Drum n Bass is one of the most energetic and fastest genres found today. Songs range between 160 BPM (beats per minute) and 180 BPM. Which is significantly faster than electro house (120 BPM - 135 BPM) and most trance songs (130 BPM - 145 BPM). Drum n Bass is also often referred to as “Jungle”.

Although not hugely popular in South Africa and Namibia, there is a small community that does support this genre. In Cape Town there are a few Drum N Bass clubs, or rather, clubs that do play Drum N Bass from time to time. “Mercury”, off the top of my head, is such a club. In Namibia, there is no club that plays Drum N Bass, and it’s unlikely that there will be one in the near future. Namibia is and all likeliness always will be extremely commercial.

Check out DrumNBass.co.za for event updates. The site isn’t every updated at the moment, but the forum on the site might be a useful starting point for anyone interested in the genre.

Psy-trance only recently gained some appreciation in Namibia, mostly thanks to a group of people called “Wackazoo“. In South Africa, psy-trance has been around for a while. If you live in Cape Town, you’ve no doubt been invited to a “trance” party. Although called “trance” parties, the music found at these events is Psy-trance. Some of these events include: “Alien Safari” and “Vortex”. For more information, go here: www.aliensafari.net and here: www.vortexsa.co.za.

Psy-trance originated from Goa Trance in the 90’s. Psy-trance can only be described as very repetitive (with songs usually lasting between 8 and 12 minutes) and very weird. It’s a sound that can easily be distinguished from other genres, as it has a very distinct “kick” used in most songs. Have a listen at the samples below to get an idea:

Seeing as this is my favourite style of dance music, this post will probably be a bit biased.

Hard-style is not very big in SA and Namibia anymore. It lost it’s appeal and I personally feel the reason for this is that people are associating the genre with drugs, more so than any other dance genre. But even so, hard-style has paved the way for other genres such as jump-style (more on this in another post).

Club Truth and Club Evolution in Midrand (Johannesburg) are just about the only two clubs where this music is still played. Hard-style is, however, still big in European countries, even though jump-style is starting to become the preferred style.

Hard-style is one of the hardest types of dance music you get. It can be placed as slightly harder than hard trance, but not quite as hard as gabber/hardcore. The general idea behind hard-style is to make a song that is as excessive as possible, with sounds that can even be described as “screeching”. Expect wicked bass lines, huge melodic breakdowns and very dirty vocals.

A few examples:

“Qlimax” is an annual Dance Event, held at the Gelredome, in Arnhem, Netherlands. It features some of the best hard-style DJs in the world. It’s worth having a look at here… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardstyle

A few other Hard-Style producers:
# Daniele Mondello
# Dark Oscillators
# Deepack
# Deepforces
# DHHD
# Didjital
# Dizmaster
# DJ Duro
# DJ Isaac
# DJ Luna
# DJ N3ck

Electro House is without a doubt the most popular type of music in SA and Namibia at the moment. Electro House is VERY new, but even so, it quickly took over the dance scene. If you walk into your average club nowadays you will most probably hear this playing. It can be described as the next generation of funky house. Electro House has a MUCH dirtier sound but remains extremely funky.

A few examples:

A few other Electro House producers:
# Fedde le Grand
# The Egg
# Guttapunk
# Armand van Helden
# Studio B