This one made me miss shows I’ve never even been to. Justin Hawkes writes drum and bass like a songwriter first, and Wayward with scribe is all yearning, a vocal that sits somewhere between pop and prayer, riding a break that never gets in its way. The drop doesn’t detonate so much as bloom, which is the whole appeal; at 1:55 it opens up and you feel your chest do the thing rather than your feet. Hawkes has a knack for chords that stay just slightly sad even at full tempo, and scribe’s top line leans into that instead of fighting for brightness. I’ve had it looping while working and it hasn’t once broken my concentration, which for drum and bass is a real compliment. There’s a version of this genre obsessed with being the hardest thing in the room; Wayward is happy being the prettiest, and that’s a much harder target to hit. Play it on the drive home.
1 min read
Justin Hawkes & scribe - Wayward
1 minute on this. That's longer than the bridge of any Coldplay song deserves.
New to this sound? Every subgenre of drum & bass, explained →
Follow the cult
New track posted most days. Pick your channel.
76 weirdos already on the list
📼 From the vault
Culture Shock - U & I
Aug 2026 —
Culture Shock makes rolling vocal dnb sound like it costs zero effort. 'U & I' is festival drum and bass with an actual pulse.