Gerd Janson is one of the most highly respected DJs in the world of house and techno. Quite often, “highly respected” goes hand-in-hand with “underrated” but over the past few years, audiences around the world have also found out what insider types already knew: Janson is a DJ that reconfigures the classics you already knew in an unexpected way – and introduce you to new classics, a few months (or years) before you’ll hear them played everywhere else.

Raised just outside of Frankfurt, Janson came to dance music at a young age. He was introduced to techno via a scout leader, who lent him a tape in the early ‘90s made by German techno legend Sven Väth. The region – at that time – was Germany’s most vibrant outpost for the stuff, and he soon fell in love.

This genre-free philosophy has been a theme throughout Janson’s career. House and techno have been an underlying theme, but listening to his DJ sets, you’ll often hear different types of things filtering through: UK funky, synth pop, industrial. It’s a cliché, to be sure, but he’s the type of DJ that digs so that you don’t have to.