Beave’s Long-Teased “1997” Storms Into the Beatport Top Three

You know that ID you’ve been hearing in sets and rinsing in 15-second clips all summer? It finally has a home. Beave’s “1997” dropped late last week on Staff Only, and it’s already sitting at No. 3 on the Beatport Top 100 — behind only Tommy Phillips’ “Sun Is Shining (Lovelee Dae)” and the Ultra Naté, HUGEL and Imael Angel juggernaut “Movin’ To The Sun.”

The climb is quick, but it isn’t surprising. “1997” spent months floating around as an unreleased ID, with rip-hunting uploads and “releasing soon” teasers stacking up views on YouTube and TikTok well before the Essex producer put it out officially. By the time it hit stores, the demand was already there — the release just opened the floodgates.

The track itself is a proper UK statement: rolling, garage-flavored house at 132 BPM, built on weighty synths and the kind of shuffling percussion that explains the title’s nod to the late-’90s. It’s underground enough for the heads and catchy enough for everyone else, which is precisely the formula that’s been running the Beatport chart all summer.

The label matters here too. Staff Only is the imprint from UK act RUZE, and it’s not even a year old. “Absolutely buzzing to be releasing this track with the RUZE lads and on a label I’ve been supporting + listening to since its birth last October,” Beave said of the release. “It’s been an important part of my growth as an artist and this couldn’t have been a more perfect fit for the record.”

Long-time readers might remember Beave from a different era — we were covering his dance-pop remakes back in 2020. Six years later he’s had a breakout run of Ibiza appearances and major club bookings, and “1997” is the exclamation point.

The top of the chart is getting crowded with this exact strain of groove-first house, as our last deep dive into the Beatport Top 10 laid out. With Tommy Phillips still holding No. 1, the question is whether Beave has enough momentum left to take the top spot. Don’t rule it out.