As the calendar year comes to an end, we can reflect on the incredible year that 2022 has been for dance music, as well as look forward to the exciting possibilities that the coming year has in store for us.

While countless dance singles and albums have dropped this year, permeating through the speakers of clubs around the world, the individual DJ sets that music fans have been treated to have been pretty epic too. While we look at some of the dance highlights of the year, we also monitor a few select DJs that might just carry the genre in the near future.

Source: Unsplash

Fred Again…Again?

Having rapidly stormed to the forefront of DJ popularity after a breathtaking boiler room set, Fred Again has blessed his fans with some awesome music recently. The British-born DJ took to the Boiler Room to fulfil his boyhood dream and drop an incredible mix on the big stage – with surreal talent, coordination and timing to mix live versions of his own songs in front of a bustling crowd (not to mention the 7 million online viewers since), it’s obvious that Fred has spent countless hours in studios over the years perfecting his craft.

For upcoming DJs, Fred Again is a figure to look up to as an artist who has recently blown up because of his consistent output. Start-up artists can now access recording facilities easier than ever before, where artists can conduct online bookings and connect with reputable brand names like Pirate Studio with ease. For those looking to follow in the footsteps of Fred again, like Australian-born DJ Haai, the infrastructure behind the route into the local music scene and beyond has never been more supported.

Two Shell… or Four?

In one of the most controversial performances of the year, Two Shell’s boiler room performance caught a lot of attention – and not for what you might expect. Known to ‘troll’ their fans, the Youtube recording of the set reveals that the pair are only pretending to mix the apparent pre-recorded set live. Beyond that, though, the sustained anonymity of Two Shell had viewers speculating whether the two ‘DJs’ covered head-to-toe in dress-up were actually the DJing duo at all.

Besides the humour, though, the set is filled with very subtle bass drops that listeners most familiar with contemporary bass music would adore, and a clever, underlying tinge of nostalgia and hedonism shines through some of their tracks.

The combination of good dance music and a light-hearted, ‘trolling’ take on the art form is a nuanced position that might just carry the pair to a successful year in 2023.

Source: Unsplash

Keep Dancing

While it’s hard to encompass the talent brimming out of entire genres of music in a single article, the unique stance and approach that these two artists bring to the scene are simply not ignorable. Music is an industry that thrives off innovation, and bright sparks are needed for innovation.

Our suggestion, then, is that these are a couple of bright sparks, amongst many, to really shine from within the DJ industry this year. With a new calendar year on the horizon, it’s fair to assume we have plenty to look forward to in terms of new music.