Orawan
BangkokCame up through Bangkok's BassClef parties in 2013 and picked up a Mixmag feature along the way, rare for a scene this size. Tight, no-filler sets for listeners who came specifically for this.
Field Report / 2026 Edition
Thailand DnB Power Ranking: 2026 Edition
I spent three weeks moving between Phuket's island circuit and Bangkok's older, quieter scene to put this together, which is longer than most rankings bother to spend on a country most outlets cover in a single festival dispatch. What I found is a scene mid-transition: a Phuket figurehead holding steady at the top, a Bangkok newcomer closing the gap faster than anyone predicted, and a saxophonist nobody quite knows how to categorise sitting comfortably in third.
Filed from Phuket Town and Sukhumvit, over three weeks. 2026 Edition.
The Short Version
Two Cities, One Ranking
Phuket's drum and bass scene runs loud and runs young, built around District 1's 12,000-watt rig and SUB's tighter two-room nights upstairs at Courage in Phuket Town. It's the version of Thai drum and bass most visitors encounter, half tourist economy, half genuine scene, and the two halves feed each other more than either side likes to admit.
Bangkok's version predates it by the better part of a decade. Dubway Sessions was running in 2008, Phatfunk followed in 2010 and never stopped, and the capital's scene has built the kind of institutional memory that comes from playing for people who came specifically for the music rather than a night out. This ranking pulls from both cities, weighted by who's actually shaping where the sound goes next, not by which city shouts louder.
"The rig doesn't care about your following. It cares whether you understood the room before you touched the mixer."
The Power Ranking
04 / Orawan
05 / DJ Dragon
06 / TNTKLZ
07 / Azek
08 / Delorean
09 / Instinct
10 / JNGL Phuket
11 / Commix
Eleven Names, Full Report
01
LINDZ
Figurehead / SUB PhuketTimeout didn't hedge when it called LINDZ Thailand's figurehead for this sound, and three weeks of watching this scene up close didn't turn up a serious challenger to that title. First appearance in Phuket came through SUB's doors, upstairs at Courage in Phuket Town, and the sets have carried the same quality since: steady, unhurried, built with a sense that every transition was mapped out days in advance rather than felt out under the lights. I watched a room full of people who'd clearly seen LINDZ play a dozen times before still lean in for the same moments, which tells you something a press release never could.
What strikes me most is how the reputation has held under scrutiny that would expose a lesser talent. Every newer DJ on Thailand's circuit gets measured against LINDZ, usually without being asked whether they want the comparison, and none of them have closed the gap yet. That's not stagnation on LINDZ's part. It's just a genuinely high bar, set early and defended consistently ever since.
02
Kamiko
Bangkok / RisingIf this ranking had run twelve months ago, Kamiko wouldn't have cracked the top five. That's how fast 2025 moved for her. The 808 Festival appearances late that year turned into the sets people in Bangkok's scene brought up unprompted, precision-built, low end controlled rather than overwhelming, transitions clean enough that a packed room stopped checking phones. Then came Chalong: a local support slot at DnB Allstars Thailand 2026, sharing a bill with UK headliners DJ Hybrid and Jappa, a booking that in a scene this size reads as institutional validation rather than a favour extended to a local name.
She's since appeared on District 1 lineups alongside those same UK names, and by every account I gathered on the island, the sets didn't read as someone still adjusting to a bigger stage. Bangkok's had a drum and bass scene running quietly since 2008. Kamiko is the loudest, fastest-moving proof yet that it's still generating names worth crossing the country for, and at the rate she's closing the gap on the top spot, next year's edition of this ranking might read very differently.
03
Erick Trodly
Producer / Live Sax / PhuketEvery scene has one artist that outside coverage struggles to categorise correctly, and in Thailand's case it's Erick Trodly. He's the only drum and bass DJ in the country playing live alto saxophone over his sets, not sampled, not triggered, actually played, live, over rolling breakbeats, at District 1 sessions and at SUB alongside MC Delirious working the mic between him and the desk. I watched two different rooms go quiet at the exact same moment in his set, both times right as the horn cut through the low end, which is not a reaction you can manufacture with production tricks alone.
The studio work backs the live show up rather than existing separately from it: a "Secret Smile" bootleg rework done with Impish for Celsius Recordings, the collaborative "Be Around", and a Burning Series Podcast appearance walking through how he structures a set. None of that explains the horn, though. You have to hear it live, and once you have, the ranking makes itself.
DJ Dragon
Dubway FounderFounded Dubway Sessions in 2008, one of the first Thai names in the genre and arguably the reason Bangkok had a scene before Phuket's tourist-driven circuit existed at all.
TNTKLZ
NeurofunkDeals in the mechanical low-end precision of neurofunk, a style that rewards a proper rig and punishes a bad one. SUB's system does it justice more nights than not.
Azek
Phatfunk ResidentFrench resident at Bangkok's Phatfunk since 2010's founding era, co-runs Kontraband with Delorean since 2015. Keeps the capital's scene resident-driven rather than headliner-dependent.
Delorean
Phatfunk ResidentUK-born Phatfunk resident alongside Azek, also behind Kontraband. Reliable in a scene where reliability tends to get undervalued in favour of flashier headline slots.
Instinct
Phatfunk ResidentThe third Phatfunk resident on this list, which says something about how much weight that single monthly Bangkok night carries across the capital's scene.
JNGL Phuket
Island CrewLess a single artist than an island crew, a name attached to a night rather than one person's ego. A quiet Phuket institution at this point, which suits the island's slower-burning corners.
Commix
International Guest / PhatfunkNot a Thailand resident, but Commix's appearances at Bangkok's Phatfunk have become the kind of booking the scene points to as proof it can pull genuinely international names, not just circulate the same local rotation.
On The Island
Phuket, After Dark
District 1 leans hard into its 12,000-watt rig, and the crowd it draws is exactly what you'd expect from a system that size: a mix of long-term expats who've been coming for years and tourists who wandered in off Bangla Road and stayed until close. The venues rotate, London Bar, Kyma Beach Club, Fly'O Patong, Ozy Club, but the throughline is volume as identity, the bass arriving a half-second before the drop like a warning shot.
SUB runs the opposite philosophy in the same city. Upstairs at Courage in Phuket Town, across two smaller rooms, with an MC, usually Delirious, working the crowd between tracks rather than letting the system do all the talking. I left both kinds of nights at hours I won't print here, and went back the following week regardless. That contradiction, loud enough to lose yourself in, small enough to still recognise faces, is the whole pitch for Phuket's scene right now.
The Capital
Bangkok, Quietly
Bangkok doesn't sell itself as a drum and bass city the way Phuket increasingly does, and that's precisely why the scene has aged better. Dubway Sessions launched in 2008 under DJ Dragon, laying groundwork years before the current wave of island nights existed. Phatfunk followed in 2010 and became the closest thing the capital has to an institution, still resident-driven, still pulling in genuinely international guests like Commix rather than relying on the same three local names indefinitely.
Jungle Jam BKK arrived in 2020, newer blood, proof the city keeps generating fresh nights instead of coasting on legacy parties. What Bangkok has that Phuket is still building is depth: enough history that a scene like this doesn't collapse if one venue closes or one promoter loses interest. Kamiko's rise out of this environment isn't an accident. It's what happens when a decade-plus of infrastructure finally produces someone ready to travel with it.
Questions
FAQ
Who tops Thailand's 2026 drum and bass power ranking?
LINDZ, the DJ Timeout magazine already called Thailand's figurehead for the sound, first through the doors at SUB in Phuket. Bangkok's Kamiko sits second after a dominant run through the 808 Festival and a support slot at DnB Allstars Thailand. Erick Trodly, the only Thai drum and bass DJ playing live alto saxophone over his sets, completes the top three.
Is Phuket or Bangkok the bigger drum and bass city in Thailand?
Bangkok has the longer history, running since Dubway Sessions launched in 2008, while Phuket's scene is younger and louder, built around District 1's 12,000-watt rig and drawing heavily on tourist footfall. Neither city is objectively bigger; they simply run on different logic, one built for visitors passing through, one built for a scene that was never trying to be seen.
What is SUB in Phuket?
A two-room drum and bass and UK garage night run at Courage in Phuket Town, smaller and tighter than District 1's island-wide rig, with an MC, usually Delirious, working the crowd between tracks. It's where LINDZ first played in Phuket and where residents like TNTKLZ and F-WORD regularly appear.
Who has played live saxophone at a Thailand drum and bass show?
Erick Trodly, and as far as documented sets go, only him. He plays live alto sax over rolling breakbeats rather than sampling the part in, a combination genuinely rare anywhere in drum and bass, with production credits on Celsius Recordings backing up the live show.