Music: This Week in Hard Dance: Lil Texas, Kronos & Builder

Apr 1, 2022

2 min read

Dance music is a broad group of genres, and anyone that calls themself a super fan knows that boiling it all down to just EDM only serves to ignore its sweeping diversity. Our weekly “This Week In” columns spotlight the wider sub-genres of dance music by focussing on the best new tracks, mixes, and classic songs that make the genres compelling.

This week in Hard Dance highlights one of dance music’s most energetic genres. With tempos ranging from 140 to well over 200 BPMs, the genre encompasses a variety of heavy-hitting styles. From hardstyle to happy hardcore to gabber, hard dance takes everything great about dance music and makes it edgier, faster, and more intense.

Kronos - 1991

Take your hardstyle with some Italian flavor on the latest track from Kronos, one of the fastest-rising names in the scene. “1991” pulls from multiple trends and styles in hard dance, including classic hardstyle kicks, trance-driven melodies, and raw, aggressive distortion in one potent package. Beyond his consistent creativity throughout the track, I can’t get over how great it sounds on a technical level — perhaps we’ve found our favorite producers’ next favorite producer.

Lil Texas - SPRING HARDCORE MIX

Ring in the new season with a rip-roaring hardcore mix from none other than Lil Texas, the roughest, most brutal hardcore producer in the USA. With nearly 50 tracks ranging from 160 BPM to well over 200 BPM, this edition of his seasonal mix series features all kinds of goodies from up-and-coming artists and new tracks from Lil Texas himself. So block off the next hour for your cardio session; I promise this will do the trick.

Hard Dance Throwback

Builder - Hardbeat Market (2006)

I have to thank my friend Link for reminding me this tune exists after he played it out during his debut DJ set at Exchange LA sometime last year — I haven’t stopped listening to it ever since. There’s nothing I love more than a bold display of hardstyle kicks in all kinds of different styles, and I love that I feel like I’m literally shopping in a virtual market for hard beats. Nobody does it like Builder.