Louie DeVito

Known by some as "the man with the golden ear," New York denizen Louie DeVito started out listening to DJ Franco Lamello on his local radio station. A construction worker at the time, DeVito was inspired by his idol to learn to mix, and eventually made it onto the radio himself on WKTU's Friday Night Mix Show. His proven ability to pick out a big mainstream dance hit gained further traction with the release of his first compilation, NYC Underground Party (1999), which sold over 60,000 copies and allowed him to begin a regular release schedule of discs under this rubric, before adding a second series titled Dance Factory. His hit-driven programming style tends to elicit sneers from the serious dance music and electronica cognoscenti, but there ought to be a place for everyone in the supposed PLUR (Peace Love Unity Respect) night world, and any DJ that can regularly get feet on dancefloors and wallets out of pockets deserves a nod, no matter how predictable or premeditated the music choices may be.