TQD

Three prominent figures from the U.K. garage and grime production circuit—Royal T (Mark Taylor), DJ Q (Shollen Quarshie), and Flava D (Danielle Gooding)—formed the collective TQD. Their shared goal is to distill the raw energy of the garage and bassline worlds, resulting in tracks that move at an accelerated pace, bounce with lively rhythms, swing freely, and feature tightly edited vocals alongside supple, elastic low-end lines. Butterz, the label run by Elijah & Skilliam, issued the group’s first single, “Day & Night,” in 2015. Subsequent releases included the more subdued and Burial-inspired “Only One,” later featured on Flava D’s Fabriclive.88 mix CD, along with “Ghosts.” In 2017 Butterz put out TQD’s first album, UKG, which contained a vocal take on “Ghosts” with grime MC P Money and one cut jointly produced by Swindle and Skilliam.