Ballantine’s Hottest Genres Of The Year As Predicted By Our Community

If 2022 was anything to go by, 2023 is going to be an incredibly exciting year for music. Last year we saw artists break boundaries across the globe, many of which we were lucky enough to highlight in our True Music Studios. But it’s always exciting to consider the year ahead and explore who might be popping up in the various scenes currently bubbling worldwide.

Candela Scorp is a journalist and club promoter from Granada. Tash LC is a London DJ and selector heading up her own label and club night Club Yeke. Eduardo Pérez Waasdorp is a past director of DJ Mag Spain, and an expert on all things Spanish techno. Florina Krampen is a music consultant, curator and dot connector, helping artists worldwide reach new levels. 

Here’s what they had to say.

Tash LC

I first heard Cruise music earlier this year when I came across DJ YK from Nigeria and I can’t get enough. The sound is frantic and wild and sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before. It’s a combination of Techno, Sped up Amapiano and Nigerian club beats with the energy of classic house. It’s such a crazy, addictive genre and it’s shared primarily through Tik Tok where beats get picked up by dancers who create dance challenges to the productions which are often comedic and meme inspired. Cruise production is usually very distorted and super compressed, being compared to early Grime and Hardcore which makes total sense as it seems to draw from so many places from across the spectrum of club music.

UK label MOVES Recordings recently released a couple of great Cruise compilations which feature some of the key players in the Cruise movement including DJ YK, DJ Kora, DJ Kalipha, DJ Stainless. I’m really excited to see where Cruise ends up in 2023 and beyond and I’ve loved playing the tunes out this year and seeing the crowd reaction, it’s such a refreshing sound and it encompasses all the elements of the club that I’m drawn to and moved by.

Eduardo Pérez Waasdorp

For a music devourer like me, it’s very difficult to get surprised or excited when someone comes saying: “hey, check out this new genre!”. Mainly because in today’s musical landscape, it is really hard to innovate without repeating yourself. However, there are exceptions to the rule. Heir to the infamous Italo wave, Dark disco (or as some online music shops like to call it, Indie dance) has been living a true awakening in the past years. And amongst the artists making waves in the scene, Miura has been making big ones the past year.

Born as Olena Perehinets in Ukraine and now living in Berlin, Miura has been one of my musical revelations of 2022. She was the artistic director of one of Kiev’s most important queer and freedom hotspots, Vognyk Bar, and after the war broke, she started travelling with her music across Europe. With a variety of influences that range from said dark disco to house, Italo, techno, breaks, extravagant tunes and more, her vast repertoire has seen her join big names in the scene as DJ Hell, Seth Troxler, Theus Mago, Krystal Klear, Kollektiv Turmstrasse this summer in Ibiza, Berlin and France. She’s a tornado, a force of nature that will make you dance and enjoy life on the dance floor. If you have her playing near you, don’t miss the chance!

House music is a wide genre to speak about. It has many nuances, that usually develop into countless variants, creating a mixture that is really difficult to define. However, when someone manages to tame the beast of many heads that house music has become, the result is magic. Be it in productions or on the dance floor. And there are a pair of DJs hailing from Madrid, Spain, that are taking the scene like a storm. I met them a couple of years ago, when I was a lecturer at British Council’s WeAreEquals mentoring program. Since that moment, their vitality and musical versatility caught my attention. 2022 has seen Two Ex take over several major stages, debuting at Paraiso Festival in Madrid and also in many new venues across the country, kickstarting a touring career that will surely take them to new heights in 2023. Having been confirmed for Primavera Sound’s two weekenders in Madrid and Barcelona in 2023, both Adriana and Rosa have a refined musical background, that see them develop sets that range from house to techno, from disco to indie dance, and everything in between. But it’s their chemistry behind decks the thing that really sets them aside, and makes them a true hurricane for the dancefloor and true future stars. Take my advice and start getting down with Two Ex!!