Dekmantel Selectors

The Selectors festival will be back in 2017. After years of looking toward the past and (rightfully) lionizing the DJ heroes of days gone by—Frankie Knuckles, Ron Hardy, Larry Levan, etc.—it’s time for dance music to celebrate the new generation of selectors that has blossomed in their wake. And while these artists do often dig for vinyl, play marathon sets and prefer intimate dancefloors to massive crowds, they shouldn’t be mistaken for mere revivalists. Their methods may be traditional, for lack of a better word, but their willingness to venture into unexplored corners of the musical spectrum and push the dancefloor beyond its usual limits has absolutely re-energized the DJ sphere.

Part of what makes these artists so intriguing is that even though they can all loosely be tagged as “selectors,” no two are exactly alike. In purely musical terms, some of them are in fact diametrically opposed. So once again, we’re left with the question of what, exactly, is a selector? If anyone might know, we figured it would be the artists themselves, so we’ve asked some of folks playing the 2017 Selectors festival to share their thoughts about the art of DJing and how they approach their craft. Read more.