Spare a thought for the international jet-setting DJ. Sure, there are perks to the job (first-class flights, five-star hotels, the adulation of thousands of fans), but it’s not all fun and games. Well, maybe it sorta kinda is fun and games, but still, the nomadic existence can be grueling, with erratic hours, weeks away from friends and family, and general non-stop whirl. There are some members of clubdom’s top echelon who enjoy moaning about it — but Lukas Ruiz is not one of them. Instead, the man seems to relish life at the top, and even after recently playing 15 shows in 19 days and not letting up much since then, he’s still full of energy, ready for more. The secret? He’s obsessed. “My passion for the music is so big, man, so I spend all my time on it,” he says. Following the release of his excellent debut LP, ‘Promised Land,’ the Brazilian superstar DJ sat down with Kristan J Caryl to fill us in.
Robert Hood is another man with a passion for music. It shows in the massively influential techno he’s made over his long career, first as a member of Detroit’s Underground Resistance and then as a solo artist — and it shows, perhaps even more so, in the joyous music he makes with his daughter Lyric as one half of Floorplan. Their gospel-laced music is borne of the duo’s spiritual convictions, but it’s music that can be enjoyed by anyone with a yearning for grade-A house music. Floorplan was among the many highlights of the recent Movement festival — and speaking of Movement, we headed to Detroit to pay a visit to the venerable gathering of house and techno’s finest. Elsewhere, you’ll find interviews with Radio Slave and Steve Aoki, a visit to Paris to check out the rejuvenated Justice, reviews, tech news and so much more.
Bruce Tantum
Editor