One regrettable truth about the dance music world is how many within it possess almost no sense of self-awareness whatsoever. It’s not hard to explain – this is what happens to people and businesses who operate within an industry where they’re simply not used to being asked questions.

In an ideal world, a healthy dance music press would keep the industry on its toes – supportive when it needs to be, critical when it needs to be. But it doesn’t work like that – even during the glory days of printed magazines in the 1990s, they quickly learned to ask as few questions as possible of those whom they wrote about.

So who’s the latest to have an episode of not being able to see the wood from the trees? Step forward, Defected – who yesterday posted this on their Facebook page…

Isn’t this coming from the same Defected who have the same DJs on most of their event lineups? Whether you’re going to see them in London, Croatia, Australia, or anywhere in between, names like Sam Divine, Low Steppa, and Riva Starr appear at almost every single event that the company does.

And how many of these are new names to the scene? Sam Divine certainly isn’t – her own LinkedIn page reveals her involvement with Defected goes back to at least 2009. Low Steppa is an alias of Will Bailey, a Birmingham producer whose first releases came out in 2004 – whilst Riva Starr’s earliest moments in music date back to at least the year 2000.

As for their event in London to welcome in 2024, who is the “sick, underrated and talented” act headlining the event? Er, it’s Armand Van Helden – an unknown underground producer whose first releases date back to 1992 and who made his name remixing tunes such as “Cotton Eyed Joe” by Rednex…