Mixmag - Heroes of Dance Music

For their "Heroes Of Dance Music" cover story, Mixmag asked over fifty people -- band members, DJs, producers, and fans -- to name the artist who most "inspired them", explain the reasoning behind the selection, and recommend a good starting point with their "hero".

It's not surprising that some names, such as Kraftwerk, pop up more than once. Sometimes there's consensus about the "best" starting point, more often there isn't. Slam chooses The Man Machine, which they dub "Kraftwerk at their best", while New Order's Peter Hook picks "Autobahn", which he calls "big, beautiful, hypnotic music". He recommends starting there, moving on to Radio Activity next, "and you'll never look back."

New Order, in turn, is the choice of The Chemical Brothers' Tom Rowlands. "We were lucky," Rowlands says, "when we started out it was becoming easier to do anything you wanted with sound. But they had to make it up as they went along." He says "you can hear what's going to happen in electronic music taking shape" on "Everything's Gone Green", his pick for where to begin with New Order.

New Order - Everything's Gone Green (7" Version) (available on Singles)

Steve Angello of Size Records picks Daft Punk as his dance music heroes. "Their first album, Homework, made me realise that there could be so much more to electronic music. They took it to a different level." He tells Mixmag, "Every track is pure genius."

Daft Punk - Phoenix (available on Homework)

Simon Franks of Audio Bullys is one of the artists who calls The Prodigy his dance music heroes. He tells the story of his first festival, which he wasn't enjoying, until The Prodigy took the stage, in the last slot. Franks says, "When 'Breathe' came on and the lights went off, I got tingles up the back of my neck and I thought, 'this is what it's all about.'"

The Prodigy - Breathe (available on Their Law: Singles 1990-2005)

Mylo tells the story of going on and on to a journalist about "what a legend" he thought Laurent Garnier is. When he stopped, the man said Garnier had just told him that he didn't like him. Mylo says, "I thought that was great, so I'm nominating him as my hero." He also called one of his SJ sets "hypnotising" and said he "chooses material which is emotive, and some of which could risk sounding cheesy in other context... He also made one of the funniest videos in dance music, for "Flashback." The apparently good-natured Mylo recommends starting with the compilation Retrospective.

Laurent Garnier - Flashback (Video Mix) (available on Retrospective 1994-2006)

The "Flashback" video is indeed pretty funny, especially the ending:



Longer explanations and picks by many more artists in Mixmag.