10. Don Diablo
House music isn’t all tropical, bouncy or tinged with reggaeton, of course. It’s got a deeper, more technical side, and that’s what we are celebrating right here. If it’s electro, tech, or progressive, it’s in and this year. We have also thrown trance into mix. You came, you saw, you voted and here are the results.
Taking up places 15 down to 11 are:
15. Blasterjaxx
14. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike
13. Fedde Le Grand
12. Steve Aoki
11. Oliver Heldens
Kicking off the top 10 we have Don Diablo…
2018 highlight: Don kicked off on a sold out tour of North America to promote his second full-length album Future and was rumoured to have donated all the proceeds of ticket sales from the tour to the Dutch Cancer Society.
The rest of the year has seen the Dutchman release more tracks from the album and a couple of new ones featuring the vocal talents of Emeli Sandé and Alex Care.
9. Hardwell
2018 highlight: The past 12-months have seen an unrelenting slew of releases for Robbert van de Corput, including a collaboration with Steve Aoki. In the spring he launched his own Gemstone imprint, with the aim to promote up and coming artists.
Fast forward to September, Hardwell announced he was ceasing touring with immediate effect, citing personal reasons for the hiatus. It wouldn’t be long till we heard from him again though, as the Dutch master has only just announced a new single in collaboration with Conor Maynard and Snoop Dogg.
8. Roger Sanchez
2018 highlight: The indomitable Roger Sanchez has wooed crowds and rocked many a house in his near 30-year career and this year was nominated for and won House Master at the annual DJ Awards.
Now in their 21st year, the DJ Awards has changed up the categories a little bit, with the four most popular categories split into two separate Master and Artist categories. Other winners of the Master series included Paul Van Dyk, for Trance Master.
7. Tiësto
2018 highlight: Despite releasing six studio albums and countless remix and compilation LPs, earlier this year Tiësto released his debut EP titled I Like It Loud. The 4-track featured collaborations with artists such as Mesto, Matisse & Sadko and MOTi.
In the summer, he followed up the EP with the single ‘Jackie Chan’, which saw the 49-year old team up with Dzeko, Post Malone and Preme.
6. Martin Garrix
2018 highlight: Perhaps the busiest DJ on this list, Martin has had a fun-packed year, which included frolicking in Pyongyang for the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics. The performance followed soon after the release of ‘Like I Do’ alongside Brooks and David Guetta.
A slew of other releases followed, including performances at Tomorrowland, the Singapore F1 Grand Prix and ADE, where the Dutchman also adorned many a billboard promoting a limited edition Axe fragrance. He also closed out the year with the release of ‘Martin Garrix Life = Crazy’ a picture book charting his career and private life.
5. KSHMR
2018 highlight: Niles Hollowell-Dhar released ‘House of Cards’ back in February, which saw the Californian step away from his more familiar big room sound in favour of a more pop and acoustic-tinged affair.
A string of collaborations followed, including more genre-hopping with the likes of Belgian-duo Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike on the Greek-influenced single ‘Opa’ and with Vini Vici on the reggaeton and rap-sounding ‘Good Vibes Soldier’.
4. Marshmello
2018 highlight: Although not originally planned for release, ‘Spotlight’ was a collaboration with the late Lil’ Peep, whose mother’s wishes was to release as many of the rapper’s unreleased tracks as possible.
Marshmello, aka Chris Comstock, unleashed several collaborations with such UK acts as James Arthur and Bastille, but perhaps the biggest release of all was the follow up to 2014’s Joytime with his second studio album, Joytime II.
Reward for another successful year came when he won the Best Electronic category at the 2018 MTV Europe Music Awards.
3. Eric Prydz
2018 highlight: This year has seen Eric release the Element EP under the Pryda pseudonym, and continue the work on his label of the same name, including his Mouseville imprint.
The Swedish national, well known for his stunning live shows, has also been using up most of 2018 touring the highly-acclaimed live show HOLO, a feast for the eyes and ears.
2. Avicii
The world-over was shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of Avicii, aka Tim Bergling, back in April of this year. The Swedish producer, musician and DJ, retired from touring back in 2016 through ill health, but still continued to produce.
Needless to say, the world of music paid many a tribute to the man who was credited with ushering in the prominence of electronic dance music into the pop charts during the 2000’s. Tim’s own family also announced a memorial service, attended by hundreds of fans in his native Stockholm.
Before his death, Avicii was already working on a third album, which will be released posthumously with much of the material co-produced alongside Nile Rodgers.
Winner: Afrojack
2018 highlight: The long-awaited follow-up to 2014’s Forget the World, Press Play EP landed at the end of the summer, full of the progressive bangers we’ve come to expect from the Dutchman.
The album also includes a Nicky Romero remix of One More Day, featuring Jewelz & Sparks.
Bagging around a third of your votes, Afrojack is deserved winner of this year's best electro house, tech-house and trance producer/DJ poll.
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“Michael Stipe said it was his favourite dance album – he used to put it on and then write his lyrics for REM to it”: Rave icons Utah Saints on their legacy, sampling Kate Bush, and the challenges of making their debut album
“They're French. I would say it's a kind of techno prog band”: Elvis Costello reckons that the Brooklyn warehouse gig he saw Justice play was “one of the great shows I've ever been to”
