Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-stretched or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure at a tempo usually around 130 BPM.
[1] MJ Cole once stated, "London is a multicultural city... it's like a melting pot of young people, and that's reflected in the music of UK garage.
Simon Reynolds wrote in Energy Flash: "the rude-boy factor of the ragga patois voice in speed garage anthems like Gant's "Sound Bwoy Burial" probably acted to 'inoculate' against the 'effeminate' sensuality of house.
"[3] Like the Jamaican dancehall toaster, the garage MC is a typically masculine and animated character which evokes responses from the crowd and engages their attention in a gritty, provocative manner.
[4] This active dialogue between the crowd and those involved in the performance of music embodies the interactive nature of UKG, and is further seen in other genres such as hip hop and reggae.
Labels whose outputs would become synonymous with the emerging speed garage sound included Confetti, Public Demand, 500 Rekords, Spread Love and VIP.
What changed over time, until the so-called 2-step sound emerged, was the addition of further funky elements like contemporary R&B styled vocals, more shuffled beats and a different drum pattern.
Speed garage tracks were characterised by a sped-up house-style beat, complemented by the rolling snares and reverse-warped basslines that were popular with drum and bass producers of the time.
Arguably one of the earliest examples of a 2-step track is the 1997 Kelly G remix of "Never Gonna Let You Go" by Tina Moore, which peaked at #7 on the UK chart.
The UK's counterpart to Todd Edwards was MJ Cole, a classically trained oboe and piano player, who had a string of chart and underground hits in the late 1990s and early 2000s, most notably with "Sincere" and "Crazy Love".
[10] R&B influences can be heard in early UK garage, the genre offered more complex drum beats, with heavy syncopation (swing) and a more energetic feel due to a higher tempo (normally between 130 and 138 BPM).
Garage producers then proceeded to churn out UK versions of US contemporary R&B hits, notably with Brandy and Monica's "The Boy Is Mine".
Other top 10 hits in 2000 include Artful Dodger's "Movin' Too Fast" (#2), "Woman Trouble" (#6) and "Please Don't Turn Me On" (#4), Sweet Female Attitude's "Flowers" (#2), True Steppers' "Buggin" (#6) and "Out of Your Mind" (#2), B-15 Project's "Girls Like Us" (#7), DJ Luck & MC Neat's "Masterblaster 2000" (#5) and "Ain't No Stoppin' Us" (#8), MJ Cole's "Crazy Love" (#10), Wookie's "Battle" (#10), Lonyo's "Summer of Love" (#8), Architechs' "Body Groove" (#3), and Oxide & Neutrino's "No Good 4 Me" (#6).
Other top 10 hits in 2001 include the Sunship mixes of Mis-Teeq's "Why" (#8), "All I Want" (#2) and "One Night Stand" (#5), Artful Dodger's "TwentyFourSeven" (#6), Liberty's "Thinking It Over" (#5), Oxide & Neutrino's "Up Middle Finger" (#7), and So Solid Crew's "They Don't Know" (#3).
During this period, traditional UK garage was pushed back underground amongst the bad publicity emanating from the tougher side of the genre, and publicised violence surrounding members of the So Solid Crew.
Nonetheless, several UK garage songs did appear on the charts from 2002 to 2004, including Heartless Crew's "The Heartless Theme" (#21), Distant Soundz' version of "Time After Time" (#20), So Solid Crew's "Ride wid Us" (#19) and "Haters" (#8), Ladies First's version of "I Can't Wait" (#19), Pay As U Go's "Champagne Dance" (#13), Mr Reds vs DJ Skribble's "Everybody Come On (Can U Feel It)" (#13), Mis-Teeq's "B with Me" (#5), Jaimeson's "True" (#4) and "Take Control" (#16), and 3 of a Kind's "Baby Cakes" which was a number one hit in August 2004. Notable early grime artists around 2001–03 include Ruff Sqwad, More Fire Crew, Dizzee Rascal (who released his debut album Boy in da Corner in 2003), Roll Deep, and Wiley.
Shortly following this, "original" style garage had made a return in a big way, with producers such as Moony, DJD and Tuff Culture paving the way.
The 2020s saw new releases such as "West Ten" by AJ Tracey and Mabel, "Don't Play" by Anne-Marie, KSI and Digital Farm Animals, "Just for Me", "Pain" (which interpolates Sweet Female Attitude's "Flowers"[15]) and "Where You Are" by PinkPantheress, "Grown Flex" by Chip and Bugzy Malone, "House & Garage" by Morrisson and Aitch, "Seven" by Jungkook and "Love Like This" by Zayn, all of which charted in the UK.
The album includes appearances by Craig David (who features on lead single "Summertime"), Mist, Jaykae, D Double E, MC Creed, Big Narstie and General Levy.
In May 2020, English band the 1975 released their fourth studio album Notes on a Conditional Form which is heavily influenced by the British dance music scene, and specifically UK garage.
The dark garage sound that was being produced by the likes of Wookie, Zed Bias, Shy Cookie, El-B and Artwork (of DND) in the late 1990s would set the groundwork for both grime and dubstep.
Developing in parallel to grime, dubstep would take a mostly instrumental stripped down form of dark garage and with it bring in production values and influences from dub reggae.