UK Garage (1997): UK garage took shape in London in the mid-1990s: New York garage sped up and run through the filter of pirate radio, with swollen basslines, chopped and…
Speed Garage (1996): Speed garage is 1997 London: New York house doped up on jungle basslines, warbling sub lines, garage organ stabs and ragga vocal samples. Double 99's RIP…
Bassline (2001): Bassline is the sound of northern England keeping speed garage alive and pushing it harder: warping basslines pushed to the front, pitched-up R&B vocals and…
2-Step (1998): 2 step is UK garage with the second and fourth kick removed: the groove becomes limping, sensual and unpredictable. Between 1998 and 2001, its absolute golden…
Dubstep (2005): Croydon, 2002 to 2006: 2-step emptied of its vocals and slowed in spirit, hollowed out with physically felt sub-bass and dub-style space. Running at 140 beats…
Brostep (2008): The American mutation of dubstep around 2010: the bass moved out of the subwoofer and into the midrange, metallic growls, rollercoaster drops, video game…
Riddim (2014): Riddim is the minimalist reduction of brostep that took hold in the mid-2010s: a single hammering bass motif repeated in triplets, almost without variation,…
Future Garage (2007): The lingering shadow of 2-step in the late 2000s: garage rhythms veiled in reverb, crackle and urban melancholy. Burial is its unwitting founding figure,…
UK Bass (2008): The umbrella label for the post-dubstep years, from 2009 onward: everything London produced between house, garage, techno, and grime without fitting neatly…
Wonky (2008): The 2008 to 2010 label for deliberately unhinged beats: synths sliding off the grid, detuned basses, instrumental hip hop warped into video game colours.…
Future Bass (2012): Future bass is the synthetic sugar of 2013 to 2017: supersaw chords chopped by an LFO, pitched-up kawaii vocals, and melodic drops that feel like a hug rather…
Trap (2011): Atlanta trap translated for festivals around 2012: triplet hi hats and 808s from Southern rap, married to rave drops and EDM build-ups. Harlem Shake by Baauer…
Deconstructed Club (2010): Deconstructed club shatters the dancefloor into fragments: signifiers of rave, reggaeton and grime cut apart and reglued without a stable grid, a…
Grime (2002): Grime came out of East London between 2002 and 2004, where teenagers made their own rap over skeletal eight bar instrumentals at 140 beats per minute,…
UK Funky (2008): UK funky is 2008 to 2010 London: a soca and Afro-inflected house sound born on pirate radio, built on tribal percussion, female vocals and a rolling 130 BPM…
Breakstep (2000): Breakstep is the 2000 to 2002 link between garage and dubstep: 2 step that borrows breaks, jungle basslines and a darker tone, before halfstep would go on to…
Baltimore Club (1992): Baltimore club is house music taken to the blowtorch, born in Baltimore in the 1990s: the Sing Sing and Think breaks hammered in an eight four four pattern,…
Jersey Club (2009): Jersey club is Newark's inheritance of Baltimore club sound in the 2000s, reshaped into its own identity: bouncy, triplet-feeling kick patterns, sampled bed…
Breakbeat Garage (1999): Breakbeat garage is the 2000 to 2003 variant of garage that puts breaks back under warp basslines, sitting between late 2 step and early dubstep. Menta, Agent…
