Garage

Garage is a genre of electronic music originating from the United Kingdom in the early 1990s. The genre usually features a distinctive syncopated 4/4 percussive rhythm with 'shuffling' hi-hats and beat-skipping kick drums. Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-shifted or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure at a tempo usually around 130 BPM. UK garage was largely subsumed into other styles of music and production in the mid-2000s, including Dubstep, Bassline and Grime. The decline of UK garage during the mid-2000s saw the birth of UK Funky, which is closely related.^[1]

Commonly Referenced Subgenres: Edit

• Future Garage: its main characteristics are pitched vocal chops, warm filtered reese basses, dark, somber, serious atmospheres, synth pads, field recordings, the use of vinyl crackle and foley for world and atmosphere building, the employment of foley percussion hits as snare and metallic preshifted percussion swung into the "snare", which, most of the times, a rimshot or grainy, foley percussion, as well. Intense filtering can be met and organic / acoustic drums can also be heard. Characteristic syncopated / shuffled hi-hats , cymbals are usually included. The drum patterns can range from straight halftime patterns to VERY irregular 2-step patterns, with beat skipping percussion elements), while the tempo is usually centered from around 130 to 140 bpm, but can also be slower or faster, like with the case of Virtual Riot - "Part Of Me" (115 BPM). Examples:
  • Mr FijiWiji & Danyka Nadeau - "Yours Truly" (Vacant Remix)

    

  • Raine (Pensive) & Clockvice - "Wonderful"

    

  • CloudNone - "From Here"

    

  • Phelian - "Liturgy"

    

  • Virtual Riot - "Disintegrate"

    

  • CloudNone & Direct - "Without U"

    

  • Virtual Riot - "Part Of Me" (the second drop is a fusion of Neurohop and Future Garage)

    

  • Virtual Riot - "The Darkest Night" (the last drop is a fusion of Future Garage and Brostep, with Future Garage being dominant)

    

  • Virtual Riot - "Dog Fight" (the intro)

    

  • Burial - "Ghost Hardware" (from the album "Untrue")

    

  • Burial - "Shell Of Light" (from the album "Untrue")

    

  • Sorrow - "Frumoasa" (gray line between 2-step and Future Garage)

    

  • Sorrow - "Want U Back"

    

  • Direct - "Tired Eyes"

    

  • Direct - "Lark"

    

  • Direct - "Too Far Away"

    

  • Direct - "Make Me Feel"

    

  • Direct - "So Sure"

    

  • Direct & Elliot Berger - "Anticipation"

    

  • Mr FijiWiji & Direct & Matt Van & Holly Drummond - "Tomorrow"

    

  • Mr Bill & Au5 - "Shlappy VIP" (Roger Wilco Remix)

    

  • Eminence & Anna Yvette - "Here"

    

  • Duumu - "For Her"

    

  • Skrillex & Kid Harpoon - "Fire Away"

    

  • Skrillex & Team Ezy & NJOMZA - "Pretty Bye Bye"

    

  • Skrillex - "Leaving"

    

• UK Garage (UKG): used interchangeably with 2-step Garage by some, it tends to feature a distinctive (less syncopated than 2-step Garage) 4/4 percussive rhythm with syncopated hi-hats, cymbals and snares / claps, and sometimes includes irregular kick drum patterns. Soulful female vocals in chopped or unchopped variants are also a characteristic of this genre. Funky basslines are often accompanying. Examples:
  • Danny J Lewis - "Spend The Night" (H-Man Dub)

    

  • Wilkinson & Karen Hardin - "All For You" (Todd Edwards Remix)

    

• 2-Step Garage: features beat-skipping kick drums, with a shuffled rhythm or the use of triplets applied to other elements of the percussion. Example:
  • Mr FijiWiji & Danyka Nadeau - "Yours Truly" (Aaron Jackson Remix)

    

  • CloudNone - "None Trick Pony" (with Future Garage elements)

    

  • CloudNone - "Blue To Blue"

    

  • Disclosure & Eliza Doolittle - "You & Me" (Original Mix - yes, something that isnt the Flume remix exists)

    

• Bassline / UK Bassline / Bassline Garage / 4x4 / Niche: the precursor to Bass House, makes great use of the iconic garage shuffles, swing, beat-skipping, triplet grooves and off-beat patterns, for the hi-hat and kick - snare (which is replaced by a clap sometimes) structure. Having developed from the stylistic origins of UK Garage, Grime and Speed Garage, It features distinct, oldschool, simple wavetable FM (frequency modulation), Crookers / Pressure Cooker styled synths that could be described as screechy, muffled or nasal. Usually found at higher tempos than Bass House, around 130-150 BPM. . Examples:
  • Barely Alive - "Be Mine" (0:52 - 1:14)

    

  • Axel Boy - "Feel It Deep"

    

  • Axel Boy - "Shook Up"

    

  • Culprate & Zenji - "Ghostmachine" (1:22 - 2:14)