The myth of the Belleville Three had a good life, but now it’s time for the final nail in its coffin to be well and truly hammered down. With Derrick May now having effectively been disgraced, it has brought about the revelation in Detroit that they will now never see the three men who perform under this fictional name together again. Nearly a fortnight ago, I published a not terribly…
Some people occasionally complain that this blog isn't positive enough about the dance music world. To which I plead not guilty - I think there's a lot of fantastic music being created out there. But the mere idea that discussing issues within dance music somehow makes me negative is downright ridiculous. One thing I've mentioned a few times lately is cash-strapped festivals deciding to go for broke by only booking…
During the heights of the MDL Beast Soundstorm festival controversy last year, I described the event as being "like the McDonald’s of festivals". I was commenting on what I was seeing as festivals started to come back during last year - and one thing was very noticeable. Many of the big festivals essentially have the same lineups. This is great news if you're a DJ due to the earning opportunities…
When speaking about Defected, all the sources who have provided this blog with information and insights on the label are united in one - they all say Simon Dunmore is probably the most hard-working man in house music today. Which is why as much as I sometimes question the label he runs, I've never doubted his work ethic. Sources tell me it originates from his days working at a senior…
There are an awful lot of DJs in the upper echelons of dance music who filled their quiet time during the pandemic by training themselves up as virologists. Or so you'd be forgiven for thinking - although most aren't quite stupid enough to at least publicly remain quiet. Thankfully, a few managed to keep their marbles. Well, mostly. When he isn't accepting gigs from festivals that are least partially funded…
Danny Tenaglia was, for many years, one of the more hardworking DJs in the house music world. Like many of his era, he was a fan of doing sets that were around 412 hours long, and his output in the studio was just as prolific too. And for a while in the 1990s, he was also one of the names on speed dial at record labels looking for remixes of…
This has been quite the eventful week for Carl Craig. It started with Craig complaining about a post on this blog with the juvenile "Haters gonna hate" caption. Then it emerged he had died - only for the man himself to confirm later that he most definitely wasn't dead. Anyone made of less tough stuff than the Detroit DJ and producer might have been easily forgiven for deciding to go…
There was a time, many years ago, when it was very profitable indeed to be Mr Daniel Rampling. He had a Saturday night show on BBC Radio 1 and a packed DJ schedule - not bad going for a bloke who has all the mixing abilities of a broken Kenwood. One friend who knew him at the time said "he had far more money than he knew what to do…
If we're now meant to be living in an age where we're all inclusive and try our best to make everyone feel welcome, regardless of who or what they are, someone clearly forgot to tell the festivals what was going on. This particularly conservatively minded sector of the music business has always been a bit pale, male and stale. More fanciful types would have you believe at the start of…
As far as farces go, this one is quite the whopper. Last September, Departure announced they were holding an event in Mexico's Playa Del Carmen in January - and a big event it would be, taking place over six days. They even paid Mixmag a wad of money to write a nice article about them. Curiously, they made no reference to the fact most of the lineup consisted of plague…
