TuneLab
DJ LOVE | a masterclass in Budots
Keep Hush Live Davao
DJ LOVE's Budots masterclass at Keep Hush Davao is the most joyful, chaotic, and technically bewildering set we've heard in ages. Budots is a Philippine dance music phenomenon that combines syncopated kicks, pitched-up vocals, and a sense of humour that makes most European DJs look like they're giving a TED talk. The BPM jumps from 102 to 150, averaging 139.1, but the key is almost entirely 12A—a constant anchor in a sea of tempo madness.
The energy is low-heavy (0.64), but the mids are where the Budots magic lives: those stuttering vocal chops and off-kilter hi-hats that make you want to dance like nobody's watching (and everyone is). Opening with Above & Beyond's 'Satellite'—a trance classic—is a bait-and-switch that lulls us into a false sense of calm before the Budots assault begins. The crate-digger moments are everywhere: DJKE's 'Die Ritch (Kasper Remix)' is a hardstyle-tinged banger that should not work at 140 BPM but absolutely does; frost and flame's 'Tiktok dj's beat' is exactly what it sounds like, a meme-turned-club-weapon that we can't help but love; and The Highlander's 'Emotional Overload (Allan McLoud Remix)' is pure, unapologetic cheese.
But the real highlight is Peggy Gou's '(It Goes Like) Nanana' remix—a track that has been rinsed to death everywhere, but in the Budots context it becomes fresh again, chopped and screwed into something new. The journey is a rollercoaster: from the trance opener, through the peak-time Budots madness (the DJ Dbest closer 'Sige Tara Budots' is a mission statement), and a brief respite with Naughty Boy & Sam Smith's 'La La La'—which, yes, we are embarrassed to admit we enjoyed. This is the most fun we've had in ages, and we're not sorry.