Bass House developed during the 2010s at the meeting point between house music and bass-heavy styles including UK garage, bassline, electro house and dubstep. Its foundations also drew on the louder fidget house productions of artists such as Switch, Sinden, Jack Beats and AC Slater from the previous decade.
The genre kept house music's four-to-the-floor rhythm while pushing distorted basslines, sharp synthesisers and sudden shifts in energy further to the front. Tracks commonly use garage-influenced percussion, dubstep-style sound design and short vocal samples, arranged for clubs and festivals.
AC Slater helped establish the American Bass House scene through Night Bass, a club night launched in Los Angeles in 2014. Night Bass became a record label in 2015, connecting American audiences with UK garage, grime, bassline, rave and bass-focused house music.
Artists including Jauz, Chris Lorenzo, Joyryde, Habstrakt, Holy Goof and Wax Motif each brought their own interpretation of the style to wider audiences. Their productions linked underground British bass influences with the bigger stages and production techniques of international electronic dance music.
Bass House now covers a broad range, from garage-influenced club tracks through to heavier productions overlapping with electro house and dubstep. Its central features stay constant: a steady house pulse, prominent low frequencies and bass used as the main melodic and rhythmic focus.
At Scientific Sound Asia, bass house is a defining feature of two shows: Play It Loud and Foundations.