This Week In Garage Special Edition: Last Month In Garage

Shit happens. And for me, that meant getting sick, having a birthday, going to a festival, and getting sick again. So to make up for lost time, I'm doing a roundup of all the best garage releases over the last few weeks, a special all-vinyl speed garage mix, and a throwback to top it all off.

But before we get into that, I wanted to announce that I'm now the first co-curator for Swami Sound's Spotify playlist, Two Step Verification. Listen to it below and follow along for all our favorite garage tracks.

Any mention of Swami Sound in this article or any future articles, is out of my own volition and has nothing to do with me helping curate this playlist.

Favorite Project

salute - Ultra Pool [Steel City Dance Discs]

A few weeks before the release of Ultra Pool, salute gave us a taste of what to expect with the joy-inducing "Sternenhimmel" and the Manchester producer kept up the tone with the rest of the project. The four-track EP brings smiles all around with dreamy vocals and fleet-footed melodies that will energize you from front to back. The aptly-named "Heaven" is a standout track, encapsulating the blissful essence salute brings to every song he creates.

Y U QT - Sweet Fantasy [Shall Not Fade]

I don't know if there's ever an edition of this column where I don't mention a Shall Not Fade release, but it's hard when the label is arguably putting out the best garage right now. Y U QT's Sweet Fantasy will show you exactly what I mean. The four-track project is brimming with jazz-infused horns and twinkling keys that complement the sweet, soulful vocals on each track.

Favorite Single

Swami Sound - Back In The Day (Soulecta Dub)

Soulecta injects fun into everything he does. From introducing new garage lovers to the genres by remixing popular tracks to collaborating with rising producers across the globe, it's clear that he wants music to be accessible to people at every step of their journey of discovery. In his edit of Swami Sound's "Back In The Day," he gives his uptempo spin on the soulful tune, adding spellbinding synths and hazy atmospheres that make it even more hypnotic.

Favorite Mix: Hannah Wants - The Lab LDN 2020

Birmingham beatmaker Hannah Wants returns to her roots with an insane all-vinyl DJ speed garage DJ set for Mixmag. Her focus is intoxicating, her song selection is unreal, and her seamless transitions remind us of the underappreciated artistry of turntablism.

Throwback Track: Tina Moore – Never Gonna Let You Go (Kelly G Bump-N-Go Vocal Mix) (1997)

If you listen to a lot of garage mixes, you've definitely heard this track before. Ironically, although two-step is said to be the UK's take on US garage house, Chicago native Kelly G's reimagination of Tina Moore's "Never Gonna Let You Go" might be the first two-step track.