UK Garage - Revival of 2-step

Revival of 2-step

In 2007, DJs such as DJ Charma, DJ Elski, MistaPlum and Matt Farley have been involved in the promoting and revival of UK garage's popularity, with producers like Delinquent, Ayklogic, Control-S, Wideboys, DJ Ade, Marvel, Solution, Duncan Powell and Danny Dubz producing fresh new UK garage, also known as "new skool" UK garage.

So called "old skool" UK garage producers MJ Cole, Sunship, Wideboys, and Greg Stainer to name a few, have produced new UK garage to give the scene a huge push, which also provides a nostalgic link to the "old skool" UK garage scene.

The end of 2007 saw "new skool" UK garage push to the mainstream again with notable tracks like Delinquent's "My Destiny", T2's "Heartbroken", and Wideboys' "Snowflake" reaching the mainstream charts. This was topped by DJ EZ releasing Pure Garage Rewind: Back to the Old Skool, which contained three CD's of "old skool" UK garage and a fourth CD with fresh "new skool" UK garage.

The end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 has seen the rising popularity of an off-shoot of UK garage, called bassline. Artists like DJ Q, Riplash and Sus, DJ BDM & Ender MC, MC Bones, Northern Line Records, Brett Maverick, T2, and Delinquent have been producing fresh new bassline, and currently the UK garage scene contains a significant number of bassline producers, who are strongly promoting and pushing this subgenre of UK garage.

One popular mutation of UK garage is dubstep, originally a dark take on the 2-step garage sound. According to Kode9, the bass used takes influence from Jamaican music such as reggae music. It is now the sound of underground bass music in many UK towns and cities. Dubstep was originated by garage producers such as Wookie, Zed Bias, Shy Cookie, El-b and Artwork (Arthur Smith of DND), who inspired a new generation of producers such as Skream, Benga, Kode9 and Digital Mystikz to create what is now known as dubstep.

Some UK garage/grime/bassline/dubstep producers are leaning towards a different sound called UK funky, often misnamed Funky House, a term for commercial house music. UK funky takes production values from many different shades of Soulful House music with elements of UK garage and blends them, at a standard House music tempo, Soca with tribal style percussion from Afro Beat. There are many different takes on UK funky, including producers such as Apple, Champion, Lil Silva, Roska and Scratcha DVA, who have a harder, more syncopated sound, and other producers aiming for a more commercial, R&B friendly audience, such as Crazy Cousinz.

A current scene of people offshooting from dubstep, taking it back to its UK garage roots and fusing it with futuristic and often very off kilter modern production styles and more is often called future garage. The term was coined by Sub FM boss Whistla, and proves to be very controversial with a lot of producers given the tag. Some notable innovators include Whistla, Submerse, Sully, Littlefoot, Erra, Kingthing as well as established artists from other areas such as Duncan Powell, Falty DL, Monz etc.

Early 2011 saw the start of a gradual resurgence of 2-step garage. A song called "Out Of Control" featuring Kcat and Donae'o received airplay on KISS Radio and BBC Radio 1Xtra. There has also been a gradual increase in demand for UK garage remixes of chart songs. Producers such as Wookie, MJ Cole, Zed Bias, and Mark Hill (formerly one half of Artful Dodger) have made a return to the scene, by producing tracks with more of a 2-step feel.

UK garage is now at full force with a thriving underground scene. Artists such as Joy Orbison, George Fitzgerald, Disclosure, Pearson Sound, Addison Groove have redefined the genre taking production skills to the next level. Record labels such as Hotflush, Doldrums, Clek Clek Boom, Night Slugs, Swamp81, Fade to Mind put out releases very frequently from the prominent UKG producers.