Bass house has spent most of 2026 sitting next to tech house on club charts, and the records that stick are the ones that do more than drop a fat sub and a vocal chop. Montell2099’s BACKAGAIN is one of those. Released September 25, 2026, on NIGHTMODE as the lead side of the double single BACKAGAIN : ME&YOU, it is the Auckland producer’s first release on the label and the opening move for a bigger project.
Montell Pinny, working as Montell2099, grew up in Katikati before basing himself in Auckland. He started producing as a teenager after his grandfather loaded FL Studio onto a computer, and he has been building a genre-crossing catalog ever since. Early attention came with Hunnid on the Drop featuring 21 Savage. He later joined RL Grime’s Sable Valley roster, released the FORCES EP, and worked with names including Netsky, Wilkinson, and Sublab. He was also the first New Zealand artist booked to play Tomorrowland. The live shows have been part of the story for years: laser-heavy sets that move from mountain stages to festival main stages without losing the personal angle he has talked about, a DJ from Aotearoa pulling outside influences through a groove.
BACKAGAIN is where that history meets a club-first brief. The submitted genres are Bass House and Electro House, and the arrangement earns both tags. Menacing vocal refrains loop with a hypnotic persistence, then shift in pitch as the track mutates. Reverberating trap bombast gives way to frenetic percussion and fluttering synth textures before the arrangement snaps into a ground-shaking four-on-the-floor house flip. The whole piece runs about three minutes and twenty seconds. It is a collision of trap and house rather than a straight bass-house template, which fits NIGHTMODE’s habit of pairing radio-ready drums and catchy vocal hooks with sounds that do not feel copied from last season’s pack.
Montell2099 has been clear about why this record exists. He has described BACKAGAIN as the introduction to his next album, RE-WIRE // MONOCHROME, and said he wanted it to set the tone for the project’s attitude. He had not released music for a while, so the repeated “back again” vocal lines up with that return. He has also said he has been a fan of NIGHTMODE for years and that working with the label has been an honour. The B-side, ME&YOU, sits on a steadier club pulse with luminous vocal fragments and heavy low end, but BACKAGAIN is the one that announces the chapter: darker, more bass-centric, and built to flip mid-set.
That kind of hybrid is well timed. Bass house has been gaining share on Beatport-style club charts through 2026, while electro house keeps feeding festival sets that need a bigger lift than minimal tech. NIGHTMODE has become a reference point for producers chasing poppy, high-transient drums and vocal hooks that still hit in a car or on a system. BACKAGAIN uses that lane without staying in it. The trap section gives DJs a left turn; the house flip gives them a reset. For listeners who already know Montell2099 from Sable Valley or from festival bills, it is a sharper club statement than a simple comeback single.
Independent artists watching this rollout can take a practical note from it. A clear label fit, a short conceptual release, and a vocal idea that actually means something still travel further than a random upload. If you are an artist looking to get your music out there, DistroKid makes it simple to distribute your tracks to major platforms, and you will get 7% off your membership with this link: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/2058328. It is a useful way to reach more listeners and keep more of what you earn while you line up the next release.
What do you think of Montell2099’s move into this bass-house lane? Drop a comment if the trap-to-house flip works for you, or if you would rather live in the ME&YOU side of the single.
