2-Step

What it is

2-step is UK garage with the four to the floor taken out, and it is the most structurally interesting thing in this family. Around 1997 producers started dropping the kicks on beats 2 and 4 so the snare had those beats to itself, then putting the remaining kicks in the gaps: the and of 2, the a of 3, wherever the bassline wanted a hole. The result skips rather than marches. It made the charts for about three years through Artful Dodger, MJ Cole and Craig David, then turned darker and fed directly into grime and dubstep. Its programming is still audible in most British dance music made since.

What it sounds like

Skittish. The kick turns up in places the ear does not expect, the snare on 2 and 4 is the only fixed point in the bar, and the hats shuffle hard enough that the sixteenths read almost as triplets. Underneath, a sub that moves with the kick and goes silent when the kick does. Above, either a full sung vocal or chopped syllables. Strings and Rhodes chords are common and are usually the only harmonic content. The whole thing feels light because the low end is intermittent rather than constant.

Key elements

• No kick on 2 and 4The snare owns those beats entirely. This one decision is what makes a record 2-step rather than garage, and everything else follows from it.
• Kicks in the gapsBeat 1, the and of 2, the a of 3, and wherever else the bassline needs one. The pattern changes from bar to bar, and it should.
• Snare with ghostsThe fixed points on 2 and 4, with sixteenth ghosts between velocity 40 and 52 chasing them through the second bar.
• Shuffled sixteenth hatsSwing at 0.65, hats on the e and the a and never on the beat, so the pulse comes entirely from the snare and the listener has to hold the rest.
• A sub that follows the kickBass notes land with the kicks, in the gaps, so the low end is a rhythm part rather than a floor to stand on.

How to get them

• Write the kick and snare togetherSnare on 2 and 4 first, then find kicks that avoid them. If a kick lands on beat 2 or beat 4 you have written garage instead.
• Swing at 0.65Higher than anything else in this family. Program the hats after setting it, and expect the e to sound very late when you solo it.
• SnareBright and short. Layer a rimshot underneath for the ghost hits so they still read at velocity 42 in a busy mix.
• SubFollow the kick exactly, with portamento between notes. Where there is no kick there should be no sub, and the gaps are the genre.
• HatsOn the e at 44 and the a at 70 of every beat, never on the downbeat. The absence of a hat on the beat is what makes the pattern float.
• ChordsRhodes or strings, one chord per bar, held all the way through. They are the only thing in the arrangement that stays still.

Reference points

Artful Dodger, MJ Cole, El-B, Groove Chronicles, Zed Bias, and the Locked On and Ghost catalogues. Named as reference points for the sound, not as endorsements.