Downtempo

Downtempo on vinyl: trip hop, chill-out and slow beats

In short: Downtempo is electronic music with slow, relaxed beats – between hip hop, jazz and ambient. It grew big in the nineties with trip hop from Bristol, AIR from France and the Vienna scene. The Vinyl Room currently has 242 downtempo records.

What is downtempo?

In early-nineties Bristol, Massive Attack and Portishead combined hip hop beats with soul and film music – it was called “trip hop”. In Vienna, Kruder & Dorfmeister shaped an elegant, jazzy sound, and in France AIR scored a worldwide success with “Moon Safari” (1998). Add Zero 7, Rae & Christian and The Cinematic Orchestra, who combine jazz and electronics. Many of these records came out as double LPs to leave enough room for bass and long tracks.

What to look for

Some downtempo albums of the nineties and 2000s came out on vinyl only in small runs; individual original editions are sought after today. Catalogue number, label and runout matrix together tell you whether you have a first pressing.

From our stock

First pressings

Still sealed

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→ Electronic on vinyl · Hip hop on vinyl · How to spot a first pressing · Grading explained

FAQ

What is downtempo? Electronic music with slow, relaxed beats, often with influences from hip hop, jazz and soul.

What is trip hop? The downtempo variety from nineties Bristol, with Massive Attack and Portishead.

Why are so many downtempo records double LPs? Because long tracks and deep bass get more room in the groove on two records. That makes a loud, bass-heavy cut easier.