It seems the EDM world is hearing less and less about hardstyle lately, as it seems it’s is being re-absorbed into or re-combined with older, more established forms of house like electro or hard house. Well, not if 22-year-old San Francisco producer Trst. has anything to say about it. The new producer’s music seems to declare proudly to EDM heads: get your light-up Keds on and start shuffling; hardstyle isn’t going anywhere. This is definitely true with his two most recent singles, “Throw Yo Body” and “Bitch Boyz,” released just this month.
Trst. also has a few tracks on his Soundcloud which are more hip hop-y dubstep, and these are also quite well-produced, so it’s not clear why he’s switched to hardstyle, especially with the subgenre dialing back a bit. Perhaps that is the actual reason. At any rate, “Throw Yo Body” is a fun, funky hardstyle track which really sounds like it would fit right in at a house rave or the house room at a festival. Hopefully it’s been being played out since it was releases about six months ago. 
Trst.’s latest track, “Bitch Boyz,” also has a lot of funk to the beat, and even some old school vibes to the synth but it also has a lot of bass to it, mostly with the bass synth which is classic hardstyle, as it comes from other forms of bass music like DnB and dubstep. Trst. weaves this bass synth into the track in an interesting new way, cutting it off in unexpected places and sort of waking the listener up from the predictability of the house beat. It’s pretty clear that Trst. has dabbled in dubstep with the way “Bitch Boyz” was composed.
Trst. is definitely one to watch this winter on the party and festival circuit. Although he’s not exactly reinventing the hardstyle wheel with his party anthems, he’s definitely re-furbishing it and giving it a new coat of paint. It will also be interesting to see if he makes more dubstep, as he clearly has a talent for producing clean beats and fun, danceable tunes in both genres. Stay tuned to his Soundcloud page for more tracks.
