It's natural to focus on the visceral intensity of a techno set, but Rødhåd treats the task with surprising delicacy. Sure, he dishes out huge slabs of immense, hypnotic music, but there's a sensitivity to the way he combines sonic elements that has become his signature as a DJ. Running up to four decks at a time, he custom builds his blends and drops, controlling the dynamics and energy with a degree of focus that works as well in dark basements as it does on festival stages.
You can tell how good Hunee is by watching the DJ who's coming on after him. Though the Amsterdam-based selector cuts a wholesome-looking figure—he's known to sip tea and wear sandals in the booth—to his peers he can be intimidating. Every second of his sets, from his trademark Pointer Sisters intro, to the wonderful stew of house, disco, soul, Latin and African music that follows, earns cheek-puffing admiration and facial expressions that say, 'How am I supposed to follow that?'
It's easy to underestimate the importance of the energy a DJ projects. Whether he's playing gargantuan festivals or an Ibiza afterhours, Jamie Jones still enjoys every transition, bassline and hi-hat with the zeal of a young raver. That enthusiasm is palpable to the audience, giving the sense that, despite his status, he's very much on their level. Even as his career matures to encompass performances with the Colombia National Symphony Orchestra, Jones is loved for his tireless commitment to the dance.
17. The Martinez Brothers
Chris and Steve Martinez aren't twins—they're three years apart—but hearing them DJ, you might think they are. In their track selections, their transitions, their dance moves in the booth, they appear synced in a way that seems almost supernatural. Maybe that's not surprising given their journey so far, with all those countless back-to-backs at clubs and festivals around the world. By now they're in a groove few DJs can touch, and it's kept them near the top of this list year after year.
In 2016, Ben Klock reminded us what he really is: a DJ fanatic, obsessed with making each set better than the last. Every year, we talk about his work ethic, precision mixing and ability to whip dance floors into a frenzy, and each year he finds a way to take things a little further—be it with a busier schedule, new tricks in the mix or fresh ways to work a crowd. Ten years into his career, he often finds himself playing for screaming crowds in massive clubs and festivals, but his subtle touch remains the same.
Ollie Jones' transformation, from dubstep's biggest DJ to a genuine force in house and techno, is now complete. He could have got there on a slipstream of nepotism, calling in favours from friends, but instead he stayed humble and worked extremely hard. This has meant learning to become a much subtler DJ. Finding his feet in the studio with a new sound. Ignoring the inevitable online backlash. And with the extra scrutiny that came with the switch, he's had to make sure that each time he plays, he smashes it.
If 2016 has told us anything about dance music, it's this: everybody, from your mum to your milkman, has a soft spot for Carl Cox. The closing of his residency at Space Ibiza, followed by the club's own finale two weeks later, caused a furore rarely seen in our world. But Cox has always stood alone. Who else can light up a dance floor with a jig? Or make you feel warm inside just by flashing a toothy grin?
As the jazz great Charlie Parker once said: "Master your instrument, master the music, and then forget all that shit and just play." On a good night, no DJ channels that advice better than Ricardo Villalobos. Throwing the faders around, swerving unpredictably from one record to the next, framing a dazzling mosaic of different sounds—techno, electro, synth pop, jazz—within his classic style of tripped-out minimal house, his sets have a wild, mad scientist quality that entrances dance floors year after year after year.
12. Motor City Drum Ensemble
Motor City Drum Ensemble plays music that doesn't exactly scream "main stage," and yet the sight of the deep-digging DJ, cigarette drooping from his mouth, closing out Dekmantel was one of this summer's defining festival moments. It was a high point of a year in which Danilo Plessow was also responsible for a wonderful compilation and a hugely popular RA podcast, cementing his position as one of the world's best DJs.
Last week, Patrick Topping released a track called "Tease Magnet," and his overall success is pretty much summarised in those six minutes and 56 seconds. There's not much to it: a rattling drum machine, a sassy vocal sample, an urgent bassline. But it's based on a deceptively effective formula, one that, for the last few years, he's been using to make crowds go crazy. "Tease Magnet" was released on Hot Creations, and as a member of that crew, Topping has gone from being a small-time promoter in Newcastle to a globally-celebrated DJ.
In the three years since she catapulted out of Chicago and onto the international stage, The Black Madonna has defined herself with a sound as party-rocking as it is personal, storming through everything from Nitzer Ebb's "Join In The Chant" to The Weather Girls' "It's Raining Men," sometimes in a single set. She's become an inspiring icon outside the booth for much the same reason that she's such a great DJ: she's utterly unafraid to be herself.
There's no sweeter dance floor sensation than being moved, almost against your will, by deeply strange yet infectious tracks. Perhaps more than any other top-ten DJ, Ben UFO chases and creates these moments. More importantly, he continues to be a key inspiration for artists dedicated to pushing the envelope, lending validation to the DJs and producers who live for those moments of, "What the hell is this?"
It's easy to imagine a graph of Bicep's career these past few years: it would look something like a long, diagonal line shooting skywards. Every year the Belfast duo subtly reinvent themselves, and their fans love them for it. In 2016 that meant debuting a new live show while continuing to experiment with their DJ sets, dusting off tunes no one else would play—pitched-down psy-trance, old IDM bits—and editing them into highly effective club weapons.
"I just play the music I like," Âme's Kristian Beyer said in a 2015 interview. There's boyish charm to the way this Innervisions heavyweight talks about records, which might seem at odds with his status as one of house music's most in-demand DJs. As Innervisions' resident digger, Beyer's role in modern house music is significant—many of the tunes rinsed by Dixon, your number one DJ for four years running, were passed onto him by Beyer. A tastemaker, strategist and world-class DJ, his influence is felt far beyond the 100-odd dance floors he played to this year.
Adam Beyer has mastered the art of tension and release. In the hands of this loop-loving Swede, no-frills techno is a trigger for dance floor euphoria, thanks largely to an uncanny knack for programming. With Beyer at the controls, kick drums hammer and basslines loom, but there's always a plan, usually one involving heavy rollers and high-energy bombs. Whether it was with Daft Punk tunes at Awakenings or Maurizio classics in Ibiza, Beyer delivered some of 2016's biggest dance floor moments.
Solomun's DJ sets, swinging between tasteful pop and underground house, are at the core of his appeal. But his enormous ongoing success is due to something bigger than that. It's him spending ten years carefully building a record label, Diynamic Music, that people love. It's giving these people ways to connect with him and the label, which this year included two unique party concepts in Ibiza, an ambitious multi-venue event in Berlin, and a far-reaching global tour. And it's arriving at a place where all of these things are unmistakably the work of Solomun.
When Eric Estornel became Maceo Plex back in 2011, he said the project was simply him "having fun," a lighthearted counterpoint to the darker sound he'd been pushing as Maetrik. Could he have known this side project would vault him to such dizzying heights? We wouldn't put it past him. For nearly two decades, Estornel has pushed himself relentlessly, broadening his sound as a producer, challenging himself as a DJ, methodically upping his game in a way that made his rise up this list inevitable.
In 2016, Tale Of Us took their shadowy aesthetic and built a party around it. Afterlife, with its big-budget production, striking imagery and edgy lineups, proved that, more than just mixing records, the Italian duo embody a mood that chimes with people who like their dance floor experiences emotionally rich. From Space in Ibiza to Village Underground in London, Tale Of Us made people feel like they were part of something this year.
It's obviously impossible to say who on this list enjoys DJing the most, but our money's still on Jackmaster. According to RA, he'll have played 146 gigs in 2016 (that's one every 2.5 days), and each time you'll have likely seen the same thing: Jack Revill, deep in concentration, mouth ajar, perspiring slightly, teasing open a high-pass filter before slamming the beat back in and sending the place wild. In other words, a man deeply in his element. As Revill put it last week: "This thing means everything to me."
2016 has been a year of shocks and upheavals, but Dixon clearly didn't get the memo. Many of you might have predicted this—after all, it's the Berliner's fourth gold medal in a row. Even so, it's hard to overstate the scale of this achievement. No other DJ has ever exercised such dominance over the top spot. For someone who tours relentlessly and helms one of dance music's most popular record labels, Steffen Berkhahn always looks incredibly relaxed. His social media presence is disarmingly human and self-deprecating, with plenty of goofy snaps. In the booth, he's always perfectly composed, no matter if it's the first or the fourth gig of the weekend. There's no safer pair of hands in the scene. Technically flawless but with a wild streak, his sets, especially the all-nighters, are atmospheric, otherworldly and reliably unpredictable. You'd think that would be a hard act to maintain, but over time Dixon only gets better. The same goes for the various projects he's involved in, from the almighty Innervisions to the label's one-of-a-kind Lost In A Moment parties. As things stand, it's hard to imagine anyone stealing his crown.
*Words taken from Resident Advisor
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