Downtempo

A type of relaxed, low intensity Electronic music which emerged from the Ibiza club scene.
Often instrumental, it features slower tempos than House or Techno and tends to be more
groove-driven than Ambient.

-Trip Hop
Trip Hop is a style of Downtempo music that grew out of the Bristol underground in the early
90s. The term was originally coined by Mixmag in a review of DJ Shadow but it wasn't until the
mid 90s that the term's definition was solidified to define the emerging Bristolian scene of
downtempo from groups such as Massive Attack and Portishead, both of which went on to
have large commercial success in the UK.

While it shares the constant and repetitive beats of downtempo, trip hop is texturally a little
more busy often using a wide array of samples of both live and electronic instrumentals, with
offbeat turntable scratches and vocal melodies whilst almost always maintaining a mellow
tempo in 4/4. The beats often invoke a surreal, trippy, dreamy and yet slightly dark
atmosphere.

While some (particularly earlier) trip hop was instrumental or used rapped vocals that shared
traits with Hip Hop, most trip hop uses female vocals taking influence from Contemporary
R&B and Soul that normally sound light and ethereal with lyrical themes being abstract and
metaphorical.

The trip hop movement has had a considerably broad influence on the mainstream and has
become a popular style both in and outside the UK. No longer considered regionally-centric,
trip hop has been a term used to describe a plethora of acts that have melded the trip hop
sound with different genres and music scenes, but all are still derivative of the early Bristolian
sound.

Albums: Portishead-Dummy; Massive Attack-Mezzanine; Massive Attack-Blue Lines;

Morcheeba-Big Calm; Gorillaz-Demon Days; Lamb-Lamb; Tricky-Maxinquaye.

Releases: Massive Attack-Any Love (Single, 1988); Smith & Mighty-Walk On…(Single, 1988);
Smith & Mighty-Walk On…(Single, 1988); Carlton-The Call is Strong (Album, 1990).