Dirty South

Beginning his path in music as a mash-up creator, Serbian-Australian producer Dragan Roganović has delivered numerous hit EDM productions and remixes under the name Dirty South. Drawn to sweeping builds and ecstatic club tracks, he launched a run of original progressive and electro house albums during the 2010s and ventured into cinema with his indie pop–tinged follow-up LP, 2014’s With You, which arrived alongside a self-helmed visual work. By the decade’s close his luminous aesthetic had shifted toward murkier tones, notably on his fourth studio effort, 2018’s Darko.

Dragan was born in Belgrade and relocated with his family to Australia at age 13. He started constructing unauthorized dance remixes using only a tape deck, mixer, and splicer, yet the purchase of his first laptop in 2004 marked the arrival of Dirty South. Vicious Vinyl put out his first single, “Sleazy,” in 2005, and the following year his take on Evermore’s “It’s Too Late” reached the top of the Australian club charts. A 2008 remix of Kaskade’s “Sorry” earned a Grammy nomination for Best Remixed Recording, and he received the same nod again in 2011 for his version of the Temper Trap’s “Sweet Disposition.” The 2011 compilation Strictly Dirty South also appeared that year. He teamed with Swedish DJ Alesso for the 2012 single “City of Dreams,” then made his proper album debut with Speed of Life in 2013. His 2014 release With You drew from indie pop and came paired with a 38-minute film that Roganović directed, using the album’s songs as its score. Although he kept releasing singles such as “Find a Way,” “All of Us,” and “I Swear,” his next full-length, XV, did not surface until February 2018; the project featured ANIMA! on “Next to You” and “If It All Stops,” Rudy on “Love Story” and “Higher,” and Eden Prince on “Believe.” Later in 2018 Roganović issued his fourth Dirty South album, Darko, which he called the “moodier cousin of XV.” Those darker textures persisted on the club-focused 2019 EP Little Devious, while the 2020 single “Kiss from God” signaled a return to the expansive, celestial pop of his earlier work.