Downtempo is a broad label for electronic music that keeps a beat but slows it well below club tempos, putting atmosphere, texture and groove ahead of energy. It is close to ambient music but places more weight on rhythm, and it draws freely on hip hop breakbeats, dub, jazz, soul and Brazilian music.
Its roots are often traced to the British scenes of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Bristol and acts such as Nightmares on Wax, with trip hop as one of its best-known branches. In the late 1990s the Viennese duo Kruder & Dorfmeister defined its dubby, elegant side with The K&D Sessions (1998), a double album of remixes on the !K7 label, while Thievery Corporation added Brazilian and reggae colours; Bonobo carried the style into the following decades. Lo-fi hip hop can be heard as a younger, more home-made relative of downtempo, sharing its relaxed pace and love of warm, sampled sound.