“Josey Rebelle is a rarity. A name DJ whose name comes not from producing (she doesn’t) but strictly from her work on the decks.”
Josey Rebelle is a DJ from London, described as “the genre-bending DJ dominating top-tier dancefloors worldwide” (Mixmag) and “a hero of the UK music scene” (The Face).
With awards and accolades including BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix of the Year, DJ Mag Best of British Award for Best Compilation, Resident Advisor Mix of the Year, inclusion in DJ Mag’s 100 of the World’s Best DJs book (2022) and regular appearances on ‘Best Of’ lists for her DJ sets, mixes and radio shows, the London born-and-bred DJ seamlessly traverses genres with a fierce energy that evokes the spirit of her home city.
Josey was introduced to the decks at an early age, taught to mix by her brother on his house, techno and jungle collection when she was 13. But it was some years later that she gained the confidence to graduate from bedroom DJ to the booth of the club, eventually earning her stripes both as a regular at legendary London basement club Plastic People and decade-long host of a weekly show on pioneering London radio station Rinse FM.
Josey’s mix for the legendary BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix series was selected as 2019’s Essential Mix of the Year, joining the ranks of previously-crowned DJs such as Dave Clarke, Sasha, Ben Klock and Helena Hauff. Her compilation album Josey in Space, released on Beats in Space Records in 2020, featured a trove of exclusives and previously vinyl-only secret weapons taken from the depths of her cherished record collection, and was named Best Compilation at the DJ Mag Best of British Awards and Resident Advisor’s Mix of the Year. Josey’s limited edition cassette tape mix for The Trilogy Tapes, released in 2021 as a meticulously-curated ode to her teenage years, was described by Pitchfork magazine as the year’s “most faithful evocation of a vintage UK pirate-radio broadcast”. She also appeared on the first official Boiler Room broadcast in 2010, and made the cover of DJ Mag in February 2020. Josey is currently a resident at Open Ground, a club located in a converted underground bunker in Wuppertal, Germany.
“Josey Rebelle is a rarity,” The New Yorker stated. “A name DJ whose name comes not from producing (she doesn’t) but strictly from her work on the decks”. With no social media presence, Josey has worked hard over the years to build a reputation based on selection, passion and authenticity, to separate herself from the noise and arrive at a place where nothing more is required than the thing she loves most: to step into the darkness of the DJ booth and play.
Photo: Ollie Trenchard
@ Solstice Festival, Finland - 2023