Josh Baker: DJ Mag Top 100 Highest New Entry 2026

The Underground Architect: How Josh Baker Landed at No.40 in DJ Mag's Top 100

When DJ Mag revealed its Top 100 DJs 2026 results on 6 October at [UNVRS] Ibiza, the obvious headline was David Guetta's record sixth overall No.1. But the result that says more about where house and tech house sit in 2026 is buried seventeen places lower: Josh Baker, debuting at No.40 as the poll's Highest New Entry. Baker is a DJ, producer, label head, and festival founder who has built every part of his career closer to the underground than to the festival mainstage. The fact that enough people voted him into the top 40 says something about what the audience for this music actually wants right now.

You&Me, Hide & Seek, and the Patience of Building From the Ground Up

Baker's name carries weight because he attached it to things that lasted. His You&Me label and party have been running long enough to develop their own reputation — not as a brand exercise but as a genuine curatorial voice. His Hide & Seek Festival followed the same logic: a boutique event with a focused identity rather than a destination lineup assembled by committee. That kind of long-game institution building rarely produces overnight viral moments, but it creates a loyal audience that actually goes to shows. That loyalty showed up on the DJ Mag ballot.

The Bakers Dozen label and party series extended the same ethos across a wider format. Between You&Me, Hide & Seek, and Bakers Dozen, Baker has more operational infrastructure than most DJs in the top 100 — infrastructure he built before any poll legitimised it.

Amnesia Ibiza and the Residency That Changed the Conversation

If there was one run in 2026 that pushed Baker's name into rooms it hadn't reached before, it was his first Ibiza residency at Amnesia. Baker has talked about first visiting the club as a punter — a detail that makes the residency feel genuinely earned rather than algorithm-delivered. His guests across the summer included Cloonee, KETTAMA, Saoirse, and Shanti Celeste, a booking sheet that reads like a cross-section of the current underground rather than a list of whoever's available at the going rate. That matters. The Terrace and Main Room at Amnesia can absorb a lot of different musical approaches; Baker's residency had a consistent character.

The exposure that comes with a full Ibiza summer is hard to replicate. For Baker, it brought his sound to audiences who'd heard his name on line-ups but hadn't experienced a full set. The combination of residency momentum and a credible back catalogue — including "Down To The Bone" with Eliza Rose and "Feel This Way" featuring Silva Bumpa and Paige Cavell — gave the Ibiza season a narrative shape rather than just a series of dates.

What "Closer to the Underground" Means in Practice

DJ Mag's own writeup on Baker's entry described him as "a little closer to the underground than many artists on this list," which it flagged as notable at this chart position. That observation cuts both ways. It's a compliment — Baker hasn't had to compromise his sound to get there — but it's also a meaningful data point about what's shifting in the poll. A DJ Mag top-40 spot built on label work, a boutique festival, and an Amnesia residency is a different kind of success story than one built on streaming numbers and festival mainstages.

The voters who put Baker at No.40 are presumably the same crowd filling Hide & Seek and attending You&Me nights. They're not a fringe audience, clearly — they showed up in sufficient numbers to make him the poll's highest new entry. That crossover between genuinely underground-leaning taste and mainstream poll participation is one of the more interesting dynamics in the current house music landscape.

2027: Finsbury Park and the Next Phase

The momentum isn't slowing. Baker has three London dates confirmed at Finsbury Park alongside KETTAMA and Prospa — shows that reportedly sold out quickly, which, for outdoor events at that scale, is the most honest form of market validation available. The fact that he built that demand through years of club-scale events rather than a single viral moment makes the 2027 shows feel like a natural escalation rather than an overreach.

At No.40, Baker sits in company that includes many DJs who operate at a much larger commercial scale. What makes the placement interesting isn't just where he landed but how he got there — through infrastructure, consistency, and a refusal to sand down the musical edges that made the crowd care in the first place.