breakdown
13 tracksA 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.
Form and structure
build-up
24 tracks.
What it is
A passage that raises tension toward a release: rising pitch, faster drum rolls, opening filters, added layers. In dance music it prepares the drop.
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.
filter sweep
5 tracksGradually opening or closing a filter so that a sound goes from muffled to bright or back. Filter sweeps create build-ups and are a signature of French house.
Hear it in these tracks
theAngelcy
My Baby Boy
Plucked strings, a chorus of voices and Rotem Bar Or's raw tenor make this Tel Aviv folk song feel like a lullaby sung in a dark, uneasy time.
The Hacker, Mount Sims
Traces (Oxia Remix)
Oxia turns The Hacker and Mount Sims' cold-wave electro into a patient, rolling techno journey, all brooding synth lines and a build that keeps tightening the screw.
Niklas Ibach
Hungry (Remix)
Niklas Ibach slips Dotan's aching folk-pop plea onto a soft deep-house pulse, keeping the ache while giving it somewhere to move.
Marcus Marr, Nick Murphy
Birthday Card
Nearly eight minutes of sleek, disco-tinged house: Marcus Marr's springy production and bright synths carry Nick Murphy's smoky voice towards a long dancefloor release, the opener of their 2015 EP Work.
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.
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.
James Newton Howard, Jennifer Lawrence
The Hanging Tree
Jennifer Lawrence's bare, unpolished voice sings an eerie murder ballad from Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay, set to a melody by the Lumineers, that swells into a rebel anthem as James Newton Howard's orchestra gathers behind her.
James Newton Howard, Jennifer Lawrence
The Hanging Tree (Rebel Remix)
Jennifer Lawrence's eerie Mockingjay folk song recast as an uptempo, drum-heavy rebel anthem, the unaccompanied verse growing into a pounding march with strings and a dance pulse.
Glass Animals, Gilligan Moss
Gooey (Gilligan Moss Remix)
Gilligan Moss stretches Glass Animals' sticky love song into a glistening electronic daydream of chiming percussion, warped vocal slivers and a slow-blooming groove.
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.
Daft Punk
Giorgio by Moroder
Giorgio Moroder tells his own origin story over a click track, then Daft Punk unfold nine minutes of arpeggiated disco, live drums and strings into a time-travelling tribute to the sound he invented.
ayokay, Quinn XCII
Kings of Summer
Bright synths and Quinn XCII's easy vocal paint a memory of summers when you and your friends felt untouchable: the 2016 breakthrough of two school friends from Michigan.
Axwell, Max C
I Found U (Radio Edit)
Axwell's piano-lit house anthem distilled to under three minutes: a rolling bassline, a gospel-tinged vocal from Max'C and a chorus built for arms in the air.
Avicii
Feeling Good
Avicii wraps the standard Nina Simone made famous in soft, swelling synths and lets Audra Mae's smoky, soaring voice carry a song about new dawns, recorded for a 2015 film about his own recovery from years of touring.
Anna Lunoe
Radioactive
Anna Lunoe's Radioactive, her 2016 debut on OWSLA, is a strobe-lit 'hyperhouse' banger sung in her own voice, all clipped vocal hooks, rave stabs and a low end built to rattle a festival tent.
Louisahhh
Like A Vice
A dark and pulsating techno track that closes Louisahhh's intentionally brutal 2017 EP A Trap I've Built, delving into desire, control and liberation.
C.A.R
Idle Eyes (Roman Flügel Remix)
Roman Flügel turns C.A.R.'s cold-wave Idle Eyes into patient, hypnotic minimal house: a rattling bassline, spiralling keys and pads that swell slowly toward a euphoric peak.
Northern Lite
Trusting Blind
The 2001 debut single of Erfurt's Northern Lite, released on their own 1st Decade Records: techno roots turning into electronic pop, with ambient pads, a steady bassline and a slow build toward a driving finish.
Alic
Going Down In A Blaze Of Glory
A seven-minute slab of psychedelic techno from the German duo Alic, released free on their own netlabel Digital Diamonds in 2012: punching drums under slowly shifting atmospheric layers.
Fatboy Slim
Sunset (Bird of Prey)
'Sunset (Bird of Prey)' is Fatboy Slim's 2000 single built around Jim Morrison's voice, sampled from the Doors' 'Bird of Prey': a slow-rising, sun-bleached dance track whose video sends a 1960s fighter pilot on a hallucination.
alt-J
Breezeblocks
A lullaby with teeth: alt-J's 2012 breakthrough wraps an obsessive love song, borrowed in part from Where the Wild Things Are, in plucked guitar, close harmonies and a refrain that piles up until it will not let go.
Whilk & Misky
Darklands
'Darklands' is one of the first two songs the London duo Whilk & Misky ever wrote: a slow-burning blend of blues guitar, electronic production and a voice that starts quietly and ends up belting, from their 2014 debut EP The First Sip.
Joris Delacroix
Epoque
Joris Delacroix closes his 2018 album Night Visions with Epoque, seven minutes of melodic deep house in which soft, piano-trained melodies ride a steady, driving pulse.
Jan Blomqvist
Time Again
Jan Blomqvist's 2014 summer hit sets his soft, echoing voice, Felix Lehmann's Rhodes piano and two guitars over a minimal deep house pulse, the sound of the Berlin 'concert techno' he helped bring to big stages.