Features

As we hit the close of the first major chapter of the 21st century, these are the DJs who defined the year in dance music

• Words: Patrick Hinton, Megan Townsend, Gemma Ross, Becky Buckle, Tibor Heskett, Jack Colquhoun, Shiba Melissa Mazaza, Felipe Maia, Isaac Muk | Design: Keenen Sutherland & Tomi Tomchenko
• 9 December 2025

We’re a quarter of the way through the 21st century now and dance music has arguably never been more popular. You can regularly see huge arenas - even stadiums - packed full of people losing their minds to breakneck BPMs, 4/4 kick drums topping the charts, and DJ sets travelling well beyond the confines of a club, beamed to millions across viral streams. That being said, not every inch of the industry is thriving, and the people putting in the work to cultivate new sounds, support the grassroots, and represent the foundational values of the culture through their work deserve as much recognition as those receiving the adoration of many a sold-out crowd. In a time where these extremes exist in tandem, the DJs who defined the year come from both sides: the sensations, the sonic pioneers, the trendsetters, the underground heroes, the upstarts, the originators. Artists fitting all of these descriptors are standing out among the tumultuous ecosystem of contemporary dance music, doing impressive things.

In the list below, we spotlight our 25 DJs who defined the year (in alphabetical order).

**Read this next: The Top 25 Breakthrough DJs Of The Year 2025 & **The Top 25 Producers Who Defined The Year 2025

Photo: Finnegan Travers

1 Batu

This year Batu, real Omar McCutcheon celebrated 10 years of his label, Timedance*. *The imprint has been at the forefront of forward-thinking dance music since its inception, paving the way for the broken UK techno sound that soundtracked clubs in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Standout releases from himself and UK peers like Ploy, Laksa, Bruce, Metrist and, more recently, international innovators such as Verraco and Yaleesa Hall, with all corners of the globe brought together for a stacked ‘TD10’ compilation, helped establish Batu as one of the British club music’s leading tastemakers and he hasn’t dropped the ball since.

Batu has flown the *Timedance *flag as far and as wide as he can over the past few months, travelling across Europe and the States with a select crew of label affiliates while also celebrating five years of En Masse, the festival amplifying Bristol’s unfiltered and innovative electronic scene he co-founded. Beyond milestones, Batu has been at his bad boy best, demolishing sets at Butik, Dekmantel, Draaimolen, Gala, Horst Club, Open Ground and We Out Here,, fusing the cutting-edge sound design techno that he made his name in with a groovier and ultimately housier approach. The year represents a culmination of the hard work, devotion and the enduring taste of one of the UK’s finest soundsmiths. TH

Photo: Matheus Tannus

2 Caio Prince

Like an unofficial Brazilian ambassador, Caio Prince made the world his baile funk kingdom in 2025 showing off an impressive set of skills and a frenzied selection in his USB stick. From four-to-the-floor agressivo and psychedelic bruxaria to bouncy automotivo or chopped-up ritmada, every strain of mandelão (the São Paulo umbrella category of funk) finds a way in his high-octane mixes. And he also finds his own way in the midst of hyper-saturated kicks and off-kilter drumworks: earlier this year, when 130 BPM baile were the norm among his peers, he made a U-turn to dancehall with ‘Mama Olhando pro Pai’, his collab with DJ Thiago Martins and MC Marvin. The track often ends Prince’s sets, hugging the dancefloor with the precise sultriness that a sweaty hour-long baile funk experience requires. FM

Credit: Thilo Wilcke

3 CLOUDY

Whether you love it or are terrified by it, the masses are still yearning for hard-as-nails techno in their millions, and Cologne-based DJ CLOUDY is giving them exactly what they want. The Teletech and Adrenaline resident started off 2025 gearing up for a sold-out, all-night-long world tour stretching from New York to Melbourne, with stops at Manchester’s Hidden and Madrid’s Mondo Disko in-between. With her trademark blend of hard techno, schranz, 240 sound, and hard groove - all with a few cheeky pop edits thrown in - she’s commanded over thousands of whizzing ravers across stages such as Tomorrowland, Kappa FuturFestival, Verknipt, Terminal V and Hï Ibiza. Alongside 240kmh boss Adrián Mills, she’s helped transform Face 2 Face from a burgeoning party and stream concept to an unmissable club experience in just 12 months – proving that, rather than simply sit in the hard techno box, she’s looking to reshape dancefloors entirely. MT

Photo: Hakuna Kulala

4 Dj Babatr

The raw, fast and rapturous Afro-Venezuelan sound of raptor house has gone global with figurehead Dj Babatr clocking up the most international airmiles of his career in 2025. More than 25 years since he first pioneered the genre in bustling Caracas, the Venezuelan figurehead is now getting the recognition he’s long deserved, after facing years of derision at home that nearly made him quit music altogether. Now making serious inroads in Europe’s club circuit alongside a growth in interest in various Latin America-originating subgenres, respect at home has followed suit, with his godfather status firmly recognised in the global dance canon. Despite being the most prolific raptor house producer – and releasing an opus of a record this year titled ‘Root Echoes’ whittled down from around 700 archival tracks that he produced in the early-to-mid-’00s – this year was incredibly the first in many decades where Babatr felt like he’d settled successfully into his niche.

Ramping it up tenfold in 2025 from much smaller tours the years prior, Babatr found himself behind the booth just about every weekend. From relentless shows across Mexico at the start of the year to a full-blown tour across Europe lasting the length of summer, there were few moments of pause for Babatr in 2025. Landmark performances at Miami’s III Points and Amsterdam’s Dekmantel turned into on-stage appearances alongside Goldie’s live band as part of his Razzmatazz Barcelona residency, and he even landed the very first international residency of Berlin-based party series Mala Junta. While he recently told Mixmag that this cultural and sonic movement isn’t quite a revival since many hadn’t even heard the sound until its recent come-up, Babatr has firmly spread raptor house overseas and into the ears of thousands this year. GR

Photo: Tristan Rösler

5 DJ Gigola

DJ Gigola is one of those artists who has always been collective and audience-first. Known for throwing parties that attract club kids but will have everyone and anyone moving, Gigola is a perfect example of everything a top DJ should encompass. Energy, ecstasy and of course, an encyclopedic knowledge and love for music.

Ever since she was a teenager, Gigola was invested in the Berlin club scene, making it her destiny to bring that special essence of the city to the rest of the world. In 2016, she joined the independent Live From Earth label, which quickly became a pivotal moment as she went from travelling around waving the flag of the imprint to quickly becoming one of its most recognisable names. Not long after this, her career flew, with 2023 seeing her first album ‘Fluid Meditations’ land, debuted in full prior to release where it all began, Berghain. Now, Gigola, with her signature red hair, is a force to be reckoned with. 2025 has seen her sets become even more genre-fluid, yet still with those distinctive hard-hitting stabs and huge synth build-ups. She combines her love for big room anthems with her other passion of yoga and meditation. Using breath cues and whispered mantras within her own productions, such as ‘Siente (el Ritmo)’, she encourages the crowd to follow the rhythm and synchronise themselves in a group experience. Her sets have become popular not only with fans but also fellow DJs, with Gigola laying many b2bs this year, from a huge set with Solomon as part of his Pacha residency, as well as alongisde names such as KI/KI and Tijana T. On top of all this and playing a countless number of Live From Earth parties, Gigola made her Tomorrowland debut this year, alongside returning to the likes of Glitch Festival, Coachella, EDC Las Vegas, Movement Detroit, Awakenings, Time Warp and more. BB

Photo: Pichamali Studio

6 DJ Travella

At the start of 2025, DJ Travella greeted the internet with a video of speaker stacks dispatching rapid-fire gunshot sounds and laying waste to a dancefloor, before flipping into invigorating singeli and bringing everyone back to life jubilantly. “Booking 2025” he announced. Duly, the Tanzanian wunderkind has had that pronounced an effect on dancefloors across the world throughout the year. Armed with just a laptop and a copy of VirtualDJ, he’s taken clubs and festivals by storm with his futuristic take on breakneck Tanzanian dance music. As well as being inspired by Malian pioneer DJ Diaki, he weaves influence from innovators like Arca, Björk, and other fast-paced club styles such as kuduro and bouyon into frenetic constructions. He calls it “cyber-singeli” — think the impact of a steamroller and the agility of a hummingbird. From Australia to New York’s MoMA PS1 and numerous stops at Europe’s best nightspots — alongside guest mixes on stations such as BBC 6 Music, Kiosk Radio, Rinse FM and *The Lot Radio *— he’s taken singeli across new borders and to many new ear drums. A crowning moment came with his set at Uganda’s Nyege Nyege Festival which sparked pure delirium, rippling beyond his slot when headliner Skrillex also dropped a couple of his tracks. A new maximalist dance music star is born. PH

Photo: Paola Salviano

7 Eris Drew

To be honest, most years could be defined by Eris Drew. Having long been the go-to for anyone wanting to get their grey matter pulsating with the kind of hypnotic deep cuts and straight-to-the-feelings house blends that only the High Priestess of the Motherbeat is seemingly able to muster, anyone who has witnessed an Eris Drew set will have a similar, bewildered-yet-harmonious expression across their faces as they describe it. While many have been able to witness her transcendental, raucous sets in person at Chicago’s ARC, Tilburg’s Draaimolen, New York’s Nowadays, Wales’ Gottwood, and Croatia’s Love International this year, she’s also taken her T4T LUV NRG soundsystem on the road alongside her partner and label co-founder Octo Octa, another vein in her ceaseless endeavour to envelope us all within the Motherbeat. And even if you couldn’t catch her at your local rave centre, Eris Drew’s ascension to the illustrious !K7 archive with her edition of the ‘DJ-Kicks’ mix series means that even listeners at home can get lost within her decadent, spellbinding approach to DJing both now,and for years to come. By this point, an Eris Drew set is basically a bucket list item — a required experience for dance music lovers, purveyors of mysticism and probably even your mate who says they aren’t that bothered but will go anyway. MT

Photo: Sullman

8 Hannah Laing

It’s inspiring enough that a young, working-class woman from Dundee is seemingly taking over dance music, but Hannah Laing is doing it while keeping her hometown ethos at the centre of it all. The Scottish DJ/producer’s combination of full-throttle techno, gleaming old school trance, and rowdy hard house has seen her go from ticket repping in San Antonio to landing her first major White Isle residency at Hï Ibiza. In the same year she sold out her first Teletech headline show at Manchester’s 5000-capacity Aviva Studios, made her Tomorrowland debut, embarked on a US and Asia tour, and she’s still found the time to launch her first-ever festival, Doof in the Park — bringing Armin van Buuren and Judge Jules, alongside a slew of local selectors, to play for the 15,000-strong crowd at Dundee’s Camperdown Park. Outspoken in her belief in supporting smaller scenes, she continues to support grassroots venues across her home city, playing a secret set at Dundee Dance Event (DDE) in May, and this month launching Doof Studios in Dundee, which - in collaboration with Scottish charity Turn the Tables - will offer community-run DJ classes, mentorship and workshops to socially disadvantaged people in the area. It’s been just two years since Laing landed the UK Top 40 hit that saw her quit her job as a dental assistant and soar into stardom, yet this astonishly quick rise seems to have done little to shake her mission to bring everyone else up with her. If every year were defined by a DJ like Hannah Laing, dance music would be a better place. MT

Photo: Victor Boccard

9 Interplanetary Criminal

Fag in his mouth, sovereign rings brushing against the dials, a double-gun finger to the crowd and a good-old shove for whoever joins him behind the ones and twos — has Bolton ever been cooler than Interplanetary Criminal? While his position as one of the UK’s most in-demand DJs had been secured before 2025, with a UK Number 1 under his belt, several world tours, and his own party series — this year saw IPC truly do it up, joining the ranks of dance music’s greats, selling out London’s O2 Brixton Academy, a massive Mixmag Lab and a BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix. And what’s even more class? He’s done it all while staying true to the Northern genres that raised him, ploughing through rowdy donk, hands-to-the-sky speed garage, and proper Big Ang bassline bangers on the world stage. While it’s undeniable that Interplanetary Criminal has been one of the flagbearers for the speed garage/bassline revival in the UK, the Lancashire-raised DJ and producer is now taking them global, setting off audiences from LA to Ibiza, Melbourne to Manchester, to the sounds of Northern greats. MT

Photo: Here & Now

10 Jane Fitz

Jane Fitz has always been a dance music legend. Decades before ‘digging’ became a dance music buzzword – and almost a subgenre in and of itself – she was popping up in raves and festivals around the world with her distinctive mop of hair and a bag of oddball house, prog, Goa and much more, whipping dancefloors into psychedelic frenzies. Talk to the right person and she’s consistently namechecked in conversations of “your favourite heads’ favourite DJ”, while in its heyday, Night Moves – her long-running party with Jade Seatle – was a drop-all-plans pilgrimage for people across the UK.

But 2025 has been the year that she’s truly transcended underground hero status and become a headliner in her own right, no matter what line-up she’s on. The year has been bookended by a marathon Panorama Bar closing just after last Christmas and a return to the Big House’s main floor this November, as well as packing out FOLD in her hometown for extended sets twice. Tours have taken her from Hong Kong to Rio, while summer festival season saw set-of-the-weekend magic at Waking Life, Dimensions, Solstice, rural, Draaimolen, Butik and a euphoric closer at psytrance get together Boom.

Yet perhaps the crowning moment came at Houghton, where Fitz was seemingly everywhere across the weekend, showing off her range in the process. A Giant Steps disco/soul set? Check. Acid-flecked chug with Melina Serser in Terminus? Check. A stripped back, dusty Sunday morning at The Pavilion, historically reserved for the Zips and Ricardos of the world? Jane Fitz has got it all, and now it’s a secret to no one. IM

Photo: JABU.PIX

11 JAZZWRLD & Thukuthela

Southern African Kamohelo “JAZZWRLD” Monese and Kgotso “Thukuthela” Dube moved from rising producers to architects of the year’s most dominant sound of the region. Their partnership, grounded in a shared ear for Afro house, Afrotech, 3-Step and Afro soul, crystallised in a run of releases that reshaped South Africa’s dance landscape. ‘The Most Wanted’, their debut collaborative album containing their biggest hits, landed in September and held the No. 1 spot on Spotify South Africa’s weekly album chart for four consecutive cycles, setting a new streaming benchmark. While their influence is startling, their intention explains their ability to resonate deeply. Singles such as ‘uValo,’ ‘Uzizwa Kanjani,’ ‘Bengicela,’ ‘uMA weNGANE’ and ‘Isaka (6am)’ dominated clubs, radio and streaming platforms; each works as an entry point into their emotionally tuned production styles drawing from heartache, connection and introspection that allowed for the type of masculinity South Africa needs more of, to be known and embraced. The rebrand from Jazzworx to JAZZWRLD aligned with the scale of their vision as the duo spoke openly about wanting to shape a global African sound while grounding their work in the realities of their creative discipline and community experiences. With a commitment to mental health advocacy and a belief that emerging artists deserve resources and mentorship, they approached 2025 as builders rather than chasers of celebrity; their releases extended the vocabulary of Afro house and 3-Step by imbuing contextual and emotional weight alongside Mawhoo, GL Ceejay, Sykes and Babalwa M to genres often defined by elitism and excess, as well as rhythm over vocal production. This balance between dancefloor energy and narrative clarity became their signature, and placed them at the centre of South Africa’s most influential musical year in recent memory. SMM

Photo: Jimi Herrtage

12 Josh Baker

One of the most talked about and in-demand DJs of 2025 has to be Josh Baker. The groove maestro has delivered countless driving sets performing to crowds of thousands upon thousands of fans. From the biggest clubs in Ibiza to a mammoth homecoming show in celebration of 10 years of his You&Me label with a sold-out takeover of The Warehouse Project. Continuing the celebrations, Josh hosted yet another edition of his Hide&Seek Festival, which saw an line-up of greats and some fresh new names, signifying yet another success and ever-growing instalment for the festival. Not only has he been non-stop touring for the last 12 months (and beyond), but one of the main reasons people are heading far and wide to catch this maestro play is due to his productions. This year alone, he’s cooked up anthems that have been heard across the world and in sets from a variety of acts. The release of ‘Dr Feel Right’ cemented his status as Baker linked up with electronic music royalty in The Egyptian Lover and charismatic rapper Rome Fortune. The track became a viral sensation, not just for its infectious lyrics but for the way it got Baker moving each and every time he dropped it. He also released ‘Back It Up’, a track with upcomer Omar+ that soared into the UK Official Charts and stayed there for 12 weeks. To end the year with a bang, he has finally released sought-after EP ‘Come Closer’ and has us itching for next year’s events. With his name already across so many line-ups for 2026 - including some of the biggest festivals in the world in Coachella and Reading & Leeds - we know that Josh Baker’s 2025 reign is to continue into the new year. BB

Photo: Kolja Tinkova

13 Juliana Huxtable

In a world that has descended into what feels like complete chaos, is there a better DJ to help us make sense of it all than Juliana Huxtable? "I use chaotic as a descriptor, not a pejorative," she told RA in an interview this year. For Huxtable, clutter is comfortable, life has never been straightforward, and an avalanche of different elements and techniques to make use of in a DJ set is most welcome. She regularly has faders up on four decks at the same time in her sets, with her hands in a flurry across the various other tools at her disposable, channelling disparate sounds, energies and messages — aided by conscientious preparation and analytical sofware beforehand, and the smash of a hot cue, hypnotic lock in of a loop, or flick of a jog wheel in flow. There’s no sync button here, as she constantly manipulates and evolves an array of tracks into freeform, mind-expanding musical journeys.

Her position as one of the premier DJs in her adopted home of New York is summed up by bookings at just about every leading nightclub in the city this year, including Paragon, Nowadays, TBA, BASEMENT, The Chocolate Factory, Bossa Nova Civic Club, and more, with her range reflected by playing major shows at the likes of Knockdown Center alongside superstar I Hate Models as well as more radical line-ups with her own Shock Value event or community-focused parties such as a Trans Justice Fundraiser at Gitano. Her poltiical principles are another defining factor which makes Juliana Huxtable an essential player in contemporary dance music. This year the twice-published author saw a reprint published of her 2017 collection of poems, performance scripts, and essays Mucus in my Pineal Gland, reflecting the enduring attraction to her ideas and voice, which she also showcases in aural form through her peerless DJ style. The types of clubs outside of New York that are lining up to book her represent her status as a hero for the misfits of society all over the world — these are the people you’ll find at the places she’s toured through: The White Hotel, FOLD and La Cheetah in the UK; Club Raum, RSO.BERLIN, C12, Kaiku and SMUT Athens in Europe; Fabriketa in Brazil; the premier nigthspots in all manner of other US cities such as Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Austin, Detroit, LA, and Washington, D.C.; and festivals such as Making Time, Sustain-Release, Draaimolen, Honcho Campout and HOWL Pride. If you look at her Instagram, there’s no heavily curated videography, tour round-ups or slew of brand partnerships, just a single post from 2015, a screenshot of an essay in German declaring her “The Underground Princess”. Enough said. PH

Photo: James J Robinson

14 KETTAMA

KETTAMA didn’t just define 2025, he took full ownership of it. Ending the previous year on the high of releasing the much anticipated ‘Yosemite’ collaboration with Interplanetary Criminal, the Irish artist, real name Evan Campbell, has been on a generational run ever since.

The Steel City Dance Discs signee began the year with a run of hit singles, including ‘It Gets Better (Forever Mix)’, one of the tracks of 2025, and his remix of the Calvin Harris and Clementine Douglas collab ‘Blessings’, and showed no sign of stopping there. A mammoth residency at Amnesia meant summer started early for KETTAMA, who was tasked with making islanders’ Monday nights for 16 weeks straight while rubbing shoulders with social media sensations like the Ibiza Final Boss and Vuncle. In among regular trips to the Spanish party hotspot, Campbell was here, there and everywhere in the lead-up to the announcement of his debut album. Seismic B2B’s with Chris Stussy and VTSS at Orneau Park and Glitch Festival respectively plus shows with Fred again.. over the summer affirmed KETTAMA’s status as one of the biggest disc jockeys going, and his stock only rose higher with the release of ‘ARCHANGEL’, his first full-length which reached Number One in the UK Dance Albums chart. A Mixmag cover to boot and it is undeniable that Campbell truly is the DJ of the moment. This is the year that KETTAMA’s star went supernova. TH

Photo: Helena Bermejo

15 Kia

2025 was a landmark year for electronic music in Australia. The launch of Mixmag ANZ* *marked another milestone in a culture consistently blooming for decades, and once again getting its flowers. While many artists have emerged in recent years as standouts from so-called Australia’s growing scene, few have done so as naturally as Kia. Her name has become rightly associated with her labels, Animalia and Cirrus, both of which continued to build to the deep tapestry of Australia’s more ‘doof’ adjacent sounds, focused primarily on sub-frequencies, space and a more playful interpretation of techno.

Beyond her label work, Kia has continued to appear on some of the world’s most respected stages, including at Climate Of Fear, Unsound, Dekmantel, pe:rsona, Waking Life, alongside Nous’Klaer and Animalia takeovers at venues like Nowadays, OHM, and Melbourne’s Miscellania.

In a moment where dance has never been bigger, where being a DJ sits as one of the biggest pieces of cultural capital that someone can aspire to, and where there’s never been more money in the industry that surrounds it, what sets Kia apart now, before and into the future, is the soul with which she approaches it. JC

Photo: Moon Immisch

16 Mandidextrous

A pioneer of jungle tech and a respected figurehead for trans non-binary artists in the male-led UK drum ’n’ bass scene, Mandidextrous would be more than forgiven for resting on their stalwart status and letting the praise - and cheques - roll in. Yet their appetite for invention and genuinely heartwarming enthusiasm for the next generation of sounds, scenes and selectors has brought the Bristol-based DJ and producer to newfound appreciation this year — whether it’s been riling up thousands of ravers at The Warehouse Project, energising the speed-hungry masses of Teletech, creating cross-Atlantic synergy on their US tour, or bringing their beloved LGBTQIA+ Boomtown arena Spectrum 360 to the 2,500-capacity Underground in their home city. Never a stranger to building something new from the ground up, their gear shift from drum ’n’ bass into their fledgling speedbass sound — described as a "mish-mash of bassline, bass house, garage, things that have wobbly basslines and melodic elements, but keeping faster, 4x4 element that is drum ‘n’ bass influenced" — has meant a departure from their usual stomping ground, replaced instead with a completely new movement and new spaces of their own design. MT

Photo: Timothé Barette

17 Nesa Azadikhah

Iranian DJ, producer and composer Nesa Azadikhah has been a joy to watch grow over the past few years – an artist who is equally as dance music obsessed as she is unrelenting in her values. Through her IDM and breaks-focused imprint Makhunik Records, and Apranik Records, the label she established alongside AIDA, Nesa has tirelessly released an abundance of music both championing Iranian artists and in benefit of those who face oppression in the country. Earlier this year, she released an EP raising money for women prisoners in Iran whose “freedom of speech is limited”, in a continuation of the work she does to bring awareness to those who have “endured silencing”. Aside from a mountain of productions, Nesa also runs events across Iran’s capital, works across her curatorial platform Deep House Tehran spotlighting Iranian artists and producers, and, in November, even soundtracked a short film by an Iranian filmmaker via Phantom Limb. With a European tour under her belt this year and her first-ever India tour announced for the next, 2025 felt like a propellor for where she’s headed next, also releasing mixes with the likes of queer and FLINTA*-leaning record label SEVEN and Piñata Radio, and collaborating along the way with artists including Polygonia, Sepehr, and Voiski. As perhaps one of the hardest working people in the industry, and especially in Iran, Nesa Azadikhah deserves her flowers in 2025. GR

Photo: Rhys Loydall

18 NOTION

NOTION’s seismic rise was crystallised this year, riding off the high off last year’s breakout hit remix of CHRYSTAL’s ‘THE DAYS’ with a jam-packed world tour. In the space of a year the Bristolian has gone from playing 500 cap venues in the States to having one of Outside Lands’ festival stages locked off because so many fans tried to attend.

Making his name in bassline, NOTION’s stock has soared since he has welded dancefloor sonics with his hitherto unknown pop sensibilities, weaving irresistibly catchy hooks from CHRYSTAL and, more recently, Willow Kayne to devastating effect. Work with drill artists such as this year’s original single ‘TENTEN’ with Unknown T or his raucous K-Trap flip, a Joy Orbison favourite, reflect an artist who can bring the very best out of a vocal.

The prolific producer has predominantly kept his cards close to his chest this year following the release of last year’s ’FORWARDS’ album. Drip feeding tracks via his Dance Dubs Bandcamp series while keeping many sought-after edits to himself and a group of upper echelon DJs, NOTION has made his shows and festival appearances must-watch occasions. TH

Photo: George Earle

19 Oppidan

Very few on the UK garage scene have had a year quite like Oppidan. As the sound continues its momentum both at home and, notably, across the pond in the US too, Oppidan has been propelled into stardom with her new age, big room blends of 2-step and NUKG. From playing in countries for the first time at the start of the year to heading out on back-to-back world tours in Australia, Europe, and two in North America after breaking the US, Oppidan’s meteoric ascent has been marked with continuously record breaking shows. Her largest “pinch me moment” gigs in London and Bristol in spring were later topped with the announcement of her biggest headline gig to date at Hackney’s EartH, set for early ‘26. An equally storming festival season saw some iconic moments from Oppidan this year, from a mega B5B with Interplanetary Criminal, Sammy Virji, Conducta, and salute at Coachella, to flooded crowds on Boomtown’s main stage, to one of the most talked about performances of Glastonbury weekend that saw her close off a packed-out Temple stage, all the while racking up countless ID requests for her unreleased music. GR

Photo: Alessandro D’Angelo

20 Ron Trent

On GRAMMY weekend this year, Ron Trent was in Los Angeles to play an underground club show at Catch One. Next February he’ll be back in the city for the ceremony as a GRAMMY-nominated artist, vying for the Best Remixed Recording award. Whatever your opinions on the Recording Academy as a marker for quality, recognition for Ron Trent as one of the foremost artists in electronic music is well deserved. “This nomination means a lot to me,” he said. “I have been putting in work to help build the industry and community for a very long time.”

A GRAMMY nod is the tip of the iceberg of the Chicago pioneer’s achievements, and his enduring impact has ramped up again this year. In 2024 he ended a five-year hiatus from international touring, and he’s been back at it with a vengeance since. 2025 saw landmark moments like returning to Ibiza for the first time in a decade with multiple dates and a rousing set at Glasgow’s Sub Club, for a full circle moment back in one of the first cities he played outside the US more than 30 years ago. He’s used this linchpin status to contribute important documentation and archiving to the culture, leading the Walk the Night cultural preservation photography exhibition. But his mind isn’t locked in the past: Trent has been contributing significantly to the contemporary house music continuum. The aforementioned remix of Soul II Soul’s ‘A Dream’s a Dream’ updates a classic with punchy dynamism. Also on the release front, he put out his decade-in-the-making album ‘Lift Off’ on esteemed Amsterdam imprint Rush Hour, crafting psychedelic, tripped-out sounds, including 11 minute epic ‘Woman of Color’ which unfurls in a sea of groovy keys, spacey synths and lush bass. In the club he’s built upon the WARM live show he debuted last year with extended WARMSUPERSONIC DJ sets, digging through the outer reaches of jazz, funk, disco and deep house to expand minds on the dancefloor, alongside gigging through famed spots like fabric, The Cause, Paradiso, La Paloma, Rex Club, Panorama Bar and Nowadays. With plans for Sacred Medicine, his collaborative project with Joe Claussell, also ramping up, boundaries will keep on being pushed. PH

Photo: Will Glasspiegel

21 RP Boo

RP Boo is an originator of footwork, producer of foundational tracks of the super-charged Chicago house music evolution and many more bangers which have powered its increasingly global takeover. This year though “Record Player” Boo has been living up to his moniker, focusing full pelt on DJing, and he’s been on an absolute tear up. US? Check. Europe? Check. Australia? Check. Asia? You guessed it: Check! Among those dates there’s been a couple of standout London parties for Tropical Waste’s 160 Unity which is becoming a focal point for footwork in Europe, first for a roadblock event at Venue MOT on February and then for London’s first-ever footwork and juke day party at FOLD on a Sunday in October, thrown in collaboration with BUMPAH. On top of that he conceptualised the unique music project “Another Brain. The Birth of Footberk” alongside Polish percussionist Gary Gwadera, a transatlantic fusion of footwork and folk music which has been showcased for Unsound in Kraków, Osaka and New York, as well joining his *Teklife *peers to launch a residency on Rinse FM.

Everywhere RP Boo goes, he not only brings sets that turn dancefloors upside down and form circles for the footwork dancers inside, but also carries an effervescent energy that’s infectious. The little “A r p e b u - boooo” sung jingle he opens many a socials vid with is a tonic in a timeline of dour press shots and airport complaints, bringing his buzzing grin to everything from Manchester hotel room tours to theme park riding to spotting LEGO in Copenhagen, as he puts his stamp on each each location, turning them into Bu’chester, Bu’saka and so on. This is a DJ who truly loves spreading the music he helped pioneer around the world and we truly love to see that. PH

Cicely Grace

22 SICARIA

Ever since going solo after the dissolving of Sicaria Sound in 2021, the duo she was part of alongside Mia Koden, SICARIA has been working to carry the work they started forward on her own terms, At the beginning of the year, she vowed to spend some time resetting and spoke openly and candidly about the burnout that often comes with the busy touring life of a DJ, but assured she’d come back with a bang by summer – and that, she did. After being spotlighted as one of Beatport’s Next Class of 2025, which aims to give exposure and support to emerging artists, SICARIA went on to enjoy a full-throttle festival season playing back-to-back with the likes of Neffa-T, Just Jane, Oppidan, and many more. From her first festival stage takeover at Rampage to a debut show at Tomorrowland, multiple Glastonbury performances and even a couple of world tour dates lined up, 2025 really felt like SICARIA’s year. GR

Photo: Neil Krug

23 Sub Focus

Two decades deep in his career, Sub Focus has been a drum ‘n’ bass superstar for years now, but in 2025 he broke new ground and hit previously uncharted milestones again and again and again, stacking a rack of achievements that was not only impressive but even at-times little surprising. There’s the staple moments such as his ‘Contact’ album release which landed into the UK Top 10, which boasted an attention grabbing roster of collaborators spanning Afrobeeats icons to experimental pop trailblazers such as Fireboy DML and Grimes, showcasing how far his influence has helped d’n’b travel. Debut tour dates in China and South Korea also attest to that.

Further on the gigging front, there’s been huge shows in heartland cities like London, Bristol and Amsterdam, plus he’s cut through to take up sought-after slots from the commercial giant of Tomorrowland’s main stage to closing the imperious IICON at Glastonbury, run by the more DIY and counterculture-rooted Block9 collective. He’s also done what many have tried and failed at before him and indisputably cracked America. Alongside taking his Circular Sound live show stateside for the first time, he became the first drum ‘n’ bass DJ to be booked at ARC Music Festival in house and techno stronghold Chicago and threw the first d’n’b headline show at Colorado’s striking Red Rocks arena with his WORSHIP collective. A booking at next year’s Coachella was no surprise to see.

Other statement moments include produc