DMb | Dance Music blog & Podcast

Always wanting to be a dancer, Juliet Star enjoyed dancing to the beautiful sounds of Progressive House and Trance. The transition from just dancing to the music, and wanting to play it instead, was a slow one but eventually took hold and a love for DJing was born.

After joining #trancefamily and a trip to Holland Juliet found a home for herself among Trance lovers from all over the world. Currently residing in San Diego, California, Juliet Star can be found performing across the Southwest US with her take on Progressive and Trance with the occasional Breaks or House set.

Currently you can catch her live every Thursday at 6pm PST / 9pm EST on ProjectRadio.us for her show ‘The Mix Hour’ and ever Sunday 6pm PST / 9pm EST for 2 hours on ProjectRadio.us and JulietStar.com

Moving forward keep an eye open for some original Juliet Star productions and her contributions to the blog United States Trance Movement.

Juliet Star has put together a great collection of Trance tracks that showcases her programming and mixing skills. Download then head over to her podcast and subscribe.

Enjoy!

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:01:13 — 70.1MB)

Mix Info & Tracklisting (more…)

I honestly didn’t see it coming. David Guetta? I figured he would have topped out at number 2 but I guess working with lots of commercial rap/r&b/pop singers will get you more votes. I hope this doesn’t start a bigger trend of more commercial music that we already have in our massively expanding dance music scene. Well congrats to David Guetta and cheers to Armin van Buuren for a great run!

Some notable movers: AVICII (up 33), Swedish House Mafia (up 13), Skrillex (debut at #19!), Arty (up 53), Martin Solveig (up 26), Calvin Harris (up 60), Noisecontrollers (up 55), W&W (up 36), Pete tha Zouk (up 44), Dada Life (up 38), Steve Aoki (debut at #42), Lange (down 29), Joachim Garraud (down 32), Simon Patterson (down 48), Felguk (debut at #87), James Zabiela (down 45), and Marcel Woods (down 32).

The top 100 DJ’s of 2011:

01. David Guetta (up 1)
02. Armin van Buuren (down 1)
03. Tiësto (non-mover)
04. Deadmau5 (non-mover)
05. Above & Beyond (non-mover)
06. Avicii (up 33)
07. Afrojack (up 12)
08. Dash Berlin (up 7 )
09. Markus Schulz (down 1)
10. Swedish House Mafia (up 13)
11. Paul van Dyk (down 5)
12. Axwell (down 2)
13. Gareth Emery (down 6)
14. Fedde Le Grand (up 5)
15. ATB (down 4)
16. Sander van Doorn (down 4)
17. Headhunterz (up 17)
18. Ferry Corsten (down 9)
19. Skrillex (BEST new entry)
20. Laidback Luke (down 3)
21. Infected Mushroom (down 8 )
22. Aly & Fila (down 2)
23. Steve Angello (down 9)
24. Hardwell (new entry)
25. Arty (up 53)
26. Sebastian Ingrosso (down 10)
27. Benny Benassi (down 1)
28. Daft Punk (up 16)
29. Martin Solveig (up 26)
30. Kaskade (up 5)
31. Carl Cox (down 9)
32. Chuckie (up 5)
33. Bob Sinclar (up 5)
34. Calvin Harris (up 60)
35. Noisecontrollers (up 55)
36. W&W (up 36)
37. Pete tha Zouk (up 44)
38. Dada Life (up 38)
39. Angerfist (new entry)
40. D Block & S Te Fan (up 33)
41. Coone (new entry)
42. Steve Aoki (new entry)
43. Cosmic Gate (down 19)
44. Bobina (down 19)
45. Richie Hawtin (down 14)
46. Eric Prydz (down 16)
47. Zatox (new entry)
48. tyDi (up 8 )
49. Orjan Nilsen (new entry)
50. Andy Moor (down 18) (more…)

3 Days left to vote for your favorites in the 2011 Top 100 DJ List. Go Vote Now!

Bonus Video: One of our favorites, Markus Schulz, in a interview with FluxCity during his recent stop in LA talks about the Dance scene in the US.

Niki Belucci is the symbol of beauty, charm, eroticism, freedom, sexuality and energy. Growing up, Niki had a promising background in gymnastics collecting 21 gold, 12 silver and 8 bronze medals and countless other awards. Years later, after several months in the adult industry she began to focusing on a different hobby, DJing. By then she had been performing in small clubs with her vinyl plates entertaining club goers around the country. In a real professional sense, Niki entered the club life in the fall of 2003. Thanks to her talent and ability to perform well under pressure, she had about 160 performances during her first year in Hungary and in the neighboring countries altogether. More and more new gates opened up to her in the upcoming years mainly Austria, Germany and Russia, while she also continued to perform in her homeland.

After several years of playing gigs and touring the world she signed to Unlimited Sounds, home of the D.O.N.S and only a short while later her hit album was co-produced by D.O.N.S. & DBN, the widely recognized DJ and producer Jerry Ropero and vocals were performed on it by Charles Salter (the voice of Axwell). And Niki’s success story continued…

Niki as a resident DJ has acquired increasing recognition during 2010 and following her previous success in France and Italy, she is asked to become resident at the true home of House music at Amnesia in Ibiza. With that her new home on Wednesdays is now the party island of the Mediterranean, where she is headed straight from Gabicce, Italy, her other home of the past two years.

We have been getting lots of hits on DMb from people searching for more info on Niki Belucci and now we finally have a DJ mix for our loyal podcast listeners that covers the spectrum of Techno, House, and Club music.

Enjoy!

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02:25 — 71.5MB)

Mix Info & Tracklisting (more…)

When I first started listening to this mix I didn’t realize how long it was (5 Hours 47 Minutes to be more precise) and before long I was 3 hours in and completely lost in the rhythm. This is an amazing and flawless DJ Mix from one of Techno’s finest!

Download it now.

More about Speedy J
Jochem Paap is the Rotterdam artist Speedy J, early on in his career he was given the moniker to note his adept skills in his DJ performances. He is unanimously considered to be one of the first techno producers to come from the Benelux. Together with people like Laurent Garnier, Aphex Twin and Richie Hawtin he helped in pushing the genre on just after it had escaped the Detroit delivery room.

Since the early nineties, Speedy J has released his music on Plus 8, Warp and Novamute, while techno developed into a dominating force on many dance floors worldwide. After his seminal albums Ginger (1993) and G Spot (1995), Jochem turned left and headed for other exciting sounds.
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We recently recieved a pair of White Reloop RHP-5 headphones in the mail for review and I was excited to give them a listen because they looked so cool. They have a nice durable rubberized coating that really feels like it could save some potential damage when taking these with you everywhere. When I first took the headphones out of the box I was surprised that these headphones were being marketed towards DJs because they seemed so much smaller and lighter than what I’m used to. I’ve used Sony MDR-V700 headphones for the past 8 years or so and I’ve grown very accustomed to the way they feel and sound. They Reloop headphones didn’t feel nearly as durable or heavy as I was used to so I initially doubted that they could work their way into my DJ bag as a regular accessory.

I went to my computer, unplugged my Sonys, plugged in the RHP-5s, and loaded up FL Studio to start a new track. I was immediately impressed with the low end these little headphone put out. I switched out among 3 different pairs of headphones, the Sony V700s, Sony V500s, and Reloop RHP5s while playing the same bassline and found that the Reloop headphones volume level seemed to be a little bit louder than my other two headphones and that the bass was definitely louder than it was on both pairs of Sonys. Now the Reloop headphones do have a (more…)

As a native of the city that gave birth to House music, Chicago, browntown (Sami Ahmed), has cultivated his roots in House music from a very early age. After living in Florence, Italy and London, England, for some time, browntown has now settled back in his native city and taken his understanding of House music and coupled it with all of the worldly influences he witnessed and experienced himself. Not tied to one specific genre of House, browntown’s live sets are one that leave listeners wanting more -from his Funky Deep House Grooves to his explosive buildups -all who hear hear him continue to listen, love, enjoy, dance.

We’ve been listening to this mix continuously for the past few weeks and it is truly great for all situations, working, chilling out, partying, driving, eating, showering, blogging…you get the point.

Enjoy!

Podcast: Download (Duration: 56:02 — 64.2MB)

Mix Info & Tracklisting (more…)

The Squatters is the brain child of Oliver Portamento and Alex Powell, who have been working together for many years, not just as DJs but also as successful Promoters, Event Organisers and Producers. Taking influences from Oldskool, Hip Hop and Rave, then fusing it with today’s modern House, Electro and more experimental genres such as Dub Step, Drum n’ Bass and even Trance. By cut n’ pasting these together, adding chopped vocals and colossal breakdowns, they have created a unique big room sound that has closed the ranks between the genres ensuring a heavyweight impact on the dance floor.

Their productions and remixes have received consistent airing by BBC Radio One, Kiss100 & Capital FM, as well as support from a countless list of elite radio and club DJs. Having remixed and produced for some of the worlds’ finest Labels & graced some of the world’s finest dance floors.

The Squatters newest track releasing on August 29, ‘Higher’ sticks firmly to their signature sound with stomping 4×4 beats and drops to a rave-influenced riff before building to a bleepy, slidy crescendo, accompanied by an all important vocal tag. We’ve seen this one do damage on an unsuspecting dancefloor and it does NOT disappoint! On remix duties, HeavyFeet with a stompy House mix and Flask with the Dubstep remix.

It’s a great day for a high energy stompy House mix from the Squatters! And if you like this one be sure to head over and subscribe to their Podcast for a regular dose of their sound.

Enjoy!

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:17:03 — 88.2MB)

Mix Info & Tracklisting (more…)