25 Best Techno DJs You Should Listen To

Electronic music has become one of the most popular genres in the world in recent memory, and more people are giving it the attention it rightfully deserves. Trying to narrow down a list of the best techno DJs in the world isn’t easy, as there are so many great options to choose from. In this article, we’ll be picking out the 25 best, brightest, and most influential techno DJs that you should be listening to right now. 

1. Charlotte de Witte

Age Of Love - The Age Of Love (Charlotte de Witte & Enrico Sangiuliano Remix)

Charlotte de Witte got her start in music when she was drawn to electronic music in the underground nightclub scene of Belgium. A year later, she had begun DJing and another couple of years after that she began producing music. Most of her work is in the acid and minimal techno scenes. Sadly, she adopted an alias—Raving George—to avoid the negative perceptions of female DJs for a time, but she ended up being one of the most famous DJs of all time.

In 2015, she scored her first major hit with the release of the single Oscar And The Wolf. In 2019, she launched her own record label, KNTXT, and was voted the world’s best techno DJ at the DJ Awards. Today, she’s nicknamed the “Techno Queen” and is widely considered the DJ in the genre with the most acclaim.

2. Daft Punk

Daft Punk - Technologic (Official Video)

Daft Punk was formed when Tomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo got together in Paris in 1993. The pair became perhaps the most famous DJs of all time in the electronic music sphere, but calling them just techno DJs is probably a bit dishonest. Their work has dabbled in and mixed elements of house music, funk, disco, techno, rock, synth-pop, and other styles.

Their debut album scored some worldwide beloved hits like Around The World and Da Funk. From 1999 onwards, they adopted robot personas to disguise their identities, adding a layer of mystery to the mystique of their legacy. Their work has been the basis of or featured in several films and became worldwide hits, making them one of the greatest musical duos of all time. 

3. Carl Cox

Inferno (Original Mix)

Carl Cox is an English house and techno DJ based out of Hove, England. His work has also crossed over to the radio, with him spending time as both a radio DJ and record producer. One of the coolest things he has done is his yearly residency at the Space Ibiza nightclub titled Music Is Revolution, which lasted from 2001 to 2016.

Tomorrowland, The BPM Festival, and Ultra Music Festival are all venues he’s played over the years. While not the founder of the label, he is the one who runs Intec Digital, a record label that has been around since 1998. In 2018, he founded his own label, Awesome Soundwave, which focuses on live electronic music artists. 

4. Nina Kraviz

bailando (nk & david löhlein Version)

Nina Kraviz was born and raised in Irkutsk, Siberia. While she worked a number of roles in dentistry in Moscow, she began hosting a radio show in Irkutsk and had a club residency for a while. She went on to go to music school in Melbourne, and in 2012, had released her self-titled debut album through Rekids record label.

Two years later, she formed her own label named, Trip. Some of her coolest work includes taking part in the soundtrack for the video game Cyberpunk 2077, where her music is featured in the soundtrack, and she voices her character’s cameo. Perhaps her greatest claim to fame is her win at the International Dance Music Awards in 2018 where she took home the Best Female Artist (Underground) Award. 

5. Peggy Gou

Peggy Gou - 'It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)' (Official Audio)

Peggy Gou’s experience with music began early. At the age of eight, she began taking classical piano lessons, and by 14, she had gone to England to learn English. She was taught how to DJ in 2009 by a friend from Korea, landing her first gig in Soho and performing regularly at The Book Club in East London. She began creating her own music tracks in 2013, eventually releasing seven EPs with various record labels in the years since. 

6. Dubfire

The End to My Beginning

Dubfire is one of the top solo techno DJs today, but prior to embarking on a solo career, he was half of the DJ duo Deep Dish. The duo’s style was predominantly house music, but his solo career is very much in the techno space. The Iranian-American DJ was heavily influenced by the punk scene in the D.C. area, which ultimately led to him pursuing music as a whole.

In 2007, he launched the SCI + TEC label as a way to release streams of his own music. In 2008, he was named International DJ Magazine’s Player of the Year and still mixes for Mixmag, BBC Radio, and DJ Magazine. 

7. Daniel Avery

Daniel Avery - Drone Logic (Official Video)

Daniel Avery spent much of his younger years as a guitar musician, performing in local bands in England. As a regular in dance clubs like Project Mayhem, he was eventually invited to DJ the event. From then on, he moved to London and began producing and DJing under the name Stopmakingme. He reverted to his birth name for his releases from 2012 onward, contributing to a number of influential DJ mixes and releasing his debut album Drone Logic in 2013

8. Adam Beyer

Adam Beyer is a Swedish techno DJ who is also the founder of Drumcode Records and is among the select few amazing Swedish artists who emerged around the same time during the 90s. DJing has been a family affair for him for a while, as he was married to another Swedish DJ for a time.

He is also the host of a radio show titled Drumcode Live, which has an average weekly audience of 11 million listeners, making it the most-listened-to techno broadcast in the world. In total, he has released four studio albums and several great EPs that are worth checking out, with his most recent works coming in 2019.

9. Sven Väth

Feiern (Original Mix)

Sven Väth is one of the most awarded artists on this list with a DJ career that spans more than 30 years in electronic music. A three-time award winner at the DJ Awards, he was one of the biggest pop stars in Germany during the 90s. On top of his DJ career, he runs two nightclubs and his own company that works as a booking agency, record label, and event center. His longest DJ set lasted an incredible 30 hours, placing him on the list of the longest DJ sets in all of music history. 

10. Ellen Allien

Ellen Allien grew up in West Germany, and the reunification of her country served as a major influence on her music career. She sings in both English and German, blending a mix of IDK and techno music that is highly experimental.

Based in Berlin, she is the founder of BPitch Control, a music label focused mainly on the techno scene. It’s actually the second label she founded, but her first had distribution issues and had to be scrapped. In total, she’s released 11 studio albums and a long list of EPs, singles, remixes, and mixes. 

11. Deborah De Luca

Deborah De Luca is a DJ on the rise, finding a spot in the top 100 of DJ Magazine’s list of the 100 best DJs in 2022. She’s a DJ and a label boss born in Italy, with a long touring history that saw her traveling to Ibiza, London, Miami, and multiple world-renowned clubs. She started her career as a waitress and dancer in Italy, but after landing a DJ gig, she never looked back. For over a decade, she has been a rising star in the DJ scene and one of the most popular techno DJs out there. 

12. Umek

Anomalies in Heart Rate (Original Mix)

Umek got his DJ career started in the 90s and has dabbled in all kinds of electronic music, not just techno. He owns the 1605 record label and had a long tenure at Carl Cox’s Space Ibiza Revolution parties. He is generally considered a headliner for major festivals around the world thanks to his versatility, massive talent, and long-standing career of excellence. 

13. Richie Hawtin

[PLUS8078] Plastikman - Spastik (Official Audio)

Ritchie Hawtin was one of the key players in Detroit’s second wave of techno music in the 90s. Since then, he’s been one of the leading figures in minimalist techno music, but tracking down all of his work can be difficult. He released quite a bit under different aliases, so check out Plastikman and F.U.S.E. as well if you want to hear his entire catalog of music.

In 1990, he teamed up with John Acquaviva to found the Plus 8 record label, launched M-nus Records in 1998, and then launched his own technology company in 2016. They provide several options for mixers. 

14. Recondite

One of the biggest influences on Recondite’s work is the rural area he grew up in. He puts the natural world into his techno music and influences a lot of the acid style that appears in his music. He produced his first tracks in a home studio and moved to Berlin in 2009.

In 2011, he founded his own record label and began publishing his own tracks. The following year was when his career took off with the release of his album On Acid. In total, he’s released several albums of music with plenty of EPs and singles to check out as well. 

15. Amelie Lens

Amelie Lens was born in Belgium and eventually went to art school in Antwerp. Electronic music became her muse at 15 years of age, and she began learning everything she possibly could about it immediately. She had a successful modeling career going, but she worked as a part-time DJ in her free time under her mother’s name. After earning a residency, she took on the role full-time and has launched several business endeavors, from the Lenske record label to an oatmeal company.  

16. Maceo Plex

Insomnia 2021 (Epic Mix)

Maceo Plex is one of the most successful DJs on this list. Since 2016, he’s hosted his own club night in Pacha named Mosaic by Maceo. He’s a multi-time winner at the DJ Awards and the Cuban-American spent quite a lot of time in Ibiza playing at prodigious clubs like Space and Amnesia.

He has used plenty of aliases over the years, with music being released under names like Maetrik and Mariel Ito. His 20-year career has been nothing short of incredible and he’s easily one of the best DJs out there today. 

17. Armin van Buuren

Armin van Buuren feat. Sharon den Adel - In And Out Of Love (Official Music Video)

One of the most long-lasting parts of Armin van Buuren’s career has been his weekly radio show A State Of Trance, which has run since 2001. Today, it reaches over 40 million listeners in 84 countries, making this DJ one of the most prolific ones when it comes to spreading techno and electronic music around the world.

DJ Magazine has ranked him the top DJ in the world a record five times, with four of those ranks coming in a row. As recently as 2022, he was still in the magazine’s top five. In 2014, he was even nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for the single This Is What It Feels Like. In the US, he holds the record for most entries to the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart with 21. 

18. Testpilot

Sunspot (White Space Conflict)

Testpilot isn’t really a DJ, it’s an alias for deadmau5 for when he plays smaller shows and only does techno music. You’ll never hear his own songs during the shows either. If you do a deep dive with fans, some say it’s a different guy who takes the persona for him, but in the end who really knows?

He might only have one track under his name, but in the end, it doesn’t matter. Nobody is going to argue that deadmau5 isn’t one of the best DJs out there, so his techno alias has an easy time making this list today. 

19. Joris Voorn

Monkey Safari - Safe

Joris Voorn has certainly made the rounds in the electronic DJ scene. One of the most consistent DJs out there, his work has run the gamut from techno to house music dating all the way back to 1997. His first song releases came in 2000, but in the years since he’s released four albums and a number of other EPs. 

20. Jeff Mills

Jeff Mills is a name a lot of people owe something to, as he was one of the pioneers in the American techno music scene. He started his career in the scene in the 80s, working as both a DJ and record producer to push the genre into the hands of mainstream audiences in the US. Known as an amazing performer, he founded Axis Records in 1992 as an outlet to release most of his own work. While he did take a hiatus, he came back to the scene with new music in 2019 to great fanfare. 

21. Enrico Sangiuliano

Enrico Sangiuliano might be best known for his work under the Drumcode record label, one of the absolute bastions of techno music on the world stage. He’s been around the scene for decades, consistently putting out music that ranks right at the top of the list for any great techno tracks you’re going to find. 

22. Robert Hood

Apartment Zero (Original Mix)

Robert Hood is one of the DJs who has done the most to promote the genre. He founded the record label M-plant, established the group Underground Resistance, and has worked as both a DJ and producer for years. He’s one of the artists deservedly credited for helping techno grow the most and is one of the most legendary names in the entire industry. 

23. Helena Hauff

Helena Hauff is another one of the top female DJs in the world, but she doesn’t use most of the same equipment that our other entries employ on a daily basis. She uses an analog setup, avoiding most of the modern tools that other techno DJs rely on to create their signature sounds. She pulls from all kinds of genres, from acid house to EBM and industrial music, and her style verges on minimalist but is undeniably one of the most unique techno styles out there. 

24. Solomun

Solomun - Home (Official Video)

Solomun is the German founder of the Diynamic record label and one of the biggest figures in the techno music scene. Seen as a unifying figure thanks to the influence of his label, he uses his own releases to bring attention to newer artists and shine a bright light on techno music as a whole. His most recent release came in 2021, the album Nobody Is Not Loved, but he also has a large catalog worth checking out. 

25. DIESEL

Alright look, DIESEL is Shaquille O’Neil. DJ DIESEL is the name he took on when he got into the EDM scene and became known for his dubstep and deep house music. He tends to play mostly techno beats though, and as one of the most famous celebrities in the world, he is easily one of the most well-known artists in the EDM scene as a whole. While he might still be learning, he credits his time playing festivals and making music for giving him a purpose in his life after his basketball career ended.

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