Ultrabeat

In the early 2000s, UK’s Ultrabeat scored a handful of bouncy Eurodance hits that influenced the poppier strains of trance and EDM in the following decade. Mike Di Scala, Chris Henry and Ian Redman were all friends who had come up in Liverpool’s happy-hardcore scene in the ‘90s; they formed Ultrabeat in 2002 and released their debut single—a cover of happycore duo Force & Styles’ 1997 song “Pretty Green Eyes”—the following year. Despite the song’s rave roots, it went all the way to No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart. That track laid out the essentials of the group’s sound going forward: bouncy synth chords, quick-stepping tempos, and soaring toplines. Ultrabeat released their debut album, Ultrabeat The Album, in 2007, and they’ve kept new material coming in the years since, including 2010’s Daft Punk-influenced “Bring It Back” and 2012’s big-room trance ballad “Rain Stops”, a larger-than-life fusion of supersaw synths and rushing snare rolls.