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Rhythm

swing

9 tracks.

What it is

Playing pairs of equal notes unevenly, the first longer than the second. Drum machines and sequencers have a swing setting because a little lilt makes a programmed pattern feel played.

Read more on Wikipedia

Related concepts

quantization

0 tracks

Snapping played notes to a rhythmic grid. It gives machine precision; producers often loosen it, or add swing, to keep a human feel.

groove

37 tracks

The 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.

Hear it in these tracks

Waldeck

Memories

Waldeck sets Zeebee's smoky voice inside a crackling, sepia-toned ballroom swing, a downtempo daydream about a love that only lives on in memory.

electro-swing jazz downtempo

Solomun

Friends

Nine minutes of Solomun's signature deep house, released on his experimental label 2DIY4: Friends rides a supple, swinging groove and moody chords that keep rising just enough to keep a dancefloor leaning in.

deep house house electronic

Paloma Faith

Upside Down

Paloma Faith's brassy, swing-tinged retro-soul romp about a world turned on its head, with a stomping rhythm section and a voice that relishes every theatrical flourish.

soul pop jazz

Marek Hemmann

Gemini

Nine minutes of melodic German minimal from the Jena label Freude am Tanzen: Marek Hemmann's Gemini drives on a swinging house groove while synth patterns and funky tenor-sax licks twist around each other.

minimal techno deep house

Flume

Holdin On

A chopped-up soul vocal, wobbling synth chords and a swinging, head-nodding beat: Flume's breakout cut is two and a half minutes of pure, woozy elation.

electronic future bass hip-hop

Waldeck

Midsummer Night Blues (feat. Zeebee)

'Midsummer Night Blues' is a song from Viennese producer Waldeck's 2007 album Ballroom Stories, written and sung by Zeebee: late-1920s ballroom swing seen through modern production, with the crackle of shellac and a summer night's melancholy.

jazz soul electronic

Caravan Palace

Lone Digger

Caravan Palace's 2015 single fuses 1930s-style swing with club beats and Zoé Colotis's voice, and its animated video of a brawl in a bar full of animals made it one of the most-watched electro-swing tracks ever.

electro-swing jazz electronic

Björk

Kata rokkar

Before her solo career, Björk sang Icelandic popular songs and jazz standards with a veteran piano trio: Kata rokkar, from the 1990 album Gling-Gló, is a short, playful glimpse of that side of her voice.

jazz vocal jazz pop