New Uptempo Hardcore Releases

Uptempo hardcore (usually just “uptempo”) is the fastest-growing extreme of hard dance: hardcore accelerated past 200 BPM, with overdriven, mid-forward kicks that dominate the entire frequency spectrum, harsh screeches and next to no melody. It is deliberately too much, and that is exactly the point. Uptempo vs hardcore marks exactly where one ends and the other begins.

Born on the B-sides

Uptempo’s origin story belongs to Partyraiser, the Dutch DJ who made a signature of playing the faster, rougher B-sides of hardcore records, pitched up and sped up further still. During the early 2010s that DJ habit solidified into a production style of its own, and “uptempo” became the accepted name for hardcore that starts where the mainstream ends. What began as an underground in-joke grew, within a decade, into sold-out events and dedicated festival stages across the hardcore world.

The sound: kicks over everything

Uptempo production is an arms race in kick design. The kicks are overdriven until they carry the whole track, hitting relentlessly at 200+ BPM, decorated with terse vocal chops, horror-film samples and dissonant stabs rather than melodies. Around 2019, artists like The Dark Horror began experimenting with the formula (different pitches, punchless and lower-frequency kicks, even slower passages), keeping a deliberately extreme genre creatively restless. Past uptempo’s upper limits lies speedcore, the only place left to go faster.

The scene today

Alongside Partyraiser and The Dark Horror, the current wave is carried by Deadly Guns, Spitnoise and GPF, with a steady stream of new producers arriving. Uptempo’s release volume is among the highest in hard dance, which makes a daily radar genuinely useful. The genre also trades ideas freely with frenchcore, its 200 BPM neighbour with a bouncier, more melodic temperament. Its fastest-growing offshoot is Deutscher Krach, the euphoric German-language wave founded by Noiseflow in 2023, which swaps uptempo’s darkness for big melodies and party humour.

Where to hear new uptempo first

The Uptempo Release Radar collects every notable new uptempo release on Spotify daily. Every individual release we track is listed above, the day it drops.