The State of the Scene: Drum & Bass Goes Global

It’s the end of July and British festival season is well and truly underway. The nights are light, the days are long and the youth of the UK wait in anticipation for the highlights of their year. Early summer festivals like Love Saves the Day and Forbidden Forest have whet the appetite and filled Instagram feeds with summer-raving content, but the biggest are yet to come. Every year, Boomtown, Creamfields and Reading & Leeds festivals mark the most important dates in thousands of British ravers’ calendars. But Drum & Bass fever is by no means unique to the United Kingdom. It’s no secret that Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand share our love for the genre, with well-established culture, production and events but, this year more than ever, it’s clear that Drum & Bass is going truly global.

Until recently, if you’d heard of Drum & Bass being played overseas, it would be relatively safe to assume that it would be in one of two regions: Central Europe or Australasia. These two parts of the world have longstanding reputations when it comes to Drum & Bass. The Czech Republic, for example, hosts arguably the biggest DnB-specific festival in the world in Let It Roll, whose star-studded line-up has lived up to expectations every year for nearly a decade. Belgium and the Netherlands also have a history with Drum & Bass, with the former playing host to the highly respected Rampage festival, and the latter the home to the Liquicity label and festival. Australia, home of legendary group Pendulum, is a recognised Southern Hemisphere hub for the genre, but Aotearoa (New Zealand) is probably a more established stronghold. Here, it’s so popular it’s virtually mainstream. Turn on George FM at any time of the day and you can find Drum & Bass on the radio almost 24/7.

But more recently, we’re starting to see a wider variety of venues play host to Drum & Bass. Certainly, in Europe, you can find regular events in France, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia and Germany organised by Get in Step, Hospitality and Liquicity. DnB Allstars recently hosted a festival in Portugal, having staged a similar event in Spain in 2022, while Croatia’s week-long Hospitality on the Beach has become a bucket-list event for ravers since launching in 2018. While both impressive and encouraging, expansion within Europe is far from surprising. Most recently, DJs have been breaking new ground outside the continent, performing in fascinating venues in Asia and large-scale events in the United States.

Take the middle weekend in June, for example. Drum & Bass was being played simultaneously across three separate continents, by some of the most recognisable names in the genre. On Saturday 15^th June 2024, while Chase & Status were performing on the shores of Lake Como (Italy) at Nameless Festival, the Hospitality trio of Whiney, Degs and Anaïs were playing the final date of their Australia, New Zealand and Asia tour in Bangkok (Thailand); Grafix was headlining a club night in Pheonix, Arizona (USA); and S.P.Y, Fred V and London Elektricity were in Bali (Indonesia) for Locus Festival. You might dismiss this as a coincidence, but it’s really an insightful illustration of the global expansion of Drum & Bass over the last few years. And it’s by no means a one-off. This year, Asia has been well catered for by the Hospitality tour, with dates in Singapore and Seoul in the middle of May and four consecutive dates for India in June, with Whiney, Degs and Anaïs stopping off at New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

But the region that has attracted the most attention in terms of its growing interest in Drum & Bass is the USA. Until recently, received wisdom was that Drum & Bass was a British phenomenon, unsuited to American culture. British and American definitions of raves were seen to be incompatible. But those attempting to export the genre across the Atlantic refused to be obstructed. The most well-known example is the Worship group, made up of genre leaders Dimension, Sub Focus, Culture Shock and 1991. These four have spoken publicly about the frustrations of “half-empty clubs” in America and, in 2020, set out to conquer the American market once and for all. Since then, they have completed three North American tours, which have made an undeniable impact. Just this year, festivals across the States have featured these and other well-known Drum & Bass DJs, attracting healthy crowds. Chase & Status, Hedex, Bou and Andy C were booked for Ultra Miami in March, Kenya Grace represented the scene at Coachella in April and Delta Heavy, K Motionz and Mefjus played at Orlando’s Forbidden Kingdom at the start of June. The pinnacle of US growth, however, undeniably came as the Worship quartet played a closing hour-and-a-half set to 30,000 American ravers at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas in May of this year.

The majority of the artists cited in these international events are British. Perhaps that’s not a surprise given that the UK is the birthplace of the genre. It’s undeniable that Drum & Bass has been a resounding success as a cultural export. But for this popularity to be more than a flash in the pan, it’s necessary for local DJs to perpetuate interest in their various regions. Fortunately, there are numerous examples of DJs from around the world who are carrying the torch internationally. Again, Europe provides a plethora of recognisable names: Austria’s Camo & Krooked, the Netherlands’ Andromedik, Belgium’s Netsky, Russia’s Synergy and France’s The Caracal Project. Aotearoa (New Zealand) has produced top artists like Lee Mvtthews and Elipsa, as well as young talents like Rova; while Australia boast Pendulum, Ekko & Sidetrack, ShockOne and Luude among their products. Excitingly, recognised producers can now also be found in Asia, like Sri Lanka’s IYRE or Japan’s Makoto. And perhaps most encouraging of all, American artists, some of whom began producing long before the boom in the US, can now reap the rewards of their hard work. Justin Hawkes, Bensley and Kumarion serve as good examples, having formed a group under the notably apt name ‘Carry the Fire‘. On the very same night in June that Drum & Bass events took place in Bangkok, Lake Como and Bali, this trio played in Denver for their seventh event of their 21-date North America tour.

The global spread of Drum & Bass is clear for all to see. In 2024, the genre has touched all corners of the world and it ought to be no surprise. Even within the UK, we’ve seen the genre explode in popularity, bringing it into contact with mainstream culture. While it is impossible to predict such a volatile thing as popularity, particularly in the case of dance music, where trends come and go before anyone has time to notice, all the signs over the last few years are very encouraging. While Drum & Bass has emerged as a force capable of contending with the established favourites of House and Techno at home, the same can now, very much be said, around the world.