Whether you’re chatting D&B, dubstep, bass house or every shade in between, 2015 has been an exciting year for beats on all sides of the ever-mutating bass spectrum.
Picking one from the thousands of releases we’ve enjoyed throughout 2015 is tough, border-line impossible. But that hasn’t stopped us from bugging a whole bunch of DJs and demanding them for their favourite tunes of the year.
From SKisM to Teddy Killerz, Maduk to Funtcase, they’ve all cherry-picked some incredible tracks and have highlighted a few consistent favourites along the way: Dead Limit, Whip Slap and The Dopest all enjoy rewinds in this heavyweight roll-call of over 30 acts.
Get to know: there are some incredible tracks across the genres with a fair few hidden gems you may have missed and, quite possibly, a fair few of your own favourites too!
Astronaut
Tune: Lenno – Fever (Feat Benson)
“First heard this track on the Helldeep Radio podcast and was instantly hooked. Must have played it about 50 times in the last week!”
Barely Alive
Tune: Moksi – The Dopest (Cesqueux Remix)
“Not sure why. We just really like it.”
Bensley
Tune: Document One – Follow Me
“This past year, Document One came out with a few tracks which have this slick, jazzy style. My favourite of these is Follow Me, which seems to perfectly balance elements of jazz, neuro and liquid. It features a bassline that merges twangy upright bass and modulated synths beautifully, and is one of the few tunes that I don’t get tired of despite the relatively slight variation – it just pulls it off so well! Together with the smooth vocals and brass, the atmosphere that was captured in this track really sets it apart from most of the other drum & bass that was released in 2015, and it sounds as fresh to me now as it did the first time I heard it.”
BMotion
Tune: Calyx & Teebee – Long Gone
“I think D&B as a whole has reached a point where more ‘songs’ are needed. And these guys have been bringing just that to the table. Not saying I don’t like the straight up club tunes, but I personally think that side of things is a little over saturated.”
Broken Note
Tune: June Miller – Himsa
“One that I’ve been enjoying recently, it has an absolutely savage drop, love the hyper futurist vibe.”
Cause4Concern
Tune: MachineCode & CZA – Something
“Featured in all our sets this year with guaranteed dancefloor destruction. Space-age, universe-straddling vibes with echoes of the future.”
Cyantific
Tune: Insideinfo, Mefjus & The Upbeats – Footpath
“My favourite track this year. I love the 80s arpeggio intro and all the atmosphere that comes with it. The drop is pure savagery, the bass sounds like a giant robot chomping on metal. I still can’t work out how they did the drums for this’ the kick sits really really quietly in the mix. I think I read that they made this really quickly too, it certainly doesn’t sound like it! It’s been in practically all my sets in 2015. Maaaassive!”
Diskord
Tune: Flosstradamus & GTA – Prison Riot
“This tune just absolutely destroys any venue whenever anyone plays it… Biggest reaction of any tune we’ve played all year and that says it all really.”
DJ Phantasy
Tune: Harry Shotta Show – Animal
“My tune of the year has to be Animal, the track produced by me, Harry Shotta and Dextone. The way the track was received by the people worldwide was very humbling and it was amazing to see MTV channels in USA, Australia, UK and even Africa writing and talking about the track. When we have performed the track live, the response from the audience has been amazing with them clapping and cheering when it’s finished. I still smile when I hear it so for me, it is easily tune of the year.”
Doctor P
Tune: Flux Pavilion – Vibrate
“I’ve chosen Vibrate as my tune of the year because it’s the first track in years that has rekindled my love of dubstep, and it reminded me of all the reasons why I got into dubstep to begin with.”
Document One
Tune: Ivy lab 20 Questions
This tune is simply beautiful, the vocal is stunning as is ivy labs production. It’s extremely difficult to create a piece of music that contains the right amount of musicality, whilst working well on the dance floor. Ivy lab nail this with ease and never fail to amazing us. This tune has consistently been a part of our sets since its release back in Feb and is tough to take out!!!”
Dodge & Fuski
Tune: Ragga Twins – Badman (Skrillex Remix)
“It holds a level of energy that encapsulates everything that the current stage of dubstep is all about.”
Dr Meaker
Tune: Serum – Fly Paper
“Serum is on fire at the moment and this one tops the lot. I love the funk sample. I love the drop. And the production is Boom! I had a chat with Serum about the sample’s origin and also how the tune came about, which was really interesting. It’s pure funk vibes that just makes me wanna move. I’ll be dropping this in my DJ sets well into 2016.”
Ekko & Sidetrack
Tune: Culture Shock – City Lights (Instrumental)
https://soundcloud.com/culture-shock/culture-shock-city-lightsinstrumental
“Ever since we heard a mix cut of this on YouTube ages ago we knew it was gonna end up in every one of our sets. It’s intoxicatingly happy and the mix down is just perfect.”
Erb N Dub
Tune: Dimension – Whip Slap
“This track has been – and still is – in every DJ’s set since it was on promo!”
Flux Pavilion
Tune: Moksi – The Dopest (cesqeuax remix)
“It’s just an incredibly cool track, the groove on it is up there with the best stuff that has been made at that tempo, gets me super excited.”
Funtcase
Tune: Noisia & The Upbeats – Dead Limit
“When I heard it, it really brought back the reason why I loved drum and bass back in the older days. The high up and down bending reeses in the intro before the drop really remind me of the days of standing in the middle of a crowd during an Andy C set in my hometown of Bournemouth, main room at the O2 arena (then known as The Opera House), putting my hands high in the air and looking at my friends while going “fucking hellllllll!!”. The drop is so typical for Noisia and The Upbeats but after such an intense build up, it’s absolutely perfect.”
GLXY
Tune: Halogenix – Beyond the Bounds
“This track has such a standout vocal/pad combination. Throw in Halogenix’s ever unique drums and aggressive bass and you get this masterpiece.”
Gradual
Tune: Noisia & The Upbeats – Dead Limit
“We think many will agree that Dead Limit, by Noisia & The Upbeats, is the track of the year! We love everything about it: the intro, the reece, the drop, the bass….This will smash everything for years and years!”
June Miller
Tune: Doctrine – Deckard
“Doctrine is the newest kid on the neuro block and Deckard is actually the first tune we’ve heard from this Belgian production genius. He’s not the biggest name in the scene, but most certainly the one to watch for 2016. The production is fresh and comparable with some biggest tech/neuro names at the moment so keep an eye on this exciting new producer!”
JVST SAY YES
Tune: Jauz & Ephwurd – Rock The Party
“Because it’s added fuel to the fire of emerging music in a way that grabbed the attention of an audience way beyond what anyone was expecting.”
Keeno
Tune: Break – Give It Up
“This is classic Break: tight drums, dynamic subline and a super musical introduction. It’s my favourite not because I play it out at every gig but because from a production and musical viewpoint, this tune is spot on. 2015 was a difficult year to standout in drum and bass, but Break’s consistency and ingenuity never fails to impress me.”
Loadstar
Tune: Dimension – Whip Slap
“Dimension smashed it with this one, it’s a real head nodder of a tune that’s been killing it in our sets over the last 12 months. Big up Dimension!”
Maduk
Tune: Boxplot – Escape With The Clouds
“I’ll pick a track that probably not many people know yet. It just gives me that instant feel good vibe!”
Maztek
Tune: Noisia & The Upbeats – Dead Limit
“Because it’s amazing and they are sick!”
North Base
Tune: Noisa & The Upbeats – Dead Limit
“Tune of the year for us has to be Dead Limit. This tune just makes other tunes sound week in terms of production and charisma! The reece build up always gets the party started and the drop is unreal! These guys are just mad scientists when it comes to drawing for beats and bass!”
Pola & Bryson
Tune: Anile – Not The Way (To Run) feat Taelimb & Tiffani Juno
“We absolutely love this track, great production, great composition and a great vocalist. Easily one of the most underrated albums of the year by far.”
Signs
Tune: Noisia & The Upbeats – Dead Limit
“Simply one of the best dancefloor tunes of this year. It hasn’t left the box since we got it and has been dropped in all of our sets. The combination of Noisa and the Upbeats, it’s just pure fire and quality.”
Silent Witness
Tune: Oliver Yorke – Desert Eagle
“Easily the highlight of the year for me, great track!”
SKisM
Tune: BadKlaat – Head Crush
“This crept onto our first Black Label XL compilation really last minute. I wanted Adam on board and when he sent me this I flicked through it, knew it was solid and added it to the comp without thinking too much about it. To be honest I had absolutely no idea how big this tune was until I played it out for the first time. It’s the only tune in the past two years that has been a mandatory rewind for me, It hits so hard but is still full of dynamics and it just chugs and grunts along in such a simple way that people just lose their shit every time. I also feel like it was a really important tune for the scene, opening people’s ears to the sound of the underground and reminding a lot of us why we got into dubstep in the first place. Salute to BadKlaat, he is a groove magician!”
Teddy Killerz
Tune: Delta Heavy – Ghost (Infuze remix)
“We are big fans of Infuze’s sound and really impressed by this remix. Super melodic but at the same time powerful and sounding massive. Wicked tune!” (Oleg)
Urbandawn
Tune: Reso – Taiga
“Taiga it’s powerful enough to capture both extremes in music – it has some sort of angelical smoothness but at the same time it’s heavy, dense, and those type of things really get me into a track.”
Virtual Riot
Tune: Delta Heavy – Ghost (Zomboy Remix)
“Because it combines my love for dreamy airy female vocals with the wonkiest drumstep. The drop is full of great sounds and fills and the shuffled rhythm of the main bass has me dancing immediately.”
