~Studio: Q-13 Lounge~

[meta187]

 

 

Lounge, Down Tempo, Dub, Chill Out & Everything In Between

 

 

 

 

 

Fromtime to time we all need to slow down and take an introspective look at our lives or simply phase out the static noise of a world filled with now an over-whelming ammount of sensory input and media saturation. Many people take time out from the stress of their daily lives with music. The style of music they turn to varies from person to person but the common note people seek is a bit of an escape from their mundane surroundings, to think of other people, places and things going on outside of themselves and their personal situations.

 

Welcome to the Studio: , a bit of a respite from your daily toils.

 

In all of this the Studio promotes one key factor.

 

Diversity:If we played a track you like, one you don't care for and one you've never heard of before then we did our job correctly.

 

 

 

 

Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s encompassing such genres as exotica, easy listening and space age pop. Lounge music ranges from beautiful music-influenced instrumentals, to modern electronica with chillout or downtempo influences, while maintaining its focus on retro-space-age cultural elements. The earliest forms of lounge music appeared in the 1920s and 1930s, known as light music. Lounge music is a form of mood music, intended to create the feeling of another place such as a jungle, an island paradise, or outer space.

 

Lounge music may also refer to music played in the lounges and bars of hotels and casinos, or at standalone piano bars.

 

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.

 

Dub is a form of music which evolved out of reggae in the late 1960s. The dub sound consists predominantly of instrumental remixes of existing recordings and is achieved by significantly manipulating and reshaping the recordings, usually by removing the vocals from an existing music piece, emphasizing the drum and bass frequencies or "riddim", adding extensive echo and reverb effects, and dubbing occasional snippets of lyrics from the original version. It is widely accepted that Jamaican musicians Osbourne "King Tubby" Ruddock, and Lee "Scratch" Perry pioneered the style in the 1960s and early 1970s. Ruddock and Perry each called upon the mixing desk as an instrument, with the deejay or "selector" playing the role of the artist or performer. These early "dub" examples can be looked upon as the prelude to many dance and pop music genres. Today, the word "dub" is used widely to describe the re-formatting of music of various genres into typically instrumental, rhythm-centric adaptations.

 

Chill Out (sometimes also chillout, chill-out, or simply chill), a term derived from a slang injunction to relax, emerged in the early and mid-1990s as a catch-all term for various styles of relatively mellow, slow-tempo music made by contemporary producers in the electronic music scene. The term "Chill out music", as well as the genre itself, originated in chill rooms that were set up by DJs off to the edge of club dance floors to give patrons a chance to take a break from the hectic dance vibe and chill out with this style of music. Chill out as a musical genre or descriptive is synonymous with the more recently popularized terms "smooth electronica" and "soft techno" and is a loose genre of music blurring into several other very distinct styles of electronic and lo-fi music.

 

Everything In Between allows a DJ in any Club Setting to remain versatile even within the constraints of playing a Down Tempo event. There are several artists out there that don't fit neatly winthin a single genre of music but offer up something soulful and thought provoking that makes them appropriate and a pleasant surprise for the listener. Everything fromLo-Fi Indy Rock, Classic Motown R&B, Electro/Synth-Pop and World Music to Vintage/Acid Jazz &Blues, Neo Soul, Underground Hip Hop & Instrumentals should work it's way into any savvy DJ's playlist if he's truly interested in promoting diversity and expanding horizons.

 

 

 

How We Get Down

 

• Music & Album Reviews: Tell us what you think of tracks you are posting, how this track compared to the rest of the album or if it just happens to be a random favorite.

   

• Questions & Comments: Like or dislike something you heard feel free to comment or make other suggestions.

   

• Helpful Links & Info.: Feel Free to post any links to Music Artist sites that direct the listener to more of the artist's work.

   

• Double Posting: As long as you are posting additional content we won't be terribly strict on this just please refrain from triple posting, as it's generally frowned upon by the staff here at the forums.

 

 

 

 

 

If you like what you're hearing feel free to rock this super swank support sig. which contains a direct link to our little establishment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quality Music, Welcome.

Edited November 6, 2014 by meta187

[Mister Pink]

Very nice topic Meta. Well done.

 

I just love this Leftfield track. They've a nice broad range in styles. I think this track like Looking Down The Barrell of a Gun by the Beastie Boys samples Mike Viners Incredible Bongo Bands version of Apache. Beat/bongos are slowed down.

 

 

Edited February 21, 2010 by ThePinkFloydSound

[meta187]

That was a great track, thanks for sharing, ThePinkFloydSound.

 

One track I've been super infatuated with this last year is an amazing song, Araya's A Little f*cked Up (feat. Zanre) there's no youtube clip for it but do yourself a favor and click that link for a listen. (If the link is being a bit dodgey just type that title into the last fm search bar it'll pop right up.)

 

Also:

 

 

 

 

 

Love these guys, Easy Star All-Stars. Comprised of some of the best Dub Artists out of New York.

They've done incredibly good covers of entire Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Beatles albums. They really find a way to make every song their own.

 

 

 

I tend to be very critical of Mash Ups as they often end up being done poorly and layered awkwardly but BRAT Productions have really produced

some of the best in the last couple years, compared to something super busy like Girl Talk, this was a breath of fresh air.

 

 

 

A lot of the people I've played this Kenna track for like to go back and give it another 2 or 3 listens. Very Cool Video as well. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2010 by meta187

[Canoxa]

Sheeet, this topic reminded me of the ole PGC.

 

Anyways, I love me all of these. How can one dislike these? It's something I'd like to do myself in the future.

 

And now, here's some dub.

 

 

[Mister Pink]

You're welcome, buddy.

 

I love the Easy All Stars. I only have Dub Side of The Moon but I've heard the Sgt. Peppers cover and Radiohead covers. Love to see them live.

 

That Mashup is great. Those songs go really well together. I can be a little critical of them too but when they're done well they can be great. There's a shop called Urban Outfitters in my city that play decent music. One time I was in there they played a CD of mashups. It was like Need You Tonight by INXS mashed with some excellent Hip-Hop track. (f*ck can't remember which track it was)

 

@Canoxa: Love Lee Perry. He playe last year and I missed him. He's about 74 years old too.

 

At a party the other night. Of course when we were winding down and chilling out in the late hours of the morning we stuck on some Aphex Twin and AFX.

 

Selected Ambient Works...

 

 

[

I find this to me one of his more upbeat tracks on SAW's

 

 

This is so relaxing. Love the faint metronome type beat/tapping. I dont think this was included in the U.S. release of Selected Ambient Works. Not totally sure about that though.

Edited February 21, 2010 by ThePinkFloydSound

[meta187]

 

Sheeet, this topic reminded me of the ole PGC.

 

It's a nolstalgic nod at best but that thread was very music focused during it's run. Classic Dub, keep it coming.

 

 

@ThePinkFloydSound: Yea, I totally remember actually paying *gasp* cash money for that Aphex Twin CD, I kept thinking, "this is the same Aphex Twin that has that scary video with the Albino Demon thing screaming in a poor old ladies face?" That "melt" track is very nice and even, you may be correct about it not making the US release don't recall hearing it before.

 

A few more selections...

 

 

 

 

My wife spotted this track by Hard-Fi the other day and she pretty much knows what I like. Unfortunately, not all of their stuff sounds like this.

 

 

 

Dub's a fairly international scene but Asian Dub Foundation are a real stand out for me.

They tend to be very upbeat but also have some trippier slower tracks on their albums. Sinead O'Conner Really makes this track.

 

 

 

Mark Farina is hands down one of my favorite Trip Hop DJ's, this side of Nightmares on Wax.

He put together all of the Mushroom Jazz Compilations which again I actually paid for.

This is probably one of the more unique things I've ever heard him put together.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2010 by meta187

[Vanilla Shake]

Thought I'd contribute. Great topic.

 

 

Quite possibly the chillest song I've ever had the pleasure of listening to.

[meta187]

Thought I'd contribute. Great topic.

 

 

Thanks Shake, you and I always seem to mutually vibe on music tracks.

 

So Crazy you just posted this as I mentioned Nightmares on Wax in the last post I posted only a moment before.

[Mister Pink]

Aw man Meta, 1000 Mirrors is f*cking excellent. I have the Sinead O'Connor album that's on - 'Collaborations'. I got a bit off stick of one of my mates for getting it. She does an excellent track with Bomb The Bass.

 

@Vanilla: Nice track.

 

 

Edited February 21, 2010 by ThePinkFloydSound

[Rhoda]

Very nice. Good idea. I assume ambient music is also welcome?

 

 

A rather recent discovery, and everytime I make a playlist, this creeps in.

 

 

Again, makes an appearance in every playlist. One of my old favourites.

 

 

Hailing from my home city of Manchester, I play it every morning.

[Narcis_speed6]

i simply love this song, also heard in vice city stories

 

Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is

 

 

[meta187]

@ThePinkFloydSound: Yea Sinead is a very misunderstood, maligned individual but still has the force of will to carry a song to compelling places.

 

@Mastercraft: Ambient is defintely welcome and Holy Crap The xx?! They've been getting a lot of major play on our local NPR affiliate out of Austin, W-KUT. Really like that man/woman duet sound they have going. And Air's a given, I've been wanting to check out some of the new tracks off their Love 2 they just dropped recently. Classic 808, the two DJ's I met from Manchester were both crazy about them.

 

@Narcis- Yea that whole Vice City soundtrack on both the original and VCS takes me to another place in time. Synth Pop ballads in general have been making a big come back in recent years.

 

And to keep it rolling right along...

 

 

 

 

I'm a big fan of the large electro synth pop movement coming out of Austrailia in recent years since The Avalanches phenominal- Since I Left You album,

people out of Sydney & Melbourne must be getting far better e than the artists are getting stateside. lol. Cut Copy definitely fits the bill.

 

 

 

Midnight Juggernauts is another.

 

 

 

And finally the UK based, The Black Ghosts. The beat on this undeniable the fact that they used my favorite childhood toy to make the video is icing on the cake. Turn This One Up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2010 by meta187

[Rhoda]

Love 2 isn't so bad, it's certainly more polished. It has a mainstream feel to it too, I can imagine each and every song on it getting radio play. It's very accessible. As for the The XX (can't stand to give it lowercase treatment, I'm a grammar nazi and it goes against my grain, haha), they're a great little band and their album's pretty damn good. If you haven't heard it yet, I recommend it.

[Vanilla Shake]

 

Thought I'd contribute. Great topic.

 

 

Thanks Shake, you and I always seem to mutually vibe on music tracks.

 

So Crazy you just posted this as I mentioned Nightmares on Wax in the last post I posted only a moment before.

Hehe, yeah, some great tracks out there to just chill out to. And I read your post before I posted the song and was thinking "Wow, what a coincidence. The song I'm about to post is by Nightmares on Wax". Good taste.

 

Some grade A stuff in this topic so far. Think I might add a link to it in my signature.

 

Here are some other great tracks:

 

"Go Forward" by Chilled By Nature

 

First heard this in The Ballad of Gay Tony and I immediately bought the song. It's just great.

 

"God's Bathroom Floor (Instrumental)" by Atmosphere

 

Instrumental to one of my favorite hip-hop songs. One that just relaxes me for some reason.

 

And here's some more greatness from Nightmares On Wax: "195Lbs"

 

NOW never fail to deliver.

[meta187]

That God's Bathroom Floor Instrumental really grabbed me when you dropped it in the Hip Hop topic, definitely memorable.

 

Whoever's putting together the GTA Soundtracks really do their homework I was really impressed that they had that Animal song playing in the main club by Miike Snow, which really isn't a single guy, it's three producers working under one name. Anyways they have this amazing song, Silvia.

 

 

 

 

In love with this. ^

 

 

 

Tell me you don't get immediate flashbacks of driving around the original Liberty City in a Mafia Sentry when you hear this.

 

 

 

This is off the very cool almost U.N.K.L.E. like Aim Compilation, Hinterland, severely smooth.

Play this for your girls and I'll hear the panties droppin in unison from a distance.

 

 

 

 

[Twang of Calimari]

This sounds right up my alley, but it is not a convenient time for me to listen to the videos posted.

 

I definitely like chill music. I'm currently listening to Cibo Matto's "King of Silence," and I think that would fit this thread, but I cannot find any videos on youtube for it. Also on my (three-song) playlist is Spandau Ballet's "Gold" (another Vice City classic), followed by Enter Shikari's "Jonny Sniper," which decidedly doesn't belong in this thread, but I recommend it anyway.

[Punk-in-Drublic]

Nice thread, I'll be definately keeping my eye out for some good Dub-Reggae tunes (Not Dub-step though, doesen't interest me). Pity there isn't a thread for Punk & Ska of a similair nature

 

 

 

And you cant beat this, albeit not Dub reggae, more just early reggae/ska, but it still has an ambient feel to it.

 

Theres so many different versions of the Liquidator, its great.

[meta187]

Sexy new support sig in the intro courtesy of Narcis_speed6. Many thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Röyksopp is a definite fav. This song features the haunting vocals of Karin Dreijer Andersson from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife,

also known for her solo work as Fever Ray. This chick scares me... in a good way.

 

 

 

Cibo Matto, Twang? Sugar Water's a must.

 

 

 

José González does an amazing cover here of Massive Attack's, 'Teardrop'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2010 by meta187

[Jonny_Tightlips]

 

This song samples my favorite piece by Arthur Verocai titled Na Boca Do Sol. YouTube doesn't have the original song up due to copyrights, but if you ever get a chance to hear it immediately do so. Verocai's self-titled album is still my top favorite album of all time. And MF Doom certainly does a good job of playing with the sound.

[Cheat]

Hell I'm not sure if the following songs will fit in the category of this amazing topic, but meh, I'll try. Big props to meta.

 

 

I'll drop some hip hop here, this 'Pac beat is hella emotional and strong but still relaxing.

 

 

Then some reggae/dub for youl, I don't know who the hell did this but it is definetly extra cool.

 

 

@ThePinkFloydSound: thanks big time for giving us that Easy Star All Stars song. So good that I got me the Radiodread album.

Awesome. So I shall continue.

 

 

[Narcis_speed6]

i also got a song, from scarface...

 

 

[860]

 

 

 

 

[Vanilla Shake]

 

[Orris Root Powder by MF DOOM]

Perfect.

 

Thought this might also fit in well here.

 

I absolutely love this track.

[meta187]

Thanks to everyone who's posted thus far. I did a thorough search of this Music board prior to setting up the thread and was surprised to not really find a downtempo focused thread, nice to see a wider range of what people are listening to here.

 

@Zak: Love the horns on that MF Doom Instrumental, they just really drove the track. Definitely feelin that and the one Shake just posted.

 

@Cheat: Chill Hip Hop Instrumentals defintely welcome falls under that "Everything In Between" category in the intro.

 

@860: Diggin' that Woodblue, really easy with the nice asiastic overtones.

 

 

 

 

 

Recently featured in the commercials for the action game, Bayonetta. Skreams, "Lets get ravey remix" of In For The Kill by La Roux.

Recorded from one of only 500 copies of the vinyl in the world, this picks up a little steam in the last part but has such a nice slow build, I think it could easily

find it's way into Chill Out set. Someone listed it as "Dubstep" which I'm not always super crazy about but this mix definitely has such a subtle power to it, I had to throw it in.

 

 

 

Someone posted some Leftfield on the last page this track has really been catching my ear in the last week.

 

 

 

Nice classic synthey vibe on this one. I think you'll like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2010 by meta187

[The-King]

You know I f*cking love you Zach, this made me miss the days back in ye olde QvsQ.

 

You also know that I've gotta' post some chill Hip-Hop, been really digging Zion-I lately and some of their sh*t defines chill.

 

Zion I ~ One Chance

 

 

Also gotta' rep Nujabes, the man behind all of the music in one of your favorite anime, Samurai Champloo.

 

Nujabes & Uyama Hiroto ~ Windspeaks

 

 

Nujabes ft. Shing02 ~ Luv (Sic) Pt3

 

 

Nujabes ~ Kumomi

 

[Canoxa]

This picked up real nice.

 

Noticed the banner is, quite slyly, a link to our host's last.fm. Clicked it and had a gander. Saw two things I have not listened to for ages! - Tosca and St. Germain.

 

 

 

 

 

And I raise you something you have, based on these two, certainly listened to before - Gotan Project.

 

 

 

If you haven't heard this tune on the floor or on another club, you probably caught it in a car commercial or something.

 

By the way, how would you guys would like to do some tracks in this style? Do any of you work with sequencers, like the much thrown around Fruity Loops? We could exchange MIDIs and build up a tune from the ground up. My interface went with the dogs, so I can record live guitar or live Yamaha-keyboards, but not live MIDI performances. What I can't do live, I can program into notation or a sloppy piano roll.

Edited February 22, 2010 by Canoxa

[meta187]

 

By the way, how would you guys would like to do some tracks in this style? Do any of you work with sequencers, like the much thrown around Fruity Loops? We could exchange MIDIs and build up a tune from the ground up. My interface went with the dogs, so I can record live guitar or live Yamaha-keyboards, but not live MIDI performances. What I can't do live, I can program into notation or a sloppy piano roll.

 

I usually have a good ear when I work with music producers or DJs like I can tell them what I want to hear and usually we get somewhere in the ballpark but my musical background is primarily as an emcee though I've been chilling for a number of years, I did however do a sort of spoken word thing with this DJ Nikbitz out of the UK who I met via Last.FM who liked something I did with my friend Delia and he made a sort of spoken word track around it called Space Pioneer so if you ever want someone to lay down some vocals or original lyrics, Holla Back.

 

I throw the term "lounge" around loosely in this thread but I'm a big fan of the Parisian style of lounge you selected St. Germain, Gotan Project, etc. I'll def get around to dropping some tracks off the very french Hotel Costes compilations, at some point which are very well mixed but definitely lean towards that Parisian influence.

 

@The-King: Yea def feeling that driving beat on Zion I and the Nujabes has a great overall feel from beginning to end. And yea, you know me I try to put the quality into anything I attach my name to.

 

"Try" being the operative word.

 

Anywho.

 

 

 

 

Passion Pit recently had a feature on Current which was very, very good.

I've pretty much looked for any excuse to play this track at any event or party I've attended this year, it finally found it's way on to a cell phone commercial.

 

 

 

 

If John Denver died, went to Heaven and was suddenly endowed with awesome angelic abilities he'd sound something like this. Turn this up, clear your mind and picture another place and time.

 

 

 

And just to bring the InI level byake up in'ere, rudebois.. ^

 

 

 

 

Edited February 23, 2010 by meta187

[Vanilla Shake]

I love that Damian Marley track. Makes me wanna listen to "Road to Zion".

 

 

Instrumental to my favorite rap song of all time.

 

 

First heard this on the way to my cousin's wedding in Long Island back in October. My cousin, his girlfriend, my other cousin's boyfriend and myself were all getting baked in the car before the wedding and then put this on. Great times.

[Cheat]

 

@meta, dubstep huh? One of my very favorite genres.

 

 

I also suggest that all of you with even a little bit of ear for hip-hop listen to this awesome live-recorded beat, it is very nice.

 

 

Also, I think that this topic definetly needs some classic soul/r&b. Thumbs up if you know where this is sampled.

 

[meta187]

 

Also, I think that this topic definetly needs some classic soul/r&b. Thumbs up if you know where this is sampled.

 

Jadakiss's - By Your Side , that's a bangin track.

 

I really liked watchin' that dude work on that Equalibram clip as well.

 

@Vanilla: You pick up that Silver Illmatic 10 Year Anniversary Edition yet? It has some seriously well done remixes on it.

 

 

 

 

Watch this girl literally build the track as she goes, pretty freakin amazing. Like she's literally recording her loops and samples as she builds the song.

Stay with it she moves through like 3 or 4 instruments, literally a one woman band.

 

 

 

If your house cat suddenly turned into a cute chick who could sing very well, it would sound like Elsiane.

 

 

 

If you ever find any of the Mushroom Jazz compilations by Mark Farina do yourself an immediate favor and pick them up. Very Consistant.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 23, 2010 by meta187