Artist
Martin Garrix
Why we feature this artist From the instrumental drop to the shared song Martin Garrix’s early breakthrough made a striking point without a sung chorus. Animals uses a recognisable instrumental figure and a carefully prepared drop to hold the centre. The later…
- From
- Netherlands
- Sound
- electronic dance music, electro house, Dutch house, deep house
- Active
- 2012–present
Start with the music
Tracks to explore
The artist, in context
The story of Martin Garrix
Why we feature this artist
From the instrumental drop to the shared song
Martin Garrix’s early breakthrough made a striking point without a sung chorus. Animals uses a recognisable instrumental figure and a carefully prepared drop to hold the centre. The later vocal collaborations take another route, giving a singer’s melodic and emotional character a larger role. Both approaches remain important to the Dutch producer’s catalogue.
Animals makes space part of the hook
Released in 2013, Animals became a defining early recording. Its drop is unusually economical, with the rhythmic pattern doing much of the work that a more elaborate melody might otherwise supply. The build creates the expectation of a large release, then the track answers with a deliberately spare figure. That relationship between anticipation and a clearly marked arrival is central to its effect.
The early club records establish Garrix as a producer working through instrumental shape and timing. A hook does not have to be a line someone sings; it can be a sound whose place in the arrangement makes it immediately recognisable.
The voice becomes a writing partner
In the Name of Love with Bebe Rexha in 2016 gives the song another centre. A quieter guitar-led opening allows the vocal to establish its character before the heavier electronic passage arrives. The performance is a shared recording, with Rexha’s contribution essential to the melodic identity. Sentio in 2022 returns the album frame towards club material, including collaborations such as If We’ll Ever Be Remembered with Shaun Farrugia. Garrix described the project in terms of music made for the return to live gatherings after lockdowns. The album therefore has a particular purpose within the wider catalogue. It gathers the more forceful instrumental instincts alongside songs that retain a recognisable vocal lead, making the connection between the production booth, the stage and the collaborative writing session unusually clear.
Essential releases
Animals
The instrumental breakthrough turns a spare rhythmic figure into a hook, with the build and drop supplying the track’s dramatic structure.
In the Name of Love — with Bebe Rexha
Rexha’s vocal and the quieter opening give the collaboration a song-led identity before the heavier electronic arrangement arrives.
Sentio
The club-oriented album gathers several collaborators into a project shaped around the return of large live gatherings and the producer’s more forceful dance sound.