UK garage never really left the club. It just kept borrowing from whatever the room was already sweating to. In 2026 that often means speed, bass pressure and a hook that lands before the first breakdown. Paris producer Nao takes a slightly different route on I JUST WANT TO LOVE YOU. The track is filed as UK garage, but the pitch is sun-drenched French Touch: a soulful 1970s sample, warm bass, filtered disco grooves and a pulse built for the open floor. Summer nostalgia, turned into an invitation to let go.
Nao is the electronic project of Noah Poisson, a Paris-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist. Before the solo work, he spent six years inside the Parisian live circuit, on stages including La Cigale, Madame Loyale and Le Badaboum, and as a member of the band Later. That background shows up in the way this record is framed. It is dancefloor music, but it is also written like someone who has actually played the room, not only sequenced it. The sound sits where high-energy house meets deep-rooted soul, with sleek UK influences running through the arrangement. Club-ready, still sun-soaked.
I JUST WANT TO LOVE YOU is built around a captivating 1970s sample. That choice does a lot of the emotional work. French Touch, from the late-90s filter-disco wave through to the current revival, has always treated old soul and disco records as raw material rather than museum pieces. Filter the top end, let the bass sit warm, and the sample stops being a reference and starts being a groove. Nao leans into that grammar. Warm basslines, filtered disco movement and an infectious vocal refrain turn the nostalgia into something you can actually dance to. The refrain is the open door. You do not need the full lyric sheet to feel the point of the title.
That mix makes sense in the current club climate. UK garage in 2026 is filling bigger rooms again, often at faster tempos and with shorter, more functional arrangements. French Touch, meanwhile, has had a very public second life: vinyl reissues, classic sets sitting next to new electronic music, and a reminder that Paris still treats electronic music as both physical and carefully made. I JUST WANT TO LOVE YOU lives in the overlap. The UK garage tag points at the skip and the swing. The French Touch and disco-house colours point at the filter, the sample and the late-afternoon warmth. Soulful house is the glue.
The project’s visual world lines up with that idea of movement and escape. The identity was shot on vintage Leica film in the volcanic landscapes of Lanzarote: raw, timeless, and a long way from a neon club flyer. It fits a record that treats summer as a feeling rather than a marketing window. Infectious hooks, sophisticated production, refined musicianship meeting the heat of the night. That is the space Nao is carving, and this single is a clear statement of it.
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What do you think of this blend of UK garage and filtered French Touch? Drop it in the comments.
