Maceo Plex Commemorates 30 Years of DJing with New Album, '93

Three decades in the dance/electronic industry is the equivalent of a lifetime outside its circles — just ask Maceo Plex.

’93, the LP with which the underground vanguard celebrates his 30-year stretch DJing, hails from a place of unique and, in the larger dance/electronic context, uncommon perspective. With it comes the reminder that this type of longevity is anomalous in this space. And on the commemorative LP, the rationale for the producer’s enduring presence is made clear by his willingness to twist the plot.

While it would have been easy for Maceo Plex to follow his winning melodic-and techno-guided formula, on ’93, he deviates from it, deftly melding house, hip-hop, global bass, techno, breaks, and electronica instead. Even so, the record retains hints of Maceo Plex’s signature, idiosyncratic sound across its 17 tracks. An eclectic guest list of featured artists and collaborators makes appearances on the album, including Perry Farrell (of Jane’s Addiction), Cubicolor, Oscar and the Wolf, AVNU, Ishi, Tyler Hill, and Diplo, among others.

Born from his legacy of dance/electronic craftsmanship not only under the Maceo Plex alias but also as Maetrik and Mariel Ito, ’93 is a visceral mosaic of reverb, lithe vocals, and cerebral sound design punctuated with throttling beats. It’s “a modern mixture of all the sounds of electronic music that have influenced me,” says Maceo Plex.

The rousing, genre-roving LP — his first since 2019’s Mutant Series — is flanked by a hybrid DJ set and music video, shot at Input in Barcelona. Listen to the album in full below.