Downtempo
Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini gathers a repertoire under the • kosa • label that alternates Downtempo and Organic House without settling into one tempo range. Ed Noodle's Mardini begins at 97 BPM in C major and lasts 7:30; Psylar's Nuit Noire...
Tempo changes at the core of Evolution On Evolution, Squazoid is credited on every piece and Liquid Sound Design is listed as the label throughout, yet the repertoire’s data draws a tempo movement that does not follow a rising line. “Kindness...
The label founder keeping the final cut for himself says plenty about how he understands this series. 'Quieres Sol', by Sabo alongside Tooker, closes the 27 tracks of Summer Sol XI in downtempo mode: 111 BPM in D minor, six-plus minutes...
Eleven entries on this tracklist, but really one route: track one is the 57-minute continuous mix, and the ten that follow are the loose pieces it's built from — the same journey told twice. Bedrock Records opened this series in 2014 and let it...
Lolti's 'Future Umbrella' opens at 133 BPM in G-flat major, a luminous slice of electronica that seems to promise speed — and four minutes in, the record does the exact opposite: Gene D.'s 'Heavenly Light' drops the...
Three names show up twice on 'Aequa Libra', never in the same role. K2W0 signs the remix of 'Ant Farm', the Matija and Richard Elcox cut, then hands his own 'Blind Navigation' over to Planet Caravan two slots later....
'The Monad (Atlantis Mix)' opens the signal at 154 BPM in A minor, a psychedelic pulse that seems to promise a high-tempo record. It's a decoy: two tracks later, 'Soul Quest' has dropped to 105 and 'Sacred Flow'...
The jump sits between the first two cuts: from the 76 BPM of 'Luna Glow' to the 146 of 'Celestial Sirens' there is a seventy-beat gap, the steepest climb a six-track album can afford. But the number is deceptive. Heard in...
Four minor keys against two majors: that is the emotional split of 'From Cosmos To Earth', and it says more about the record than any genre tag. A minor opens with 'Divine Beings' (103 BPM) and returns on the fifth track, the...
Opening the ride with 'The Word Becomes Flesh' is a statement in itself: it's the Boards Of Canada cut from 'Inferno' (Warp Records), the album that brought Scottish brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin back this year...
From the 80 BPM of 'Ray', Aamiq's miniature, to the 160 of 'Let it be Sweet' by Arula and Dummy Splash, the tempo exactly doubles — and between those two poles sits everything that dares to call itself downtempo today. This...
Nine minutes of hypnotic electronica in D minor open the journey: Germind's 'Erotic Vaccine' sets the pulse at 124 BPM and makes it clear this ride is in no hurry. Plexus Music, an internet label founded in 2011 and based in Greece,...
Ninety BPM separate the floor from the ceiling of this selection: from the 70 of Mind Enterprises' 'Another World' to the 160 of Beauz's 'Bel Mercy' and KAAI & Jovynn's 'Distort The Bass'. Between...
Out of a forty-track dig, three cuts demand the full spotlight: two because they seat dancefloor producers next to musicians with real jazz biographies, and a third because it is the longest ride of the lot and comes from a duo tied to a sound with...
The Audio Atelier drops Cosmic Bloom #06: fifty journeys, one universe With its sixth instalment in the Cosmic Bloom series, The Audio Atelier reaffirms its identity as an open laboratory: fifty tracks, over thirty artists, and a stylistic arc...