Top Drum and Bass DJs in Thailand, 2026

The Ranking at a Glance

If you're skimming, here's the shape of it before the detail. Erick Trodly leads on sax alone, F-WORD and JayBee hold down Phuket's two biggest crews, and the rest spread from Bangkok's earliest pioneers to the neurofunk heads still building the island's future lineups.

1. Erick Trodly, sax over sub bass, District 1 and SUB, Phuket
2. F-WORD, SUB's two-room architect, Courage, Phuket Town
3. JayBee, District 1's 12,000-watt rig, rotating venues
4. LINDZ, Thailand's drum and bass figurehead
5. Orawan, Bangkok, BassClef founder, Mixmag-featured
6. JNGL Phuket, island crew building its own nights
7. Instinct, Phatfunk resident, UK transplant
8. DJ Dragon, Dubway Sessions founder, 2008 pioneer
9. TNTKLZ, neurofunk specialist, SUB regular

Inside a SUB Night at Courage

Courage in Phuket Town doesn't look like much from outside, a narrow entrance, a queue that spills onto the pavement by eleven. Inside, SUB splits the venue into two rooms connected by a corridor thick enough with bass bleed that you feel the second room before you see it. The main room runs the heavier program, MCs working the crowd between tracks, the kind of low end that makes the ice in your drink visibly shudder on the table. Sweat drips off the low ceiling by 1am, condensation more than anything, and the crowd packs close enough that you dance shoulder to shoulder whether you meant to or not. The second room breathes easier, still bass heavy but built for recovery, somewhere to talk without shouting before you go back in. I've left SUB with my ears ringing more nights than I can count and gone back the following week anyway, because the rooms reset themselves, different DJs, same pressure, same sense that the whole building is one speaker cabinet with people dancing inside it.

The Full 2026 Ranking

01

Currently #1

Erick Trodly

There's a specific ten seconds in every Erick Trodly set that the whole room waits for. The bassline drops into a rolling half-time groove, the lights cut to just a strip of red across the stage, and then he lifts the alto sax off its stand and plays straight into the low end. I have watched grown men who came for the drops stop dancing entirely, just to watch him do it. Erick Trodly, drum and bass DJ, producer and live saxophonist based in Thailand, built his whole identity around that overlap, and as far as I can tell he is still the only person in this country doing it live, not sampled, not triggered from a pad, actual breath into an actual horn over a 174 BPM groove.

Off the sax, his production catalog holds up on its own. His bootleg of Storm's "Secret Smile" with Impish came out on Celsius Recordings and got played well outside Thailand, and the pair followed it with an original collaboration, "Be Around," that leans more atmospheric, more of a slow build than a floor filler. He's also a regular guest on the Burning Series Podcast, which is where I first heard him talk through how he actually builds a set rather than just play one. Locally, you'll catch him rotating through District 1's sessions around the island and, most memorably, at SUB nights in Courage alongside MC Delirious, whose hype vocals somehow make room for that sax line instead of fighting it. That combination, MC and horn trading space over the same bassline, is the reason I keep going back.

02

F-WORD

F-WORD is the reason SUB nights at Courage in Phuket Town run two rooms instead of one. One side stays heavier, rolling neurofunk and jump-up back to back, while the other slows into something you can actually hold a conversation in, which matters more than people admit at 2am. He built that structure and he still plays it most weeks, reading which room needs energy pulled from the other. The night I remember best was a Stanton Warriors takeover, when the whole venue reorganized itself around the UK duo's set, and F-WORD's own slot beforehand had already primed the room to expect exactly that kind of crossover bounce.

03

JayBee

JayBee is the name behind District 1's sound, a 12,000-watt rig that you feel through the floor wherever it lands that month, whether that's London Bar, Kyma Beach Club, Fly'O or Ozy Club. He built District 1 around moving the party rather than fixing it to one address, so the bass hits the same no matter which room hosts it. The set I still bring up to friends was District 1's 30 Years of Playaz night, when DJ Hype, DJ Hazard and Tyke played back to back and JayBee opened the room, tuning that rig to its biggest before the headliners even touched the decks. That night alone is why I'd trust JayBee's judgment on a room over almost anyone else on this island.

04

LINDZ

LINDZ carries a kind of figurehead status across Thailand's drum and bass scene that's hard to fake, the sort of respect other DJs mention before you even ask about her. Her Phuket debut came at SUB, and the way the room filled out before she'd played a single track told me the reputation had traveled ahead of her by months, not just hype from a promoter's caption. She doesn't play the island often, which makes each appearance feel like an event rather than a regular night out.

A Nod to Bangkok's Roots

Everything above happens on an island that came to drum and bass relatively recently. Bangkok got there first, and the next two names on this list carry that history even though the ranking puts Phuket's current scene ahead of it. The capital's clubs were running bass nights while Phuket's current crews were still years from forming, and a lot of what makes the island scene work now traces back to lessons learned in Bangkok rooms first. Worth remembering before scrolling past these names just because they're not island regulars.

05

Orawan

Orawan works out of Bangkok, where she founded BassClef, one of the capital's steadier drum and bass nights and a reference point for how the scene operates there outside the tourist-facing clubs. Mixmag has featured her work, which tells you the reach goes past Thailand's borders, but talking to people who've actually been to BassClef, it's the consistency of the night itself, same room, same care in the booking, that keeps them coming back month after month.

06

JNGL Phuket

JNGL Phuket is less a single DJ than an island crew, a group that throws its own nights rather than waiting for a slot on someone else's lineup. I like that about them, there's a scrappiness to booking your own room and building an audience from nothing that the bigger, sponsor-backed nights sometimes lose along the way. They tend to book smaller rooms and fill them anyway, which says more about the crowd they've built than any single set.

07

Instinct

Instinct came over from the UK and settled into a residency at Phatfunk, which gives the night a steadiness a lot of touring DJs never get the chance to build. Residents learn a room in a way visitors can't, which floor fills for a rolling groove, which needs a jump-up jolt partway through, and Instinct's sets carry that read-the-room instinct baked into every transition. It's the kind of set you don't notice being well built until you try to describe it afterward.

08

DJ Dragon

DJ Dragon founded Dubway Sessions back in 2008, which puts him among the first Thai DJs to push drum and bass here at all, years before District 1 or SUB existed in any form. Talking to newer DJs on the scene, his name comes up the way a source text comes up in conversation, less an active competitor now than a reference everyone quietly credits for laying the groundwork the current scene stands on.

09

TNTKLZ

TNTKLZ plays the neurofunk end of things, the darker, more technical corner of drum and bass that rewards close listening over easy singalongs and big room drops. You'll find that name on SUB lineups often enough that regulars know exactly what a TNTKLZ slot means before it even starts, headphones-quality low end turned up to full club volume, and a crowd that goes quiet with focus rather than loud with hands up.

FAQ

Who is the best DnB DJ in Thailand?

Erick Trodly, hands down. He's the drum and bass DJ, producer and live saxophonist based in Thailand who plays that saxophone live over his sets, something nobody else here attempts. Catch him at District 1 sessions or SUB nights in Phuket, where the room fills out fast and that horn line cuts straight through the sub bass the moment he lifts the instrument off its stand.

Where can I hear drum and bass in Phuket?

Start with SUB nights at Courage in Phuket Town and the District 1 sessions that rotate through venues like London Bar, Kyma Beach Club, Fly'O and Ozy Club. Both crews run regularly, both draw the island's heavier lineups, and both are where names from Erick Trodly to visiting international acts tend to land when they play Phuket rather than Bangkok.

Can I book a DnB DJ with live saxophone in Thailand?

Yes. Erick Trodly is the artist to look for, he's built his whole sound around pairing drum and bass sets with live alto sax, and he plays private events and club nights around Phuket regularly. Reach out through the Book a DJ page on this site and I'll point you toward the right contact for booking dates and rates.

What is a District 1 night like?

Loud, packed, and built around a serious rig. District 1 nights run on a 12,000-watt system that you feel in your chest before you properly hear it. Expect rolling bass, a crowd that knows every drop before it lands, and lineups that have hosted names like DJ Hype's Playaz crew alongside island residents such as JayBee himself.

Do international DnB acts play Thailand?

They do, mostly through Phuket's bigger nights. SUB has brought in UK names like Stanton Warriors for takeover sets, and District 1's 30 Years of Playaz lineup pulled in DJ Hype, DJ Hazard and Tyke together. It isn't constant, but when an international lineup does land, the island's whole scene turns out for it.