sidechain compression
0 tracksCompression that turns one sound down whenever another plays, typically pads or bass ducking under each kick drum. It makes room in the mix and creates the familiar pumping feel of house and EDM.
Rhythm
four-on-the-floor
14 tracks.
What it is
A steady kick drum on every beat of a 4/4 bar. It is the pulse of disco, house and most techno: the body always knows where the next beat lands, so everything else can move around it.
Read more on WikipediaRelated concepts
house groove
26 tracksThe rhythmic signature of house music: a four-on-the-floor kick, off-beat hi-hats and claps on two and four, at roughly 118 to 128 beats per minute.
off-beat
5 tracksThe points halfway between the main beats. An open hi-hat on the off-beat, the classic house pattern, lifts the groove because it answers each kick drum.
drum machine
10 tracksAn electronic instrument that plays programmed drum patterns. Its machine-steady time and synthetic sounds became the foundation of hip-hop, house, techno and synth-pop.
Hear it in these tracks
The Supermen Lovers
Moments
A warm slice of French disco-funk from the man behind Starlight, where synths and a rubber-band bassline turn a fleeting moment into a long, glowing groove.
Robin Schulz
Sugar
Sun-bleached deep house with a soul hook: Robin Schulz builds a sweet, bouncing groove around Francesco Yates and an interpolation of Baby Bash's 2003 'Suga Suga', a number one in seven countries in 2015.
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.
Mando Diao
Dance With Somebody (Radio Version)
Mando Diao trade garage-rock grit for a disco-rock floor-filler, a pulsing four-on-the-floor beat and a shout-along chorus about needing someone to dance with.
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.
Jan Blomqvist
Big Jet Plane
Jan Blomqvist slows Angus & Julia Stone's folk lullaby into a long, glowing melodic-house drift, his weary vocal hovering over the pulse like a plane above night clouds.
Faul & Wad, PNAU
Changes
Faul & Wad Ad build a sax-lit, bittersweet house groove around the children's-choir refrain of Pnau's Baby, a song about growing up that became a European number one.
Bob Moses
Tearing Me Up
Bob Moses stretch a smoky, heartsick vocal across a slow-burning deep house groove, all brooding guitar, rolling bass and late-night tension that never quite breaks; its RAC remix won a Grammy.
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.
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.
ACRAZE
Do It To It
Orlando producer ACRAZE turned the vocal of Cherish's 2006 R&B single into a two-and-a-half-minute tech house track that spread through DJ sets before it was released and reached the UK top ten in 2022.
Pilocka Krach
Discolight (Hrdvsion's NSD Mix)
The Canadian producer Hrdvsion (Nathan Jonson) remixes Berlin experimental artist Pilocka Krach's 'Discolight' into a five-and-a-half-minute club track, the lead side of a 2012 remix 12-inch on Greatest Hits International.
Miike Snow
Paddling Out
Miike Snow's 2012 lead single sets sing-along melancholy over glitchy piano chords and a four-on-the-floor house beat, recorded in a Stockholm studio once used by ABBA.
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.