Speed garage

Speed garage (occasionally known as plus-8) is a genre of electronic dance music, associated with the UK garage scene, of which it is regarded as one of its subgenres. It emerged in London in the mid-1990s, reached commercial peak in 1997 and 1998, and was a direct precursor to both 2-step garage and Bassline.

The term "Speed Garage" was only heard widely for the first time in early 1997. Garage House, when played at 130 bpm, became known as speed garage. Armand Van Helden, often credited as the style's originator, did not give his production style a name other than the "Armand mix". The speed garage label was applied later as British producers adopted it.

Speed garage features sped-up NY garage 4-to-the-floor rhythms that are combined with breakbeats. Snares are placed as over the 2nd and the 4th kickdrums, so in other places of the drum pattern. Speed garage tunes have warped, heavy basslines, influenced by jungle and reggae. Sweeping bass is typical for speed garage. It is also typical for speed garage tunes to have a breakdown. Speed garage tunes sometimes featured time-stretched vocals. As it is heavily influenced by jungle, speed garage makes heavy use of jungle and dub sound effects, such as gunshots and sirens.

Although speed garage is generally considered a British genre, its sound was first developed by American producers. Around 1997, London DJs paired the descendants of US-based Garage with cavernous, half-tempo basslines, but the style's first steps came from records by New Jersey producer Todd Edwards and New York-based Armand Van Helden. Van Helden's remix of CJ Bolland's "Sugar is Sweeter" is considered by some to be the first true speed garage track. Van Helden later described the drum and bass influence on his work, saying he had not thought of it as Speed Garage when he started, and that he had been into drum and bass for years.