With unbridled sampling, chiseled 808s, and a scholared IQ for both modern and vintage hip-hop, BadKidsGoodPeople is Headnod’s resident phonk producer. Beyond the boyish charm of Chris Marks lives a hip-hop junkie raised on the hardcore cuts of Gang Starr and A Tribe Called Quest. When it comes to live sets, BadKidsGoodPeople is just as likely to drop the Memphis-based bars of Three 6 Mafia in the same fell swoop as some Japanese city pop. Don’t let Marks’ warm smile fool you as his beats are colder than a Blastoise Ice Beam.

The unexplainable fathoms of crawdad sniper’s otherworldly sonic theories are something we toy with on a regular basis. We listen to his tracks daily, both new and old, yet still have a hard time predicting what he’s going to hit us with next. Growing up in Boston, crawdad's first dose of electronic music was a potent one with the stylings of Gorillaz, XXYYXX, and Daft Punk hitting him square in the jaw at a time when his musical curiosities were surging. Since then, crawdad sniper has drawn upon influences that include everything from alternative rock and 90s hip-hop to some of the most exotic and gritty sectors of left-field bass. While his sound design may be precisely executed, his live sets are wild and unpredictable. When you come face-to-face with a crawdad sniper-controlled sound system, our best advice is to hold on tight.

Pushing forward the DMV bass scene in more ways than one, Ellicott City’s gNat has created a steady buzz surrounding his project since its inception in 2015. Having touched down in the realms of psybass, neuro, and various subgenres of low-end bass music, gNat has yet to establish a hive in one category or another. This keeps listeners on their toes with past supporting slots for names like Omnist, Seppa, VCTRE, pheel., and more all providing real-time proof of the Maryland native’s rising talents.

Starting out as a casual producer who just made beats for him and his friends to party to, the journey of the Retchs’ project is one through various styles, influences, and eras of electronic music. Following one fateful night at a Cookie Monsta show in 2013, Zac Stergiou dove headfirst into this branch of “weird computer music” in an attempt to understand these odd frequencies that stimulated his curiosity and possessed his thoughts. Through exploration of collectives like Hench Records, Styx Recordings, Soulection, and artists like Tek.Lun, Tsuruda, and more, Retchs’ sonic ethos would soon develop into the eclectic style he now wields. Today, the Baltimore-based DJ and producer has found himself in a state of mind that prefers the more minimal and ambient side of electronic music. As he continues to explore these roots more deeply, expect the Retchs’ project to grow and evolve right alongside it.

Brimming with influences both foreign and domestic, Shreztah is an artist who experiments with elements and textures from all across the board. Although his aural palette leans more in the direction of old-school breaks, jungle, and techno, he has been known to venture into the realms of low-frequency bass design as well. Time traveling escapades are what you can expect out of a Shreztah set with performances that incorporate sounds from 90’s industrial warehouse raves to the more modern peripheries of new school bass music. Approaching all of his creative pursuits with the fervent embodiment of a music lover, the Shreztah project is an ever-evolving amalgam that continues to leave an impression inside and outside the DMV scene.