Hunter in the Woods

The state of drum and bass in 2026

Categories: Culture • Music

If you grew up in New Zealand, drum and bass isn’t an underground genre. It’s the radio. It’s the New Year’s festival. It’s what the sixteen-year-olds at the skate park are playing out of a phone. We have the deepest DnB scene outside the UK and everyone from Rampage to Hospital has figured that out. So for the second post in this series, I wanted to ask the same question I asked about progressive house, but for the genre that soundtracks every Kiwi summer: in 2026, is it still the same old timers at number one, or has a new generation taken the flag?

Same method as before. A swarm of AI agents, told to use nothing from memory, sent out to read the charts, the label sites, the festival bills, the awards, the radio tracklists and the press, and then I argued with what came back. Honesty notes: Beatport and DJ Mag block automated readers, so the chart data came through Beatport’s own editorial and mirror sites. Drum&BassArena, the scene’s own awards and news site for thirty years, is gone. The domain is literally for sale. There has been no Drum&BassArena Awards since 2023, which makes answering “who’s the best” harder than it used to be. And DJ Mag’s Top 100, as with every genre in this series, is useless here: not one drum and bass act in the top 100 in 2025 or 2026. Chase & Status came closest at 119.

Short answer: the old guard still own the biggest records and the biggest rooms, the newcomers own the Beatport chart, and the single hottest name in the genre is a jungle producer who’s up for the Mercury Prize. Long answer, with a lot of tunes, below.

The scoreboard

Beatport’s own year-end report for 2025 is the cleanest data I could get. Here are the best-selling drum and bass artists of the year:

  1. Bou
  2. Sub Focus
  3. Kanine
  4. Culture Shock
  5. Grafix
  6. Break
  7. Waeys
  8. A.M.C
  9. Pirapus
  10. ROVA

Look at number ten. ROVA, from Christchurch, finished tenth in the world on the chart that DJs actually buy from, and “Hijack” with 1991 was the seventh best-selling track. We’ll come back to that.

The top of the artists list is a genuine newcomer, Bou, who’s been releasing since the late 2010s and broke through on the jump-up wave. But look at the tracks: Sub Focus had four of the top ten, including number one with “On & On”, and his remix of Morgan Seatree at three. Kanine’s “Feel The Vibration” was two. Culture Shock’s “Empire” was eight.

The labels tell the strangest story. Number one was Jungle Cakes, a ragga-jungle and jump-up label, for the second year running. Number three was Gossip, which is Bou’s own label. Number four was UKF, which is a YouTube channel. Number five was Positiva, which is a major. Hospital, the thirty-year institution, was seventh. The media brands are the labels now.



The old guard, and what they did with the year

Chase & Status

The biggest act in the genre, and in 2026 they behaved like it. Generic Everything came out in October on Warner, ten tracks with Little Simz, Skrillex, J Hus, Giggs and D Double E. The Skrillex collaboration is the clearest handshake between US bass and UK drum and bass I found all year. They headlined the Reading and Leeds main stage in August, headlined Let It Roll, played Silverstone, and have an arena tour booked for spring 2027 that ends with two nights at The O2. Every physical edition of the album sold out before release. Will Kennard got an MBE. They are, by some distance, the pop end of the genre, and they’ve been clear for years that DnB can become pop without ceasing to be DnB.



Sub Focus and WORSHIP

Beatport’s number two artist, four of the year’s top ten tracks, a new album in Contact that went top ten in the UK. But the story is America. WORSHIP, the Sub Focus, Dimension, Culture Shock and 1991 project, became the first drum and bass act to headline Red Rocks, sold it out, and then Sub Focus went back and became the first solo DnB artist to headline it too. In 2026 they played Coachella and Ultra and then did something nobody in this genre has done: a North American arena tour. The Kia Forum in LA, the PNE Forum in Vancouver, two nights at an arena in Denver, Bill Graham in San Francisco. Resident Advisor made a documentary about why drum and bass is booming in America and put Sub Focus on the cover of it.





Andy C

Still the DJ’s DJ. He made his Boiler Room debut in 2025, which is a strange sentence to write about someone who’s been the best drum and bass DJ in the world for thirty years. He took his ALiVe show to HARD Summer in LA in August, the first time it’s been exported, with DC and Denver dates either side. He’s headlining Hospitality On The Beach, Northern Bass this New Year with Tonn Piper, and most of the festival circuit in between.



Pendulum

Fifteen years without an album, then Inertia in August 2025, top ten in the UK. An Australian arena run in March, Pendulum Live headlining Let It Roll. They came back as a rock band that plays drum and bass, which is what they always were, and it worked.



Goldie, Roni Size, LTJ Bukem

The originators are all working. Goldie put out Alpha Omega as Rufige Kru in 2025, then “Metal Giants” and “Jungle Daze” in 2026, and did a label deal that gives Metalheadz global distribution and a publishing arm after thirty years. Roni Size and LTJ Bukem toured as a double headline with Dynamite MC and sold out Bristol. Roni’s “History of Jungle” at Outernet in November sold out too. Bukem’s still mixing like it’s 1996, which is a compliment.





Wilkinson, Netsky, Dimension, Camo & Krooked, Hybrid Minds, Metrik, Calibre

Wilkinson’s fifth album Infinity went to two on the UK dance chart and his NIRVA live show filled Alexandra Palace. Netsky is still doing singles with pop vocalists and playing Rhythm & Vines for the eighth time. Dimension’s “Ghost Town” with Subsonic went to one on the Beatport hype chart in August and he’s now remixing Darude. Camo & Krooked did a full Red Bull Symphonic with an orchestra that’s past a million views. Hybrid Minds, Metrik and A.M.C all headlined Hospitality On The Beach for the label’s thirtieth. Calibre made a singer-songwriter record, because of course he did, and plays the Roundhouse in November.





Here’s the thing about the veterans in 2026: they’re not fading. They’re professionalising. Metalheadz got a distribution deal. Hospital got a Forza Horizon soundtrack. Vision did a twenty-year compilation, Eatbrain did fifteen, Dispatch did twenty-five. The institutions are monetising their birthdays and they’re good at it.

The newcomers

Nia Archives

The clearest case, and the name that came up in every single source. Her second album, Emotional Junglist, went to number one on the UK dance chart in July and made the 2026 Mercury Prize shortlist, the second jungle record to be shortlisted in three years. She headlined All Points East. She launched her own label, Up Ya Archives, with a weekly NTS show. Her world tour ends at Alexandra Palace in late November, her biggest headline show ever, then Melbourne and Sydney in January. Clash called her “spearheading the new wave of 21st century junglism”, and PinkPantheress, who won Brit Producer of the Year, has her on remix duty. If there’s one person in this genre the critics and the industry have both decided is the future, it’s her.



Bou

Beatport’s number one selling drum and bass artist of 2025. Over a million monthly listeners on Spotify. A UK top-thirty single with Aitch. His Wrong Crowd EP in September on his own label, Gossip, which was Beatport’s number three label of the year. And the booking that says the most: Bou back-to-back Hedex at Warehouse Project in October, billed as the only drum and bass show in the whole of WHP’s twentieth anniversary season. Nia is the critics’ future. Bou is the ravers’ present.



Hedex

The live-brand case. MHITR: The Album in October 2025. Then he did something I didn’t see coming: his own arena shows in New Zealand. Wolfbrook Arena in Christchurch and Trusts Stadium in Auckland on consecutive nights this November, then Sydney. A jump-up DJ from Birmingham selling out arenas on the other side of the world under his own brand, not on a festival bill. That’s new.



Kanine

Beatport’s number three artist, number two track, and the newcomer who became a headliner. His album Reflections came out on UKF in October after a live show at Exhibition London and a tour that finishes at O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester. He did his first back-to-back with Camo & Krooked at Hospitality Weekender, which is the kind of handshake that tells you the scene has accepted him.



Sota

Best Newcomer at the last Drum&BassArena Awards that ever happened, in 2023. “Poison” came out in September. And he’s announced his own show at OVO Arena Wembley for January 2027. A jump-up act headlining Wembley Arena. Read that twice.



K Motionz, goddard., Turno

K Motionz is on Positiva doing crossover singles and sold out UKF’s Bristol show. goddard. is the name the trade press keeps using for the generation that “bridges eras”, songwriting-led and on both DnB Allstars and Warner. Turno put Idris Elba and Beenie Man on a record together, which is the most 2026 sentence in this post.





The jungle revival

Tim Reaper is the backbone of it: a Fabriclive mix, a Pola & Bryson remix on Shogun, four-hour sets, Bang Face sold out. His label Future Retro hit fifty releases, sold out the vinyl, and then announced a pause because one person can’t run a label of that size alone, which tells you something about the economics under the boom. SHERELLE’s debut album With A Vengeance made UKF’s artists of the year. Goldie’s back making jungle. Roni Size is selling out jungle history nights. And Nia’s up for the Mercury. The genre’s roots are the genre’s growth sector.





The tracks of the year, the short version

Ten to play, chosen because they recurred across Beatport’s year-end, UKF’s lists, Digweed-style radio shows (in this case the UKF and Hospital podcasts) and the live chart.

  1. Sub Focus & bbyclose - On & On. Beatport’s number one of 2025.
  2. Nia Archives - Emotional Junglist (album). UK dance number one, Mercury shortlist.
  3. Kanine - Feel The Vibration. Number two of 2025.
  4. Culture Shock - Empire. Number eight of 2025 and the most-heard DnB track in DJ sets.
  5. Chase & Status - Through The Pain ft. Pozer. The album’s lead single.
  6. Dimension & Subsonic - Ghost Town. Hype chart number one, August 2026.
  7. 1991 x ROVA - Hijack. Number seven of 2025, and a Kiwi on it.
  8. Rufige Kru - Alpha Omega. Goldie’s return.
  9. Wilkinson - Eternity ft. Mougleta.
  10. FD - From The Ashes (album, The North Quarter). UKF’s “clear favourite” album of 2025.












And one that’ll age interestingly: Darude’s “Sandstorm” got a Dimension remix in September that did 172,000 views on UKF in two weeks. Nobody asked for it. Everybody played it.



Aotearoa

This is the part I actually care about, so bear with me.

ROVA finishing tenth in the world on Beatport is the headline. “Hijack” was the seventh best-selling track of the year. He put out the Undisputed EP on UKF in 2026, opened for Sub Focus at Ally Pally, and UKF On Air has now filmed sets in both Auckland and Christchurch. He told UKF that NZ crowds are “more crammed, more comparable to a concert” than anything in the UK or Europe, which anyone who’s been to Northern Bass will recognise. Here he is at home:



The Upbeats are at Let It Roll back-to-back with Calyx and on Vision’s twentieth anniversary. Shapeshifter toured Soulstice for its twentieth through theatres, including the Whanganui Opera House, with Pearly supporting, and close Rhythm & Alps. Lee Mvtthews have Northern Bass and a new single. The names the 2026 coverage flagged as next are SLESS, Pearly, Elipsa and Flowidus.

And the traffic into the country this summer is absurd. Rampage’s first ever NZ shows in August, Auckland and Christchurch. Hedex’s arena shows in November. Northern Bass’s fifteenth with Andy C, Break, Culture Shock, S.P.Y, Ivy Lab, Subsonic and Pirapus. Rhythm & Vines with Netsky, 1991, Friction and Luude, and it’s the last one at Waiohika. Rhythm & Alps with Dimension, Flava D and Charli Brix. If you’re a drum and bass fan and you live here, there is no better place to be in December.

Two honest caveats. The “biggest per-capita scene in the world” line gets repeated everywhere, including by me, and nobody has population-adjusted data to back it up. It rests on promoter copy and vibes. And neither Sub Focus nor Wilkinson has an NZ date I could find for 2026. Wilkinson’s last arena run here was 2023.

What’s moving it forward

Arena-scale export. WORSHIP at the Kia Forum. Andy C at HARD. Rampage’s first Oceania tour. Hedex’s own NZ arenas. Sota at Wembley. Let It Roll with 130 international acts and 25,000 people. Promoters now treat drum and bass as a headline product outside the UK, and Resident Advisor made a film about it.

The heritage labels professionalising. Metalheadz’s distribution deal and publishing arm. Hospital’s thirtieth built around a Croatian festival and a video game soundtrack. Vision, Eatbrain, Flexout and Dispatch all monetising anniversaries. The old institutions aren’t fading, they’re turning into businesses.

Artist-owned platforms. Nia’s Up Ya Archives with an NTS show. DnB Allstars and UKF are simultaneously top-ten Beatport labels, YouTube channels with millions of subscribers, and touring brands. Bou’s Gossip is a top-three label. Overview runs a mentorship programme. The media brands are the labels and the labels are the media brands.

Critical legitimacy for jungle. The Mercury shortlist. PinkPantheress as Brit Producer of the Year. Chase & Status pulling Skrillex onto a drum and bass album. The pop money is flowing towards the genre’s roots, not just its jump-up edge.

What’s dragging it

The economics underneath. Future Retro pausing after a sold-out fiftieth release. Blackout advertising for a label manager. Viper’s domain parked. Drum&BassArena gone. JunoDownload shut down in June. The IMS report noting royalties slowing for smaller creators even as the industry hits a record 12.9 billion. The boom is real and the floor under it is thin.

Venue fragility. Drumsheds had its licence under review. Printworks still hasn’t reopened and nobody can say when. Glastonbury was a fallow year, so no Arcadia. Rhythm & Vines is leaving its home after this year. Bay Dreams appears to be dormant.

A measurement vacuum. The only widely-quoted growth stat, Spotify’s 94 percent rise in DnB streams, is two years old and second-hand. The scene’s own awards are gone. Nobody is counting properly.

AI. Bandcamp banned AI-generated music in January. Beatport banned fully AI tracks at ingestion in August with detection software. Both are good for a genre built on human-arranged energy. But both enforce by report and detection with no published threshold, and a sample-heavy genre like jungle sits closest to the grey zone.

And a sad one: Lenzman died in July. One of the finest liquid producers who ever did it.

So, who’s got the flag?

Here’s where I landed.

The old guard still own the biggest records and the biggest rooms. Chase & Status at Reading and The O2. Sub Focus with four of the top ten and an arena tour. Pendulum’s comeback. Andy C and Metrik and A.M.C headlining Hospital’s birthday. Wilkinson filling Ally Pally. On the festival main stages in 2026, it is overwhelmingly veterans, and the single most present name across every chart and set is Sub Focus.

The newcomers own the Beatport chart. Bou at one. Kanine at three. Waeys, Pirapus and ROVA filling the top ten. Andy C, Chase & Status, Pendulum and Goldie don’t appear in it at all. The ravers have already voted with their downloads.

And the scene has split into two economies that need each other. An arena mainstream (Chase & Status, Sub Focus, Nia Archives, Wilkinson, Hedex) and a village underground (Sun & Bass with 150 names and no headliner, Tim Reaper’s four-hour sets, the jungle revival), with the jump-up engine room (Bou, Hedex, K Motionz, Sota, Kanine) in the middle doing the actual numbers. The press refuses the old-versus-new binary and after all this research, so do I. The most interesting people in the genre right now, goddard. being the obvious example, are the ones bridging the eras.

The single most-cited future of the genre is Nia Archives, and I think that’s right: she’s the only artist who shows up on every measure at once, the album chart, the Mercury, the headline bookings, her own label and radio show, and the critical consensus. Bou is the strongest counter-claim from the dancefloor. Hedex is the strongest from the live business. And a kid from Christchurch is in the global top ten.

The old timers are still number one. The flag’s still theirs. But for the first time, they’re sharing the pole.

A note on the data: Beatport and DJ Mag block automated readers, so chart positions came from Beatport’s own editorial and mirror sites, and the monthly Beatport mirrors are alphabetical rather than ranked, so they prove a track was in the top 100 but not where. Drum&BassArena’s site and awards no longer exist. Chart positions were correct in the second week of October 2026. Every embed was checked when I published; if one disappears, search the title.

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