Top 100 UK Garage Tunes of 2023
By Nathan Evans
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2023 in UK garage felt like a grand expansion. The year saw heavyweights like Interplanetary Criminal, Sammy Virji and salute solidifying their mainstage status and creeping towards debut LPs, while outside artists have been coming into the genre awash with fresh takes, from Everything But the Girl and Kwengface to NewJeans and Hudson Mohawke. Up-and-coming labels like Hardline Sounds (my personal label of 2023) have made waves while Locked On Records came back with a big compilation this year, proving that the genre is in the midst of a fresh heyday.
One of the most significant developments has been the growing international scenes in Japan, Brazil and India - the “UK” in UK garage is becoming more and more ephemeral, and has resulted in some bold new sounds, some of which are featured in this list. All the while, we got enough speedy g 2000s pop edits to last a lifetime.
NUKG Monthly presents the 100 greatest 2-steppers, the pearlers, the worldies that have lit up clubs, pricked up ears during mixes and represented the best that UK garage has to offer in 2023.
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. Regal86 - Gangsta Groove
Using DJ Sneak’s philosophy of making one loop to rule them all, Mexico’s finest throws together a dusty, bumping bruiser.
99. Wodda - Don’t Mind Me
The first of two Wodda tracks on Hardline Sounds on this list, this one puts the speedy g in moderation and weds it with a classic, two-line vocal sample.
98. Espee - Hot Prowl
97. Skeptic - Bumpa
96. Itaq - Lapis’ Cockpit
Japanese rapper Itaq, along with producers DJ.DAI and NoB, pulls together a hot tub of a hip-house track, watery and bubbling with effortless flows.
95. R!PT!DE - Man Wanna Talk About
94. SPD ft. Griz-O - Relax
An ode to the club goers who try to have fun in full obnoxiousness, the way Southwest London rapper Griz-O says “chill with it” with an attitude-cutting neck jerk will take up space in your everyday dialogue before long.
93. Paris Hilton - Stars Are Blind (Meg Ward Edit)
This 2000s pop curio from the Hilton family socialite has been re-evaluated in the years leading up to bimbocore, and Meg Ward seems to have captured that reconnection with this cutesy donk edit.
92. SOPHIE - BIPP (Nienna 2 Step Remix)
Remixing SOPHIE is scaling something high, impossibly so. But the way Nienna creatively cuts up the hyperpop boffin’s science-lab whirrs, pops and fizzes into new patterns shines new possibilities towards what a “hyper-garage” style could sound like. He knows better than to do the same with that godly vocal line, though.
91. PJ Bridger - Haul and Pull Up
90. Floppy Disk - Don’t You
Sour, frothy disco garage that bumps through the chest and breaks down like a classic Disclosure track.
89. Groove Chronicles - notice me 2step vip vip mix
Noodles of Groove Chronicles flips a modern R&B classic and if it didn’t let the juggling beat breathe so much, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a B-side remix that shipped on the original CD single.
88. Hizuo - RUNYENJE
Aside from its, uh, questionable cover art, Japanese artist Hizuo’s ‘RUNYENJE’ is an inventive blend of garage and Kuduro, a percussion-heavy club music originating from Angola.
87. MILLI - SAA-TUU ft. TangBadVoice (sawat speed garage bootleg)
86. TEXT - Killer
The viscous synth warp on this one starts the track like it’s its own Jaws theme. It maintains distance even as the track slaps into action, making for an almost paradoxically shifty blowout.
85. Kelbin - Want2 (Additive Mix)
‘Want2 (Additive Mix)’ centres on a largely one-note synth stab, but its energy is generated from the way Italian producer Kelbin squeezes, pulls, knocks and sparks up everything around it. It’s littered with many textures that grab your ear, all falling into place neatly and deeply like the tumblers of a safe lock.
84. SP:MC - Missing You
‘Missing You’ lays longingly on the side of the dancefloor than surging towards it. He deploys house vocals intermittently to let you live in the feeling for a bit; between wafts of ambience, the sample sings sentiments like “there ain’t nothing to ease the pain”.
83. Holloway - Selecta
82. CHIMPIZM - Vibe Out
81. Olan - Feel For You
80. STOPZ - BAM BAM BOOTLEG
79. Peaky Beats - Just Do It
78. Main Phase - Shake
77. oddrella - virtual floating
SPRAYBOX affiliate oddrella borrows some pop princess magic and does inventive things with speed garage bass, turning it into a restrained power-up-power-down sequence that syncs with a swirling electronica backdrop.
76. Pangaea - Hole Away
On ‘Hole Away’, something’s not quite right. Inside the track is a garage house tune that could have come from Defected, with a vocal that hooks around the square bassline nicely. But this is after coming into contact with a snakey underbelly with sputtering atmosphere shifts and an unsettling glockenspiel, as if Pangaea showing you the inner workings of a club machine.
75. Eliza Rose - Better Love (Big Ang Remix)
74. Kaisui - Graphite
73. NewJeans - Super Shy
Erika de Casier is a treasure for making this garage tune with K-Pop group NewJeans. ‘Super Shy’ dances with skyward melodies, bonging on-beat bass hits and percussive switch-ups to drum and bass and Jersey club. Pristine and loaded with hooks, every lyric of ‘Super Shy’ feels like it trails into a cloud of cute emojis.
72. Glimmerman - Step Mode (Sputnik One’s 2 Step Mode Rework)
71. DJ Perception - Overload
Channelling Paul Johnson, avid dubplate collector DJ Perception’s ‘Overload’ lumbers in a way that makes you yearn for the tantalising promise of a night’s beginning.
70. 4 D D D - RUN DEM
69. Gorgon City - Rumblah (ANIMATE Flip)
68. Joy Orbison - Pinky Ring (Kelbin Remix)
This unofficial remix may have been given the cease and desist treatment because of this very column, but the way Kelbin switches ‘Pinky Ring’ into a spontaneous 2step twister, Joy O should be the bigger person and consider releasing it officially.
67. Zefer, Kadeem Tyrell, Cheidu Oraka & Deezkid - Navigate
66. Tanyn - 4 Her
65. Avalon Emerson - Hot Evening
Sounding a touch like Trish Keenan of Broadcast, Avalon Emerson fixes garage percs, wandering keys and a succulent bassline together to form a wistful dream pop track about looking forward to spending time with someone who makes your short time on Earth worth it.
64. Sage Introspekt - Face Down
Sage Introspekt treats dark garage as though it should soundtrack the sordid, frisson-inducing acts of life, and her music could lead a Mormon to a bathhouse. ‘Face Down’ is a 2step twitcher that basks in a cavernous atmosphere, topped off with a Cardi B-like vocal sample rapping, “Face! Down! Ass! Up! That’s the way we like to fuck!”
63. Erykah Badu - I'll Call U Back (ZJ Edit)
62. Skeptic - Doin’ Nish
61. Longeez - Check
60. GAZZI - no te voy a perder
59. Semtek - Denny Island
With creeping drones, a knuckle-cracking breakbeat fill and wooden hi-hats that could have been recorded with a pencil and a table. This vinyl exclusive from the veteran jungle archivist displays diligent atmosphere building to sound like going to the Island of Doctor Moreau.
58. Mar'One - It G Ma
57. BENKINS - CYCLONE
56. Ke-Yen - Rough Dub
Aussie DJ Ke-Yen catches a dancehall deep cut in an infectious loop that helixes around grilling bass to generate more incendiary reactions than Skream’s Twitter (we wouldn’t have it any other way).
55. Beckett + XL - Ghost Mode
54. Ned Bennett - 1 Sec Dub
53. Conducta - Vectra
52. Sammy Virji & Flowdan - Shella Verse
In the year where Flowdan became dance music’s favourite MC, Sammy Virji created the most explosive moment of the year sampling him, with a double-blow of booming SFX and subsequent carnival dancehall horns. As Flowdan brings us in with, “mad ting when we get active a shella verse”, Virji lets us have it with both barrels.
51. Charlotte Plank - L.S.D. (Main Phase Remix)
50. Khinre - See No More
49. RWB - Test & Aim
48. That Fancy I & Shunji Fujii - Alloy
47. Lavonz - It’s Over Now (Vocal Dub Mix)
46. Tom PKR - SKREAM Jackmaster UKG Edit
45. Peaky Beats & Stones Taro - Leeds 2 Kyoto
‘Leeds 2 Kyoto’ bridges over 9000 miles with twitchy synth organs and a sound effect ripped from The Future Sound of London that you could imagine as the exhaust revving on an alien spaceship.
44. Introspekt - All Night Long
43. Tower Block Dream & Killa P - Ain’t It Funny
42. M4A4 - Kiss Your Skin
‘Kiss Your Skin’ from Dublin’s M4A4 has a high-pitched vocal sample that sounds like Navi from Zelda atop a sonorous synth and dulled Reese bass isn’t far away from the releases on CloudCore.
41. TQD - Too Sweet
Bassline supergroup TQD dropped a bracing rush of an album in 2023, but ‘Too Sweet’ broke the tracklist’s streak of bangers with cute mottled vocals and a sinewy bassline.
40. Everything But the Girl - Nothing Left to Lose
A simmering garage nightcall, legendary British electronica duo Everything But the Girl came back this year and showed they haven’t lost the touch. Tracey Thorn’s underlying angst is surrounded by a spiralling bassline, air wooshes and digital clusters, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Overmono had a hand in the production.
39. Hermit - 2NITE
38. gum.mp3 - Love You Better
37. Yaw Evans - N109
36. Mia Koden - I Did
35. Kishan & Arfa - Tell Me
34. MPH & Royal-T - Compass
‘Compass’ invites in a pumping, wheezing melody that sounds like an R&B melody you’re hearing from the basement downstairs. Then, Royal-T graciously lets MPH add in his trademark sound-collage breakdowns that turn the basement into a buzzing science lab - no Breaking Bad.
33. Alpaca Beats - How Do U Feel?
‘How Do You Feel?’ revolves around a golden hook from Tilla, double-tracked to give romantic undertones. The piano keys have a frosty breath around them and the percussion patters like rain, but it still has a playful groove from reversed textures and a fluttering bass synth that could have come from Floating Points. More than anything, it’s an enrapturing track about two people confiding in one another.
32. PJ Statham - Cellular
31. Minista & Danny Goliger - Cause It’s You
A cross-continental collaboration between London producer Minista and LA’s Danny Goliger, this mid-set bouncer has one of the best single sounds of the year: an icy disco shimmer that could be a sound effect from the SSX Tricky PS2 game.
30. DJ CDQ - Come Take A Ride
From the Bristolian purveyors of the most brain-rotting garage stonkers you can hope to find, BELTERS, ‘COME TAKE A RIDE’ is a G-funk whistle whirler with a French-flavoured disco sauce that Crydamore would have snapped up in its heyday.
29. Four Eyes - If We Ever
Part of the Buntai collective, producer Four Eyes creates one of the highest plunges from sun-kissed diva house into a subterranean speed garage and laughs at the chaos like a mad scientist. If speedy g switch-ups were the drops of towering roller coasters, this would be the Kingda Ka.
28. Tami - Dirty e Sweet
Belgian producer Tami’s debut single “Dirty e Sweet” eschews the rigid, DJ-friendly structure of garage, sidestepping it in favour of a constantly unfurling medley of reversed vocals, sour industrial clanks and doom-stricken chords. There’s a haunting, androgynous vocal sample that enters in as rough condition as an old book with the spine barely hanging the tattered pages on. “Because, my heartbeat is slowly…” it sings before dying out.
27. Eev Frances - 4F
Eev Frances muffles so many sounds on “4F” that it sounds like they’re searching for a way out of the speakers. Foggy silver-grey chords, fizzing synths and xylophone are all penned in by a kick-heavy groove that hints at Jersey club, but cuts back into a 2 step and finds such a bounceable rhythm between the two worlds.
26. Holloway - Joyce Wrice
Tapping into the Aaliyah era of R&B via the style’s modern evangelist Joyce Wrice, Holloway filters her voice then colours it with Niche bassline and a wistful bubble synth.
25. INVT - PRESHA
Almost all of Miami duo INVT’s garage-adjacent tunes in 2023 were linked by a certain hunkered-down rhythm that lets clubbers know it’s time to go to work. “PRESHA” hones in on it with three bass tones that are placed just-so.
24. Wodda - Womp Womp
23. Harris - In the Rave
There’s something recession-proof in the simplicity of an off-beat organ bop. The way it pulls and shakes the beat around like it’s leading a tango, and Harris’ “In the Rave” does so with an early 2010s classic on top.
22. sibitto - All U Feeling
“All U Feeling” is a prime example of Tokyo producer sibitto’s hyperactive yet finely-chopped approach, crammed with low-end ripples and a pitched vocal sample that sticker-slaps off graffiti-caked walls. An utter t-shirt drencher.
21. MJ Cole - Feel It (MJ’s VIP Mix)
MJ uses the shimmering VIP edit of his Piri and Tommy collaboration to tribute Todd Edwards to a scarily accurate degree.
20. Oblongar - Speeder
In a year where Bomb Rush Cyberfunk was released, Oblongar’s ‘Speeder’ was gleefully Jet Set Radio-pilled with its spiralling synths, warp-speed chops and bass glides as wide as an aeroplane’s wings. This one will have you seeing the world as a big and bright video game level.
19. DJ Zinc - Follow Me (MPH Remix)
When MPH delivered his remix of ‘Follow Me’ for DJ Zinc this year, it provided us with the best example of his signature garage sound that feels at once painstakingly tinkered-with and exuberantly off-the-cuff. Extraterrestrial electronics that go in a flash, vocals get flooded with filtered piano stabs, and the way he chops the vocal to helix around the piano is one of the catchiest moments of the year.
18. Reynes - Sonar Searching
Everything I had to say about this one, I wrote about in my RA review.
17. Lavan - Can’t Wait (L&F Remix)
For his remix of Lavan’s ‘Can’t Wait’, Berlin label +98’s head honcho L&F steps in and swaps out the original’s Crystal Waters-quoting keys for five slender key hits that resolve as effortlessly as they step out. Synth squiggles decorate the track in a cold echo, with the latter-half synth adding a seismometer-like shake to the rhythm. Underneath the undeterred stride of the beat, someone whispers, “but I can’t wait”. It’s the perfect afternoon-before-the-night-out tune.
16. Arma - No Joke
‘No Joke’’s mysticism slowly burrowed into my head over since it was first released in April as part of the ARMA002 EP, and that’s down to the arpeggiating digital harp that gives an air of Whitney Houston’s ‘It’s Not Right But It’s Okay’ and its UKG-primed thumb piano. Everything orbits around this melody, from the dusty drums à la Todd Edwards to the rap sample filtered through a phone receiver for extra rhythmic playfulness.
15. Swami Sound & JOON - Hope It Stays
Swami Sound and JOON can cook up a 2step love song as great as Erika de Casier’s finest. You can hear the keyboard jam underneath, but it’s taken into an intimate haze with ghostly vocals and refracting sound circling the speakers. ‘Hope It Stays’ is a song about trusting love no matter how unpredictable it may be - the concluding switch-up to a heady post-dubstep fever dream at the end personifies this.
14. Crosstalk - MAMADA DUB
Built from a vulgar rap sample that could have come from a funk proibidão track, São Paulo beatmaker Crosstalk slices up “MAMADA DUB” into a scorching breakdown with uniquely pinching sound design and bass that spins like a helicopter’s blades.
13. Sticky & Ms. Dynamite - Booo! (Bullet Tooth Bootleg)
Masked alias Bullet Tooth was the prodigal bootlegger of 2023, chucking out a fire sale of edits that propelled him to notoriety. The original Sticky and Ms. Dynamite track is famed for its damaging force, but Bullet Tooth’s creates a venomous bootleg that nabs from tear-out dubstep, conjuring the sounds of overworked machinery and killer sea creatures.
12. SP:MC - It’s Over Now
SP:MC cherishes picking apart the bones of R&B vocals, isolating devastating lines and piecing together his own story with it. In that spirit, ‘It’s Over Now’ faces the pain of heartbreak by going over events and seeing where it could have been avoided. “Can’t deny, I let you hurt me”, the sample croons over tumbling bass pulses. It’s also one of the best samples of the year, able to fill a big room and sound just as poignant on the way home.
11. Chediak - VIDA LOKA DUB
Speedtest Rave’s head honcho Chediak’s “VIDA LOKA DUB” may be a nostalgic edit to him, but it also introduces the Global North to Brazil’s gangsta rap scene in the 2000s. The dub reinterprets ‘Vida Loka, Pt. II’ by Racionais MCs, a track that flips a forlorn horn sample into a street-surveying boom-bap beat. Chediak takes the horns back to their original form on his dub, slowing them down and accentuating it into a bluesy bellow into the night, backed with face-melting sub-bass.
10. Silva Bumpa - Next 2 Me
‘Next 2 Me’ doesn’t give much away until the drop. A minute in, after the maritime bells signal the breakdown, Silva Bumpa gives way to a bleeping melody that sounds like a dark remix of Moony’s oh-so-2002 house hit ‘Dove (I’ll Be Loving You)’ and faint vocals that undulate like hills. Both fade away by the end of the 8-bar - the track’s strutting beat is the only constant. The bleeps are an earworm that snakes their way out of the speakers, but floats away as soon as it reaches you like a beaming spotlight in a club lighting rig. That reclusive, fleeting quality is what makes ‘Next 2 Me’ so beguiling. It delivers a slim dosage of serotonin that’s just enough to bore inside you.
9. ZeroFG - The Pressure
One of the most underrated producers in garage, London-based ZeroFG can shut the house down with tracks like “Godzilla Dub” and placate with tunes like “The Pressure”. Over a clumsy groove that staggers its way to the dancefloor, ZeroFG lays down a sweet and clear vocal sample that speaks to the track’s namesake. “I’m feeling that pressure / I’m feeling that shame go round and round, I can’t go forward / I need a boost to catapult me high / feels like the come-up, it’s way too tight,” the sample sings with the coo of bottled tension.
8. salute & Sammy Virji - Peach
The crazed unreleased reaction to “Peach” hinged on how it set expectations and sprung surprises from it. It pairs Virji’s sugariness with salute’s maximalism into a sidechained life-affirmer that makes you feel like you’re racing through a city in motion blur, soaring vocal runs chopped into a siren call. Its build parts the clouds to let in wordless vocal harmonies and rubbery bass that massages the ears, revealing that it’s more of a magic carpet ride than a shuttle launch. As the harmonies jump to another frequency in the second breakdown, “Peach” double-dips into the orgasmic power of the key change.
7. MarsWALKZ - Singalong
This freebie rizzler from the No More Parties label satiated my need for good ol’-fashioned carnage. Like a 20-person-deep booth at a grime cypher, the track thrives off of the energy of group rapping in abundance, to the point where you can almost feel the sweat dripping down the walls. This one will leave you feeling like a dirty dishcloth after a proper go on the pots.
6. Spooner - 4AM (Speed Garage Mix)
In a year where Japanese garage has made greater connections to the UK, the scene’s most curious development is Tokyo label SPRAYBOX releasing a remix of Taeko Ohnuki’s ‘4:00 A.M.’ by Sheffield producer Spooner. The original is a Japanese city pop track from 1978 that has been a 25m+-view hit on YouTube, where the genre is almost exclusively available in the West. This speedy g mix does not switch up to a grilling bass, but is an adrenaline-fuelled kaleidoscope of the track. Wearing white gloves, he adds in soulful backup vocals and a show-stopping high note, so much is his adoration for Ohnuki’s original song.
5. Bushbaby - Night Edit
The most sought-after dubplate of the year. Coming from an ec2a dubplate, ‘Night Edit’ turned into a dagger of a bootleg played out by Main Phase, Introspekt, Four Tet and more. ‘Night’ by Benga & Coki celebrated 15 years in the world in 2023, and Bushbaby found that with a bit of hammering around the edges, its iconic bleeps make for an infectious ping. Bushbaby even sees fit to let the original’s rolling half-step back in for just a moment on the breakdown. Seeing the ‘Night’ bleeps reintroduced to dancefloors in all their splendour with an added turbo was a welcome reminder of the one-of-a-kind energy that the London dubstep and outer club scene had in the late 00s.
4. Once Twice (fka Parallels) - Promises
London duo Once Twice seems to love the human voice’s ineffable emotive qualities, as almost every one of their songs employs vocal chops that cut off the ends of words to leave just the middle vowel, often where the voice is most emphasised. Cleo Sol’s ‘Promises’ is a delicate moment of confession that should theoretically be crushed under the weight of Parallel’s leftfield techno/UKG thump. But by chopping up Sol’s closing vamp and putting it under a spell of weightless, subterranean wubs and close-to-chaos percussion, they turn Sol’s feelings of abandonment in the original into a rhythmic tension that your body is compelled to fix.
3. Villager - Every Single Time
It’s the expanse of small details Villager manages to sneak into his tracks that has sparked his bountiful year of incredible music. Little bits of production trickery that hits the ear just so, and “Every Single Time” stands as a shining example. It’s the diamond vocals which are given an artificial gravel, the way the low-end varies after it introduces itself from the Earth’s crust, and how the track nabs Boards of Canada’s sense of aching suspense. It’s right down to the vocal “yeah”s at the beginning that oscillate and bleed with delay, and the textural pieces of rapping that you may never even perceive. So much is tightly compact in a bubble yet new ideas and angles keep permeating it. Every sound is thoughtfully surplused with vigour, making for one of the most richly-designed tracks of the year.
2. INVT & Logan_olm - WE INSIDE (CULEBRA VIP)
When two artists come together successfully, it can be viewed through two prisms. INVT’s supremely excellent catalogue in 2023, defined by their strutting rhythm and starkly minimal vibe, was one of many high points for the pan-Latin Miami dance community. Meanwhile, Elijah wrote for Resident Advisor that 2023 was the year that MCs finally got their shine after he called for greater respect for them a couple years prior, and in this standout year, Logan_olm was the dark horse.
‘WE INSIDE (CULEBRA VIP)’ fills murky dubstep with nimble garage drums and Logan’s tightly-wound flow patterns. Logan sounds undead with a slightly robotic filter on his voice over Silent Hill-coloured fog, but he enters his flow so casually that you believe he’s not registered the beat despite being locked in. The gunge-y bass doesn’t come in until a third of the way in, so confident is the production that it doesn’t need to bloat out with bells and whistles to hold your attention. The “Sound Clash” of Miami and London pitched on the EP’s title may not have been movie-trailer explosives, but it shows that both cities' respective Latin club and rap scenes have been utterly rejuvenated.
1. Hudson Mohawke & Nikki Nair - Set the Roof
The moment where ‘Set the Roof’ turned from a zany 2step bop to the biggest sucker-punch in UK garage year happens just before the first breakdown, where the looping vocals of Tayla Parx have a surprise key change squeezed just before the descent into chaos. Right before liftoff, Hudson Mohawke and Nikki Nair supercharge it in an unexpected place in the middle of the four-bar, staggering the listener and taking the spotlit moment even higher. Then it keeps happening during the madhouse breakdown, spiralling up and down like we’re all being led down a drainpipe.
Hudson Mohawke’s wonky production matching up with the boxy and joyously rickety sound design of Nikki Nair on the Set the Roof EP was pure deranged lunacy in the best way. The aesthetics of UK garage are often parodied, everyone knows what to expect when they see a white label with the stamp of a cartoon character, but they truly evoke that aspect of buoyant animation. Garage through their lens is more rude, more mercurial, more influenced by the ever-reinvigorated textures of electro.
‘Set the Roof’, despite its quirky aesthetic, was one of the most surefire ragers DJs threw on this year - even Björk played it on the decks. And best yet, with a year that it’s felt like many have sprinted to pull a 2step flip on a popular new track, HudMo and Nikki Nair turned this into a positive by releasing the stems as a year-end celebration and enacting a mad few days of wonderful creation from their work. Amongst the endless sample packs and route-one sample hunting, people seem to forget how versatile UK garage can be, and HudMo and Nikki Nair showed it with this endless source of spectacle.
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