Markus Schulz

Enough with the polls already. First, there are all of those Obama and McCain commercials. And then there are the "Vote for Me!" DJ magazine year-end poll links on every house/trance/whatever DJ's web page. It's enough to give a regular joe a false sense of significance.

Local guy (by way of Germany) Markus Schulz is in the running for best DJ this year. A spinner of high-octane, beyond-sexy Euro-style trance, Schulz hit the bigs in the mid-Nineties as a remixer of Backstreet Boys and Madonna tunes, nailing down his chops while working a seven-year residency at The Works in Phoenix, Arizona. A kinship with Armin van Buuren has resulted in a few releases over the past five years on (or distributed through, via Schulz's own Cold Harbor imprint) the Dutch producer/DJ's Armada record label. That includes the Schulz-helmed Armada at Ibiza mix, which a few weeks ago hit the import racks.