DJmag top 100 DJ's 2003

Paul Oakenfold earnt 4.5m this year and is in the top 40 most successful music bods according to what i read in Metro this morning. i'm quite pleased for him actually.

This chart is moving at a glacier's pace (I can't remember the exact results from ten years ago, but I bet more than half of the DJs are still in there today), but some trends show through: 'deep' progressive house, UK hardhouse and 'kiddie trance' are down, progressive and harder trance, techno and electro are up compared to last year. Which doesn't surprise me, the shift from those clean, blissed-out Balearic sounds to a more edgier/noisier/darker sound has been noticable everywhere.

I was thinking the other day about how little new blood is making big noises in trance, hard house etc. It was actually inspired by picking up a flyer for some hardcore night and noting that pretty much every name on it was around ten or more years ago; but it's a similar case here. I mean, the second highest new entry is James Lavelle FFS... Graham Gold new at no. 97!!! What's he done to get kids voting for him?

My day job is compiling listings for the local events mag and all the house/trance clubs round here just seem to have the same DJs every fucking month, on rotation. I dunno... I'll admit this isn't my area of expertise or preference but it just seems really staid.

Overall though, looks like a big list of djs' mix cd's not to buy.

thomas isn't so great but he has "good ears".

for what it's worth i have no idea why dj hell isn't on that list. i think that list must just be people voting for who they've seen - i love dj rush but i can't think of any reason why i'd rank him above bad boy bill or below mistress barbara.

The latter I reckon... there was a thread some months ago, I seem to recall, which degenerated into a slagging of some vaguely asinine Jockey Slut article about "Not mixing is the new mixing" or somesuch. This may well be pish but I just can't get excited about technical expertise really.

I saw Michael Forshaw last weekend, he played hard fuckin party techno and dropped all this breakcore and stuff in at the end - it was brilliant. Was he mixing it seamlessly? I haven't a clue.

mahler into phantom?

yep, you heard me. like-minded tracks, blended smoothly. this is less impressive to me than: 1. strauss into eurythmics (jacques lu cont) 2. a fierce rewind of "diabla" into "rock to the beat" (chemical brothers) 3. dj rolando dropping maurizio at 45 over drexciya. in terms of using classical music as a novelty, in terms of mixing up string-led tracks, in terms of drawing connections between far-flung material, i'd say mayer brings it pretty weak.

again, not that i think mayer is a BAD or even MEDIOCRE dj i'm just not half as excited by his dj'ing as by his track selections.

anyway between mayer, rolando, lu cont, chemical brothers and theo parrish we have at least a fifth of a potential top 20 that should have been. degiorgio? not hardly, maybe he could rank as a compilation editor along with the eskimo guys and the souljazz djs.

as for thinking kirk de georgio should be in there - have you heard him play? the words 'paint' and 'drying' spring to mind.

if stirmonster got anymore otm he'd be shitting dubloons

as for who i would have in the list,all the following have really impressed me

dj/rupture
michael mayer*
surgeon
jeff mills
richie hawtin*
adam beyer
rob hood
technasia
tobias thomas*
2 many djs*
and a dj called phil wong,one of millions of hard techno djs around dublin,but much better than the rest of them...

*based on mix cds only

also,stirmonster,your optimo mix cd is really good,i was listening to it again the other day

This is a list for a certain cross section of the commerical dance music business and it has no bearing on quality or art. It is just a list of people who are doing well in the most tacky and distasteful (and I don't mean that as a reynolds reverse compliment) section of a sleazy ass business.

I have been to about three real dance gigs in the last 18 months and I can name about 10 Detroit DJ's who could hand 90% of those jokers their steaming entrails on a platter without breaking a sweat. You guys have never heard of them and you probably never will. Al Ester, Norm Talley, Delano Smith, Alvin 'munk' Hill, Carlos Souffront, Derek Plaslaiko, and Craig Gonzalez are just a few names that come to mind immediately.

That list means nothing and it never has.

Also, all DJs on this list share one thing: they tour their asses off. No doubt there are local heroes everywhere who can spin better or have better taste than they do, and DJs in less popular genres (electro, drum ‘n bass, psytrance, hardcore, garage, take your pick) will never really get high on this list anyway, but IF you want to achieve any success in the DJ trade, you’ll have to work for it, 150+ nights a year. There are no “boyband” easy-way-in’s, there’s only a demand for new tunes, not for new DJ’s so you can’t market new DJ’s in the way you can push a new singer/band/MC – and you can’t make a name with one great set or one successful production. It’s no wonder that Kevin Saunderson or Derrick May are not on this list anymore, they hardly ever play in Europe anymore. The minut Tiensto, or Cox, or Digweed stop doing gigs, they’ll drop out of these lists like a brick.

It's also fucking bizarre, how the hell are Hybrid 52? Does anyone like them, I've never met anyone who does. It strikes me as a very international list, since as Siegbran mentioned all the top 20 are big tourers all over the world.

My personal favourites are probably Laurent Garnier, Felix Da Housecat, 2 Many DJs and Jacques Lu Cont. Very indie.

All of the Hybrid sets I've heard start out fantastic but bog down in mediocre nondescript dubby breaks within three tracks. I meet lots of people who worship them, not least for that one production trick (grand orchestral melodies + crystal clear breaks) they've mastered rather well. Those are the kind of people who like Digweed and Freeland, and dismiss electroclash/house/hiphop/UK garage as cheesy music for the charts, though.