Hardwell and W&W have reunited for Turn Up The Bass, a high-energy new single that deliberately reconnects with the golden era of big room house. Released through Hardwell’s Revealed Recordings, the 145 BPM festival weapon arrives nearly 13 years after the pair helped define the sound of early-2010s EDM with Jumper.
Hardwell And W&W Reignite Their Big Room Chemistry
Some collaborations feel nostalgic before the first drop even arrives. Turn Up The Bass is one of them.
Hardwell and W&W have returned to the studio with a track that embraces the oversized synths, driving rhythm, and crowd-focused hooks that made their earlier productions so influential. Instead of attempting to disguise its roots, the new single puts them front and center.
The result is a record built for the festival environment. At 145 BPM, Turn Up The Bass moves at a rapid pace, yet its central idea remains remarkably simple: create a huge electronic hook that a crowd can immediately recognize and respond to.
That simplicity is part of the appeal. There is no need for an elaborate vocal narrative when the production itself is designed to trigger a collective reaction.
Turn Up The Bass Looks Back To The Big Room Era
The timing of the collaboration is significant. Hardwell and W&W’s Jumper became one of the defining records associated with the big room explosion of the early 2010s, a period when festival stages increasingly favored enormous drops and instantly recognizable melodies.
That era helped push big room house from the festival circuit into the mainstream EDM conversation. Producers embraced huge synth leads, dramatic breakdowns, pounding kicks, and arrangements designed to create maximum impact when thousands of people experienced them together.
Turn Up The Bass draws from that same musical vocabulary.
Why Turn Up The Bass Feels So Familiar
The track’s appeal comes largely from its call-and-response structure. Its synth melody provides the hook, leaving enough space for festival audiences to effectively become part of the performance.
That approach has long been central to Hardwell and W&W’s live sound. Their biggest records were never solely about what happened inside a pair of headphones. They were designed for moments when a DJ could raise the tension, unleash the drop, and watch an entire crowd react simultaneously.
For longtime fans, Turn Up The Bass taps directly into that memory. For newer listeners, it offers a modern production built around a style that helped shape contemporary festival EDM.
Hardwell And W&W Return At The Right Moment
The reunion also arrives during an unexpected revival of interest in big room house.
Research published in early 2025 by MIDiA and Splice pointed to renewed activity around the genre, with downloads of big room house samples increasing by an average of 188.9% annually during the preceding two years. More than 5.3 million such downloads were recorded in 2024.
Those figures suggest that the sounds associated with the big room era have not disappeared. Instead, producers are once again exploring the genre’s distinctive production techniques and festival-ready energy.
That makes the arrival of Turn Up The Bass particularly timely. Hardwell and W&W are not simply revisiting their past. They are returning to a sound that appears to be finding a new audience.
A Festival Track Built For Maximum Impact
At 145 BPM, the new collaboration is unapologetically energetic. Its tempo alone places it firmly in the high-intensity end of the EDM spectrum, while the production focuses on momentum rather than subtlety.
That makes Turn Up The Bass especially suited to peak-time festival sets. The track has the kind of straightforward rhythmic foundation that allows DJs to build transitions around it, while its main melody provides the instant payoff audiences expect from a major festival anthem.
There is also something refreshing about the track’s lack of hesitation. Rather than softening the genre’s defining characteristics to appeal to listeners outside the big room community, Hardwell and W&W commit to them.
For fans who never connected with big room house, that may not change their minds. However, for listeners who remember the genre’s peak, the collaboration offers an unmistakable dose of nostalgia without pretending to be something else.
Revealed Recordings Remains Central To Hardwell’s Sound
The release also carries significance because it arrives through Revealed Recordings, Hardwell’s influential label.
Since its establishment, the imprint has played an important role in the development and distribution of festival-oriented electronic music. Its association with Hardwell makes it a natural home for a collaboration that draws so heavily from the sound that defined his career.
The label connection also reinforces the track’s sense of continuity. Turn Up The Bass may look backward musically, but its release strategy places that nostalgia within the current EDM landscape.
Why The Collaboration Matters In 2026
Electronic music constantly moves between innovation and rediscovery. Sounds that once dominated festival stages can eventually become unfashionable, only to return years later through a new generation of producers and listeners.
Big room house is now experiencing precisely that kind of reassessment.
Hardwell and W&W are uniquely positioned to participate in the conversation because they were not observers of the original movement. They were among the artists who helped establish its identity in the first place.
Their return therefore carries more weight than a typical throwback release. It connects the current resurgence with two producers who understand the genre’s mechanics, performance demands, and cultural significance from firsthand experience.
Turn Up The Bass Keeps The Big Room Spirit Alive
Hardwell and W&W’s Turn Up The Bass is ultimately a celebration of a sound that refuses to stay in the past. Its 145 BPM pace, commanding synth work, and crowd-ready structure deliberately recall the festival culture that surrounded big room house more than a decade ago.
Yet the timing gives the release a contemporary purpose. As producers and listeners rediscover the genre, Hardwell and W&W have returned with a track that understands exactly why those sounds worked in the first place.
For longtime EDM fans, Turn Up The Bass offers a direct connection to the festival era that helped define a generation. For newer listeners, it provides a snapshot of the big room formula from two of the artists who helped make it iconic.
Either way, the message is clear: big room is back, and Hardwell and W&W are ready to turn up the bass.
Comments are closed.