When the definitive book is written on the history of popular electronic music at the end of the 20th century, a solid section will be devoted to the emergence of Downtempo — an alternative to the hyperkinetic beats of the electronic dance floor.
Beginning in companion "chill rooms" at all-night raves, downtempo beats offered dancers a slower, quieter instrumental alternative for rest and renewal. In time it evolved into song-based listening styles like Trip Hop, with influences from electronica, hip hop, jazz and world music. Back in the chill rooms, it wasn't a big stretch for Downtempo DJs to mix in the expansive soundscapes of the other slow electronic music that had been developing since the 1970s. In 1978, BRIAN ENO had given it a name that stuck: Ambient.
The lovechild of Ambient and Downtempo was called, conveniently, Ambient Downtempo. It's proven to be such a fruitful realm for creative development that it's still going strong today. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, an hour of ambient downtempo from then and now, on a program called DOWNTIME. That makes sense because tempo in Italian means time, and downtime is something we all can use a bit more of these days...
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Is Stephen ill this week? His voice sounds awfully congested!
Posted by: Kai | 24 June 2017 at 11:25 PM
Stephen did indeed have a cold at the beginning of last week. That explains the "basso congesto" tone of the voiceovers for this show;-))
Posted by: Stephen Hill | 25 June 2017 at 07:28 PM