DJ Bobina
Meet the hard-working Russian super-tsar DJ
WORDS | ALEX RAYNER
IS DJ BOBINA THE ROMAN ABRAMOVICH OF TRANCE? A year or two after the oligarchs reverse-engineered Western economics and divvied up Russia’s wealth, this young Muscovite taught himself how to write a new strain of dance music, and is now the country’s foremost club DJ. At the end of last year DJ magazine voted him 16th best spinner in the world.
“I became a fan of electronic music very suddenly in 2002,” says the 27-year-old, “and I started to produce it the day after!”
Bobina admits that his early records wouldn’t have set floors alight but within two years of him first coming across contemporary club music he was being booked to play huge events, like the Gatecrasher festival in Moscow. There he shared a bill with the likes of Depeche Mode’s Andrew Fletcher and Dutch DJ Ferry Corsten. Since then his own records and remixes have been championed by Paul Oakenfold.
Born Dmitry Almazov in Moscow on 11 March 1982, he used to listen to MTV staples like Roxette and Metallica, before turning to trance after hearing ResuRection by fellow Russian dance act, PPK.
Almazov took his club name from the Russian word for reel-to-reel tapes. The pseudonym came to him while emailing a friend about an old record he was keen to remix. His pal wrote back to say that the track had been recorded on ‘bobinas’. “Hmm, I thought, ‘Bobina’ – cool name.”
Since cornering the DJ market, Bobina co-founded one of Russia’s leading dance music record labels, World Club Music (WCM), which releases CDs by well-known international artists, like DJ Tiësto and Armin van Buuren. “I think most of the biggest names in electronic music come via WCM now,” he says.
Yet Bobina shows he’s made of hardy stuff. “January and February it’s really cold in Russia, so I tend to spend these months recording, staying comfortable in the studio.” But this year he’s touring 16 Russian cities. Roman and co would be proud.
