DJ Canada

Club freaks, vinyl cadets, and disciples of electronica — these Essentials are just for you: a fine selection of remixes and originals by the cream of Canuck DJs, featuring the work of Montreal's A-Trak (a.k.a. Alain Macklovitch) on Kanye West's "Gold Digger" and Detroit techno legend Plastikman's remix of Depeche Mode's "Painkiller."

You won't find a sharper example of minimal techno (some call it microhouse) than that perfected on "Mary Jane Kelley" by Montreal's Marc Leclair, who works under the moniker Akufen, a phonetic rendering of the French word for tinnitus (ringing of the ears), "acouphène." Moonstarr ("Toronto's tallest DJ!") funks it up with "Dust."

For a master class in turning up dance floor heat, look no further than the tempo changes on "Black Out" by MC Mario (Mario Tremblay, co-owner of Montreal's Club 1234), who understands the mechanics of effortlessly working his crowd into a lather. Fred Everything works a more organic furrow with his flute-centric "Afro Loft Theme."

Geographically, the nerve centre of our Canadian DJ Essentials can be found in Montreal, which, since the days of Prohibition, has retained its status as a North American nightlife hub and continues to nurture the best in club culture. Whether it's Ghislain Poirier remixing UK hip-hop starlet Lady Sovereign ("Fiddle With the Volume") or Sixtoo ripping up the beeps on "Boxcutter Emporium Pt. 1," the city is well represented. Of course we also give a shout out to the rest of the country, thanks to the likes of MSTRKRFT (who hail from East York, Ontario) and Vancouver's Kid Koala.