This Top 10 list comes from Beatport’s Top 22 deep house music track sellers of 2022. You can listen here, open Spotify, or follow our Spotify page by clicking on the three dots next to the play button. Enjoy!
Croatian Deep House DJ Producer Solomun born Mladen Solomun in Travnik, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1975. He performs under the alias Solomun. He founded record labels Diynamic Music and 2DIY4. He has two brands, Solomun+1 and Solomun+Live. He hosts his radio show, Diynamic Radio.
Solomun found his passion for music when he was ten years old. His cousin gave him a live disco mixtape. The music was funk, disco, and 80’s style. He was impressed with this new music. This music was nothing like he heard on the radio. He collected vinyl records and played his first gig when he was sixteen. The music was a mix of funk, hip-hop, new jack swing, and 80’s stuff. He hosted his parties and transitioned to house music.
Solomun began producing music in 2005 and founded Diynamic Music with Adriano Trolio the same year. In 2010, he launched the more experimental label, 2DIY4.
Solomun plays a significant role in redefining European house music. His productions, remixes, and DJing deftly reconstruct the building blocks of house music and add a modern twist. He was a respected underground DJ and producer long before he was famous. His meteoric rise in popularity went into hyperdrive in 2012. That same year Mixmag Magazine voted him as ‘DJ of the Year.’
Solomun began his Solomun+1 brand at Pacha, Ibiza in 2013. This Sunday night party instantly became the island’s go-to event. The Solomun+Live brand started in 2015 at Pacha’s luxury outdoor performance space, Destino Hotel Resort. The famed producer shares the stage with a live guest act. This Thursday daytime party begins under the sunshine and ends under the stars.
Solomun loves working in the studio. Solomun’s passion for DJing and performing is evident to anyone who has seen him play anywhere around the world. Intertwined in his style of music are vigor, deepness, and emotion. A deep love for music motivates him to curate all of his musical endeavors, from productions, labels, residencies, and radio shows.
His infamous Boiler Room set from early 2015 is the fastest growing Boiler Room video of all time, with around 18 million views – and counting. He is not afraid of taking the audience on a journey.
His advice to rising talent as told to Irina of The Ibiza Way,
I really don’t have any advice. The only advice I can give is not to go to other people, not to look at how other DJs work, no matter how successful they are or how big they are. Always rely on yourself and look at what you do. Do your homework and one day it will happen, success will come. If this is your profession in the future and if you love what you do, your time will come.
2016
Best DJ: #1 (Deep House, public vote) // Beatport
Best DJ: #5 // Resident Advisor
Best DJ: #1 // DJ Mag Italia (IT)
Best Night: “Solomun+1″ (Sundays at Pacha) // DJ Mag Italia (IT)
Best Remixes // DJ Mag Italia (IT):
– Whilk & Misky – Clap Your Hands (Solomun Remix)
– Ost & Kjex – Queen of Europe (Solomun Remix)
Ibizas most shazaamt summer hits:
– #2 Whilk & Misky – Clap Your Hands (Solomun Remix)
2015
Best DJ (Deep House) // DJ Awards Ibiza (ES)
Best DJ: #1 // DJ Mag Italia (IT)
Best Night: “Solomun+1″ (Sundays at Pacha) // DJ Mag Italia (IT)
Best DJ: #13 // Resident Advisor
Best Tune of the year: Solomun – Zora // Pete Tong @ BBC Radio 1
Best Set of 2015: Diynamic @ The BPM Festival // Be-At TV
2013
Best Deep House DJ // DJ Awards Ibiza (ES)
2012
DJ of the Year // Mixmag Magazine (UK)
Best Producer // DJ Awards Ibiza (ES)
Best DJ International // Cool Awards Brazil (BR)
Best International Tour // Rio Music Conference Award (BR)
Best Producer // Groove Magazine (DE, AT, CH)
Best Label: Diynamic // Groove Magazine (DE, AT, CH)
Best DJ #03 Solomun // Groove Magazine (DE, AT, CH)
Best Track #04 Kackvogel // Groove Magazine (DE, AT, CH)
Best Producer #6 // Faze Mag (DE, AT, CH)
Best Label Diynamic #5 // Faze Mag (DE, AT, CH)
Best Track #14 Kackvogel // Faze Mag (DE, AT, CH)
Best DJ #22 // Resident Advisor (UK)
Best Compilation #05 (Watergate 11) // DJ Mag (UK)
Best Compilation #05 (Watergate 11) // Mixmag Magazine (UK)
2011
Remix of the Year- Around (Noir & Haze) // Resident Advisor (UK)
Most Charted Artist #04 // Resident Advisor (UK)
Best Remix #02 – Around (Noir & Haze) // Groove Magazine (DE, AT, CH)
Best Remix #03 – Let´s Go Back (Kraak & Smaak) // Groove Magazine (DE, AT, CH)
Best Producer #02 // Groove Magazine (DE, AT, CH)
Best DJ #03 // Groove Magazine (DE, AT, CH)
Best DJ #05 // De:Bug Magazine (DE, AT, CH)
Ubiquitous DJ Visionary Endo; there are those individuals who are early adopters, then there are those who are innovators. Mike Henderson aka ENDO falls into the latter category. A ubiquitous figure in electronic dance music for going on two decades, ENDO is a musician, a DJ, a teacher, an inventor, and a visionary.
Beats have been driving ENDO as early as the first year of his life when he began drumming. Entering into his double digits, ENDO joined his school’s marching band and orchestra. As a teen, he stepped into the drummer’s seat in a number of hardcore and punk bands, absorbing the influences of grunge, punk, and hardcore sounds. That is until he decided to travel to Woodstock in 1999. Here, a 17-year-old ENDO experienced DJs for the first time. In an airplane hangar with mental visuals, his life took a sharp turn after hearing Moby, Fatboy Slim, and the Chemical Brothers. Upon his return to his home state of Vermont, ENDO traded his drumsticks for turntables, and locked himself away for the next couple of years, perfecting the art of DJing.
“It was an addiction and an obsession,” says ENDO. “It helped that I was a drummer and that I had a mathematical background. Using both of these and having a knowledge of song structure, I am able to calculate when I should stop and start tracks, using my mappings to navigate mathematically so they come in and out of the mix exactly when I want them to.”
Part of what ENDO calls his DJ “Jedi training,” was marathon, all vinyl, graveyard shifts on 90.1 WRUV FM in Burlington, Vermont called “Graveyard Breaks.” Here, he learned how to program sets, segueing into a weekly, three-hour daytime show on the station, “Hit The Breaks.” Word of ENDO’s skills started spreading. Soon he was getting booked at raves around New England.
A progression from his drumming background, ENDO’s instinctual gravitation started with breaks. From tear-out breaks to melodic breaks to clubby breaks, he can find a style that will fit the mood of the event. After a decade of breaks, ENDO has shifted into more house-based sounds. Similar to what he was doing with breaks, he seamlessly adjusts his sets: For dark, minimal and trippy after-hours vibes he will play techno or bass-driven tech-house, on a beach—where you’ll find him more often than not—he’ll bring out happier beats, but he could just as easily drop deep house, bassline house, G-house or funky house.
“My sets are all harmonic progression. I program my iTunes with smart playlists to give me compatible songs. Every song is in key, or intentionally out of key, modulated harmonically,” ENDO says. “You can subliminally play with people’s emotions with harmonic mixing. There’s all this tension, then you give them the harmonic release. You have to tell your story. You have to find the songs that speak to you. That’s the art form, the intuition. A good DJ has good intuition.”
ENDO has unleashed his patented brand of harmonic mixing at events across the globe: Pacha, Marquee, and Cielo in New York, Sound in Los Angeles, Guvernment and Coda in Toronto, Stereo in Montreal, The Globe in Los Angeles, Spybar in Chicago, Heart in Miami, Sands in Ibiza, Club Vertigo in Costa Rica, as well as BPM Festival in Mexico and Electric Festival in Aruba. He has played alongside John Digweed, DJ Craze, Roc Raida, Victor Calderone, Danny Tenaglia, Carl Cox, Chus & Ceballos, Eric Prydz, to name just a few, and perhaps given them a much-sought-after technical tip or two in the process.
ENDO’s technical know-how is an inherent gift. Once he knew electronic music was his future, he left his University Of Vermont education as a math major and enrolled at the prestigious Berklee College Of Music as an electronic music production and music synthesis major with drum set as his principal instrument. After this, ENDO had a radio show at Massachusetts Institute Of Technology’s college station, 88.9 WMBR FM called “Algorthythms.” Here, he was breaking ground both musically and technologically with the latest DJ gear. For his final project at Berklee ENDO put together an exhaustive DVD tutorial for Native Instruments’ Traktor and in the process, created a new harmonic mixing system for DJs working with vinyl.
“When we were playing vinyl, you had to write the key of the record on the sleeves,” ENDO explains. “I was doing that for every record. The problem is, when you speed a record up or down, it’s in a different key. How do I mix harmonically if I’m switching speeds all the time? I keyed every record in the same BPM so no matter what speed the turntables were, you knew the keys were matching.”
ENDO contributed to Mixed In Key’s algorithm by sending them 200 tracks a month that he played, figured out the key to manually on the piano and delivering his results. His contributions helped improve the accuracy of the algorithm.
From here ENDO went on to work with Native Instruments as a DJ product specialist and artist trainer. He has taught the ropes to everyone: Dubfire, Sasha, Steve Lawler, Nic Fanciulli, DJ Skribble, Josh Wink, Dennis Ferrer, DJ Dan, DJ Craze, LMFAO, Diplo, Lee Burridge, MSTRKRFT, Carl Cox, David Morales, Victor Calderone, Felix Da Housecat, among many others.
ENDO also has numerous on-line tutorials on Dubspot, which to date have over four million views, and from which he gets positive feedback from regularly. These include his DJ tutorials on Traktor—including the first ever on-line DJ course, “Digital DJing With Traktor,” with DJ Shiftee. As the first person to be known for figuring out how to sync Ableton and Traktor as well as Ableton and Maschine, ENDO evolved DJing for both Native Instruments programs, and has detailed Dubspot videos—the first of their kind—on these DJing methods.
Furthermore, ENDO created a revolutionary Maschine mapping for Traktor. After having the most downloaded mapping system, he set up MIDI Monsters, where he presents his evolutionary mappings as he creates them.
As is ENDO’s way, he sees issues where others aren’t aware of them, and sets about fixing those, creating a smooth terrain for creativity. Enter his latest venture, the booking app, AGNT. Aimed at DJs and promoters, the handy platform came about after ENDO’s extensive tour managing experience for the likes of Sasha, Nicole Moudaber, Dubfire, Sharam, Pete Tong, among others. Geared toward simplifying the process of booking, the barrage of negotiation e-mails are taken out of the equation with the app having all the information built in. From availability to fees, timeslots to payment, press pack to music, AGNT is all-inclusive. The app also allows DJs to bid for gigs, promoters to find the best DJs in their genre, and all users to rate each other.
“We initially made the app for DJs who don’t have an agent,” says ENDO of AGNT which he developed with Edmonton promoter, Viet Nguyen. Months prior to its launch date the app has 4,000 users signed up, and counting. “Agents don’t want to represent an artist who is making $200 a night. It’s not worth it. We’re giving them the chance to have representation and protection from getting screwed over. Also, there are a lot of DJs I look up to who got pushed out by agents and not getting gigs. AGNT is going to help revive their careers. And now, we have a lot of big DJs coming to us saying, ‘We want to use this.’
He continues, “With the rating system, everybody is going to be accountable. It will hopefully solve the problem of not talented DJs getting bookings and help good DJs rise to the top.”
Chus & Ceballos were always well aware of the underground house music scene in Spain and Portugal. This sound of the Iberian Peninsula, which includes not only Spain and Portugal but also Andorra and the British Crown colony of Gibraltar, became the foundation of their hallmark, Iberican Sound.
“It’s a very groovy sound, very rhythmic and percussive, that is always looking at the dancefloor. It has an electronic touch, but with soul, sometimes a bit housey, sometimes harder, but never cold. It’s hot, ‘Caliente’! This is the ‘Stereo Sound’, our sound”
This quote was given by Chus & Ceballos to Resident Advisor in 2005. The Madrid duo of Jose Lopez Esteban (DJ Chus) and J. Pablo Ceballos formed over ten years ago with the distinct purpose of bringing their “Stereo Sound” to the worldwide masses. Since no man is an island, (but some are peninsulas), they knew however they could not accomplish this alone.
They formed an artist collective of world-class talented DJ producers who also shared the duo’s vision for their iconic Iberican Sound and formed Stereo Productions Group. It has become the finest Spanish electronic music label in Spain, and arguably produces the hottest sound on the planet. It includes the sub-labels: Stereo, Stereo Cool, Iberican Encodings, Almibar, and Solar Music.
The Stereo Productions roster include Oscar L, Oscar de Rivera, Rafa Barrios, Patrick M, David Herrero, Fernando Campo, Dennis Cruz, and Pakito Baeza. Not only has Chus & Ceballos collaborated with their fellow Spaniards, but they have also worked with other like-minded artists from all over the globe.
There is an excellent article by Angelo Castaneda from Talent Rising, DJ Chus The Father of Iberican Sound, that dives deeper into the origins.
One of our favorite tracks is the deep house, “Abisinia,” featuring GIGI, from their debut album, Nomadas, out on Stereo Productions. The ancient female atmospheric vocals of GIGI take hold of you from the beginning and bring you deep inside the production minds of Chus & Ceballos. The sub-heavy, mid to low pumping bassline adds that perfect Iberican groove that only Chus & Ceballos can render. The mesmerizing synths pulsating to the four on the floor flow ensnare the senses and entangle the mind, trapping the dance music enthusiasts in the middle of the dance floor.
(Chus & Ceballos feat. Gigi, Ejigayehu Shibabaw, Leondardo Gonnelli)
In the summer of 2007, Daley, more famously known as Hot Since 82 was staying with friends in Ibiza, spinning sets at Amnesia for Cream. This experience should’ve been a young DJ’s dream, but for one problem.
“I didn’t like that music anymore. I actually hated it.”
Nestled on the west side of the Dearne Valley, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, is the hometown of Daley Padley. He grew up with four brothers and sisters who exposed him to a variety of music. Quite possibly his most significant influence was spending weekends with his father and brother installing mobile audio systems in VW Beetles. I wonder how many 15″ drivers he installed?
(I too had a fondness for bass. My friend and I would experiment with different enclosures for our VW Rabbit GTIs. My car, when finished, had two 18″ and two 15″ M&M Godfather subwoofers in sealed enclosures powered by two Precision Power amplifiers. The bass was insane!)
Daley began his DJ education when he was 17, playing 12-13 hour sets in his hometown. He soon became the most sought out after party. As his popularity increased, Daley found himself at Cream by 2006. Between 2003 and 2007, his taste in music was evolving and he just stopped, unable to continue playing music he didn’t like.
In 2010, Daley started raving again. In 2011 he went to Ibiza with friends and was at an afterparty. Daley’s fate was also at that afterparty, a power outage ended the DJ’s set, and Daley plugged in his iPhone and released the music he loved. The enthusiastic response from the crowd was immediate and undeniable. They loved the music he loved, Hot Since 82 was born.
He released the deep house track “Let It Ride” on Noir Music on September 5, 2011, and Hot Since 82 has soared ever since. He continued releasing his brand of deep house music through 2013, and he released his first album, Little Black Book on Moda Black. In 2012 and 2013, he released the EPs Hot Jams Volume 1 and Volume 2, on Noir Music. The tracks are deep house and tech house music.
Hot Since 82 reached new heights in 2014. He made the cover of Mixmag, headlined Creamfields, and launched Knee Deep In Sound. As well as playing to adoring fans all over the world, 2017 marked the debut of his Friday night party Labyrinth at Pacha, Ibiza.