Trip Hop / Downtempo

late 1980s to early 1990s · Bristol, United Kingdom

Slow, cinematic music from late 1980s and early 1990s Bristol: hip hop breakbeats and sampling slowed down and fused with dub bass, jazz texture, and hushed vocals (Wikipedia).

The sound

Slow hip-hop breaks and heavy dub basslines wrapped around jazz samples, vinyl hiss, and hushed vocals for a moody, cinematic feel.

Listen for: Notice how the drums sit way behind the beat while the bass stays dubbed-out and huge, with samples treated more like found textures than hooks.

Things to know

  1. Bristol's Wild Bunch soundsystem, the crew that produced three future members of Massive Attack, modeled itself on Bronx DJ crews like Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, then layered dub reggae and lovers rock into its sets.

  2. The term trip hop was coined in June 1994 by Mixmag journalist Andy Pemberton, who used it to describe DJ Shadow's 1993 single In/Flux, not any Bristol artist's music.

  3. The string arrangement on Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy was recorded at Abbey Road Studio One with 42 session musicians, arranged and conducted by Wil Malone.

  4. Guinness World Records credits DJ Shadow's Endtroducing..... (1996) as the first album made completely from samples, built almost entirely from vinyl records on an Akai MPC60 sampler.

Key tracks

Family tree

  • Reggae, Dub & Soundsystem: Trip hop grew straight out of Bristol soundsystem culture. The Wild Bunch, the crew that produced three future members of Massive Attack, played dub reggae and lovers rock next to hip hop and punk, and modeled itself on Bronx sound crews. Slow rhythms, heavy dub basslines, and atmosphere over dancefloor energy became the template for the Bristol sound.
  • Dubstep: This isn't a parent-child line. Dubstep's family tree runs through UK garage and soundsystem culture, not through Bristol. But the moods rhyme: writers keep comparing Burial's hushed, dub-soaked productions to Massive Attack, Portishead, and Tricky, and Burial and Massive Attack recorded a track together, Four Walls, in 2011. Two generations of UK bass music chasing the same late-night atmosphere.

Go deeper