LAIDBACK Luke has been enjoying a twist on
touring recently by taking a bus instead of
?ights.
“It’s a whole different experience! For
instance, the travel is way easier than ?ying.
No airport security, not dealing with people
at airports on just four hours of sleep.
Basically you sleep on the bus and arrive at a
new location,” he tells us.
As to why so many DJs from The Netherlands
feature in this year’s poll Luke has his own
view. “I always say we have the Dutch crowd
to thank. The Dutch crowd is a very tough
crowd. People don’t let go as easy as in the
rest of the world. And they are very picky,
even if they are your fans. This makes us work
very hard. The bonus is, when we play abroad,
we feel like Superman!” DAVID MCCARTHY
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?02
LAIDBACK LUKE
From: Holland. Style: “Non-pretentious, fun and
energetic.” Best known for: “‘Turbulence’, ‘Show Me Love’
and my remix for [Wynter Gordon’s] ‘Dirty Talk’.” Tune
of 2013: “So many great ones, but I fell in love with the
Melbourne style this year.” Breakthrough DJ/producer of
2013: “Will Sparks/Carnage/GTA and TJR.”
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2013 was the year that Paul van Dyk returned
to the classics. Less ‘Strings of Life’, however,
than the strings at the Munich National Theatre,
mashing together Verdi and electronica in the most
auspicious surroundings of the Bavarian Opera
Festival.
“It was a big challenge,” he says. “It wasn’t
about combining Verdi’s music with electronic
instruments, it was like transferring the
compositions into something that could become a
proper club night. I’m always up for things that are
artistically more challenging.”
But it’s been the scale of one other project that
has pretty much dominated his year — bringing
together the third in his Politics of Dancing series.
This will be no ordinary mix album, however.
Rather than harvest new tracks months in advance,
instead he went into the studio with a wealth
of producers to make origi