The scene that surrounds dance music is, traditionally, a place where you can be who you want to be, with a culture of acceptance that far outstrips that of society at large. Of course, if you live in New York or Berlin or San Francisco or London, it’s not so hard to find your place within that scene — but if you hail from, say, Manistee, Michigan, it’s easier said than done. Manistee is the hometown of Brandon Wisniski, and it took them years of camouflaging their true self to find their inner Wreckno (not to mention their inner Barbie). Nowadays, Wreckno is one of the more kaleidoscopic characters on the club and festival circuit, and Megan Venzin recently caught up with the producer, DJ and rapper to find out more about how they broke free of small-town intolerance to become the star that they are.
Rochelle Jordan, the London-born, Toronto-bred and LA-based singer and songwriter, had her own hurdles to overcome to get to where she is today. Between 2011 and 2014, she released three brilliant and beautiful full-lengths which shaped the dance music of her youth into a penetrating and personal brand of R&B. The combination of label issues and health problems, enough to knock many artists out of the game, put an extended halt to her career — but Jordan came back in a big way with last year’s ‘Play With The Changes,’ an intimate portrait of a stellar talent. She’s just reserved a spot on the dancefloor with the release of ‘Play With The Changes Remixed,’ featuring versions from Kaytranada, DJ Minx, Machinedrum and nine other dance-music alchemists, and DJ Mag caught up with her to find out more.
This issue is stuffed with clubland heat. Here’s house hero Kerri Chandler, filling us on how he put together his new album; there’s a look at how the bouncing rhythms of Jersey club have transcended their Newark-area confines to become a worldwide dance beat; and over there, you’ll find a ticket to Poland’s Baltic coast to find out about its own version of the Balearic sound. Great music is reviewed, top gear is examined... and that’s just scratching the surface.
Bruce Tantum
Editor