build-up
24 tracksA passage that raises tension toward a release: rising pitch, faster drum rolls, opening filters, added layers. In dance music it prepares the drop.
Form and structure
breakdown
13 tracks.
What it is
A section where the beat drops out or thins, leaving pads, melody or vocals. On a dance floor it gives a moment to breathe before the music builds back.
Read more on WikipediaRelated concepts
drop
2 tracksThe moment after a build-up when the full beat and bassline return, often after a short silence. It is the release the arrangement has been preparing.
interlude
1 trackA short piece placed between the main songs of an album or EP to connect them. It usually drops verses and choruses in favour of a mood or a single idea, and works as a pause that shapes how the songs around it are heard.
tempo change
1 trackA shift in a piece's speed, measured in beats per minute, partway through. In dance music the tempo usually stays fixed so DJs can mix tracks together, which makes a deliberate slowdown or speed-up a striking, emotional event.
Hear it in these tracks
The Supermen Lovers, Jay Lamar, Jesse Oliver
Moments (Jay Lamar & Jesse Oliver Remix)
The Helsinki duo Jay Lamar and Jesse Oliver stretch Moments, a 2013 single by the French producer behind Starlight, into a warm, unhurried deep house glide of soft chords, rounded bass and wistful melodies.
Nicolas Jaar
Time For Us
A young Nicolas Jaar's slow, sultry minimal-house classic, a crooned vocal and dusty, swaying textures that famously sink from dance tempo into a long, swooning breakdown nobody wants to mix out of.
Kölsch
Bloodline (feat. Tomas Høffding)
Kölsch's melodic techno meets the warm, weathered voice of WhoMadeWho's Tomas Høffding in Bloodline, a slow-burning track from 1983, an album about childhood road trips across Europe, that swells like a sunrise over the booth.
Klangkuenstler
Soul Digger (Original Mix)
A rolling tech-house groove with classic house warmth underneath: Soul Digger finds the soul in the machine and keeps the floor moving for almost seven minutes.
Klangkuenstler
Jam Master Jack (Original Mix)
A six-minute house workout from Klangkuenstler's early, groove-first years, built for the long middle stretch of a club night when the floor just wants to jack.
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.
KANT
Close to the Wire (Club Remix)
The Copenhagen production team KANT stretch Leo Stannard's aching vocal across a seven-minute club arrangement on Black Butter Records, melancholy piano chords and a steady deep house pulse turning heartbreak into something you can dance through.
Gorgon City, Katy Menditta, WEISS
Imagination (Weiss Remix)
WEISS stretches Gorgon City's Imagination into a six-minute, groove-led house workout for the 2015 remix EP, leaving Katy Menditta's voice to flicker in and out over the bass.
Future Forward Society, Mount Sims
The Creep (HV Thrillseeker Mix)
The HV Thrillseeker Mix stretches The Creep into a longer, harder club tool, with the menace of the original pushed through a relentless, driving groove.
Future Forward Society, Mount Sims
The Creep (Capri Mix)
A long, prowling electro mix that keeps its shadows close: The Creep in its Capri Mix stretches Mount Sims' sly menace over six and a half minutes of pulsing synths.
Axwell
Feel The Vibe
Axwell's 2004 club record in its original long form: a pumping, filtered house groove that keeps building until the whole floor is lifted with it.
Tinush
Sandburg
'Sandburg', German for sandcastle, is the title track of the Berlin producer Tinush's 2014 EP on Crosswalk: seven minutes of melodic deep house, later cut to a three-minute radio edit, with remixes by Alec Troniq and Umami.
Gorgon City
Hard On Me
Gorgon City's sleek, late-night deep house meets Maverick Sabre's raw, soulful voice on Hard On Me, the closing track of their 2014 debut album Sirens: a plea for gentleness carried by a steady, rolling groove.