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How your favourite DJ got their name
It's something you wonder at least once about your fave selector
Total Freedom
Total Freedom "used to have a different DJ name" he told The Quietus, before continuing that, "one time I was making a flyer and didn't want to write my old DJ name because I was bored or something. I wrote 'Total Freedom' and was like 'I guess that's my new DJ name'." The Fade To Mind DJ is noted for pushing the boundaries of club music, yet he still feels constrained in his sets, he referred to the name as "like a goal more than a reality."
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
One of the most outlandish names in dance music. Orlando Higginbottom explained to Spin that it derived from his desire to pick something that "couldn't be cool". Well chosen, then.
The Black Madonna
The figure of the Black Madonna has a number of origins, spanning Caribbean culture and dark-skinned renderings of the Virgin Mary. Marea Stamper has loved the concept since she was a teenager and read Longing For Darkness, a book which connects The Black Madonna with Green Tara, an enlightened Buddhist figure that offers protection from fear.
The Chemical Brothers
The two-piece originally began working together as The Dust Brothers in homage to the US duo, until they were served a cease and desist order and changed it to Chemical. Never meet your heroes, or name yourself after them.
Thugfucker
Thugfucker told Planet Notion: that their name is "a way of ensuring that we don't take ourselves too seriously or let our egos get too big. Cause at the end of the day, we're still in a group called Thugfucker. So let's just focus on trying to make good music, good parties and helping as many people have a good time alongside us as possible." Surprisingly noble.
Vakula
Fellow Ukrainian Igor Glushko told Hyponik: "Vakula is not his real name, it is a reminiscence of the major character from Nikolai Gogol's book Evenings On A Farm Near Dikanka." The character is a blacksmith in the short story Christmas Eve who manages to trick the devil, steal slippers from the feet of the Tsarina, and win the heart of a beautiful girl.
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