Trip-Hop
Downtempo · 1991 · 80 to 100 BPM · also known as Trip Hop, Abstract Hip Hop
Trip-hop took shape in Bristol between 1991 and 1995: hip-hop slowed under the English rain, dub basslines, ghostly soul vocals, and a melancholy built from concrete. Massive Attack opened the door, Portishead carved the canon, and Tricky scrambled all of it. The name, coined by the press, has irritated its own makers ever since, but the music came to define the 1990s so thoroughly that it turned into a cliche, and later a treasure again.
18 reference tracks
- Massive Attack: Unfinished Sympathy (1991)
- Portishead: Glory Box (1994)
- Tricky: Aftermath (1994)
- Sneaker Pimps: 6 Underground (1996)
- Morcheeba: Trigger Hippie (1996)
- Sevdaliza: Habibi (2020)
- Tricky feat. Oh Land: Fall Please (2020)
- DJ Shadow: The Number Song (Cut Chemist Party Mix) (2021)
- Massive Attack X Tom Waits: Boots On The Ground (2026)
- Massive Attack: Angel (1998)
- Massive Attack: Risingson (1997)
- Massive Attack: Inertia Creeps (1998)
- Portishead: Roads (1994)
- Massive Attack: Dissolved Girl
- Portishead: Mysterons
- Portishead: All Mine
- Portishead: Strangers
- Portishead: Wandering Star
At a glance
- Tempo: 80 to 100 BPM
- First appeared: around 1991
- Machines: Akai S1000, Akai MPC60, Platines vinyle, Fender Rhodes
- The sound: Breaks ralentis poussiéreux, Basses dub, Scratches atmosphériques, Voix féminines soul
- Labels: Go! Beat, Circa, Invada, Wild Bunch, 4th & B'way, CD Club
- Key artists: Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky, Morcheeba, Sneaker Pimps
Producing Trip-Hop
Trip-hop drops further than downtempo, to 65 or 90 BPM, and drags rather than swings, delaying the snare behind the beat so it lands like something heavy falling, while the kick stays locked to the grid. Take a funk or soul break and slow it without clean time-stretching so the pitch drops and the sound darkens, filtered to 8kHz, with a heavy kick and a dry, plate-drenched snare on beat three. The bass is dub, bigger and darker than downtempo, dropping below 50Hz on held whole notes, often the tonic and minor seventh, with a silence on beat one every other bar, and no sidechain, kick and bass meant to overlap into one mass. On top sits a colder Rhodes with a slow phaser and a fragile female soul vocal sung close to the mic, drowned in plate reverb.
The full production course, in French: tempo, drums, bass, sounds, arrangement, mix, plugins and machines, and a step by step start.
Frequently asked
What is Trip-Hop?
Trip-hop took shape in Bristol between 1991 and 1995: hip-hop slowed under the English rain, dub basslines, ghostly soul vocals, and a melancholy built from concrete. Massive Attack opened the door, Portishead carved the canon, and Tricky scrambled all of it. The name, coined by the press, has…
What tempo is Trip-Hop played at?
Between 80 and 100 BPM.
Who are the key Trip-Hop artists?
Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky, Morcheeba, Sneaker Pimps.
