Joey Beltram — Techno DJ & Producer

Joey Beltram is a Queens-born techno DJ and producer whose singles "Energy Flash" and "Mentasm" are credited with reshaping the genre twice before he turned 21, according to critic Simon Reynolds. "Mentasm," released under the name Second Phase with Mundo Muzique in 1991, became a foundational rave-culture track, while Daft Punk name-checked Beltram as a house-scene pioneer on "Teachers" from their 1997 debut album. He has spent decades touring the international festival circuit, headlining Awakenings, Coachella, Nature One, Mayday and Dance Valley, and his DJ sets have long carried the harder techno sound his early productions helped define. In 1999 he launched his own label, STX, with collaborator Arena, and continued releasing under aliases Code 6 and JB³, including the Novamute-issued album "Close Grind." He returned to Tresor, the Berlin label and club closely tied to his sound, in 2004 for the album "Rising Sun," and has released across labels including Womb, Harthouse, Drumcode, MB Electroniks and Bush. His remix of Human Resource's "Dominator" remains a touchstone of early-90s techno, and active decades later, Beltram continues to be booked at major techno festivals on the strength of a catalogue that helped define the genre's harder edge.