Surinamese artists had their first brush with worldwide recognition in the ‘90s, after a new trend called “bubbling” was created by a young DJ from Curacao who accidentally played a dancehall track at 45rpm instead of 33⅓. The new style would be pioneered by Dutch Surinamers, inspiring early electronic legend FS Green, who says, “Legends like DJ Chuckie, Afrojack, Sidney Samson, and many others paved the way before me. Chuckie [who would go on to produce for 50 Cent, Kesha and Akon —ed.], in particular was a real OG. In the early 2000s, he was already creating remixes for the legendary kawina band La Rouge and was a pioneer of the bubbling music scene.” The uncle of Nyege Nyege Tapes artist Der Schurmann played in this era, as did the uncle of Prince Pasensi, “who played in a kawina formation from the Southeast in the ’90s. He would bring home their latest CD, and I’d study the drum patterns and breaks obsessively…and of course, the dancers—all these elements were fundamental to my development.”

These formative ingredients—kawina, kaseko, Surinamese jazz, and bubbling—became the tools this new generation has used to transform sounds from a multicultural conglomerate into a modern dancefloor revolution. Producer T.no sums up the attitudes amongst the current wave Dutch Surinamese artists perfectly: “I think we are collectively done with hearing the same rhythms over and over again, so we take matters into our own hands. We create our own spaces where we are free to express our visions, and the crowds are slowly catching up to these waves. It’s that simple: We take space and make waves.”

Since the release of 2021’s ‘Bubbling Inside’ - a collection of Dutch wunderkind Guillermo Schuurman’s most vital early productions, plus a few recent additions - the DJ and producer has been touring incessantly, introducing the wider world to his feet-forward, hybrid style. Rooted in the Netherlands’ Afro-diasporic bubbling sound, it’s an effervescent cocktail of dancehall, electro, EDM and R&B that fizzed to the surface back in the late 1980s, dominating Den Haag’s vibrant club scene in the '90s and '00s. Spurred on by his uncle DJ Chippie, who helped co-found the genre, De Schuurman revitalized the movement in the late '00s, and has been instrumental in bringing bubbling back to the main stage, puzzling out its intersections with trap, techno and beyond.

‘Bubbling Forever’ is another unforgettable arsenal of acidic laser synths, Antillean tambu percussion and swirling vocal snippets, all anchored to an all-important dancehall swing - the backbone of the sound since its earliest days in Den Haag. Like its predecessor, the collection is a wide-reaching set of vintage cuts and twitchy new productions, kicking off with the curled ‘Raw’, an immaculate introduction to De Schuurman’s world: cybernetic electronic swooshes, backed by rattling percussion and the kind of kicks that don’t cut, they bounce. And although it’s relatively hotfooted, De Schuurman’s music is blessed with unexpected lightness, coaxing movement sensually rather than demanding it. On ‘Stylez Two’ for example, fiery screams and breakneck beats are disencumbered by steel drum chimes and cheery whistles, splitting the mood between the sweatbox and the carnival.

But De Schuurman’s greatest talent is his ability to absorb ideas from all across the musical map. ‘Scratchin’ fuses urgent turntablist scrapes with nostalgic 8-bit bleeps, and on ‘Bubbling Meets Kaseko’, he teams up with DJ Electro to blend big-room air horns and wobbly synths with traditional Surinamese melodies and percussion. He even brings bubbling OG DJ Chuckie along on ‘Gangster Sht 2’, flipping rap samples and stuttering ATL trap percussion into a whirlwind peak-time banger. And there even a few moments when De Schuurman takes a breather and turns down the tempo a little: he pulls back on ‘Fucked Up Industrie’, layering tangy lead zaps over a hiccuping Caribbean step, and leads the album out horizontally with ‘Fashion Week’, curving plasticky flutes around piercing woodblock cracks.

Bubbling might be approaching its fourth decade, but with producers like De Schuurman constantly breathing new life into the formula, it’s not about to disappear any time soon. ‘Bubbling Forever’ is some of the most viscous, energetic and original dancefloor material you’re likely to hear this year. Play loud!