask them to pull double duty by submitting a travelogue of their individual stage. Matt Miner hosted...

John Digweed is a twenty-year veteran of the international DJ scene. As such, his story is punctuated by numerous high points. Among them: pioneering the art of the mix album with longtime DJ partner Sasha on Renaissance: The Mix Collection; refin...

Mike Servito is a New York-based DJ and resident of the monthly Brooklyn techno club night, the Bunker. He came of age in Detroit during the 1990s, and you can hear it in his sound, which pays a substantial debt to many of the legendary mixmasters...

A genuine craftsman from the days when DJs played actual records and an encouraging reminder that some in fact still do, Derek Plaslaiko is truly a DJ's DJ. The Michigan native was a fixture on the Detroit rave scene from the mid-'90s until 2004, ...

Only 23 years old, New York's Nicolas Jaar is turning heads in the electronic-music world with his cerebral take on left-field house and experimental techno that makes frequent use of live instrumentation performed by Jaar himself. A 2012 graduate...

One of electronic music's fastest-rising young stars, Maya Jane Coles has become a major phenomenon over the past two years. Just 25 years old, the Londoner has been recognized as one of the hottest DJs on the planet by everyone from Rolling Stone...