Calvin Harris

From:Dumphries, UK

DJ style:Dance pop and party anthems

Best known for:Megahits galore, including ‘How Deep Is Your Love’, ‘In My Arms’ and ‘Free’

Not many artists have managed to create big tune after big tune after big tune, over multiple genres and with style to spare, since the early days of the millennium. Calvin Harris is one of the leaders of that small club. Harris, who brashly titled his 2007 debut album ‘I Created Disco’, released the hit-laden seventh album ‘96 Months’ this past summer, and to peruse the tracklist is something of a mind-blowing experience, with earworms like the piano-banging, trance-tinged ‘Free’ (featuring Ellie Goulding) and the electro-house charmer ‘One Kiss’ (with Dua Lipa) proving that he knows how to come up with the chart-topping goods.

Harris certainly knows his way around club-friendly material as well — tracks like 2020’s raved-up ‘Hypnagogic’ could rock a party as well today as it did the day it came out — and while his festival sets tend to combine his pop and dance sides, he’s put an expiration date on his DJing. “I always said that once I get past 50, I can’t see me DJing, man,” Harris told the UK radio station Capital Dance earlier this year — but hey, he’s only 40, so there’s still plenty of time to enjoy one of the world’s best in a live setting.

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Faustix

From:Denmark

DJ style: “Big techno.”

Best known for: “Collaboration with Diplo, Faustix, Imanos and Kai called ‘Revolution’.”

Everything about 2024 was big and bold for Faustix. The Danish dance music lifer found a new sound over the course of the past year, where ropey and dramatic arpeggios dart in and out of brash techno kicks and every drop feels like barreling down a dopamine rollercoaster. Each release seemed to push the envelope further and further — from the soaring emotions of ‘Lead Me To Love You’ with vocalist Mougleta to ‘All My Friends Are Hot’, whose cheeky vocal flip (“All my friends are hot and only listen to techno”) was the perfect summer festival anthem. Add to that a teased remix of Belgian Stromae ‘Alors on danse’ and it’s clear that 2024 was, without a doubt, the year Faustix found a whole new groove.

While he’s certainly been busy in the studio, Faustix has also played everywhere — from 13,000 person raves in the middle of Copenhagen to gigs on the Faroe Islands. Faustix, in other words, hasn’t taken his foot off the gas for even a second. And, with each gig and release, he is testament to how much people still love pumping, hard-edged techno.

Fave tune of 2024?

“Dash Berlin ‘Till The Sky Falls Down’, it’s an all-time classic and still gets me