shambhala

The other week I wrote an article about a few of my favourite Canadian DJ acts playing the 2024 Shambhala Music Festival, and you should really give those artists a listen if you have the chance. It is no surprise that the 2024 Shambhala lineup is an all-star cast of dancefloor commanders with some hailing from the Great White North and many other international acts. Today I will be highlighting a few of my favourite International DJs playing The Farm in 2024, ranging from some ripping dubstep to classic UKG and even a little bit of techno to keep my warehouse dream alive. 

El-B

The absolutely LEGENDARY El-B will be gracing us at Shambhala 2024 and if for whatever reason your knowledge of UKG, 2-Step, and DnB is lost somewhere over the Atlantic then please get familiar with El-B and his label Ghost Recordings. To fully contextualise El-B’s appearance at Shambhala we must go back a few decades to the early 2000s where the ground under urban dance music was in constant motion; trying to find its footing between the emerging movement of UKG and the sounds of the 90s rooted in Drum ‘n’ Bass music. It is in such a landscape that El-B and his Ghost Camp found themselves ready to revolutionise the UK dance scene by progressing the UKG sound with chopped RnB samples and live MCing- a tradition started during the DnB raves of the 90s. To have a UK dance floor tastemaker (in the truest sense) performing at Shambhala in 2024 is just as surprising as it is exciting, Shambhala giving El-B and the Ghost Recordings sound a platform is what sets the festival miles clear of any other North American festivals. What should a Shambhala goer expect from El-P’s set? Garage. Full stop. It will be an education in what UK ravers have been digging on for decades and a total blow out in terms of vibes. Due to the scope of these articles there is an importance placed on all highlighted artists but if I were to recommend one set to someone who lives and breathes a more North American bass-centric sound it would be what El-B will cook up at The Grove this year. Check out his Boiler Room set from a few years ago which celebrated 20 years of UKG, and his NTS appearance in 2015 is also phenomenal.

Ben UFO

Hessle Audio founder and dance floor demi-god Ben UFO will be performing at The Grove this year and honestly, I have no idea what to make of it. Ben UFO has been one of my favourite DJs for what feels like an eternity; his sets on The Lot Radio have been replayed by myself so many times that if they were a cassette the tape would resemble chewing gum more than a tape. But since The Grove stage this year is so varied between artists I am not sure what to expect, a techno set for the ages? Deep house cuts designed for mega sound systems? With Ben UFO there seem to be infinite possibilities and that further adds to the allure of whatever is to come of his unique style and placement within Shambhala. I for one hope for lots of love toward his own label Hessle Audio, the recent Olaf Dreijer EP is an absolute dance floor statement that needs to be played to the FARMily. Also released on Hessle Audio is the debut EP “Petals” by Jordan-based producer Toumba, an absolute must listen to project merging Jordanian sonics with amazing dance floor ready drums. While it is unknown if Ben UFO is truly extraterrestrial, his track selections are legitimately far out, from another distant galaxy not seen or heard by any equipment sourced from earth. Which makes it imperative that any Shambz goers this year check out his set for some of the most creative mixing EDM has to offer.

O’Flynn

London based DJ and Producer O’Flynn has been making quiet waves throughout EDM for years now, his most recent LP “Shimmer” was a collaboration with fellow contemporary Frasier Ray which is filled with burning bass drops across crunchy garage rhythms. I am hesitant to call it ‘Progressive Garage’ but it definitely feels like it brings a lot of elements found in Progressive House music and applies them to the current Garage sonic landscape, maybe UK Bass is more apt. The bass is enveloping to say the least. Another notable project O’Flynn has been a part of was Bonobo’s track Otomo which was released on the album Fragments, does this open the door to a potential b2b between Bonobo and O’Flynn as they will both be playing The Grove stage at Shambhala this year? We won’t know until we are at The Farm but the prospect of the joint set is hyping me up more than it maybe should. The final thing I would like to highlight from O’Flynn is his BBC Essential Mix from back in January, his selection is immaculate in the truest sense of the word. The way he is able to bounce from different EDM pallets is equally inspiring and intimidating, only because of the strict order he is able to keep things grooving along while not losing the spontaneity which is a requirement of all banging DJ sets. While the music O’Flynn produces leaves me at a loss for words I am not short on words praise for his work. Please do your homework on O’Flynn, the Essential Mix, his LP “Shimmer” with Fraiser Ray, or any number of the singles he has released in the past few months are all great places to start your dive into his work.

SICARIA

Continuing our London spotlight is up and coming Dubstep DJ and producer SICARIA. She graced the decks last year at Bass Coast and it is no wonder how she ended up invited to Shambhala as that set is equally eclectic and electric! From what I gather SICARIA has really started to find her footing in Dubstep and the greater EDM landscape over the last year or so, but her arrival has been closer to an explosion than a slow burn, and not just because of her nuclear track selections. Through her appearances at the aforementioned Bass Coast 2023 festival, a set for HOR Berlin in April 2023, and even a monster set with Skrillex, Flowdan (catch him at The Amp in 2024) among numerous others at Kindred Record Shop in London, she has put herself on the Bass map for 2024. She also released her first EP under the SICARIA name in 2023, with the remix tape coming up just this past March, both releases featuring incredibly forward thinking dubstep to be played without borders this summer. I am very excited to see her sound mesh with other Bass heavy DJs at Shambhala this year. I am far from knowledgeable about the intricacies of Dubstep as a whole and even more lost when trying to notice differences between the UK style and North American style, but just from the listening I have done for these articles I am thrilled to hear the Bass clash between SICARIA and say MYTHM or Excision. While those three artists are not even on the same stage during SMF 2024 the inclusion of those three distinct sounds totally lights my fire when planning who I will see at The Farm in 2024. Catch her at The Grove!

P Money X Whiney

This article would be a complete failure if I did not highlight anyone performing at The Village in 2024. DnB is sometimes lost on me but at The Village in 2022, when I last visited The Farm, I found myself in the half moshpit, half dancefloor vibe of The Village. I ate up every sample, every drop, every backspin, it was like being everywhere all at once at the same time; a vortex of high energy sounds burrowing deep in my ear canals only to be unlocked again upon returning to that same stage in the future. I think the act that will hold the key to my DnB heart this year at Shambhala will be P Money’s collaboration with Whiney. Appearing in the last 12 months as an item they have proceeded to burn down every set they have arrived at, and it is no surprise. Who would’ve known that putting an iron clad MC like P Money with a DnB monster, in this case Whiney, would create a DnB experience like no other. Check out this Shogun Sessions featuring the two of them performing mad tunes both old and new. Outside the club the duo released their first full-length project together at the tail end of 2023 titled “Streets, Love & Other Stuff” on Hospital Records. The title of the project is a perfect reflection of what P Money has been about for his entire career, a career which started on London’s infamous pirate radio stations and eventually grew to be a undeniable talent in Grime within the UK notably being on “Lord of the Mics 6” in the infamous clash with Big H. Utterly legendary. Do not sleep on this duo and do not sleep on The Village at Shambhala in 2024.