Don't Sweat the Technique: The Most Skilled DJs in EDM Right Now

One of the key difference between the "electronica" craze of the 1990s and today's EDM scene is the fact that vinyl is pretty much unheard of as a mea

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Complex Original

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One of the key difference between the "electronica" craze of the 1990s and today's EDM scene is the fact that vinyl is pretty much unheard of as a means to play or sell music. Back in the '90s, the turntable was outselling the guitar and being looked at as an instrument, and not just something to play music on; today, if you have a good DJ controller and a laptop with Serato, there's no reason for a turntable to be in your life.

With that loss of the art of vinyl and how it pertains to DJing, there are certain skills and techniques that DJs who learned on that medium just don't have today. Not to say that a DJ coming up now can't be as technically skilled as someone from that era, but without that knowledge, they learn different skills... or find ways to bypass the need for those skills to work on their mixing and whatever effects they bring to the table.

The art of that kind of older DJ is not lost however. There are DJs who cut their teeth on the older model and are now helping shape the dance music scene. Some of the names are obvious, while others might not be as known, but these DJs have the skills to really excite a crowd through the art of turntablism. Here are the most skilled DJs in EDM right now.

A-Trak

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A-Trak might be the best of both worlds when it comes to properly mixing dance music with adept DJ skills. The best part was it feels like his was just a natural progression. At the age of 15, A-Trak became the first Canadian to win the DMC World Championship, as well as being the the first to win five World Championships, including titles in the DMC, ITF, and Vestax competitions. Once the DJ battle scene lost its luster, A-Trak took to experimentation, which seemingly lead to more work mixing and utilizing dance music. His label, Fool's Gold, is a prime example of the blending of both worlds, and to this day he still comes up with intricate scratch routines to today's biggest tracks.

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Bad Boy Bill

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Chitown's Bad Boy Bill was a threat from the old school; he won the 1998 DMC Midwest championship, and placed second and third in the 1988 and 1989 US finals, respectively. He was legally licensing his DJ mixes, setting trends for DJs across the city - and soon the country - and still maintaining an edge between a dope selection of tunes and a def technical skill behind the decks, being known to do six-deck mixes... by himself.

DJ Craze

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DJ Craze holds the distinction of holding the prestigious DMC World Championship three times in a row, owning the battle scene from 1998 to 2000. Alongside DJs like A-Trak and Klever, Craze was part of the Allies DJ crew, who also ran rampant on the team DJ battle competitions, as well as releasing their own music. Craze got bit by the drum & bass bug in the late '90s, but after getting soured on the politics behind the scenes, he started exploring other sounds within the dance music scene. He now runs Slow Roast, which has dropped everything from house to moombahton, and continues to astound us with his insane routines, showcasing how mindblowing an astute DJ can be when giving these kinds of controllers.

Shiftee

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Shiftee is a part of the American bass music scene, and a supreme DJ. He's numerous DJ battle titles, including being the only American to win the DMC Battle for World Supremacy in 2007, and was inducted into the DMC's DJ Hall of Fame after his 2009 DMC World Championship win. He's an adjunct professor at NYU (teaching the art of DJing, what else?), and is a frequent instructor at NYC's Dubspot. You can catch him these days representing the bass music sound both in the States and abroad as part of the Hot Mom USA collective, as well as his frequent mixtape collaborations with Butterz' own Elijah.

The Scratch Perverts

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The Scratch Perverts is a London trio that's set the world on fire with their blazing cuts, winning the first DMC Team championships in 1999. One of the members, Prime Cuts, actually bested A-Trak in the 1999 ITF battle, while Plus One (who is also one-half of Jack Beats) won a Vestax championship in 2000. The best part about the Perverts? When UK artists need to fill in some scratching on their tracks, the Perverts seemed to fill that void, and have grown into UK bass, drum & bass, and house, with the aforementioned Prime Cuts' crew Jack Beats releasing tunes on OWSLA and Cheap Thrills while remixing A-Trak, Flux Pavilion, and Skream, among others.

TJR

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TJR is the kind of head who grew up on Bad Boy Bill, and when he pulls out a sample and starts cutting over some banging house, you can see the influence. That was a major sound you heard back in the '90s in some circles, so to see a DJ utilize that in today's scene definitely spices things up from the same, monotonous mixes.

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Enferno

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Enferno was a clasically-trained musician, playing the piano and studying jazz piano further down the road, but his main instrument of choice is a plethora of DJ equipment. His specialty is live remixes of popular tracks, using everything from Serato to various synthesizers to manipulate tracks unlike we've ever seen before.

Laidback Luke

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Maybe Luke's kung-fu training helped him learn how to execute discipline when it came to the turntables? Who knows. He's been at it since the 1990s, and while he's more known for his expert mixing and crowd-rocking selection, he's not afraid to get on the turntables and cut up a few things.

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Klever

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Klever's held his own in the DJ battle circuit, winning the U.S. DMC Championship two years in a row (2000, 2001), as well as killing competitons in the ITF and throughout Atlanta, where he resides. Over the last few years, he's really honed his craft as a producer, exploring a number of different styles of bass music; we hate to see Klever as a producer-first, but his tracks are that good. And when you get him on the decks, he's still murder.

Birdy Nam Nam

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Birdy Nam Nam got into DJing through their love of hip-hop, and this foursome slayed the competition and won the 2002 DMC Technics World TEAM Championship. Their work as producers helped bring them into the dance music realm, getting enough buzz on their releases that Skrillex took notice, signing (and releasing) their Defiant Order LP on his OWSLA imprint.

Eddie Halliwell

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It's great to see a DJ who knows how to get a crowd to a fever pitch, then blow their minds with some amazing scratches to push a crowd over the edge. Eddie's done it to death, previously hosting his own show for BBC Radio 1, being named "DJ of the Year" with Mixmag from 2003-2005, to holding down residencies at Gatecrasher and Cream.

Kutski

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You can catch Kutski on the BBC Radio 1 "Residency" show on Fridays, and is a cutmaster supreme. He has a great understanding of a number of different genres, and isn't afraid to keep the idea of machete cuts in his mixes on the regular.

Terrence Parker

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Terrence has been at it for 30 years, with gigs being played worldwide, as well as a large body of remix work for everyone from Kelly Rowland to the Pet Shop Boys. This Detroit vet knows what time it is, and when to get on the decks and cut.

James Zabiela

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What's great about UK DJ James Zabiela is his use of equipment along with his turntable technique. He's not in the class of world champs like Shiftee, but he knows how to accent his already-impressive forte of scratches with the equipment being produced today to take his experimentation to tthe next level, to the point where he's actually helped Pioneer refine their different decks.

DJ Marky

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There's only a few drum & bass DJs that can cut, and DJ Hype can cut but isn't doing the things Marky has done. Be it mimicing the melody of the beat with his scratches or his patented upside-down turntable scratch, his mastery of the turntable makes his live sets must-see, especially when he's digging so deep into his crates that he's doing four to six hour sets by himself.

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