Downtempo (or Downbeat)
is a laid-back electronic music style similar to ambient music, but usually with a beat or groove unlike the beatless forms of Ambient music. The beat is sometimes made from loops that have a hypnotic feeling. Sometimes the beats are more complicated and more featured instead of being in the background, but even then they are usually less intense than other kinds of electronic music like Trance. Often the name chill out music is used to refer to songs demonstrative of the genre, but those names also refer to other styles of music, and downtempo encompasses a wider variety of styles than those terms alone would indicate. Another related genre is Trip hop, though Downtempo usually uses a slower tempo than Trip-hop. Due to the relaxing and often sensual or romantic feel of most downtempo music, along with the absence or minimal use of lyrics or vocals, it is a popular form of background music in 'chill out rooms' of dance parties, and many alternative cafes.
.::History::.
The 1990s brought on a wave of slower paced music which was played throughout chillout rooms - the relaxation sections of the clubs or dedicated sections at electronic music events. Downtempo music started to surface around in Ibiza, when DJs and Promoters would bring down the vibe with slower rhythm and gentler electronic music upon approaching sunrise. In 1994, Trip hop emerged from Bristol, which combined elements of hip hop beats, drum and bass breaks, and ambient atmospheres at a lower tempo. At the end of 1990s a more melodic instrumental electronica incorporating acoustic sounds with electronic styles emerged under its own umbrella name of downtempo.
In the late 1990s, the Austrian duo Kruder & Dorfmeister popularized the style with their downtempo remixes of pop, hip-hop, and drum and bass tracks with influences of the 70's soul jazz. The British Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry, producing under the name Fila Brazillia, released a handful of downtempo, electronica and ambient techno albums that propelled the style further. Meanwhile the Washington, D.C. locals Eric Hilton and Rob Garza, better known as Thievery Corporation, have introduced the Brazilian sound into the style after discussing the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim, and enriched it further by combining elements of Jamaican dub and reggae.
.::Acid jazz::.
Acid jazz (also known as groove jazz in USA) is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance/pop music: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd are often credited as forerunners of acid jazz. Acid jazz has also experienced minor influences from soul music, house music and disco.
While acid jazz often contains various types of electronic composition (sometimes including sampling or live DJ cutting and scratching), it is just as likely to be played live by musicians, who often showcase jazz interpretation as part of their performance. The compositions of groups such as Jamiroquai, The Brand New Heavies and Incognito often feature chord structures usually associated with jazz music. The Heavies in particular were known in their early years for beginning their songs as catchy pop and rapidly steering them into jazz territory before "resolving" the composition and thus not losing any pop listeners but successfully "exposing" them to jazz elements in "baby steps".
The acid jazz "movement" is also seen as a "revival" of jazz-funk or jazz fusion or soul jazz by leading DJs such as Norman Jay or Gilles Peterson or Patrick Forge, also known as "rare groove crate diggers" or "Cataroos".
.::New Age music::.
History
New Age music has its basis in the work of 1960s European and American electronic and acoustic musicians exploring music for creating expanded consciousness. In the late 1970s, music began to be recorded specifically for the purposes of meditation and relaxation. During the early 1980s, the term "New Age music" was introduced more widely to the public by radio stations and then by music retailers and some record companies, as a marketing tag applied to a variety of non-mainstream instrumental music styles. Radio stations in major markets (such as "the Wave" in Los Angeles) defined themselves as "New Age", while playing some New Age music and using nature sounds in their station-id's, yet those stations also heavily featured styles musically and philosophically unrelated to New Age music, for example, smooth jazz. The first true New Age radio station in the U.S. was KLRS (Colours) in Santa Cruz, California with a non-stop playlist of New Age music and is considered the first New Age station in the world. Most major cable television networks have channels that play music without visuals, including channels for New Age music, such as for example, the "Soundscapes" channel on Music Choice.
.::Nu jazz::.
History
Nu jazz emerged from the use of electronic instruments in production in the 1970s work of such luminaries as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and Ornette Coleman. Hancock's early 1980s work with Bill Laswell, in particular, such as the album Future Shock, anticipated the style in its incorporation of electro and hip-hop rhythms. Beginning in the late '80s, many hip-hop musicians worked in the jazz rap style -- among them, Gang Starr, The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest, and Nas. Also in the 1980s, many house musicians took inspiration from jazz, particularly post-bop and jazz funk.
In the mid-'90s and early 2000s, musicians from the downtempo scene, St Germain, DJ takemura, Perry Hemus and Jazzanova among them, began to delve more deeply into jazz. In the same period, intelligent dance music producers -- most famously Squarepusher and Spring Heel Jack, and later London Elektricity and Landslide -- took a similar interest. Techno musicians, such as Laurent Garnier, Carl Craig and his Innerzone Orchestra project, have also touched on nu jazz. Some figures from the digital hardcore and breakcore scenes, notably Alec Empire, Nic Endo, and Venetian Snares, have explored a harder, noiser variant on the style. A decade later, some dubstep producers, such as Boxcutter, also explored electronic jazz.
While still embracing the traditional forms of Jazz, pianist Bugge Wesseltoft and trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær are known for their improvisational nu jazz style. The Cinematic Orchestra is also known for incorporating a traditional jazz band while fusing electronic elements into their music production.[2] St. Germain, a purveyor of nu jazz music, has sold 1.5 million copies of his Tourist album, thus making it the top-selling jazz album in the United States.
.::Minimal Electronica::.
Minimal electronica is a musical genre containing elements of other electronic genres, such as ambient and glitch.
The style of music, produced, for example, by Pan sonic, is that which allows easy focus on simple rhythmic elements that seem to be made of the most necessary sounds in order to create momentum that flows with long tonal passages. Every element of sound in minimal electronica is usually very clear, and therefore works in this genre are usually very well crafted with great attention to detail.
Monolake has produced works that could be considered minimal electronica.
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