Future Garage is a newer style of UK Garage which originally developed as a result of some dubstep producers reacting against the prevalent trends in that genre. These producers made music which was far closer to the 2-Step and UK Garage of the late 90s and early 00s than that of their contemporaries, deliberately eschewing the heavy wobble bass commonplace in dubstep. The other distinguishing feature of Future Garage is that it is much more accessible for "home listening" than UK Garage was - IDM is often a clear influence. The resulting sound is often quite minimalistic, with skittery, broken rhythms and bright, clean melodies.
Of the dubstep producers who pioneered this strand of UK garage, the best known is Burial, along with many others on Hyperdub. Further back in time, there are also clear similarities with the music of MJ Cole and the Broken Beat movement of the early 00s. The term Future Garage was originally coined by Sub.fm's Whistla, who also set up L2S Recordings, the genre's first dedicated label. Other notable artists include FaltyDL, Brackles, Shortstuff, and Joy Orbison.
An interview between Whistla and Martin Clark (Blackdown) explains a bit behind the coinage of the term... Wot do u call it: future garage? .
