groove
37 tracksThe felt quality of a rhythm that makes people move: how drums, bass and the other parts lock together and push against each other in time.
Melody
bassline
33 tracks.
What it is
The lowest melodic part of a track. In dance music it often carries the hook as much as the vocal does, and its rhythm against the kick drum defines the groove.
Read more on WikipediaRelated concepts
synthesizer
38 tracksAn electronic instrument that generates sound from oscillators and shapes it with filters and envelopes. Synthesizers define the sound of electronic pop, house and techno.
Hear it in these tracks
The Avener, Ane Brun
To Let Myself Go
The Avener wraps Ane Brun's fragile Scandinavian folk confession in a slow, rolling deep-house groove, turning a private surrender into a sunset dancefloor moment.
Queen, The Miami Project
Another One Bites The Dust (A Skillz Remix)
A Skillz chops John Deacon's immortal bassline into a strutting breakbeat workout, keeping Freddie Mercury's swagger front and centre while the drums hit like a b-boy battle.
Peaches
Pickles
Peaches at her most gleefully filthy: Pickles rides a stark, rubbery electro beat while she raps about desire with a grin you can hear in every line.
Noir & Haze
Around (Solomun Vox)
Solomun's vocal mix of the Noir & Haze single, Resident Advisor's remix of the year 2011: a rolling, bass-heavy deep house groove under Haze's aching voice, released on Noir Music and later licensed to Defected.
Nils Ohrmann
In Ya Face (Original Mix)
Six and a half minutes of bumping Berlin house from Nils Ohrmann: a cheeky vocal taunt, a springy bassline and a groove that never lets go.
Michael Jackson
Billie Jean
One of pop's most recognisable bass lines carries Michael Jackson's paranoid tale of a paternity claim, a tight, shadowy groove that sounds as sharp now as it did on Thriller.
Metronomy
Love Letters (Soulwax Remix)
Soulwax strip Metronomy's sixties-tinged pop down to a gleaming machine groove and rebuild it, six and a half minutes of neon disco-pop driven by the bassline and a slow-burning release.
Kosheen
Addict
Deep, dark bass, insistent drums and Sian Evans' voice cutting through the fog: Addict opens Kosheen's Independence with the pull of something you cannot quit.
Klangkuenstler
Golden
A late-night techno roller from Klangkuenstler's 2015 debut on Great Stuff: a massive, rounded bassline, a nasty but beautiful sawtooth lead and a bed of vinyl noise that makes the dark groove feel strangely warm.
Klangkuenstler, Alice Phoebe Lou
Man On the Moon
KlangKuenstler wraps Alice Phoebe Lou's soft, folk-tinged voice in a warm, unhurried deep house shuffle that feels like a slow drive home under a full moon.
KlangKuenstler
Man On the Moon (Miguel Campbell Remix)
The British producer Miguel Campbell turns KlangKuenstler and Alice Phoebe Lou's 2014 moon song into a warm, rolling groove for Sunday Best, her voice floating weightless over a bassline that never stops gently pushing forward.
Kele
First Impressions
Kele Okereke opens his after-hours record Trick in a whisper: a cool, late-night house groove about the electricity of meeting someone new, sung with Yasmin.
Infinity Ink
Infinity
Infinity Ink's Infinity is a bassline-led deep house anthem whose endlessly looped, half-whispered hook made it a platinum hit in Belgium and a club staple since 2012.
Gorgon City, Zak Abel, Dj Anna
Unmissable (DJ Anna Remix)
DJ Anna pulls Gorgon City's pop single into the dark: a heavy rolling bassline, Zak Abel's soulful voice in fragments and nearly eight minutes of late-night pressure.
Future Forward Society, Mount Sims
The Creep
Future Forward Society and Mount Sims build a slinking, shadowy electro crawl, all low-slung bass, cold synths and a voice that seems to whisper from the corner of the room.
Foster The People
Pumped Up Kicks
A breezy, whistled indie-pop earworm with a chilling story underneath: the demo Mark Foster wrote and recorded alone in five hours, which went viral in 2010 and spent eight weeks at number three in the US.
Format:B
Chunky (Radio Edit)
A rubbery, swaggering tech-house stomper from Berlin's Format:B, built on a fat bassline and chopped vocals from Shorty Long's 1966 Motown single Function at the Junction, cut down to a radio-sized strut.
DJ Patife
Sambassim (DJ Patife Remix)
Fernanda Porto's breezy bossa melody rides a rolling São Paulo drum and bass break, sunlit samba swing meeting rattling breakbeats and deep sub-bass.
DJ Fitchie, Joe Dukie
Midnight Marauders
Seven unhurried minutes of Pacific dub-soul from two Fat Freddy's Drop mainstays, Joe Dukie's honeyed voice drifting over a deep, patient bassline built for the small hours.
Chet Faker
Gold
Chet Faker's smoky late-night soul over a slow, finger-snapping electronic groove, a minimal track that gets all its heat from his weathered voice and a bassline that barely moves.
Bobby Nourmand
Smokin' Joe
A laid-back, smoky slice of deep house where a rolling bassline meets a bluesy vocal: the Los Angeles producer's mystery track from The Magician's Magic Tapes, released on Potion in 2016.
Basement Jaxx
Galactical
Bright, bouncing and slightly unhinged, Galactical sends Basement Jaxx and singer Vula off into space on a house groove built for dancing in zero gravity.
Sworn Virgins
Burning Off My Clothes
The B-side of the anonymous London disco project Sworn Virgins' 2018 12-inch on Soulwax's DEEWEE label: a driving, chugging late-night cut that The Vinyl Factory called a Harvey-esque freak-out for saturated nightcrawlers.