Top 100 UK Garage Tunes of 2025
By Nathan Evans
Artwork by Two Dux Disco
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Garage has been pulled and stretched like EZ’s DJ decks this year. Increasingly, “UK garage” is becoming more outdated as a blanket term, as international scenes continue to make waves: Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, across the States, enclaves in Brazil, and more. Above all, Australia has asserted itself as the second home of garage with its raucous, bumpy, and hard house-inspired flair this year.
Stylistically, the general air has shifted towards a tech house swagger, likely inspired by what labels like Hardline Sounds have been pushing for a few years. It’s been taking place in London, Melbourne and Sydney, even Patagonia, and is complete with a lean and flexible bassline, a slower tempo than speedy g and 2step, and is laced with plenty of old-school rap samples. As someone who grew up in a world where Patrick Topping, Fisher and Meduza were the party soundtrack for Deanomania, I generally wince at the phrase ‘tech house’, but my detestful heart has been nullified by this new sound. As Interplanetary Criminal said to me this year, “tech house doesn’t mean what it used to mean two years ago.”
Getting into specific pockets in the scene, a large swath of garage has taken the mask off and revealed its earnest expression. The whirling blue-tinted imagery of trance and cloying, high-on-the-register hooks of organ house have defined a bulk of the year’s big ones, reflecting a generation that found deadmau5 & Kaskade’s “I Remember” on YouTube while Philip George’s “Wish You Were Mine” played on the radio.
The simultaneous organ house moment moving backwards its origins, as well as the cohort of breakaway UK garage producers injecting trance into the mix, has resulted in a chronological head-on collision at the start of the 2000s, when second-wave hard house stormed the clubs. Producers from the UK and Australia in particular took to the sound this year, and it boggles the mind what 90s-into-00s dormant house sound they could go to next - Funky house? Prog house? Scouse house?
Pulling from a nearby era, there was also a subset of producers from both the UK and the US providing a counter to this. They sought to take garage back to the ideas that Big Apple and Tempa had that ultimately led to dubstep: breaking it and getting molecular in reconstructing it. Not just in more direct nods coming from Introspekt, Holloway and Main Phase, but also more ephemeral adoptions - namely from East Coast duo gum.mp3 and Swami Sound, who dropped one of the most inventive club records in recent memory in the form of State of Emergency.
With all this in mind, it points to the scene becoming a much wider separation of bright and dark, and generally far away from where it’s been grounded before. It’s been five years since the Covid pandemic, which is where the Kiwi Rekords-flavoured NUKG sound started to revive the genre, and in that lustrum, it’s hard to imagine the underground was ever at that point. Multiple times through the list, I name a track outside the usual tent of garage genres, but through one connection or another, the ties are still there. But as always, they’re pulling from history to create something controversial and on the cutting edge.
NUKG Monthly presents the elite centennial. The ton-sized tier list of total tumpers. The Barc-wobblies Premier League. The stuff that Dreems were made of. The best 100 tracks that dispersed themselves across club speakers, radio airwaves, MP3 sites, peer-to-peer networks and on wax in 2025.
The ruling for selection is a hardline cutoff from the 1st January to the 31st December 2025, and there can be only one track per artist alias. This means if that one producer puts out two heaters under two aliases that reflect two different sounds, that’s fair game.
Not all the tracks can be put into one definitive playlist, as these songs come from all different streaming places, but below is a Buy Music Club playlist for those who wish to buy the music in this list on Bandcamp, and a Soundcloud playlist to stream the available songs.
100. Micofcourse - Hi, Bye (Tre Mission Remix)
On remix duties, Tre Mission punctures the original “Hi, Bye” with 2step clatter, watching it phase in and out of consciousness. London rapper Micofcourse bars out on the parent track about the quick, cordial and blunt demeanour of his drop-offs, while Tre Mission’s version is like the after-hours grind. His dark climax envelops it all in a crushing frequency, with only an extra dollop of bass notes hinting at signs of life.
99. MssingNo - Think Of Me
A MssingNo return was a happy surprise for 2025, but another was the nature of his comeback. Coming back after five years, “Think Of Me” plays it so straightforwardly, unlike anything else in his catalogue. He has previously sampled R&B go-to Brandy, but in the form of a future bass sci-fi trap flip with grime nerve endings that preempted the ‘neo-grime’ genre. In 2025, he takes it to throwback, M1-scented 2step, fashioned with a verse-chorus-verse structure. It’s released on FWD>>, but does it smell like him going for a hit? While the music box-tinkering beat shies away from the top 40, he’s confounded us yet again by bringing something so uncomplicated.
98. mem4 - Quantum Jumper
Sydney has become a major garage city, but mem4 occupies its own little bubblegum IDM-ish district. “Quantum Jumper” is steadier than its name implies, creating rises from jumpy arpeggios and never losing the tension even in the freefall moments. The result is a series of ceiling breaks made with electronics that grow upwards like timelapsed flowers, the last bar patching in a gust of pitched horn and electronic fervour that sounds pulled from a Playboi Carti sample. Eventually, the rise begins to widen as you hear it from a zoomed-out perspective, as though viewing it as a Magic Eye puzzle. It’s all wiped away by the buzz of an aux being ripped out.
97. Yoke - Kick It
Bristol producer Yoke runs a unique and appetising sound palette for Hardline, featuring the type of animated garage house drums that feel like the toms are making their own tune. “Bop-bop!” goes the vocals as the synth chords strain beautifully to create an uneasy build, but the bandy drop is downright effortless.
96. Mincy x Killjoy - Don Lothario
Stick a pair of open-mouthed vowels from a pop tune and heat in the microwave before placing into a bowl. Pour oozing slices of atmosphere from melted-down blacksmith-grade swords into the mixture. Take a pinch of self-raising flour to let the mix rise. Tame a wild Aussie beast of a bassline and line it with 140bpm 4x4 drums until it feels like you have a quarry’s worth of dynamite sitting on your counter. Add to mix. Stand well back. Bake until golden.
95. Floppy Disk - Touch
94. Luis Ripa - Lickquid
93. フタバオサム - Sunfaded Garage Remix
“Sunfaded Garage Remix” (the translated title) comes from a producer out in Tokyo whose name translates to “Futabaosamu”, and is seemingly a remix of an in-game song from the Japanese rhythm video game Idolmaster. Futabaosamu is part of a wider scene in Japan of producers remixing their favourite idol tracks in a myriad of club genres. “Sunfaded…” is a digi-funk sliver of Sunship’s speciality that cuts the ends off the childlike words of the idol to create a piano-like melody, but saves cyber-skanking dubstep breakdown till the end.
92. Polo Jaffa - TOUCH ME DUB
91. Charlie Shell - Nowhere Near Here
90. Songer & D Double E - 04:59 (2swing Bootleg)
89. Illegal Shipment - 31 Secondz
88. Terry Usher - Real Love
87. Trustee - Work Set
86. Colin Self - gajo
85. Jessie Ware - Running (Run. Prowler Dub)
The Disclosure remix is eternal, but where that one feels closed-in and magnifies the fidgetiness of the hook, this one widens Ware’s voice, making it seem as though it flies.
84. Chungo - Pupazzo
“Pupazzo” is the Italian word for “puppet”, and Chungo’s 2025 EP finds a connection between the tensions of that world and the one he operates in: the idea of rhythm as control, the groove being a puppeteer and the listener the puppet. “Pupazzo” exemplifies this in how it’s structured with a darkly-dreaming atmosphere with drowning vocals before pulling the rug. The setup gets dry-iced with the factory-feeling percs and bubbling bass. You’re implored to straighten it out with your body.
83. Groove Chronicles - Walk N Talk (2step Mix)
82. Lockerz - Love I Have
81. BWK Project & AMD - Hold Tight
80. PCKRNG & THT GRL - BRITTLE
79. Rocket Dubz - Family Matters (UKG Edit)
Apparently this is an edit of a really popular charting song from this year, but the original hasn’t pinged my radar. Maybe that lead me towards this vintage Sunship-era 2step edit, which makes the hills of the hook as fun as those on Line Rider.
78. Ximon - If U A Freak
For the BlueDollarBillz EP series, Florida’s Ximon pairs a dapper piano lick with a Scottish kilt of a bass - lengthy, sexy and with a hint of danger.
77. Masot - El Tramo Sur (VIP)
Chilean sub architect Masot has become prolific in atmospheric dark garage, the kind with depth you could swim in and the sort of distance that flattens landscapes. Along with releases for Shadow System, he’s also self-released EPs in 2025. Released before the vaporous original, “El Tramo Sur (VIP)” adds a 2step pattern that is fused with grime’s stuttering urgency to give one of the most well-pieced-together drop-ins of the year - 25 seconds in.
76. Lust For Youth & Croatian Amor - Fleece
75. Skyhigh - Nothing
74. Statix 4x4 - where love lives (statix underground vibe mix)
73. Mattik - Bubble
72. PJ Statham - Voodoo Ray Bumpy Edit
71. DJ Ladybarn - Freestyling At 2am
A Brit living in Japan, crossing UK garage with Memphis horrorcore. A collision seemingly random, but DJ Ladybarn has been doing it for years - “Freestyling At 2am” is from his seventh album in the “Phonk in the Garage” series. Plus, Memphis has had a formidable influence on grime’s MCs and producers. Skepta is perhaps the most bootlegged rapper in garage, and his flow owes debt to Project Pat’s triplet cadence. So why not sample the original stuff? “Freestyling At 2am” carries its fair share of Overmono-isms and Burial-isms, but the way the rapper’s flow and the degraded bridge of a beat link up, it goes down better than cough syrup and Sprite. Allegedly.
70. DJ Dagger - LIES
The first entry from “Best New Label” nominee Posh Defects, “LIES” is one of many tunes made off the back of the rumble that Joy Orbison’s “Flight Fm” made last year. Amongst it, Al Daly’s “Deep Inside” and Jasmín’s “Bite the Hand” and far more pull from its hard machine press, but it feels reductive to chalk it up to Joy O piggybacking in the case of DJ Dagger. It leaves out how the press is less of a single motion; instead, the bass sputters like a militarised whoopee cushion, the drum fills a shuriken cutting through the speakers. It feels like a Shepherd Tone that wraps around you like an angered Boa constrictor.
69. Mance - Nighttime Gangsta
The representative for ATW’s almighty year comes from one of Holland’s boundary pushers. When Interplanetary Criminal and Main Phase gave him the call-up in February, he delivered a speed garage wallbuster which turns a simple pulse ‘n’ churn pattern into a groove that grabs the hips. Breaking it up is a trance midsection that’s like an old-school Tiësto remix with an unforgiving high-pass filter.
68. Dan Speed - Lifted (Millzy Refix)
67. Arfa - Drifter
66. Vegyn - Last Night I Dreamt I Was Alone (Loukeman Remix)
65. Disaffected - StimStimStim
64. Clearcast - I Do (hiRobbie Remix)
hiRobbie has electrified in his breakout year with his slice of hyper garage. Clearcast’s “I Do”, in the hands of the Scottish newcomer, becomes a stained glass funhouse, projecting pristine colours on irregular shapes. Try and chase the corkscrewing golden snitch of a synth lead inside the sheets of bumbling bass, and you’ll end up light-headed.
63. Jafu - Dormancy
Coming from Ontario, Canada, “Dormancy”’s pensive jazz mood could easily stray into “lofi beats to study to”. However, the nervy, graphite pencil-textured strings and G-funk bass clears it of that.
62. OMAAR - Untitled_35.01
For Mexico City’s OMAAR, garage is one of a collection of stylistic tools. In this spectacular Untitled drop amongst a soulful house edit and a grimey chop-up of “Flight of the Valkyries” lies his flip of Kerri Chandler’s “Atmosphere”, and the way he roughens up the smoothness of the original is in a manner similar to fellow countrymen Aquarius or Regal86. This is exemplified in how he chops and loops a low note almost imperceptibly, even though he didn’t have to to complete the loop - it’s just to serve an added rough-and-readiness.
61. Mostafa Amr - Monaya (Toumba UKG (?) Mix)
Jordanian prodzilla Toumba usually creates teeth-chattering bass music inspired by Arabian musical traditions for the likes of Hessle and Nervous Horizon, but he took a break from it for an edit pack this year. “Monaya” remixes an Egyptian pop tune that sounds like the equivalent of editing 00s R&B of the Western world. He’s unsure on whether to decree this one UKG, but the 2step rhythm, voice-accelerating and moments of the first beat cutting out before kicking back in the second, all scream UKG.
60. Coldpast & Tuff Trax - Madman B (Jeremy Sylvester Remix)
I’m uncertain whether this would breach the Top 100 Jeremy Sylvester Tunes list, but it would make a challenge. Sly’s remix for the Aussie camp Bubble displays little ideas of genius, like the recycling of hyena-like afterparty cackle, and the triple-hit of those ramshackle drums - unc still got it.
59. DJ SIN-R-G - Dont Stop
N4tee and Auramatic’s dormant Rudeflex label came back this year, and the highlight has been a time-warping EP from previously-unheard DJ SIN-R-G. The upstart must have been fed a militant diet of Birmingham bassline and Ecko Records, enough to reproduce it with modern sheen. Aside from the jewel of a vocal sample, “Dont Stop” shows in IMAX-grade the historic 2000s crossing point that let hard house into bassline.
58. Wodda - Dark n Stormy
Science and cartoons are the throughlines that carry Wodda’s “Dark n Stormy” to its goofy plane, one that suits the alien-green artwork courtesy of Gene on Earth’s label. Synths spin around the steely beat like a bonked Looney Tunes character, while a pinging band nods to old ghettotech tracks like Traxmen’s “Playing With a Rubberband”. Wodda switches it up to an almost-Eurodance colour with an immediate uplift, the almost-human waa-waa synths reminiscent of Mort Garson or Kraftwerk. It’s the best kind of goofy, the type that makes you want to join in.
57. Lavan - Kano's Dance (Outlandish Dub)
Berlin’s headsiest label +98 has had a stellar run this year, including this breakbeat garage chopped into an irregular funk, brought together with lilting keys. The ‘outlandish’ part comes from the stacks of sound that quickly build before you notice, chiefly a goblin’s chattering and exclamation mark-shaped synths. The tune then moves into a grand section of clavs that topple and melt across one another. A pitless, syrupy tranquiliser.
56. Faster Horses - Get On Ya Knees
“Get On Ya Knees” is the epitome of no-takebacks, properly earnest hard house garage, its fast piano stabs possessing the recipe to make you dance like a kite in a hurricane, or inexplicably bear hug your friends. The structure whooshes through 3 edits in one seamless montage, calling to seconds of pop bliss, vintage bassline MCing and, giving the game away almost, a nod to Philip George’s “Wish You Were Mine”, a North Star for this new gen of producers.
55. Rochelle Jordan - Close 2 Me
When it comes to distinctive club producers, Rochelle Jordan has been tapped in since her beginnings. But even then, it was a surprise to hear MPH’s trademark dip-and-punch intro on her latest album Through The Wall. She gets a prime cut of tender MPH, utilising his gooey, agitated production style to coat her lovedrunk words in dizzying tricks. It’s remarkable how cosmopolitan his sound is in Jordan’s fawning, silk-draped hands, and the half-beat key hits and watery keys on the outro hold tribute to classic Sylvester.
54. Suggashock - BLISS MODE
For Posh Defects’ next trick, Suggashock renders in some dubtoxicated 2step, where the drum lashes echo and synths waft over and under like enveloping fog. The slightly-late carbonated keys build an underlying manic quality, furthered by hurt yelps where an MC sample would be. It uses a completely new, left-of-centre set of tools to offset the bliss the title suggests, to imply something hidden in the echoes. And Suggashock lathers it all in like shampoo.
53. Ned Spencer - Paradise
Ned Spencer is not to be confused with an insanely blue-blooded DJ whose dad is an Earl and whose name starts with “The Honourable”, and curiously managed to play room 2 of Fabric all night long despite less than 2k followers on Instagram. This Spencer is responsible for “Paradise”, a classic-vibes quiet storm edit with em dashes of organ peppering a calming bounce. It’s bumpy yet sat almost totally horizontal.
52. Anecho - Spiritual Blitz
Bristol’s DIMESHIFT has been a key early adopter of the proto-dubstep exploration that has taken place at a greater rate this year. Dutch dub mechanic Anecho’s hand at the style blows the wind coldly with chords that spell out “going deeper”. The atmosphere shifts again when a horn despondently walks in, swept off the coast of Scotland.
51. Rumor Control - Terror '97
Part of her X-Rated mixtape, Rumor Control indulges in a bit of titular time-travel. “Terror ‘97” continues the “Cape Fear” tradition of horror-flick speed garage that will brighten your crash-outs and haunt your locked-in moments.
50. Gandalf - It’s The Way
Incredible artist name aside, “It’s The Way” is a cute updo of F.U.N.’s classic that lets the original gale-force vocal absolutely cane it. The drop comes at you in the same way a truck might, and there’s no pissing about in the downtime, either, taking just 4 bars to get back up to speed (literally). It makes baile funk’s incredibly condensed structure look like ambient techno.
49. Jacob Is - Boundary Plate
In the hands of Vancouver tune pruner Jacob Is, garage is fidgety and bare-bones. He doesn’t add elements into “Boundary Plate”’s humid darkness as pierce them in, from the close-quarters drums with their skipped-to-straight groove, to the Slo-mo reese-flavoured scrapes, arising woodblock and signature vocal ticks that arc like micro-projectiles.
48. That Franco & Tripleset - LUV GROOVE
That Franco and Tripletset find common ground in their thousand-lumen production styles on “LUV GROOVE”. The US tag team hone in on a single melody with a dissolving final note, shapeshifting it into edgeless keys, gloopy chords and tissue-delicate arpeggios. Disclosure and salute have met already, but in an alternate timeline, you can see this coming from them.
47. Nolan Hunt - M62 Flyby (Nisk Remix)
The maker of last year’s #1, Nisk, supplied just one UKG tune this year. The Bristolian has focused on dubstep, which has rubbed off on his remix of Nolan Hunt’s “M62 Flyby”, a wilting, dead-of-night pavement tape that shines a light to GD4YA’s finest productions. The percs feel so textured, and in the second half, a solemn piano delivers sweet devastation.
46. Oldboy & Osmosis Jones - Get Nasty
Oldboy’s collaborative Songs From the Sampler series has been a source of heat, none more than edition 3 with Melbourne’s Osmosis Jones. The swing on “Get Nasty” is bumpier than quad tyres on dinosaur bones, made even more dizzying by squeals of metallic wisps and a spiralling up-down bassline that’s like a Mexican wave put to low frequency.
45. Sadeedo - Leather Wallets 1JD (SONLIFE Remix)
In 2023, Burial updated his profile pic. Far from his usual image, he looks down at the camera with newly flowing hair in front of a blue sky and flared god rays from above. It looks like he’s on a beach in Ayia Napa, taken like a Snapchat just after he’s been immersed in seawater. SONLIFE’s remix of Sadeedo’s “Leather Wallets 1JD” brings this pic to life, carrying Burial’s instrumental feelings, vocal pitchfork and lost space, and brings it to the Med.
44. Human Movement & Soul Wun - Phone Line Crew
Sydney 4x4 runner Human Movement will forever have my heart for 2022’s “Yu”, but “Phone Line Crew” splits the difference with deep house artist Soul Wun. Together, they layer vocal freakouts across an S-bending tech-house bassline, still with HuMo’s sense of classiness.
43. Interplanetary Criminal & Original Koffee - Slow Burner
Perhaps the biggest organ house track of the year, as I said in my cover story, “Slow Burner” feels like it tells the story of the Interplanetary Criminal, and how his music is supposed to change the room.
42. Oscar Wallyn - maybe another time!
Parisian artist Oscar Wallyn’s hyper garage is like Crydamoure crossed with camoufly, effortlessly crumbling the 25-year gap between them. Like a lost Le Knight Club 12”, “maybe another time!” rags a filter disco sample till the colours bleed, but is over and out before you can round it up to three minutes.
41. Organised Chaos - Jab Hum Dub
Aussie beatbaker Organised Chaos links up with Edinburgh label VIP Red, and the result is a bootleg of a classic Bollywood song. Organised Chaos cradles it to the drop like some precious cargo, similar to what Baalti built their name on, though the payoff is less sun-kissed house and more strobe-shocked swivel.
40. Dubplate Pressure - Baby Now
Birmingham’s Dubplate Pressure takes a piece of Tuff Culture’s exaggeratedly dusty bounce for “Baby Now”, but goes minimal with it. Slouching on a cool house tempo, the 4-note organ arrives late but styles it out on a noodling bassline.
39. Andrea Burns & Trussie - Hurts So Good
When Baltimore label Beatitude welcomed Pennsylvania’s Andrea Burns and LA’s Trussie, who now goes by Linda Lo, the two handed in a bombshell that would terrify the faint of heart. They set up an atmosphere with quizzical, winding synths, but none of it prepares for the liftoff, a girl-group “oo!” hits as a cthulhu monster emerges.
38. Yes Oscar - Kléber
Yes Oscar is one of the litany of aliases of Gabriel Guerra, the mastermind behind Brazilian label 40% Foda. His vision of garage is completely separate from the rest of Brazilian garage and, well, garage at large in how he’s able to make such erratic beats but lift the lid on such glowing beatless hearts. He creates an infectious mood with waterbending chords that arc messily but glisten, a fleet of cowbells parading in the periphery. Anxious and a little otherworldly, it could be like if Ricardo Villalobos tried his hand at garage - apart from it not being 40 minutes long.
37. Captain Wallop - Mr. X
Wallop’s garage is full of sly moves, off-kilter injections and cheeky vim. In a year where tech-house made headways, Wallop and the rest of the Heavy Hitters crew ran counter. Without relying on reverb or echo, “Mr. X” works Wallop’s vision with sliding bass, organ toots and minor chord stabs. Personally, I dislike tech house, and find it’s worse than shoplifting at a charity shop, but “Mr. X” adopts its swagger while keeping it bumpy.
36. Katy B - Avalanche
“Avalanche” is exactly what Katy B should be doing in 2025. Recruiting Sheffield’s prodigal son Silva Bumpa on production, she flies through the harmonies as she tempts us to “come and get it”. Bumpa brings together the US and UK in a roundabout way, injecting Lord Pretty Flacko siren and strings that are now under the jurisdiction of Millie B. Be it Four Tet, MssingNo or Jamie Jones, Katy B has long been the archetypal UK club and hardcore continuum pop girlie, and, as proven on “Avalanche”, still top of the mountain.
35. Yoto Swords - 2 Fast
In their breakout year, Shadow System’s biggest firestarter is coldly no-nonsense. Yoto Swords’ “2 Fast” turns the soundsystem into an (admittedly temperamental) heating fan, with the bass doing somersaults, lunges and handsprings.
34. defyer - Heavenly Attraction (DJ Cut)
I have a theory that we’re in the midst of a reassessment of Swedish EDM’s supreme melody writing, from Skrillex and Drain Gang et al’s Swedm collective to Oklou’s wandering arpeggios. In Stockholm, there is a cohort of Soundcloud artists, including defyer, who are rendering it through the jaggedness of Soundcloud’s wild west, and “Heavenly Attraction” feels like a garage-inflected dance pop compilation-filler from ‘09, filtered through the warmth of FM radio. Underneath the dress-up, it looks to Avicii as the master of melody he was.
33. Sulphur - Brixton
London wonderkid scruz has made a name for very saturated, hyperactive garage, almost taking forward the Kiwi-pioneered NUKG sound and making it for the 2000s babies. Sulphur is scruz’s new garage house project, for the more refined stuff. “Brixton” imports a thick French bassline, and samples a police siren into an up-and-down-turning hook.
32. Snowdream - Honest
Snowdream’s “Honest” sounds like Christmas on the Sega Dreamcast. Focus on the bells, which take over with a tune that sounds like a kid circling the Christmas tree, hand aloft to knock all the baubles. MIDI choir vocals imitating a church service, or for the non-religious, the moment of opening your big present.
31. Gazella - Cielo Gris
Spanish shoegaze band Gazella titled this one after the Spanish phrase for “grey sky”, which the organs evoke in shimmering silver. The glitched 2step rhythm gives the otherwise gorgeously weightless chamber pop some grounding that lets you listen to the vocals, which can go from aching to numb at a moment’s notice. The song is grippingly evasive of melodic conclusion, ascending upstream just as you think the hook concludes.
30. Addison Rich - Left U On Delivered
We’re not even leaving messages on read anymore! CloudCore’s entry to this year’s list veers hard into UK breaks, but the jerkiness of 2step is still there. The quick cuts of frazzles, swipes, jingles, sparks and Zelda horns feel like an industrial take on 2step (not the first on this list), still carrying CloudCore’s affectionate sound palette.
29. Duke Harrison - Visions
A freebie on Naarm label Bubble, “Visions” has the shuffle of an old printer. It leads with a gliding piano ripped from some Bobby Brown new jack swing tune, then we’re left to dance in its shadow.
28. Pablo Aristimuño - Sound Pressure
Released in the midst of tunes for ATW and Big Trouble, Pablo Aristimuño’s “Sound Pressure” is an Argentine tech-house treader. Atypical for garage, the bass gulps are sat on-beat, but vocal chops straighten it out - or rather, unstraighten it.
27. Kami-O - Thirty8
On “Thirty8”, Kami-O stretches garage and grime in a post-dubstep kind of way, with warbling electrodes that never escape a cloud of reverb. Love how the drums chuck the snare back and forth for a moment.
26. CLIKK - Only Hope
Brummie sub pusher CLIKK has had multiple EPs’ worth of tunes worthy of this list. His style is truly classic swing made modern without the sterility that DAWs seem to inject. “Only Hope” trumps the rest for its vocal magic, making the female vocal gallop in a way that could loop seamlessly without taking a breath: “Deep Inside you know it’s true / you had one chance to make a change… let me show you the way / to find a better place”.
25. PHJ - The Jazz Ultimatum
North-East label Underground Sound normally specialises in imaginative house music, but sometimes it ventures into my catchment area with garage house drums. PHJ does so on “The Jazz Ultimatum”, a patient, pertinent piece that pulls from the work of Pépé Bradock. Its intro samples an interview that speaks about human mistakes, an important message in the world of regurgitative AI. Like Bradock’s best, it feels like PHJ is playing it like a full funk band, keys that dance slowly between horns and funky house drum elements played coyly. Like Bradock’s best, every element feathers the ear, and makes moments like when the locked keys and horn change up a key, opening up briefly before going underneath the covers, feel that much more tender. Maybe the most affecting part is the outro, which returns to the aqueduct of water sounds that started it off, flowing like a pure idea.
24. Para - New Jersey Dub
Para’s “New Jersey Dub” is Confetti Records walking down the back alley of a smoky jazz club. The track hinges on two long, flash, tessellating chords that beam out effortlessly, backed by horns that are sultry yet restrained like a mermaid dress. It evolves without friction, deploying a disco-club hanging string note, dusty drums and organ.
23. Deens & Nazo - Luna
Brazil is not as far away from London 2step as one may think. If you ask Aussie-based Deens and Nazo, they’re practically in the same postcode. “Luna” is a baile funk 2step hybrid with slinky Indian guitar and a Hamdi-flavoured shot of crazed, filled-out dubstep bass. Even as the second breakdown introduces bassline elements, what’s striking is how it’s all played quite reservedly. It’s not showy or roomy, but is confident enough in its own fusion to show it in a raw form.
22. Ease Up George - Thinkin 'Bout
Ease Up George has become a new saviour for classic 90s 4x4 on labels like ec2a, Vibesy, Practical Rhythms and Outlet. For a cheeky V/A 4-tracker on +98, “Thinkin ‘Bout” takes cartoonish zips to an extreme. He doubles up organ hits and snare rolls like smear frames, shifts down in key like a worn cassette, deploys both tuneful and comic horns flamboyantly. These sections seem to bunch together and never let up, as though he’s rolling this Nice ‘N’ Ripe and Dem 2-type 4x4 into one.
21. Holloway - Down in the Middle
Holloway’s technically watertight production suits proto-dubstep perfectly, and “Down in the Middle” realises that with many subtle touches to enjoy. Bringing the 4x4 kicks closer into pairs and adding a conga off to the side like an INVT track, Holloway delivers an undramatic sense of dread with a MIDI-string descent, flutes wiping the air and creeping thin synth crescendos that threaten to take over. And the “dah-dah-dah” vocal echo is an instant soundbite.
20. Raf Saperra - Modern Mirza (FROZT UKG Edit)
Some PHAT Punjabi garage courtesy of Mumbai’s FROZT. Raf Saperra’s rapping is so staccato and runs over the beat so well. The hastened vocal spirals take it to giddy territory.
19. Hartta - Sweat
From 3 Feet Deep’s excellent 5-year comp (disturbing that Covid-born labels are releasing 5-year comps now), Sevilla sub scientist Hartta seams together 2tech with a single chord imported from Berlin, bubble SFX from Rio, an organ from Northern England and buckaroo kicks from Baltimore. Arrangement has enough parts to fashion a litany of excellent loops, all progressing subtly thanks to its complex jitteriness, as microhouse details sound like R2D2 conversing with the barman. Above all, it runs over the ear so smoothly that none of this ever needs to be interrogated to be registered as a technical masterstroke.
18. S1 Dubz - MY FEELING
Hard-edged but inventive, toying with grime and jungle’s history - that’s S1 Dubz. “MY FEELING” is another hit of that with a helicoptering bassline and a female shrill that gets lassoed around a thick wall of low-end. The way they link with the drums is enough to boil gold chains.
17. Genius Of Time - You Make Me
“You Make Me” rhythmically borders on the still-feeling breakbeat shuffle of UK bass, and is propelled by restrained moments of transcendence… edging, basically. A warbled Ashar Khan pushes through fizzing synths and warm sustained chords to sing, “you make me feel like…”. That feeling is somewhere between wistfully looking back at a favourite time while mourning its death.
16. Mia Koden - Skank Steady
It feels like Mia Koden drops are rare moments to set aside time for - probably because each one has maintained a high level of quality. The highlight from her 2025 3-tracker, “Skank Steady” may be her best work yet, and as I mentioned in my Year in Bassweight essay for RA, the track brought out feelings of summer impending with a balance of chilly synths and a warm, climbing bassline that tingles the senses.
15. Silva Bumpa & Carla Monroe - Feel Da Same
Bumpa is currently the source of a spreading dance on TikTok over his track for ATW, “Doin’ It”, but “Feel Da Same” is the one newbies should reach for afterwards. The Barbie-coded spiritual successor to last year’s “Without U”, “Feel Da Same” keeps with the grand organ house tradition: loud, sentimental piano stabs relayed with popping Korgans and a baby-voiced female vocal that seems impossibly innocent.
14. Fallow - AIN'T DIET (DUB)
Just missing out “bassline tune of the year”, “AIN’T DIET” from London producer Fallow has a bassline that reflects the exaggerated, twisted proportions of the Wacky Racers car on the artwork. The drop spins a turbocharged watermill of gungey bass, some of which is so low and artefacted, it practically falls out of hearing range. You literally cannot get deeper.
13. Badstar ft. Megan Wroe - Stay
Under a new alias, “Stay” is another follow-up from Silva Bumpa to last year’s “Without U”, reuniting with its vocalist, Megan Wroe. When we meet them both again, their stock has risen much higher, and they are much too exclusive for you. “Oh boy, don’t linger on me / ain’t wanting your love / one more look, walk away / ain’t asking for much,” she casually breathes out, making sure you know that she can get what she wants, and you’re not on the list. Focusing on a different side of Sheffield’s bassline sound, the production is a tight orchestra of plucked strings inside a snotty machine, and within it, Wroe’s vocals have a devious descent, finding notes that are reserved just for her.
12. Herb - DEM BOW (THIRTZY VIP)
No track has perked my ear this year just on its kick drums alone. A taut strut that could rival Yasmeen Ghauri in her pomp, Herb and Thirstzy’s “DEM BOW” is accentuated by ragga vocals that land right on the snap of the percs and wafts of bass deployed so casually, it barely raises the temperature of the space. It’s catnip straight from the freezer, perfect for Move Silent’s pitch-black aesthetic.
11. Josi Devil - Make It Better
Bristol’s machiavellian dub-merchant Josi Devil has had an excellent year, and “Make It Better” was the early sign. The A-side for his Hessle release bears a lot of resemblance to his utter C4 pack “No More”, which has been a song of the year in certain sectors. The patient build of “No More” is everything, but “Make It Better” feels like going deeper into his wicked dark bassline.
10. El-B & SP:MC - Solstice
Jazzy clarinets, dancing sax, guitar and levitating blue keys equate to an instrumental palette more like what you’d find on a Shabaka Hutchings track, yet dark garage pioneer El-B and the scant but always-quality SP:MC make it possible in garage. “Solstice” carries the mood of its title, no matter if you mean summer or winter. As the clarinets wrap arms around your shoulder, it feels like a basking, whether it’s the relief of having much daylight to spend, or that the 4pm blackout will soon be over.
9. Auramatic - BLOW DA WHISTLE
In a year of bracing hard house garage, “BLOW DA WHISTLE” snatches the championship belt. Nabbing a mid-2000s West Coast hook for the clubs, once the loud piano loop of Auramatic’s making kicks in, vamping as cleanly as a doctor’s signature, the walls lift up to reveal the wildest pool party seen by human eyes. The feeling is extended with a short synth solo straight from Sam Gellaitry’s nu-funk inventory.
8. Introspekt - Physicality
I’ve written and spoken more about Introspekt than any sane person would, but of her new album Moving the Centre, which finds feminine sensuality in first-wave dubstep, “Physicality” is perhaps its most garage-feeling moment. I love how the bass and the rest of the groove feel like they move at different speeds, affecting each other’s momentum.
7. Macarite - Sol
“Sol” may as well be sponsored by the Rio de Janeiro tourism board. After Manchester’s Macarite appeared on last year’s list with butter-smooth diva house, “Sol” plonks you right on Copacabana beach, embodying bossa nova’s humidity with elements like the bird-like jazz fusion flute. The way the bassline comes in late and recovers with a gorgeous key change is like the most rogueish womaniser on a date. Try to pause it, and your hand will be stifled by the frosty bottle of Brahma that’s appeared.
6. Swami Sound & gum.mp3 ft. Fifi Zhang - DFAL (Break It Up)
eldiaNYC’s Swami Sound and gum.mp3 knew how to let things breaaaaaathe on this one. Evoking the best of London’s GD4YA label (see #10), “DFAL” exhales an explorative, techy atmosphere like people on massage tables, letting Fifi Zhang wordlessly vamp in Ravyn Lenae’s register.
5. MPH - Raw
Bass music’s big prospect MPH has become even more popular this year as I had hoped, becoming known as the go-to for acrobat 4x4 bassline that will take your head off. But for all of that, this straight-laced throwdown out of the sound of a wheezy landline telephone has shattered dancefloors this year. In my view, “Raw” saw fit to take Sammy Virji & Interplanetary Criminal’s “Damager” up a notch, complete with rowdy rap sample. He very much succeeded, and what’s more, his signature triplet-building drums are still the most effective in the game.
4. PinkPantheress - Illegal
PinkPantheress’ Fancy That mixtape fully spotlighted her talents as a producer like never before, playing an improbable mashup game, such as how she collapses the year 2007 with a bassline updo of Just Jack. On “Illegal”, it’s Trainspotting and 2step, drawing a rave whistle-shaped line towards techno stoics Underworld in a way that should feel big-room, but her girly close-up vocals make it feel like an arena concert in her bedroom. It feels illegal!
For a version of the track that leans further into the original sample, please find Alpaca Beats’ 10-minute “Dark Train Remix”.
3. S.R. - B1 [SRV004]
Mysterious US/UK producer S.R. is one of the most creative 2step producers in the world - able to, with the same tools as any other, achieve tracks with subtle inventiveness and, at times, emotional heft. The third track from his third title-shy EP, “B1” shows this with how he transforms the feeling of a well-known 80s vocal performance, fading in with an unnervingly beautiful ringing that feels three steps away from Aphex Twin’s Drukqs interludes, recorded with the architectural echo of an old church.
The sampled track chats about the pursuit of pleasure, but in this more prayerful light, it carries an emptiness and a loneliness, as though it’s tussling out with the original message in a sad dream. S.R.’s 2step here has a baile funk lurch that only accentuates the mood, and a minor-chord deep house breakdown gives it a heavenward levitation, resolving in the vocals echoing out atop a harp-like melodic couplet. Dare I say it feels Lynchian? It doesn’t even need that tag to be good.
2. DJ Headrush - WARRIOR
The most industrial place that 2step garage has ever been taken to, DJ Headrush’s “WARRIOR” is the crown jewel in Posh Defects’ breakout year. “Hardcore garage” was once a budding idea at the turn of the millennium, coined by 2 Wisemen and taken on board to fuel DJ Narrows’ biggest burners. When Hyperdub covered the original 2 Wisemen release, they lauded it as a return to garage’s hardcore continuum roots, creating its own version of darkside jungle that traded good feelings for anxiety and paranoia.
DJ Headrush absorbs that lost history and finds a new stratosphere, one where the mix clips enough to mangle the track in cathartic noise. The vocals tickle the tweeters while the fills and low-end stretch the subwoofers like little else in garage, blasting away any notion that garage needs to be cleanly mixed and avoid redlining. In a world of a thousand YouTube tutorials and AI-generated dance pop flooding an already-hypersaturated online space, “WARRIOR” sounds like desperation to be heard and a demand for better circumstances.
1. Prozak - Losing You
Bootlegs have quietened down, haven’t they? After a few years of scene-wide debate and ready-baked speed garage remixes of hype tunes, 2025 has been a tempered year for edits. Obviously, not completely silent, but contrast this with the staunch rise in organ house, which has taken hold with its earnest Korg melodies. Prozak’s “Losing You”, released as a white label on his own Blueprint imprint, makes the case for both with stunning poise.
The original is a devastating breakup song in which the artist confronts both her “boy” and her worst fears in one pleading, resigned last dance. The Dublin DJ’s edit doesn’t switch the context, but somehow, in this storied, chronicled anthem of 13 years, finds another level of sweetness in the innocence of organ house. The track is a millimetre-perfect reincarnation of the brighter half of the Niche sound, up there with DBX’s “2 People” in how it finds an impossibly sweet world of hyper-pitched quivering coos, filter funk scaffolding and delectable matte finish of the Korgan leads, and walks the clouds like a promenade. A sweetness you can stomach again and again.
“Losing You” retains the devastation of its source material, succumbing to its power. That balance is what pushes it further, as its racing intro awakens the song with twinkles pulled from the night sky in an animated film, before smashing into the verse with more weight than the original: “I know you’re waiting for the words that you can’t get from me”. There are the little touches, like the cute key descent at the end of a few bars, or the radar scan in the second build that sounds like someone from the real world trying to locate you. But you’re far away, savouring the total catharsis of this tears-streaming stepper. Look under any ‘08 Niche or Circo Loco track on YouTube, and one comment invariably says, ‘they don’t make them like this anymore’. Now, they truly do.
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