Jauz and Skrillex ft. Fatman Scoop – Squad Out!
After his release of 2014’s “Feel The Volume” went on to spawn the entire bass house genre, Jauz become one of the most celebrated breakout stars of 2015. While the Los Angeles-based DJ/producer’s byline can be found on quite a few tracks that have reverberated from festival to festival, his and Skrillex’s “Squad Out!” featuring Fatman Scoop stands out for a couple of reasons.
First of all, it was the first bass house track in which Skrillex played a significant role, which is notable since the bass music pioneer had spent the better part of a year putting out arguably the most watered-down music of his career. More importantly, though, it features a syncopated break beat as its most novel element. When the day comes that bass house becomes the point of entry through which breaks undergoes a revival as future house did for house and techno, tracks like “Squad Out!” will be cited as catalysts.
Justin Martin – Just Escape
As the “deep house movement” has blossomed into a veritable renaissance for classic styles of house and techno since 2013 , Claude VonStroke’s Dirtybird label has been instrumental in a seismic shift that thrust the underground into relative mainstream consciousness. Out of all the innovators that belong to the imprint, though, nobody quite made for as fitting a face for the operation as its sweetheart prodigy Justin Martin.
“Just Escape” exhibited the synthesis of stylistic elements that made Martin such an adequate poster child for the movement. Between its muted melodic verve and seductive exchange between male and female vocals, it retained a necessary measure of mass appeal, but was still decidedly house at its core.
“Just Escape” found its dewy chords resonating from the walls of innumerable warehouse parties this year – and as rapidly as the underground became in vogue, so it became anthemic of a generation looking to solidify its place in dance music’s coveted elite.