Steve Aoki

From:USA

DJ style:“Elevated Dance Music.”

Best known for:“HIROQUEST.”

He may have started out in the world of hardcore punk rock, underground fanzines and harsh electro, but nowadays, Steve Aoki is no stranger to pop. Back in February this year, Aoki released a collaboration with Argentinean artists TINI and La Joaqui. ‘Muñecas’ mixed cumbia, R&B and rap, scoring a chart hit in several Latin American countries and also Spain. “I reached out to TINI pre-COVID and we went back and forth since then to get ‘Muñecas’ finished,” Aoki says.

He also teamed up with Singaporean singer JJ Lin, for the similarly pop-focused ‘The Show’, mixing R&B and shimmering trance riffs. Those songs were indicative of Aoki branching out into other styles beyond dance music, something he’s been doing for a while. Nevertheless, he put out plenty of dance tracks too, including ‘Wild’ with Vini Vici, ‘Friends’ with Dimitri Vegas and Chapter & Verse, ‘Concentrate’ with PUNX and 3LAU, and ‘2 Much 2 Handle’ with Alok. Aoki also released an unexpected remix of old Beach Boys surf rock hit ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’, while his latest single is ‘Paranoia’, an acid-driven house track with vocals from Danna Paola.

In 2023, Steve Aoki was hard at work on his eighth album. In-between constant gigs across the US, he was putting the finishing touches on ‘HIROQUEST: Double Helix’, the sequel to last year’s ‘HIROQUEST: Genesis’. Set for release in November 2023 his Dim Mak label, it features collaborations with R&B star Ako

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Le Shuuk

From: Stuttgart, Germany

DJ style:“Hard dance / electro / hardstyle / techno / EDM.”

Best known for: “The tracks ‘Sandmann’, ‘Toast Hawaii’ and ‘Konje’, as well as being a resident and face of WORLD CLUB DOME Festival.”

A mainstay of the electronic scene for almost 20 years now, Stuttgart native Le Shuuk is no stranger to the rigours of touring. In the last 12 months, he decided to overhaul his lifestyle, committing to exercising regularly and abstaining from drinking during his shows. As a result, the DJ and producer, who is a favourite of the German festival circuit, says that he is having more fun on stage than ever. He credits these changes with allowing him to connect on a deeper level with his audiences, as well as redefine his career goals and look with renewed focus to the future.

The new healthy habits clearly agree with him. As well as recently performing at festivals and clubs across Europe, and holding his own Le Shuuk & Friends parties in his home city, he continues to build on the momentum of tracks like 2020’s peak-rave, German language tune ‘Sandmann’ and 2021’s hypnotic ‘Goodbye’ (featuring Xillions). This year he had another star turn with the explosive ‘Konje’, a collaboration with B-Stylezz that combined modern techno and EDM with the traditional elements of Bulgarian folk songs, with the track receiving big support from the likes of Armin van Buuren, Amelie Lens, and Joyhauser.