The era of quarantine livestreaming is alive and well. Wondering what you’ve missed? What streams and streamers have stood out? Here’s a (non-comprehensive) sampling. As the dearth of in-person shows has dragged on, online streams have gotten more entertaining and come with higher-production.
We crowdsourced the DJTT community and picked a few of our favorites, too – from incredible views, turntablism skills, captivating visual work, to interactivity that made us feel like we were part of the stream, these livestreams are worth a watch.
Get your speakers ready and dive into the list of 15 streams you should see this quarantine, from Dixon and John Digweed to A-Trak, Bob Sinclair, and more. Happy Friday, friends.
1. Dixon’s visual Transmoderna journey
This sits at the top of our list for must-watch livestreams, in part because of the track selection and also because of the visuals that come with it. The Innervisions head brought a massive presence to Boiler Room’s Streaming In Isolation. Dixon’s set was combined with a show created by his platform Transmoderna – a beautiful 3D exploration into the underwater creations of his team, led by Visual Director Tim Novikov.
The stream featured eight unreleased (at the time) tracks that are available for purchase on Bandcamp, with all proceeds directly going to those artists. Throughout the video, you’ll see that the visuals even go as far as to spell out each of the track and artist names as they come about. It’s a very subtle scene that happens each time, but an incredible movement once you can catch it.
2. Dancing with Maceo Plex on Beatport ReConnect
For Beatport’s ReConnect livestream event, Maceo Plex took fan interactions to an entirely new level by quite literally dancing with them throughout his set. In the days leading up to the set, he put out a call for anyone and everyone to submit 1-minute videos of themselves dancing – and ended up playing a set with these videos circling around him the entire time.
Not only was it an entertaining way to provide visuals worth watching, it was also an ingenius idea to make those who submitted videos feel like they were truly part of the show.
3. A-Trak shows his turntablism chops on Fool’s Gold
When it comes to impressive turntablism skills and performances that never fail to disappoint, A-Trak always and immediately comes to mind. The longtime DJ, producer, founder of Fool’s Gold Records, and one half of of both Duck Sauce and The Brothers Macklovitch has made a few streaming appearances – here’s one of the best:
4. Bob Sinclar being, well, Bob
The madman (and we mean that, truly, in the best way) that is Bob Sinclar went on a lockdown stream marathon for 55 days – and let’s be honest, we expected nothing less. From absurd costumes to surprise guests and various oddly dressed mannequins, the streams are an endless source of laughter and easily danceable tunes.
You can watch all of the streams on his Facebook page, but prepare to get lost in a bit of a wormhole. Worth it.
5. Madeon’s Secret Sky Set
The Secret Sky festival, put on by Porter Robinson in early May, featured a slew of artists performing their own eclectic livestreams over the course of the day. French musician Madeon’s set stood out in particular, both for his visual offerings and his Ableton mixing on the fly with not one, but two Ableton Pushes.
6. John Digweed’s Bunker Sessions
The legendary John Digweed has used quarantine to kick off “Bunker Sessions”, which have been getting a ton of love from his fans. These weekly livestreams have been running for 13+ weeks at this point, and can be streamed on his Facebook and Mixcloud.
He’s even been doing a unique giveaway during the sessions – he writes: “I have been using my time while at home going through old boxes of memorabilia and found loads of old flyers some dating back 30 years. I thought it would be great to run some competitions to win these so if you want to win some signed flyers / CD’s etc please sign up to the dedicated Bunker mailing list.”
7. Claptone In The Circus
Claptone has started his own livestream series, Claptone In The Circus, streaming weekly on Youtube. These have been quite an eclectic combination of sounds, too – not just your traditional Claptone performance – including a particularly fun hip hop mix.
And it gets better – he’s also started the Quarantine Canteen, a weekly show in which the artist shares a few of his favorite recipes. So far, some of the recipes include Pisco Sour, Golden Octopus, and Claptastic Fish Tacos. Leave it to the man in the mask – and in a disguised voice, too – to get mega-creative with all that free time.
8. Four Tet’s Boiler Room: Streaming From Isolation
In typical Four Tet fashion, this hour-long set starts with an eclectic touch: the first camera shot we see places us at a low-to-the-ground, deep-in-the-woods-somewhere setting where we see Kieran walk up to the camera and guide us through the wilderness. It creates a sense of serenity and peace, and a layer of authenticity, too – broadcasting from “the middle of nowhere,” as he calls it.
We’re escorted into his garage, through a laundry room, and into his studio space – a makeshift one with CDJs placed on cardboard boxes and folding tables abound. Just further proof that this magician of an artist can provide an incredible set regardless of where or what he’s doing.
9. Cercle: The Blaze live at Aiguille du Midi
This list wouldn’t be complete without a video from Cercle, known for their streams that take place in beautiful locations around the world. This edition in particular took place at Aiguille du Midi, a 12,000+ ft mountain in the French Alps, featuring a live set from The Blaze.
Not only is the view worth watching, but the duo’s setup is, too – their streaming booth is a hollow box with a mirror-like reflection, allowing you to see through to the other side of the mountain.
10. Peggy Gou plays the highest point in Seoul
Leave it to Peggy Gou to leave us all wanting to leave our houses in search of awesome views like this. Her episode of Boiler Room’s Streaming From Isolation series featured a set from Namsan Tower, the highest point in Seoul. As BR describes it, it provides “spectacular views of her home city bringing a feast for the eyes, ears & soul for all those quarantined at home.”
11. Don Diablo goes… swimming?
We can’t talk about the most entertaining livestreams without pointing out the (somewhat absurd) livestream setup of Don Diablo’s 55-minute drum and bass set from his swimming pool.
We have so many questions. How did you not splash the gear? How were you not worried about ruining your gear? Why was he wearing clothes in a pool? How did you keep this giant stand – that stretches from one side of the pool to the other – in place? Can we talk about, you know, electricity and water for a minute?
12. A Garden of Netsky
The term “plamp” has taken over much of the livestream world. According to Urban Dictionary, plamp is “a meme word referring to the vibes of a DJ livestream ascertaining to the presence of PLants + lava lAMPs, a noticeable recurring theme for online DJ sets.“
Though no lava lamps can be found in this stream particularly, Netsky definitely levels up with his livestream decoration setup: tons of flowers and plans on every wall, leaving no bare corner for viewers.
13. DJ Tennis at Club Space
Trippy visuals and entrancing beats abound, Life & Death founder DJ Tennis pulls out all the stops for a livestream from Miami’s iconic Club Space.
It’s so great, but Facebook prevents embedding it because of copyright reasons. Watch it here.
14. A dance party with Floating Points
Yet another set that demonstrates how fantastic Boiler Room’s Streaming From Isolation series has been throughout quarantine: two hours of tunes from London DJ and producer Floating Points. And beyond just the set, the visuals make for quite an entertaining set to tune into: side-by-side videos of talented dancers moving through their own flows with the beat.
15. Coldcut’s Pirate TV
Another British talent to round out our list: Coldcut has been broadcasting livestreams every Saturday night under their Pirate TV series, a streaming station they first started 20 years back. The streams feature Matt Black jamming from his studio with the Jamm Pro performance app that he created.
You can stream it on their Facebook page, or head to Coldcut’s Twitch.
What other streams have you watched and loved? Which videos are worth adding to our list? Let us know in the comments below.
