Despite shows and festivals being cancelled, the producers we love still continued to release music to help sooth our souls. Let’s take a look back on a few of of the artists that helped carry us through 2020. These are some of the most powerful releases from the past year.
As 2020 finally comes to an end there is a lot to unpack. As we all take a deep breath and hope for some relief in 2021, we can look back at what this year brought us.
Camelphat
This British DJ Duo has been dropping teaser singles for quite some time before finally releasing the full studio album Dark Matter. The release was late in the year having only been available since Oct. 31st. Even so, this house-techno-progressive mix shook up the last couple months of the year.
The duo collaborated with Elderbrook back in 2017 creating the #1 single ‘Cola’, which is seen on their recent release. Other hit singles released prior to the album include ‘Panic Room’ featuring Au/Ra and ‘Breathe’, a collaboration with Cristoph featuring Jem Cooke.
Dark Matter consists of 21 insane track, none of which could be ranked above the other. An album you truly can shuffle and let the music do the rest. You can detect some heavy progressive-house on songs such as ‘Expect Nothing’ and ‘Dance with My Ghosts’. Both with a pulsating bass line that propels the lyrics and melody forward.
Martin Garrix
At only 25 Martin Garrix has accomplished more in his career than some do their entire lives. For starters he was named #1 on DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs for three years in a row, 2016-2018. He has one of the highest instagram followings a DJ coming in at 16.3 million. All of this is indicative of the young producers child-like-prodigy success.
In past year, Martin Garrix has released a variety of singles and remixes is attracting attention. He also collaborated with Elderbrook releasing this mesmerizing single ‘Fire‘ in the fall before rounding out the year with ‘Alive‘ released on Dec. 17th.
We also saw some new territory uncovered as he released his first single under his new alias, Ytram. Martin Garrix’s style is intoxicating making his music impossible to ignore. His skills as a DJ are so well developed for his age we can’t help but look to the future with excitement.
Kygo
Kygo has been a leading DJ for years so it’s no wonder his popularity has climbed to unimaginable heights. In 2020 we saw the release Golden Hour in May, a full studio album, that gave us some skyrocketing singles. Kygo is the King of tropical house and this release was no different.
His ability to feature artists of all styles and incorporate them seemlessly into his music is a scarce talent. All 18 of the tracks on Golden Hour have a feature, reaffirming the versatility of his approach. Kygo reached over a billion streams back in 2015, and we see a similar reaction to his 2020 release ‘Higher Love’ featuring Whitney Houston that has already reached almost 500 million streams.
Kygo is a forever-DJ meaning his music reaches ears all over the world offering up an inspirational, catchy vibe that can make almost anyone dance.
These are just a few of the DJs that carried us through the shit-show that was 2020. Shit-show being an understatement. Luckily, the EDM community holds strong even through hardships, so we can hopefully expect to reunite in the new year.
Until then, keep the volume cranked and those headphones strapped. We got this.
