Below, in alphabetical order, are New Times' picks for the best DJs on the III Points 2024 lineup.
Aurora Halal
One of the most buzzed-about DJs in a New York club scene bursting with talent and variety, Aurora Halal is also director of Sustain-Release, the very popular, invitation-only camping festival that takes place annually in upstate New York. Her sets, full of hypnotic, trippy techno, also feel like a journey to a secluded location. Halal's III Points performance will be extra special. She's playing a live set, incorporating electronic instruments like synths and drum machines.
DJ Koze
Celebrated for his psychedelic, vibey brand of house music on albums like Amygdala and remarkable tracks like the wistful modern disco chugger "Pick Up," Stefan Kozalla doesn't command much attention nowadays, quietly running his Pampa label and occasionally producing for artists like Róisín Murphy. He certainly DJs quite a bit, but it's been a while since his last major project. Still, he remains a sought-after DJ whose mixing style — deliberate, groovy, and much less rapid-fire than you're likely to hear from younger selectors — runs pleasantly contrary to current trends. Koze will surely put you in a higher state of consciousness during his four-hour set at III Points.
DJ Shadow
There is something to be said about the tactile, improvisational nature of turntablism — "scratching," in other words, a vanishing skill among the majority of working DJs that is still practiced by a small population of veterans such as DJ Shadow and fellow III Points performer A-Trak. Shadow is not just cueing up tracks and twisting knobs; he's transforming songs in real time, and even if you can't get close enough to see his fingers flit across the decks, you'll hear the work being done. DJ Shadow's most recent record, Action Adventure, came out in 2023, but he'll always be best known for his seminal 1996 album Endtroducing..., which transformed perceptions of what hip-hop could be and sound like and made a very successful case for mixing and sampling as its own discreet art form. In 2012, he also infamously got kicked off the decks of Miami Beach nightclub Mansion for playing a set that the promoters deemed "too future." Hopefully, Miami will be able to appreciate him a little more 12 years later.
Jamie xx
Jamie xx is a bit of a controversial figure in 2024. His album In Waves, the long-awaited follow-up to his epochal 2013 record In Colour, has divided critics; despite a star-studded features list that included Panda Bear, Honey Dijon, Robyn, the Avalanches, and his bandmates in the xx, Pitchfork gave it a 7.3 ("tasteful and slick, approachable and antiperspirant") and the dance music specialists at Resident Advisor criticized it for "cloying hooks" and "[taking] more from club culture than it gives back." Still, whenever Jamie makes it to III Points, he kills it. Just think back to his last visit in 2021 when he found a way to transition from chugging jungle breaks into Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire." Whether or not the album is mid, he always finds a way to surprise and delight on the decks.
Juan Atkins
If you want to hear techno music, you might as well go to the source: Juan Atkins. As one of the legendary Belleville Three and founder of the influential Metroplex label, he's credited as an originator of the genre. His early releases under various names, particularly "No UFO's" as Model 500, defined the futuristic sound of Detroit techno, influenced by the city's dystopic post-industrial landscape. But he's most famous as one half of the pioneering duo Cybotron, which pioneered electro and its offshoots, including Miami bass, with tracks like "Clear" (sampled by Missy Elliott on "Lose Control") and "Alleys of Your Mind." In recent years, he's reassembled Cybotron group with a different lineup to perform and release new music.
Kaytranada
It's unbelievable how big Kaytranada has gotten. In the space since his first appearance at III Points in 2017, he's won two Grammys and collaborated with the likes of Pharrell Williams, Snoop Dogg, Kali Uchis, Tinashe, and plenty more. His recent record, Timeless, which dropped in July, gathers features from Childish Gambino, Anderson .Paak, Channel Tres, Charlotte Day Wilson, and Don Toliver, among others — furthering Kaytra's glamorous hip-house sound. He's up for round three at this year's festival.
Salute
Although they're often lumped in with the new wave of UK garage that's produced the likes of fellow III Points performer Sammy Virji, Salute likes things a bit more on the bright and house-y end. Their sets and productions are as indebted to French touch and classic disco as they are to garridge, incorporating filters and glitchy sample-juggling along with hazy, fluorescent melodies and textures. It should come as no surprise that they invited Disclosure, also performing at III Points, to guest on their debut album True Magic, as they exhibit the same tendency to fuse bits and bobs of various dance subgenres that Disclosure did on Settle. Expect to encounter a technicolor dream world during their set.
Sara Landry
She's the self-proclaimed "high priestess of hard techno," and who are we to argue? There is something oddly spiritual about Landry's sets, which favor high tempos, pulverizing bass, and provocative samples. An American based in Amsterdam, the capital of the hard techno-loving Netherlands, Landry has cultivated a dark, witchy persona in order to bring her gospel of heavy, four-to-the-floor audio assault to new territories. In recent months, she's filled up New York City's Knockdown Center and demolished Belgium's Tomorrowland. Her Miami debut at III Points should be appropriately transcendent.
Skee Mask
This publication has diligently covered Skee Mask's various activities in Miami. The Munich native debuted earlier this year at the Ground, and his appearance at III Points will be a second chance for those who missed him the first time. Which is to say: Don't miss him this time. As one of the most prominent voices on the Zenker Brothers' label Illian Tape, he's formulated a genre-busting take on techno that feels cosmic in its intimacy but can bang with smoothness and force when necessary. The chilliness of the Compro LP, the breakbeat chug of "Trackheadz," the sunny bliss of "Daytime Gamer" — all are equal parts of the Skee Mask universe, one of the most interesting places to explore in all of electronic music.
Yu Su
Born in Kaifeng, China, and residing in Vancouver, Yu Su is one of the foremost transmitters of eclectic atmospherics in dance music's underground. Her productions, such as this year's I Want An Earth EP, combine dub, krautrock, ambient, third world, and other similar influences to create a quietly spectacular fabric of transcendental sonics. As a DJ, she's a bit more eclectic, and one can expect her vibey sets to include everything from deep house and bass to Italo and classic disco. Yu Su will play a four-hour set at III Points.III Points 2024. 3 p.m. to 4 a.m. Friday, October 18, and Saturday, October 19, at Mana Wynwood, 2217 NW Fifth Ave., Miami; iiipoints.com. Tickets cost $199.99 to $619 via iiipoints.frontgatetickets.com.
