Hardwell anthem ‘Encoded’ turns 10 years old

Since retiring from live shows in 2018, Hardwell has been pretty quiet, choosing to slip under the radar a little, but that can’t distract from what a huge impact the Dutch maestro made on the electronic scene in the decade previous to his retirement from DJing. Becoming a 2 x time winner of the DJ Mag Top 100 poll in both 2013 and 2014, the Revealed Records head honcho also released a docu-movie about his career to date titled ‘I AM Hardwell’. Becoming a pioneer and driving force of the big-room movement, which peaked around 2014/15 with hits like ‘Tremor’, ‘Mammoth’, and ‘Tsunami’, Hardwell even coined the term ‘Go Hardwell or Go Home’ and on this day in 2011, he gave birth to one of his biggest hits of all time, the mesmeric ‘Encoded’.

Giving us a real flavour of the anthemic sound we’d come to hear from the dynamic Dutchman over the course of the next few years, this was one of the first real breakthrough tracks from the Breda-born superstar, who then went on to headline numerous festivals around the world, playing at Tomorrowland, Ultra Music Festival in Miami, and on the Horizon Stage at Creamfields. The release also marked a real hot streak for Hardwell, who then went on to drop ‘Apollo’, ‘Spaceman’, ‘Three Triangles’, ‘Dare You’, and Showtek collaboration ‘How We Do’ in the resulting few years. He also went on to favour a commercial sounding approach around 2016, teaming up with legendary UK R&B and garage vocalist Craig David on their collab ‘No Holding Back’. Soaked in his trademark signature sound, made up of an elongated build, and thundering drop, you can relive ‘Encoded’ below. But before that, we’d like to know… What is your favourite Hardwell track, or memory of the Dutch star performing live? Head on over to our social media channels to let us know!

Image Credit: Rukes.com