Genuine question: when did 130bpm with a wobble bass move from the record-shop crate to the Radio 1 playlist? Speed garage is up 625% on Splice, KETTAMA is sharing a Creamfields bill with Calvin Harris, and the genre that last peaked when Tony Blair was in office is having its loudest summer since 1997. Two tracks from the man standing in the middle of all of it.
1. KETTAMA - Pretty Green Eyes (Sunset Ibiza Mix)
He took Ultrabeat’s trance classic, ran it through speed garage, and turned it into the Ibiza anthem of the summer. Nine Monday nights on Amnesia’s Terrace this summer and this is what he opens with. The vocal hits differently with a sunset behind it and a room full of people who know every word from a completely different era. I’ve played it four times today.
2. KETTAMA & Interplanetary Criminal - Yosemite
The original rides a two-step groove that Interplanetary Criminal built low and tight, and KETTAMA dropped a vocal chop over the top that lodged in TikTok’s nervous system and hasn’t left. The remix package tells you how many lanes it opened — Wilkinson took it DnB, Philip George went deep, there’s a drum and bass flip circulating on SoundCloud. This track has been remixed more times than some records get played. Steel City Dance Discs put it out and the genre it landed in depends entirely on which version finds you first.
Speed garage was dead for twenty years. KETTAMA didn’t revive it. He walked in and started playing like it never left.