Vintage Culture

From:Brazil

DJ style:“House, tech-house, melodic house.”

Best known for:“Moving between different genres and playing long sets from dusk until dawn.”

Back — and up another spot — in the Top 10 of the Top 100 DJs poll for the second year running, it’s not hard to figure out how Brazilian DJ and producer Vintage Culture continues to climb the poll year-on-year. In 2015, he appeared at No. 118, and he’s evolved year on year. In 2023 he told DJ Mag that he felt his sound had “become more global”, having held down his residency at Hï Ibiza, while also playing Tomorrowland, Coachella, Creamfields and Ultra. And this year, he proved us right.

Vintage Culture (real name: Lukas Rafael Ruiz Hespanhol) was born in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but grew up just across the border in Katueté, a farming city in Paraguay. It has few more than 10,000 inhabitants, and a Google image search for it reveals nothing more than dirt track roads and a few buildings. Speaking in DJ Mag’s cover story earlier this year, he said: “If you saw it, man, you would think, ‘How did this kid get to where he is?’ Life is crazy man, life is crazy.” And crazy it continues to be.

In 2024, Vintage Culture returned to the White Isle for another residency at Hï Ibiza alongside FISHER, while also making stops at Tomorrowland’s CORE Tulum, Marco Carola’s Music On, Awakenings Festival, and Kappa

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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