Bruce Tantum

New York

North America Editor at DJ Mag TM

North America editor, DJ Mag. And I DJ, I have fun and I do other stuff.

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Articles

Meet the unsung heroes of New York house history

2 months ago | djmag.com | Bruce Tantum

House music’s Chicago origins should be well known to everyone by now: it was born in the early 1980s in clubs frequented by the city’s queer people of colour, midwifed by DJs like Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy, and raised by producers like Marshall Jefferson, Jesse Saunders and Farley "Jackmaster" Funk. But the synthesised four-to-the-floor rhythms of what we now know as house percolated elsewhere as well — it just took a little longer.
Frankie Knuckles forever: 20 essential tracks and mixes from the Godfather of House

Jan 17, 2025 | djmag.com | Bruce Tantum

No name is quite as synonymous with the birth of house music as that of the late, great Frankie Knuckles, who was born on 18th January 1955. Of course, the evolution of house from the DNA of disco — and, to lesser extents, electro, industrial, Italo and new wave music — was no solo endeavour: a family tree of progenitors from Chicago’s underground including Ron Hardy, Farley "Jackmaster" Funk, Jesse Saunders and Chip E all played key roles.
Selections: DC Salas

Nov 29, 2024 | djmag.com | Bruce Tantum

Produced in the aftermath of the death of his godfather and grandmother, DC Salas’s ‘To The Places I Call(ed) Home’ is an emotional listen, serving as a preservation of the Peruvian-Belgian artist’s memories. But despite the minor-key prevalence of near-gothic melodies on the 10-track album, it’s hardly a sombre one.
Tom Noble's spirit world

Nov 28, 2024 | djmag.com | Bruce Tantum

A conversation with Tom Noble begins and ends, almost inevitably, with talk of records. This makes sense — he’s been a vinyl dealer in one form or another for most of his adult life, and is currently plying his trade from Superior Elevation, the shop he opened in Brooklyn in 2015. But for at least the next few months, it’s a pretty safe bet that much of his gab will be focused on Noble’s own record.
Selections: JIALING

Nov 1, 2024 | djmag.com | Bruce Tantum

Jay Shih was born and raised in Baltimore, and they’re damn proud of it — not only do the sounds of Baltimore club run through much of their music, but they made their love for their hometown explicit by naming one of their early EPs ‘THE GREATEST CITY IN AMERICA’. And who are we to argue?
Jeff Mills: astral traveller

Oct 15, 2024 | djmag.com | Bruce Tantum

Jeff Mills is, among many other things, an explorer. Most people think of him as a techno DJ and producer — and he definitely is that, having helped both to codify the genre and scout out its outermost boundaries. But techno is just one of the many worlds that the revered Detroit-born artist has surveyed, having spent the past four decades delving into more realms, and creating new ones, than seems feasible for the average human.
Bambii: beyond infinity

Aug 13, 2024 | djmag.com | Bruce Tantum

Bambii grew up with a seemingly random mélange of tunes, a stew consisting of everything from classic rock to theater numbers to house to feminist punk, among other things — along with lots of reggae and dancehall, thanks to her Caribbean heritage. She was into the various sounds she heard, but for the most part, the music was simply flowing over her rather than being anything she was actively seeking out.
Gavilán Rayna Russom is constantly experimenting

Jul 29, 2024 | djmag.com | Bruce Tantum

Hers is a vastly rich résumé – one that takes in academics, curation, writing and all manner of exhibition-worthy artistic expression, but probably more than anything, the NYC-based Gavilán Rayna Russom is known to the general public for her music. Even within this single subset of her work, though, her output reads like that of several people, assuming those people were also among the most creative folks that you’ve ever met.
Gavilán Rayna Russom is constantly experimenting

Jul 29, 2024 | flipboard.com | Bruce Tantum

2 days agoPARIS — The opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics can often come across as a little stuffy, or purposefully sophisticated — with every movement and camera angle perfectly choreographed. Maybe that's what the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Games looked like on TV, too. But what it felt like, in …
Floorplan’s divine house music

Jul 15, 2024 | djmag.com | Bruce Tantum

On Saturday evening at this year’s edition of the Movement festival, a silhouetted pair of figures, one towering over the other, strode along the Pyramid Stage, nestled next to the Detroit River. Stepping up to the decks, they charged through a high-powered session of gospel-tinged house stompers, spinning cuts like ‘Save Me’ by Adelphi Music Factory and the Mason Flint remix of Wh0’s ‘The Power’, along with a slew of previously unheard tunes.