Dean Turnley ProfileAustralia's DJ/producers are leading a booming global electronic dance music scene like never before.
In 2025 The Music published the feature Meet The Australian DJs Making Waves Across The Globe – and every one has since levelled up. FISHER even scored a voice role in the Australasian theatrical release of Toy Story 5 as 'Garden Gnome'.
The most famous alumni may be Dom Dolla. Last year the superstar DJ played two sold-out nights at New York's Madison Square Garden (Kid Cudi was a guest) and made history as the first EDM name to headline an Australian stadium at Allianz in Eora/Sydney.
In the interim, he contributed to the soundtrack for F1 The Movie. At the ARIAs, Dolla received the new 'Global Impact Award', sponsored by Spotify. He's kept busy in 2026. Dolla remixed Puretone's classic Addicted To Bass. This month he'll head another sold-out spectacle – at Naarm/Melbourne's Marvel Stadium.
Dom Dolla's buddy Sonny Fodera isn't slowing down, either. A streaming (and UK chart) phenom, he released a sixth album, can we do it all again?, via his own label Solotoko in June, landing in the UK Top 20. Long residing in London, the DJ/producer has a homecoming tour here in October – triple j a co-presenter.
Traditionally Australia's electronic dance movement has been male-dominated yet women are emerging as the industry gamechangers, following NERVO, Alison Wonderland and Tarndanya/Adelaide's Mell Hall – whose funky 2021 Knock Knock (featuring Thandi Phoenix) broke records as the longest-running #1 for a female act in the ARIA Top 50 Club Tracks chart.
Ninajirachi had a watershed 2025, presenting a critically-acclaimed debut, I Love My Computer, which won the Australian Music Prize and three ARIAs.
This year the "girl EDM" trailblazer has teamed with former tourmate Porter Robinson for the complextro-pop WannaCry (premiered at her inaugural Coachella, where she also caught Madeon, who's just serviced a rare remix of iPod Touch. After headlining triple j's One Night Stand in Griffith, on Wiradjuri Country, Ninajirachi will be Tame Impala's special guest on October's Deadbeat Tour.
The London-based Logic1000 is promoting her second album, Confirmation!, led by the KUČKA-sung All In For You and due on the French label Because Music in October.
And, aside from recasting Nina Simone's '60s That's All I Ask, the prolific HAAi is rolling out a third LP, DIGITiSE, again on Mute Records and out next month. DIGITiSE is a dancefloor-geared sequel to 2025's HUMANiSE.
Kaytetye DJ/producer RONA., supporting Dom Dolla at Marvel Stadium (she'll play back-to-back with DJ JNETT), has delivered a third EP, To The Ground, on her Rarre Records.
Meanwhile, lutruwita/Tasmania's Sam Alfred, who's relocated to London, has signed to the Ninja Tune imprint Technicolour behind his smash Feel The Friction, airing No More – a hard house throwback sampling Adeva's '80s In And Out Of My Life. The prodigy has announced an EP with the same title for late October. He'll be back in the country over summer as a major draw at the sold-out Lost Paradise.
Even today's most polarising DJ/producer is an Aussie. Josh Fawaz ignited debates about the use of generative AI in music with his viral cover of Madonna's Like A Prayer, prompting ARIA to change its chart criteria. (He's actually issued an album, Dance Like Everyone's Watching, with more remakes, including one of Mark Morrison's Return Of The Mack.)
Despite the controversy, Fawaz is capitalising as a DJ. He will support Jason Derulo on the Australasian leg of The Last Dance World Tour, starting September 17th.
So who are the trending – and credible – homegrown DJ/producers (or cultural exports) in 2026?
The Music's latest list has identities from distinct generations: some up-and-coming and others experiencing incremental success or rebranding themselves.
Pretty Girl
A native of Naarm/Melbourne, Pretty Girl (aka Emilia Predebon) has courted a devoted fanbase with her unique aesthetic.
The DJ, musician, vocalist, producer and live performer blends house, rave, trance, progressive, breakbeat, UK garage, and ambient, with cult tracks like 2021's Sun Phase and her epitome Rewind. She received a key early co-sign from Romy, remixing her single Strong with Fred again...
"PG" relocated to London in 2024 – but deserves greater recognition at home. Last year she made the NME100 and released a volume in fabric London's prestigious mix series, fabric presents. Additionally, PG played The Do LaB at Coachella.
Over summer, Pretty Girl was back in Oz – bringing a hybrid live show to Sugar Mountain (Canada's Tiga headlined). In July she aired the Body Step EP on her fledgling imprint, earthside. Pretty Girl will return to support BICEP in Naarm/Melbourne and join Lost Paradise.
https://youtu.be/Aki4sSTjHbM?si=wTNbj5OTmPQsXS9n
DJ Plead
The Lebanese-Swiss-Australian DJ Plead (Jarred Beeler) is a stalwart of the domestic underground – born in New Jersey but raised in Eora/Sydney and then resettling in Naarm/Melbourne. The community radio favourite commenced his career in the early 2010s with the future R&B outfit Black Vanilla (or BV) – Collarbones' Marcus Whale another member.
In 2017 Plead co-founded the label SUMAC – and has long been associated with Logic1000. Indeed, SUMAC released Logic1000's Deborah Cox-sampling track DJ Logic Please Forgive Me which Four Tet dropped at 2019's Coachella.
Plead also contributed to her lauded album Mother (cue: Every Lil' with Miami raptor house champion MJ Nebreda on vox).
Plead explores his Levantine heritage in a percussive club paradigm. In 2021 he unveiled his debut, Relentless Trills, via Manchester's Boomkat. Today based in Berlin, Plead lately resurfaced with the downbeat Please on Norway's esteemed Smalltown Supersound – its lead single the modishly trip hop Stucco.
Plead is playing Unsound Festival in Kraków, Poland in October, sharing the bill with Arca. But he's flying home for November's Strawberry Fields to DJ back-to-back with moktar.
X CLUB.
In December 2025 X CLUB. rocked The Wool Store, a heritage building in West Footscray, Naarm/Melbourne – the party now the stuff of legend.
Ben Clarke and Jesse Morath hail from Meanjin/Brisbane, but in 2022 transferred to London, establishing themselves on the European techno circuit. Surprisingly, they DJed with Sam Alfred at 2024's ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event).
Last year X CLUB. made their Glastonbury premiere (with Miley Serious) and, this year, hit both Coachella's The Do LaB and, less predictably, the Montreux Jazz Festival. They've broadcast on London community station Rinse FM.
X CLUB. have consistently aired music – and even collaborated with Pretty Girl on Only If U for Steel City Dance Discs, the Newcastle label founded by Mall Grab later throwing a bash at Berghain the pair blazed. Their latest EP, Stay With Me, has an irreverent single in You're Not A Popstar.
Like BICEP, X CLUB. aren't necessarily purist – raiding house, breakbeat and drum 'n' bass. They remixed Dom Dolla's CAVE (featuring the ubiquitous Swede Tove Lo) alongside Partiboi69 and have cut a track with UK baseline-type NOTION.
In January X CLUB. unleashed the bouncy HU4D on their own imprint, Hide The Junk, flipping Matthew Dear's 1999 anthem Hands Up For Detroit – since playing Detroit's Movement Electronic Music Festival (back-to-back with Germany's DJ HEARTSTRING) the same day Dolla headlined.
They latterly DJed together with Nia Archives at Chicago's ARC Music Festival.
not without friends
Naarm/Melbourne DJ/producer Luke Alessi first generated heat remixing Lastling's Deja Vu in 2019. Notably, he connected with Chloé Caillet for the 2025 hit The One, sampling Jocelyn Brown's '80s bop Somebody Else's Guy – the DJs recently reuniting for the tougher Change on Ninja Tune.
Yet Alessi (who's just moved to London) is also a member of the Naarm/Melbourne DJ supergroup not without friends alongside Jordan Brando and William Kiss.
The housers are fabled locally for holding parties in unusual locations – such as the National Trust's Rippon Lea Estate. (Even back in late 2024 not without friends sold out a one-night revival of Docklands' floating nightclub ATET. They're likewise festival raves, playing the tenth edition of Beyond The Valley.
The collective are releasing music, too, with two EPs out through RÜFÜS DU SOL's Rose Avenue Records (they opened for the band at the Crystal Palace Park in South-East London).
Last year not without friends launched an eponymous imprint, airing the single without u. They've now reworked Spiller's enduring 2000s smash Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) – the song that introduced Sophie Ellis-Bextor to the world – for Defected.
This October, the trio will join Dom Dolla at his Flushing Meadows-Corona Park extravaganza in Queens, NY with their fan Peggy Gou and Basement Jaxx. Catch them closer to home spinning an extended set at Lost Paradise.
Bella Claxton
Hard house is experiencing a resurgence – and Bella Claxton is at the forefront. She grew up in Bungambrawatha/Albury and began her career as a DJ/producer in Naarm/Melbourne.
Making inroads into Europe, she was a HÖR Berlin guest in 2023 and soon moved to Amsterdam, but is now in London.
Claxton has enjoyed an epic European summer – just playing Creamfields with Ghent's Helena Lauwaert as the UK festival marked its 20th anniversary at the Daresbury Estate in Cheshire, the line-up stacked with Aussies like closing act Sonny Fodera.
Releasing music from 2024, Claxton floated her own record label, Cadence, late last year with The Power EP. But her latest production is a remix of Keep Up by ATRIP & DJ BORING.
Claxton has maintained her ties to the Australian scene. In recent months she's supported X CLUB. at The Wool Store, handled the New Year's Eve countdown at Beyond The Valley and stepped in for Belgian techno super-DJ Charlotte de Witte at Pitch Music & Arts, not to mention sold-out shows on her strictly pumpers headline tour.
Claxton will be back to play the festival trinity of Overtone, Freeform and Mode.
Cooper Smith
Cooper Smith is a multi-hyphenate: a DJ, producer, remixer, advocate, social media phenom and party-starter. Smith, who lives with cerebral palsy, debuted at Ability Fest (founded by Paralympic gold medallist Dylan Alcott) as a teen hotshot in 2023 and has since been on the ascent. Versatile, he spins tech-house yet digs Afro house and everything between.
Smith, who only just turned 21, comes from Seaford, near Frankston – where auspiciously Vicious Recordings launched in 1992.
He's twice played the Australian Open (at the 2024 AO Finals Festival, Smith was "resident DJ", warming up for Groove Armada and sneaking in Jason Derulo's Whatcha Say plus festivals like Beyond The Valley and ULTRA Australia.
He's also being booked internationally – DJing at Snow Machine in the Japanese ski resort village of Hakuba. Smith has lately wrapped his first national headlining tour, encompassing Revolver.
Smith is industrious in the studio, too. Recently, he remixed the Brit James Hype's Waterfalls and issued the bouncy anthem All Night. Then there's his cheeky rework of The Veronicas' 2000s evergreen Untouched...
What next? On the road, Smith previewed a fresh track, OVER (with singer/songwriter Alex Hosking), out September 18th.
Dean Turnley
Is Dean Turnley 2026's biggest Aussie break-out story? The house DJ/producer from Geelong, on Wadawurrung Country, went viral with his hooky club heater Actin' Tough – officially released in March while he was at Miami Music Week and promoted on a SoundCloud billboard in NY's Times Square. Actin' Tough has been rinsed by DJs such as Peggy Gou.
In fact, Turnley was active in the Naarm/Melbourne underground in the 2010s. He's likewise a co-founder of the pre-pandemic Sundancer Festival in Thailand.
This year Turnley has appeared at Pitch Music & Arts and sold out two headline shows in Naarm/Melbourne. He's presently building on the momentum of Actin' Tough with a world tour. In July Turnley played the Belgian EDM fest Tomorrowland and was a guest at Dom Dolla's Hï Ibiza residency.
A Chicago house connoisseur, he even has an upcoming booking at the Windy City institution Spybar. Turnley will return to Australia for Beyond The Valley and Lost Paradise.
CC:DISCO!
Dance music has taken CC DISCO! (Courtney Clarke) far. Growing up in the bordertown of Cobram, on Bangerang Country, she left for Naarm/Melbourne, becoming a radio host, then club DJ and promoter.
In 2019 CC DISCO! migrated to Lisbon, Portugal, of all places. Here, she's been able to create a profile in Europe, twice playing Glastonbury. CC DISCO! presented a 2024 BBC Essential Mix on Radio 1.
A selector, CC DISCO! showed her curatorial instincts with two volumes in the First Light compilation series for the Mushroom Group's Soothsayer imprint. More recently, she's thrown herself into production.
In 2023 CC DISCO! premiered with an EP, Chez Moi (Waiting For You), featuring the vocals of Confidence Man's Janet Planet, on Erol Alkan's Phantasy Sound (earlier, she supplied the band's dub mixes).
Plus CC DISCO! has instituted a label, Miami Daddy. Check out the tastemaker's excellent edit of Revival House Project's Earth Song – a reimagining of Michael Jackson's '90s gospel-pop hit performed by house diva Kathy Brown.
These days CC DISCO! primarily DJs on the European circuit, lately guesting at Dom Dolla's Hï Ibiza residency. Still, she regularly returns home, warming up for Cut Copy when they headlined Live At The Gardens in March. CC DISCO! is on the Strawberry Fields bill – Tocumwal, NSW, no distance from her old Murray River haunt.
She's also scheduled to DJ at New Year's At The Bowl in Naarm/Melbourne, fronted by Major Lazer.
Hayden James
Originating from Naarm/Melbourne, but coming up in Eora/Sydney, Hayden James is a veteran – breaking out in 2014 with his gold-certified tune Something About You (remixed by ODESZA!) on Future Classic. The buzzy DJ/producer was credited on Katy Perry's infamous album Witness (the groovy Déjà Vu).
Ironically, many pundits apparently don't realise that the three-time ARIA nominee is Australian due to his presence on the international scene. James briefly resettled in Los Angeles in 2023, the year after his first Coachella. He released a subliminal third LP, We Could Be Love, two years ago.
Now James is back in Eora/Sydney – his studio in the Northern Beaches area. Latterly he's focused on singles, linking with the Manchester, UK R&B singer Bipolar Sunshine (of DJ Snake's Middle fame) for the breezy electro-tinged For The Girls.
Word is that James has also reunited with Gorgon City – the acts previously collaborating on 2021's single Foolproof (featuring Nat Dunn). The stalwart has been touring the US solidly but will play a free Pizza Hut Unboxed party in Waterloo on September 5th.
The stalwart has been touring the US solidly, but just blew up on Instagram playing the Pizza Hut Unboxed party in Waterloo.
6 SENSE
If there's a 'next big thing' in Australian electronic dance music, it's 6 SENSE from Naarm/Melbourne.
Emerging in 2022, Brodie Johnson and Alex Garces are reinvigorating '90s warehouse techno (and Naarm/Melbourne's reputation as Australia's "Techno City") – their top track the chugging On The Block with fellow upstart Ned Bennett. 6 SENSE might be the Gen Z Wetmusik.
The dynamic duo have cult status in their hometown – and on the festival circuit. Over winter, they headlined a day event at Albert Park's Lakeside Pavilion prior to hitting Europe.
Meanwhile, 6 SENSE delivered a Mix Up on triple j. They'll be back for Strawberry Fields.
Millhouse
As with Dean Turnley, Millhouse (Thomas Mills) has a hot record. He's revived the '90s classic Horny from Mousse T. vs Hot 'N' Juicy, peaking at #3 on the ARIA Top 50 Club Tracks and dropped by the likes of Baauer.
The rising star, who's cultivating a speed garage renaissance, is still DJing around Naarm/Melbourne – he first played professionally at the hard house club Nerve but lately warmed up for Detroit ghettotech pioneer DJ Assault at The Evelyn Hotel.
Before officially releasing Horny Dub in May, Millhouse circulated an edit of Madison Avenue's Don't Call Me Baby. The next challenge? Original bangers.
Tyson O'Brien
Old schoolers will recognise Tyson O'Brien as Generik – the Naarm/Melbourne electro-house DJ/producer reinventing himself. O'Brien has had a long association with onelove Music Group, serving as Head Of Promo & Digital. In fact, he debuted on the label with 2014's club hit The Weekend (featuring Nicky Van She).
Even back in the 2010s, as EDM surged in the US, the charismatic O'Brien was bustling moves – securing a residency at OMNIA Las Vegas, facilitated by his mate Calvin Harris. He was booked for Lollapalooza in 2016. O'Brien remixed Halsey's break-out Bad At Love.
In 2022 O'Brien had a viral comeback with LDN FERG (London Bridge) – the track, flipping Fergie's smash and co-produced alongside Paluma, on his own tech-house imprint You Do You.
The following year, he revamped Harris' Miracle (sung by Ellie Goulding) with Jordan Brando. O'Brien continues to offer solid dancefloor platters – Deep Day out through Three Six Zero Recordings.
And, like the seasoned Kaz James, O'Brien is as in-demand as ever. This year he has appeared at Dua Lipa's Sunny Hill Festival Park in Kosovo and is currently in Ibiza, playing Harris' dual Ushuaïa Ibiza residencies and Dom Dolla's Hï Ibiza night. The other weekend O'Brien returned to Creamfields.
Come October, O'Brien will be in his hometown to join a French and Australian line-up, led by Tchami, at Electro Merveilles – an immersive event in the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. That's a heavyweight.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
