Say no to 60 minutes: Extended DJ sets should be the industry standard

When I enter Village Underground one Sunday at 7pm, Enzo Siragusa is in full flow. He's been DJing for three hours already but that's only the start of it. This is Fuse and its founder is at the helm, playing a rare 'all-day-long' set, which means 10 hours of unbridled house and tech from someone whose vinyl collection is as impressive as his ability behind a pair of 1210s. He has the club in the palm of his hand, every track and every transition lapped up by an engaged warehouse of dancers.

To play an extended set to a high standard requires a deft ear for music curation, set building and of course, technical prowess with the chosen equipment. There's something supremely satisfying for both the audience and the selector in a longer set. It means the DJ has the time required to command a crowd, to build a set around a start, middle and an end and to really explore all corners of their record bags.

The audience really gets an insight into what the DJ is about; it's not just an hour of power where every track is dropped to get a reaction, it's a chance for fans to see their favourite artists push themselves to their limits and more often than not, it's a sight to behold.

This is where clubs like Berghain and Panorama Bar get it so right. Every set is a minimum of four hours and every DJ, if watched for that amount of time, is given a chance to showcase their sound, selections and personality. Some of the best DJ sets I've ever seen have been in Panorama Bar and aside from the setting and soundsystem, this is down to the length of the set. Seeing Ryan Elliott, a resident of both, roll out slamming house and ambient slow jams in P Bar will go down as one of the best experiences I've had in a club.

It's not just Berlin though, De School in Amsterdam regularly let's its DJs flex their muscles with an extended session – just look at resident Job Jobse. In the newly opened Het Muzieklokaal room he played for 13 hours straight (in support of Syrian refugees) and reports from the night declared the performance as incredible. Back in London, Phonox prides itself on booking DJs to take control of the club all night long, every week. That's the stuff I like to see, artists like Helena Hauff, ItaloJohnson, Hunee and Gerd Janson, all revered selectors, taking full control of a space and making it their own.

Unfortunately not all clubs in the UK operate like Phonox do, on the whole these sort of extended set lengths just aren't the norm. In fact, they're pretty rare. Some of the biggest club brands in the UK, with arguably the biggest line-ups in the country, restrict their bookings to 90 minute sets as a maximum. They are of course contributing to a booming night culture by bringing the best artists in the world over to play but in packing a line-up full to the brim with talent, they are responsible for restraining how far the DJ can really go. 60 minutes just isn't enough time for a DJ to appropriately read the room, find their groove and show a crowd of people what they're really about. 15 incredible names on a line-up is enough for anyone to gasp with delight before rushing to grab a ticket but what's the point of so many amazing DJs almost fighting to show themselves off against each other?

The likes of Kerri Chandler, Ben UFO and Theo Parrish have all been given all-night-long sets at The Hydra and Studio Spaces has never sounded so good. These respected DJs take hold of any room they're in, so promoting and pushing a night that focuses purely on them seems totally fitting. Even Skream, one of the most popular DJs on the circuit at the moment, has realised the worth of his record collection and his 'Open To Close' sets have sold-out all around the country. Seven hour sets at every place he enters, a crowd that have paid to go and see him and a confidence that his music and style will keep an audience's attention.

"I have to thank everyone who made the #OpenToClose Tour a definite highlight of my career! Around 80 hours played and about 12,500 tickets sold! Huge shouts to all the venues, promoters and you the fans who made it one I'll never forget"

This was Skream's post on Christmas Eve last year, a statement that fully justifies the extended set. There's one extremely happy DJ, a silly amount of people who've gone to see him really promote his craft and a whole host of venues and promoters that have put their faith in a selector only to have their own faith restored with a full club in front of them, with everyone going wild (just check the videos online).

I'm not saying that every set should be a marathon but allowing a DJ to perform for three to four hours should be the industry standard. Line-ups should shift around the talent of one or two selectors instead of 15. If the time restraints don't accommodate for that then book less people, give that one artist the spotlight and let them be the person who fills a room on their ability alone.

Funster is Mixmag's Deputy Digital Editor. Follow him on Twitter here or catch him playing for 17 hours straight at a discotheque near you