Indie Tech: A New Genre or a Name for What Was Already Happening?

Beatport has just added Indie Tech as an official genre, with its own category and Top 100. The news has generated quite a bit of conversation, although many people probably had the same reaction when listening to the first tracks included: this sound was already there. It just didn't have a particularly clear place.

Over the past few years, Indie Dance had become a very broad genre. Within the same category, you could find productions closer to disco, electro or new wave alongside much more powerful tracks, with huge basslines and structures clearly designed for the club. That second group is what Beatport is now trying to organise under the name Indie Tech.

What Do We Mean by Indie Tech? I don't think it makes much sense to try to define it through BPM or a fixed list of elements. In fact, one of the interesting things about the genre right now is precisely that it doesn't have particularly clear rules yet. But there is a common thread.

Indie Tech retains much of the personality of Indie Dance — synthesisers, vocals, retro sounds, sequences and a certain freedom in production — but with a more direct club structure.

There is more punch, more groove and, above all, much more emphasis on the bass.

In many tracks, the bassline practically builds the entire track. The rest of the elements appear around it without the need for the typical huge breakdown or a massive melody to maintain interest. That is also where it starts getting closer to Tech House and Techno, without completely belonging to either of them. The Artists and Labels Explain the Genre Better. Probably the easiest way to understand Indie Tech is to look at who is included.

Among the artists that Beatport associates with the category are names such as Adam Ten, Mita Gami, Rafael, Yamagucci, Vintage Culture, Oliver Koletzki, Max Styler, HIGHLITE, Christian Nielsen and Pavel Petrov. The same applies to the labels: Maccabi House, Diynamic, Stil Vor Talent, Get Physical, When Stars Align, Higher Ground, Nu Moda, Club Sweat and Abracadabra Music are all linked to this new space. And that's where the movement becomes much easier to understand.

We're not talking about artists who have suddenly started making Indie Tech. Many of them have spent years moving between Indie Dance, House, Tech House and more melodic sounds. And if we also look at what is currently entering the category, we find labels such as Rekids, Innervisions, Crosstown Rebels and Defected alongside some of the names mentioned above.

In other words, scenes that were already very close are now starting to share a category as well. The Problem Was Indie Dance For me, Indie Tech makes sense mainly because Indie Dance had become too broad. When a category encompasses too many different sounds, it eventually becomes difficult to use it even for something as basic as finding music.

There were tracks that were too tech for Indie Dance, too indie for Tech House and that didn't quite fit into Melodic House & Techno either. That middle ground had been growing for some time. Beatport didn't invent that sound. It simply decided to separate it and give it a name. And for DJs, that can be quite useful. Now Comes the Dangerous Part The problem will come if Indie Tech works too well. Because we already know what happens when a genre starts growing: clear references emerge, certain sounds begin to work and shortly afterwards hundreds of productions arrive trying to reproduce exactly the same formula. It happened with Melodic Techno. It has happened with Tech House and Indie Dance. It will probably happen here too.

In a few months, we'll have a much clearer idea of what an Indie Tech track is supposed to sound like. Presets, sample packs and productions built specifically to fit into the category will appear. And that's when we'll really see whether it can develop an interesting identity or simply become another label.

Did We Need Another Genre? I think we did, although not because we need to keep accumulating names. We needed it because there was music that didn't quite have a place. For artists and labels, it can help position certain releases more effectively. For DJs, it means having another way to discover music. And for Beatport, it means organising a catalogue that had started mixing too many things together under Indie Dance. What I don't think makes much sense is going into the studio now thinking: "I'm going to make an Indie Tech track." I'd rather see it the other way around. Let producers continue mixing influences, getting genres wrong and making tracks that are difficult to classify. And let the categories try to catch up with us afterwards.