The Top 25 DJs Who Defined The Year 2024

Another post-lockdown year has passed and it feels like the pressures on the dance music industry are only mounting up. There are self-evident challenges for the culture, but at the same time, it still serves up endless inspiration and remains a much-needed refuge. There are always those unparalleled dancefloor experiences to be found — the type that energise every fibre of your being and remind you what it’s all about — and artists whose dedication is paramount to keeping things interesting, alive and kicking. In the list below, we reflect on 25 DJs who have defined 2024, ranging across genre pioneers, innovative scene linchpins, cult heroes getting their dues, idolised personalities, worthy thought-leaders, and more (in alphabetical order).

2024 has been a massive year for dance music from South Asia and its diaspora. Crews including Daytimers, Dialled In and Going South have been incorporating wider aspects of South Asian culture into their events to reframe the boundaries of what festivals and parties can look like in the UK, while they linked up at Glastonbury Festival to curate Arrivals – the festival’s first stage dedicated to South Asian culture and music. A scene leader in this charge has been British-Pakistani DJ Ahadadream, whose rhythmic, percussive bangers that straddle UK funky, amapiano, kuduro and broken beat techno have seen him grace some of the world’s biggest stages over the past 12 months, all while programming the Dialled In events, including July’s debut Manchester edition, and running his influential More Time label. He’s toured Australia, North America for the first time, played all over from Brazil to Japan, as well as surprising shows like a B2B with Dixon at KOKO. He even warmed the stage for Four Tet, Nia Archives and Skrillex at Lollapalooza Festival, and collaborated with the latter along with vocalist Priya Ragu on stadium heater ‘TAKA’, simultaneously landing on a billboard in Leicester Square, as he continues to plant South Asian influence and his own global club stylings into the biggest echelons of dance music.

Arca first entered our consciousness as a DJ and producer one the fringes of experimental dance music, playing small venues such as London’s The Waiting Room and cult parties like Evian Christ’s Trance Party. Over time the Venezuelan artist has maintained that radical streak, while evolving into more of a Björk-style avant-garde popstar, incorporating her own vocals into her inventive productions. This year she’s turned back towards her roots, jumping back into DJing with a bunch of electrifying shows. This fittingly included multiple B2B sets with Björk, representing a trend this year of electronic-influenced, ostensible ‘popstars’ pushing DJing up their priority list, including Charli xcx playing Amnesia and Shygirl mixing a fabric compilation. Arca’s refocusing on the decks has included a set at London’s legendary Ministry of Sound, playing alongside filmmaker Harmony Korine’s alter-ego EDGLRD, and heading to Caracas to headline her first-ever homecoming gig. That Boiler Room set showcased her unpredictable, genre-breaking sensibilities, blending styles spanning Jersey club, dembow rap, reggaeton, singeli, cinematic compositions and more in a dizzying whirlwind of sounds that many modern DJs don’t dare to attempt.

Is BAMBII dance music’s hardest working star? With a year that began hot off the coattails of working with Kelela, a billboard in New York, near-endless world tour schedule and DJing for Bottega Veneta — you would be forgiven for thinking that maybe this Jamaican-Canadian electronic powerhouse might have opted for a slow one in 2024. Reader, she did not. Instead BAMBII has continued on her path to world domination, taking her pristine combination of jungle and dancehall to Turin’s C2C festival, Barcelona’s Sónar, Paris’ We Love Green, Lost Village, Field Day, MELT and Portola; while still finding time to light up Mixmag’s Lab LDN, bring the hard stuff to Mexico City for Boiler Room and develop her 1000 genre mix. Phew. Alongside the release of two new singles, ‘SHH’ in June and the Lady Lykezz featuring ‘Spit’, she also picked up a Juno Award for best electronic album for 2023’s ‘Infinity Club’ EP. While we’re enthralled by BAMBII’s continued proliferation of our dancefloors, we’re wondering — is 2025 going to be even bigger, even BAMBII-ier than 2024? Only time will tell.

Having shot onto the global stage with his 2022 album ‘Pyramids’ (and its stand-out track ‘The Akan’) and a stirring set in Mixmag’s The Lab Johannesburg (alongside Enoo Napa), South African DJ and producer Caiiro has been steadily ascending the ladder to stardom ever since. 2024 marked the year he cemented his position as one of the leading figures of the Afro house scene. With three world tours taking him everywhere from New York to Paris to Sydney, five Ibiza shows including Circoloco at DC-10 and performances at London’s Outernet and Romania’s Electric Castle festival, Caiiro has been taking the world by a storm.

It is his graceful ability to move between light and heavy, melodic and dark, Afrotech and Afro house, that makes Caiiro so popular with such a wide audience. Nowhere is this more evident than in his most recent album, ‘Door of No Return’, released in May this year, which incorporates more pop-aligned vocals, as well as showing off his masterful prowess over deep, spiritual club sounds – gaining the Mpumalanga-born artist both commercial and underground acclaim. Other highlights from 2024 include his first Defected Records mix and his album launch at London’s The Steel Yard.

When he started DJing in 2008, Caiiro used to cite the likes of Black Coffee, Da Capo and Culoe de Song as artists that inspired him. Now he frequently plays alongside them, having carved his own place among the legends.

CCL’s dedication to thoughtfully crafted sets and DIY organising has been a defining feature of their output over the years, named among the qualities that sparked our fandom when they featured in our Breakthrough DJs of the Year back in 2019. This year it feels like they’ve really come into their own as a leading light of dance music. As we declared in a profile earlier this year, CCL is the type of DJ that the scene needs, working to subvert homogenisation, support worthy causes and make a distinct artistic mark.

CCL began the year with their first tour Down Under, after a 2020 scheduled trip was cancelled by the pandemic, playing show across New Zealand and Australia, as well as through Asia, and ends it heading out on their longest tour to date, with debuts in India and Thailand just ticked off to launch the four-month stretch. In between, they’ve been consistently contributing to culture in inspiring and thrilling ways. Their party subglow has brought a queer-oriented, bass-loaded energy to Berlin, serving up singular experiences that challenge four-to-the-floor tyranny with sets from the likes of DJ Marcelle and DJ Storm, as well as helming their own marathon open-to-close solo set to mark the two-year anniversary in May. They’ve also been a regular at festivals that push the envelope with their curation and production, appearing at the likes of Draaimolen, Butik, Unsound, Making Time, Elevate, Freerotation and Honcho Campout, where they were invited to guest curate two “Hemlock Nights”, serving up flawless, psychedelic dancefloor experiences from fellow DJs who stand for community values and offer something unique, which available set recordings attest to.

That level of conscientiousness is a constant throughline of CCL’s ouevre. The mixes of their liquidtime radio residency on Refuge Worldwide explore themes such as ‘Rock Pools’ and ‘Mist’, translating these into deeply felt aural experiences, while their first physical mixtape released at the top of the year, ‘A Night At The Skull Discotechque’, channeled proto-dubstep sounds to evoke their imagining of a fantastical nightclub. That release also raised money for Palestinian relief charities, with CCL using their platform regularly to vocalise support for activism, including raising money for Palestinian solidarity via subglow with donation boxes at the door and their own financial contributions. On top of all that, they also put out their debut solo EP ‘Plot Twist’ via !K7, serving up an energising blend of sounds spanning speed garage to dreamlike house, as well as a cyberpunk-inspired collab EP of groovers and club-shakers with Ciel.

“In the context of this moment in time, I believe more than ever artists, have a responsibility to share truth, to push ideas forward, to challenge and experiment (on many levels), and to share (music, knowledge and more!)” CCL said earlier this year. They’ve undoubtedly led by example.

Coco & Breezy can’t be stopped. The muti-hyphanate twins have had a whirlwind of a year that started with their first-ever headline tour, marking just three years since their first-ever festival slot at New York’s Electric Zoo in 2021. Following the Free Your Soul tour, Corianna and Brianna Dotson spent their summer globe-trotting between cities, at times playing over three different shows in one weekend. They tore down stages everywhere from Movement in Detroit to Glitterbox in Ibiza to Junction 2 in London, bringing with them their high-energy, eclectic sets that traverse Chicago, Afro and Latin house, melodic electronica, and even R&B.

Like many artists in 2024, Coco & Breezy have been bridging the gap between popstar and disk jockey. Dancing behind the decks – sometimes in sync – the New York-based fashionistas put on quite the show – and they’ve been releasing a string of hit singles to match. While reaching 25 million streams on 2022’s ‘Just Say’, the busy, young producers have been keeping the momentum going with their euphoric, gospel-infused house tracks and wicked remixes including ‘I Am Free’, ‘Change Your Mind’, and ‘The Navidson Record (Coco & Breezy Remix)’.

This year has also seen Coco & Breezy play alongside a wide array of dance music icons including OGs Black Coffee, Kevin Saunderson and Marshall Jefferson, and more contemporary artists such as Chase & Status, FISHER and Jamie Jones, reflecting the versatility of their sets. And it looks like they won’t be slowing down anytime soon as they gear up to play their second Coachella in 2025.

South Africa-hailing DJ and producer DESIREE has had amomentous year in 2024, right the way from the heights of summer making her “dreams come true” with her Glastonbury debut, to a recent spot on the bill of Hï Ibiza’s closing party in support of superstars Keinemusik. This year, she’s picked up recognition as one of Johannesburg’s most enterprising DJs dealing in soulful Afro house to potent Afrotech, always bringing the party behind the decks with her infectious moves and eclectic selections rooted in South African dance music. Elsewhere this year, DESIREE has appeared on Apple Music’s famed Beats In Space podcast, warmed up for Honey Dijon at Panorama Bar, dug into the archives for her first ever BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix, and landed a slot on the line-up for Coachella 2025.

As an activist and campaigner for queer rights, DESIREE has also been influential this year speaking on her experiences as an intersex woman, sharing some of her “most personal experiences” in a bid to spread awareness of intersexuality, particularly with the release of her debut EP ‘Intersexy’ in November, a celebration of “being unapologetically yourself”.

Footwork continued to be one of the most exciting movements in the club sphere this year and originator DJ Clent stands as one of its most important ambassadors. He meant business in 2024. Glance at his socials and you’ll see him constantly adding to his impressive production setup, and growing his vast record collection, always showing the type of passion and dedication to music that helped him play a pivotal part in innovating a sound in the ’90s that’s still flourishing today. This year he stayed at the helm of that global spread, heading out on a European tour that saw him play key dates in cities such as Berlin, Bristol, London and Manchester, as well as gigging all over the US, including Detroit, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York and various dates in his hometown Chicago and its surroundings, including the annual free event Litnic at Dolton Park from Beatdown House, the first and longest-running juke and footwork collective and label he co-founded in 1997.

It was a big year for Chicago in general with the 40th anniversary of house music, and DJ Clent was saluted amid the celebrations as a legend of ghetto house. His importance to both footwork and house culture was constantly reflected in his work and the way he carried himself this year, both as a standard-bearer of traditions (including house and footwork dancing with workshops and support of thelegendary Original Phase 2 group), championing of the pioneers (including paying tribute to departed greats such as DJ Deeon and keeping their legacy front of mind), and providing inspiration to the next generation (including inducting his own son DJ Corey - who’s a full triple-threat: DJ, producer and dacer - into the ways of footwork and keeping the fire burning). Other community commitment examples include contributing to a fundraising compilation for FootworKINGz member PrinceJron, whose family lost everything in a fire at their home, and in October playing at the ‘Birthday Bash’ honouring the late DJ Rashad, organised by Rashad’s son DJ Chad and raising money for his family. Stepping up in his role as formative frontman and continued trailblazer, DJ Clent is a powerhouse wherever he goes and an inspiration to whoever he comes across.

Breaking through the parameters of the mainstream club scene last year to hit the big time in 2024, DJ HEARTSTRING have come a long way in an incredibly short space of time. Fresh off the back of their Australia tour in February, the Berlin-hailing duo returned to home turf where they performed their first show at Berghain’s Panorama Bar, before continuing on their non-stop world tour domination. Making significant headway in 2024 – and not just with their entertaining outfits and adorable Instagram posts – their playful brand of trance, pop, and club music have kept the pair at the very top through the continued rise of fast dance music. Over summer, DJ HEARTSTRING brought their Teenage Dreams party to London’s The Cause for a special off-site edition of Mixmag’s The Lab, clocked in some face time with legendary pop group Sugababes (and later remixed their classic 2005 track ‘Push The Button’), and recorded their second Boiler Room performance in Melbourne following a breakthrough debut last year. To close off 2024, the duo head out on one last victory lap, taking their show around the world from Japan to the US and back to base in Europe.

If you spend a reasonable amount of time scrolling through the electronic music or street dance corners of TikTok, the knees-bent, swaying street-style dance soundtracked by high-octane, proto-Eurotrance synths of budots will most likely have slipped into your feed. As the story goes, the Filipino genre, marked by its squelching synths, 140 BPM four-to-the-floor drum pattern, and off-beat basslines, was invented by DJ Love (real name Sherwin Tuna), who would make tunes on FL Studio while working as a manager of an internet café in Davao City. But while the genre had been bubbling in the country for decades, 2024 has seen the music explode internationally, so much so that former presidential candidate Kamala Harris and pop megastar Olivia Rodrigo both jumped on the trend. And with that explosion has come recognition for the sound’s originator, who has become Filipino dance music’s biggest export, releasing a genre showcase LP ‘Budots (Reloaded)’ in August, while heading up the bill at Margins United – Europe’s first dedicated festival to ESEA alternative culture – in his first ever European gig.

Jayne Conneely AKA DJ Storm has defined dancefloors for generations but this year felt particularly special, fronting the 30th anniversary celebrations of Metalheadz, the label she co-founded with Goldie and her late partner-in-crime Kemistry. Kemistry and Storm's early contribution to ‘Headz, which spanned press, bookings, A&R, was foundational in the success of the label as well as the development of talents like Lemon D, Peshay, Photek and Loxy. Conneely has represented Metalheadz at their parties ever since and this year was no different, playing the colossal KOKO and Motion sessions in addition to their five-week Phonox residency. After 32 years in the game, the first lady of drum 'n' bass is still a standout selector in her own right, delivering top performances at Panorama Bar at Darwin's REEF party and the Neighbourhood x Rupture throwdown at FOLD. Treading new ground, Storm recently made her Drumsheds debut, going B2B with DJ Flight for Four Tet's three-room takeover, as well receiving her first Mexican booking for the heavyweight FASCiNOMA festival. All this has been done in traditional, uncompromising DJ Storm style: she still refuses to play with USBs, insisting on CDs, and always wears heels.

It would be difficult to create a list of DJs that truly defined 2024 without mentioning a certain dressing gown-wearing, Weetabix-eating TikTok star who has helped shatter our long-held preconceptions of what it means to be a DJ in the modern era. A year that began with a 44-year-old marketing professional deciding to dig out some of his old vinyl collection to make a pivot from car influencer to music tastemaker, has ended in him becoming a by-word for the dizzying pace with which social media can proliferate the musical zeitgeist. It's undeniable that this ‘90s dance music aficionado is now just as much of a fully-fledged DJ as some of his heroes; he’s appeared on line-ups at Glasgow’s SWG3, Brighton’s i360, Ibiza’s Eden, Boomtown, High Lights and Terminal V — he had three (!!) separate sets at this year’s Glastonbury alone. He started his own record label, Octagon Discs. He’s on BBC Radio 1 for Christ's sake!

A parallel can be drawn to DJ AG who had a similar meteroic rise — albeit within the realms of UK rap and grime performance moreso than clubs, with a commendable, community-focused approach, often placing him as more of a background character as he allows new and old talents, and his local scene, to take centre stage. While Fish56Octagon continues to enthusiastically rep his trademark old skool rave records, and is probably responsible for introducing a number of undersung underground producers to a new generation, it could be argued that his ascent is intrinsically linked to his persona, reflecting how defining social media presentation has become to the careers of dance music DJs. Audiences are enamoured by his Hanger 13 throwback tracks and his prog house run downs, sure. But it would be just another TikTok account without his grey crocs, his occasional go on his pedal bike, his human Shazam and the floppy waft he does whenever he plays some “filth”. Ironic really, considering we don’t even know his name. Has anyone else ever done it quite like this? Nope. Is this a good thing for dance music, or music as a whole? No comment. But can we really say that it isn’t heart-warming to watch in real time as the most implausible dreams of a clearly devoted dance music fanatic come true? Well…

G33, Hannah Lynch, Matty Chiabi and Sophia Violet formed Girls Don't Sync in 2021 with the mission statement of bringing energy and representation to dancefloors. Since then, they have built a huge following thanks to their nothing-but-bangers approach to DJing and their proud principles that go beyond the decks. Toasting their third birthday at a rammed out WHP Archives, curating a festival stage for the first time at the Mighty Hoopla on top of additional takeovers at WHP Concourse and Creamfields, plus a mad few days at Glasto are just a few highlights from a standout year for the group. While they're at the top of the game, they haven't been afraid to call out clubbing culture when it hasn't come correct. This year they've addressed their fans and called for less phones in the dance along with remaining staunch in their support for Palestine. 2024 also marked the beginning of their production journey, with the '4x4' Bandcamp edit pack, 'sound of the underground dub', plus their debut single 'Come Thru' all released in the past 12 months. 'Come Thru' came out on their freshly formed imprint Fourmation Records, and to celebrate the group have embarked on a sell-out eight-stop tour across the UK with additional dates in Amsterdam, Paris and Brussels. Girls Don't Sync? Girls Don't Stop.

Sometimes there are cult DJs, who remain somewhat under-the-radar but those who come across them are blown away by their skills on deck. And sometimes, thankfully, those DJs deservedly get their dues on a grander scale. This year has felt like a bit of a tipping point for Hiroko Yamamura in that sense. She’s been active in the scene of her hometown of Chicago for over two decades and is revered in the city for her dynamic sets of techno, house, electro and acid that blend jacking and ravey sounds. 2024 has seen a lot more of the world catch up, with an absolutely rammed touring schedule that’s taken her across North America, Europe and Asia, including at leading clubs such as New York’s Nowadays, London’s The Cause, Amsterdam’s RADION, Beijing’s Zhao Dai, Bali’s Klymax Discotecheque, and Hanoi’s Savage. At the same time bookings have been piling up at festivals, such as Sustain Release, Movement and Wonderfruit, and she’s played two viral streams, for Boiler Room and in our very own Lab LDN, where she unleashed hard, hypnotic sounds while dressed in a heavy metal band tee. It sent both the attendees and the internet wild. Battling the monotony of DJ Instagram with an endless slew of memes is just another string to her bow.

Most refresing of all, she’s also cool and real as fuck, straight-talking and unpretentious, and deeply knowledgeable about the lineage she comes from while stressing how indebted she is to those that paved the way. Despite her solid reputation in her hometown, any time she’s accredited as such she’s quick to downplay it. “I'm definitely not a legend of Chicago. I'm very much still a consumer, a fan, and a raver, and just a lover of music, that has an opportunity to DJ right now,” she said to us when meeting in the city at ARC last year. There’s no chance that her rise to greater prominence will change her modest view, even if it’s getting harder to rationalise. Ultimately she represents the best of this culture in 2024: paying respect to the past, bringing immense talent to the present, and refusing to comply to a clout-chaser future.

There aren’t many DJs who can say they’ve made an impact on the music and fashion scene like Keinemusik have. Since 2009, when the group first united, Keinemusik have ventured across the globe becoming established artists individually on top of working together as a powerhouse for the electronic landscape. Made up of Adam Port, &ME, Rampa and Reznik - with the help from their graphic artist Monja Gentschow - together they made 2024 their biggest year to date. As a group, we’ve seen them play round-the-clock whilst still consistently going above and beyond with their shows. Without a doubt, the group’s highlight of the year has to be performing live at the Great Pyramids of Giza, pairing epic scenery paired with a two-hour set. As well as this, they have played the likes of the closing night at Hï Ibiza to their own sold-out eponymous festival in London’s Finsbury Park, while footage of their sets constantly goes viral to their millions-strong online fanbase.

In addition to music, fashion has always been a key part of the Keinemusik brand, from their own merch such as a spin on the iconic Pacha cherries to starting a fashion trend that became infectious not just to fans but also beyond. The trio’s silk headscarf look has become a rave staple with swarms of people gathering in their multicolour scarfs wrapped heads to social media feeds filled with tutorials on how to perfect the look. The Keinemusik “Kloud” truly breezed through 2024.

Rising out of Amsterdam’s queer scene in 2018 to become a full-throttle force as a DJ today, Dutch phenomenon KI/KI has garnered huge success in 2024 with her euphoric blends of trance, acid, electro, industrial, and devastatingly hardcore techno. So far this year, KI/KI has jumped from the world’s most recognised dance music stages, from Tomorrowland’s Core Stage to Glastonbury’s Arcadia, sharing the booth with the likes of VTSS, Anetha, HAAi, DJ Gigola, and more along the way, as well as embarking on her first North American tour. Mammoth sets from the Dutch DJ this year included 18 total hours behind the booth at the 2024 edition of Amsterdam Dance Event, an explosive performance on AVA Festival’s Boiler Room stage, and what she calls “90 minutes of madness” in the dance at Warsaw’s historic Palace of Culture and Sciences alongside Mixmag in October. To top off a particularly stellar year, KI/KI recently unveiled her remix of arguably the biggest record of the year, ‘BRAT’, turning Charli xcx and Billie Eilish’s ‘Guess’ into a rowdy, high-energy club cut.

“Wizard” is one of those words that is thrown around far too often in dance music, especially when relating to people mixing one record into another. But listening to Neffa-T blend weighty dubstep, grime, techno, broken beats and more while working up to six decks at any one time, it’s hard to describe the result as anything other than sorcery. He’s been blowing minds for years now, but this year has seen him take his talents and stack of tracks rooted in 140 BPM UK bass music far beyond, touring to Australia, USA and Japan, where he headed a bill for Tokyo’s underground scene leaders TREKKIE TRAX. Yet perhaps most impressively, there’s no gatekeeping his skills that make him a one-in-one DJ. Since October, in collaboration with Mode London, he has been hosting Technicals, a series of pay-what-you-can DJ lessons to people of any skill level, with proceeds going to charity. Magic.

It doesn’t get much more satisfying than witnessing a scene legend getting their well-deserved flowers, and 2024 has been a bouquet full of Rosa Pistola. Audiences everywhere from Milan to Melbourne, Barcelona to Belgrade, San Francisco to Switzerland, have become entranced by her blistering blends — that often see her pair up well-worn reggaeton classics, progressive sounds from upcoming producers from her native Colombia, her newfound home of Mexico, nations across the South American continent, and rare cuts that only the genre’s foremost digger could have gotten their hands on.

While the global electronic scene’s fascination with club music from Latin America shows no signs of abating, it would be a disservice to ascribe her rise to a so-called trend. While reggaeton and cumbiatón’s popularity continue to surge outside the region, Rosa Pistola remains resolute in her approach to her artistry, creating for and informed by windowless basements; spaces that can only exist within the graffiti-laden backstreets of the Mexican capital city she calls home. She embodies this on a sonic level with sets, characterised by sweaty rhythm, jagged percussion and fluttering bass. Her stage presence is just as majestic, bounding behind the controller, covered head-to-toe in tattoos, donning punk-meets-streetwear looks from her fashion line (RIP by Rosa Pistola) and rocking the kind of bass face that punches you straight in the gut. All this would be enough to earn her a spot on this list, yet Rosa Pistola is simultaneously a flagbearer for her genre, an expert in all things reggaeton and cumbia — she is less a soldier of the scene, and more an artist that is cultivating and connecting a scene from the ground up. One click on her social media pages and you have already come across a plethora of shout outs to her favourite producers and DJs, while her imprint La Chekera Records - that she co-runs alongside Dj Sueño and Barrio Bravo - is providing a home for burgeoning talent across Latin America. While her “Crossover” residency at London’s Colour Factory saw her bring along a diverse selection of guests such as Mexico's Freebot, French rap and reggae expert King Doudou and Tanzanian speed king DJ Travella. Rosa Pistola is a spectacle, an oracle, a mentor and a selector… all rolled into one, and if she’s going global, she is bringing all of her favourites along for the ride.

Sama’ Abdulhadi is a world class techno pioneer who has been forced by geopolitical horrors to additionally become a figurehead for something more significant. This year, the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people by Israeli forces has triggered protestors in their millions around the world. For those directly affected, the trauma is unimaginable. In the dance music sphere, Ramallah-raised Sama’ Abdulhadi is the face of the Palestinian liberation movement as the most visible Palestinian techno DJ, standing alongside peers such as Nour, Ya Hu and Haya. Dance music has always been political, and Sama’ has been upholding that lineage, fighting for the cause and her people this year. She’s led fundraising concerts and efforts, including bringing the Resilience platform she founded last year to aid artistic expression, protest and solidarity for the marginalised, displaced and oppressed to ADE. She’s used social media to further amplify these voices and the battle for freedom. She’s taken on a US presidential candidate, criticising the Democrat’s Kamala Harris for the “deeply offensive” and “unauthorised” use of her image in campaign imagery while the party’s incumbent President signs off hundreds of millions of dollars worth of arms shipments to Israel. She’s called out silence in the techno scene and jeopardised her own career to stand up for her values, which extend across borders to other nations suffering the violence of settler colonialism. Amid coping with distress and devoting herself to activism, she’s also managed to maintain her awe-inspiring form on the decks with powerful, stimulating DJ sets, including major gigs across the world at the likes of fabric, Amnesia, Watergate, Public Works, Time Warp Brasil and DGTL festivals in India. It’s hard to think of a DJ who represents anything more important this year.

While last year propelled Sammy Virji into stardom, 2024 has seen him go supernova. If you take into account extensive UK and US tours, a stupendously stacked summer plus a Boiler Room that is close to racking up half a million views in just over a month, it's no wonder why you can't go anywhere without bumping into the NUKG poster boy's infectious smile. The man is full-to-the-brim main stage material, as countless festivalgoers can attest to. He's shown no signs of slowing down either: the garage and bassline producer already has behemoth Australian and European tours, a Coachella debut, plus a B2B with Four Tet at WHP Rotterdam all lined up for next year. In addition, Virji's discography, which already boasts worldwide hits such as 2-step sensation 'Shella Verse' and the Tessela bassline flip 'Hackney Pigeon', has been bolstered by grimey number 'Bogeyman', the saccharine summer hit 'Moonlight' and the devastating new Interplanetary Criminal collab 'Damager' in the past 12 months. The new garage scene has had a booming year and both IPC and his London-born counterpart have been flying the flag for the genre beyond its British homeland. There's no escaping it: pound for pound, Sammy Virji is the biggest DJ in the UK right now. Isn't it.

There is no question why Sara Landry is named the high priestess of hard techno. As a figurehead of the genre, Landry has pushed forth the new generation of hard techno-lovers with her relentless sets and now global fanbase. As a self-taught producer, audio engineer and DJ, Sara has truly worked her way to the top in a genre that has always been regarded as male-centred. This year the Texas-based DJ not only played the likes of Amnesia, Time Warp, DGTL, ARC Festival, Teletech and Creamfields as she cemented her place as one of the scene’s most popular artists, she also made history as the first artist of the genre to play the Tomorrowland mainstage. And so it comes as no surprise that she also almost instantly sold out her double headline Los Angeles show.

Behind the decks, you can see Sara pour her soul into her sets as the energy never wavers along with the fast tempo of her tracks, showing an enthusiasm and natural devotion to the music that makes her sets so sought after. Recently, to round off what has been a relentless year of touring, Landry released her debut album ‘Spiritual Driveby’ on her own label, HEKATE RECORDS. Infused with the same raw emotion she shares at her shows, the LP echoes an emphasis on catharsis and communion.

DJ, producer, and composer SickFlip has spent the past year grinding toward national success, now standing as one of the most influential dance music artists in India. But while his shows have taken him around the country time and time again in 2024, including plenty in his home city Mumbai, Sickflip has also picked up recognition internationally, cementing his name firmly in the global bass scene. In June, Sickflip brought his fusion of breaks, hip hop, and baile funk to the masses at New York’s Indo Warehouse where he went B3B with Californian duo Baalti, alongside the likes of Nabihah Iqbal and Ahadadream, before heading back home to smash through two back-to-back DGTL India shows across two days, the first in Mumbai, and the second in Bengaluru. Returning to Mixmag’s The Lab for a landmark third time in 2024 – this time on home ground in Mumbai – Sickflip delivered his signature bass and percussion-forward style to carnage crowds with some previews of his forthcoming productions – a true, celebratory homecoming.

When discussing Skin On Skin's 2024, it's probably easier to note where he hasn't played rather than where he has, given the sheer volume of shows he has performed. We're going to try the difficult way anyway. At the forefront of the 909 heavy and hard, yet emotional, side of techno alongside trailblazers like Mall Grab and KETTAMA, the South Sudan-born, Australia-based artist began the year with an extended China tour that stopped off at Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzen and Shanghai. Festival season started with Coachella and snowballed into South American sessions at Time Warp (São Paulo), DGTL (Santiago), and Baum (Bogotá). After a brief stateside soujourn for Movement Detroit, SOS started his European tour with festival appearances at We Love Green, Ohm, Sónar, Paradise City Festival and Lowlands. Rounding off the summer season, a Field Day B2B with the aforementioned G-TOWN RECORDS boss KETTAMA delivered on all fronts. Refusing to stay still, Skin On Skin subsequently launched September On Sight: four parties at undisclosed locations in Naarm/Melbourne. The following months featured a North American tour and a return to Europe to kick off, you guessed it, another tour, this time named Stay On Sight after his label of the same name. It's safe to say the South Sudanese selector has played everywhere this year, with his energy and style defining dancefloors worldwide.

Amapiano is for the girls… at least if TxC, AKA Tarryn and Clair, have anything to do with it. While these best friends from Gqeberha in South Africa’s Eastern Cape have been making moves since their debut set in 2019, this year has seen TxC take their soulful-yet-fiery take on the fastest-growing electronic genre global — having made their headline debut in London with their Girls Run Piano party at Studio 338 in March, alongside festival and club appearances in Miami, Berlin, Amsterdam, Cyprus, Lisbon, Cape Town, Dominican Republic and more. This year also saw Tarryn and Clair release their debut EP ‘A Fierce Piano’, with lead single ‘Turn Off The Lights’ featuring Tony Duardo hitting No. 2 in the South African charts and landing them their very own billboard in New York’s Time Square. At the beginning of 2024, TxC spoke of being inspired by the likes of Kabza de Small, DBN Gogo and DJ Maphorisa — so it’s with delightful serendipity that as the year rounds out, the pair have earned their place among the ranks of amapiano’s biggest stars, all the while refusing to compromise on their mission to make amapiano more accessible and femme-centred. And with a unique take on amapiano that incorporates elements of neo-tech, pumping house and rough-edged bass, their ascendance is helping to redefine audiences’ understanding of the genre, rewriting the rulebook in their own image.

As hard and fast, in-your-face techno has continued to dominate dancefloors and line-ups over the past 12 months, Japanese maestro Wata Igarashi has done what he’s always done – zag down his own path into the dark and deep. Having been DJing and producing for over a decade now, his psychedelic sets and productions have long been revered for their subtlety and layer-building, but fresh off the back of his first full-length studio album in 2023, he has been a global fixture in 2024. Tours to the US & Canada, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia and more alongside regular sets on home turf in Japan have given dancers in most areas of the world a chance to catch him, plus he rounds out the year in style with a marathon joint hybrid set alongside fellow deep techno legend Peter Van Hoesen at The Observatory in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City, in what is quickly becoming an annual tradition. It's also been a big year for Wata as a producer, helming the re-release of the Dekmantel Records’ UFO sublabel and sharing a 12-inch with fellow Japanese techno legend DJ Nobu for fabric Originals.