A lovable curmudgeon and archivist, DJ Platurn’s musical knowledge is almost encyclopedic, which factors into his veteran position as one of the Bay Area’s most respected DJs.
Born Illugi Magnússon in the small Icelandic fishing village of Stykkishólmur, he arrived in California at age seven with his family and his father’s record collection. Acclimating to new places is never easy, but music helped with Platurn’s transition, he says. “Music was the safety net for a chaotic childhood. I think that’s why I’m still so married to it to this day.”
His father, Magnus Thordarson, was a radio DJ and promoter, slipping diverse, new sounds onto Icelandic airwaves during what one might charitably call an unadventurous era. The name Platurn, drawn from the Icelandic plötusnúður, simply means “plate turner” – an accurate namesake if there ever was one.
In the East Bay, young Platurn absorbed hip-hop with the hunger of an outsider who recognized kinship in its recombinatory spirit. De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising, for example, reached him early; its playful, expansive weirdness a counterpoint to all other rap at the time resonated with Platurn.
“De La spoke to my wants and needs for a different world within the rapmosphere at the time. Coming into my own, trying to find my own unique voice…all the things were there to inspire me to carve my own path forever,” he remembers.
Later, he would repay the debt with lovingly assembled (and now legendary) mixes—So This Is De La Heaven and its companions. The projects allowed samples to breathe and were clearly devotional love letters. “The mixes were simply an outlet to express my gratitude for who, in my opinion, is the greatest rap group of all time,” he said. The release just celebrated its 25th anniversary.
By the early 2000s, he co-founded the Oakland Faders, a crew that saw turntables as instruments of both musical progress and quiet preservation. Their mixtapes were about feel, contextualizing and celebrating the original artists many of their rap idols sampled.
Then, in 2010, as laptops were swallowing clubs whole, Platurn started the 45 Sessions: nights devoted entirely to seven-inch records. Legendary guests like Just Blaze, Nu-Mark, Maseo and Diamond D famously came through. In a culture increasingly optimized for frictionless consumption, Platurn insisted on tactility—the physicality of the object, the small risks of live mixing, and selectors having to read the room.
His own heritage has complicated easy notions of roots. Iceland in the late ’70s and early ’80s was not exactly a funk capital, yet Platurn’s aforementioned family record archive proved otherwise. His family’s musical history was told through Breaking the Ice, a deep mix made from insanely obscure Icelandic records, most of which originally belonged to his dad, who forever altered Icelandic radio through his expansive programming.The project took more than a decade and stands in contrast to Iceland’s image as a place of cold, stark minimalism.
Platurn has since performed everywhere from Scandinavia to Asia to Australia, sharing bills with many of his idols. He’s scored films, contributed to documentaries, and still emerges for important community events.
His importance lies less in his résumé than in the sensibility he models, connecting the past to the present, especially in this era of AI and algorithmic solitude.
“It’s wild that 90% of the bookings I get nowadays are all vinyl related. How that all came back around is not only a testament to authenticity over an abundance of saturation and says a lot about music fans wanting something real in their face again, but it’s also just a nod to how wax just refuses to go anywhere. It’s the longest and strongest of all the formats and will never die.”
*DJ Platurn returns to San Jose at Still OG on June 27th, 9pm-1am. DJ B. Roos will join Platurn for a set.
