This Is How We Chill: The Slow Music Movement

“Sampling culture to me is the recycling and (hopefully) upcycling of previously recorded music and sounds. The press-of-a-button-availability of pretty much all music recorded in the last hundred years has suddenly given today’s producers a sonic palette that represents the full range of life experiences and emotions—love, loss, pain, joy, contentment, anger… You name them. As delivered by musicians at every societal level, in every mental state, through good times and bad. From the musical escapism of the 20th century, privately-schooled German classical musicians, primitive Pacific island village choirs, to exotic percussion sounds recorded in Asiatic temples...

Sampling has given producers a hack to avoid years of daily instrument practice! The 21st century’s library of easily available sounds is a gift that will keep on giving. Not to mention a double shot of creative espresso for anyone who cares to listen carefully.”

“The sound of The Slow Music Movement is a hard one to pin down. It’s equally guided by the artists and myself. I’ve led a somewhat alternative, nomadic life and my musical tastes have been equally adventurous over the years from Extreme Noise Terror to flutist and tenor saxophonist Yusef Lateef. Hence the label is constantly evolving.

Tempo-wise, we go from the flat-out ambient sounds of new signing Ishmael Cormack to the slow bass-heavy leftfield dance sounds of Teleseen and the augmented guitar pointillism of Zoltan Fecso.”

“If I was a sampling man, which I’m not I must add—I’m just a good pair of ears, the tracks I’d sample from The Slow Music Movement would have to vary with my mood or need. If I was producing something cinematic for a Cohen Brothers film or Arizona desert-set TV show, then I’d head to The Howard Hughes Suite. If I wanted some soul then I’d go grab some of the vocals from Bróna McVittie, Avocet, Me Lost Me, Tracy Chow, or Alula Down.

For something dreamy I’d hit up Jorgen Kjellgren and James Stephen Finn for optimistic but edgy glitch-hop, Test Card for the sound of the summer, Apta for some gentle heartfelt electronica, Mandroid for a smooth lazy morning vibe, or if I wanted to escape my physical and mental shackles I’d head to the Wu Cloud.”

“The label is also the sound of multiple creative souls exploring generally less trodden musical pathways with all their being. It’s pure artistic expression and as such, I regard it as soul music in nontraditional forms from alternative thinkers.

To give you an idea of the range, check Wu Cloud’s combination of jungle field recordings and tripped-out electronica recorded with a portable rucksack studio in Sumatran island huts:

Bróna McVittie’s heartwrenching Celtic folk vocals accompanied by her minimal electric harp:

Or The Howard Hughes Suite, an English cosmic cowboy who is making widescreen, psychedelic ambient Americana and was recently described by one reviewer as ‘the Ennio Morricone from Mars’!”

“It’s funny you should mention chillhop. I was intrigued by this modern notion of chill-out music that I wrote an article on what I consider to be its origin. To summarise it went something like, hip-hop is the dominant Western music these days so it was only natural that the genre’s popularity would trickle down into different musical worlds, and chillhop - the cross-pollination of chill-out and hip-hop, is the perfect example of that happening. I guess The Slow Music Movement has a similar dynamic—or lack of dynamic!

But I really would urge beat producers to dig deeper for sample sources - innovate, don’t replicate. Some prime examples if you need inspiration are Onra who was one of the first to do a proper job with Asiatic samples from Vietnam and China—a still relatively unexploited source of sample material I reckon. Or Paul White who had a real thing for psychedelic rock and was always making oddball beats but ended up producing a Danny Brown album.

Classic funk and soul sounds are evergreen. But they’re been rinsed, so why not instead dig into far-flung places like Bhutan, Burkina Faso & Guadeloupe? Research what gamelan music is, discover Mongolian throat singing and Basque country txalaparta, explore esoteric catalogs like The Slow Music Movement and unexploited genres like post-rock, no wave, or cosmic Americana, for example.”

“I agree to an extent with that statement but everyone gets what they want out of anything and one person’s “ignorable” is another’s “profound.” I tend to ambient music as an active listening aid to relaxation, where layered productions that require deep and multiple listens are a must. I also use ambient as passive listening or background music for tasks where I need to rub some brain cells together like reading or writing. Although rather than “ignoring” it, I find it mildly stimulating.

The part I disagree with is “must be ignorable as it is interesting.” Firstly because I hate anyone using the word “must” (especially to me :) ), and nobody has a right to define a genre. Genres aren’t static and are continually being redefined by musicians, producers, events, and technology. Good ambient music is an underappreciated art. A bit like beatmaking, I guess. I mean: beats, bass, hi-hats, and a couple of samples—how do some get it so right and some so wrong?”

“Tracklib has already taken the fear factor out of sampling! Sample clearance, dealing with rights holders, or getting caught for non-cleared music was all a nightmare! Especially with AI’sincreasing ability to identify samples by scanning all music getting played on radio, TV & internet 24/7. The availability of the stems on so many tracks is an incredible blessing. No more waiting for that break and hoping that hot-sounding trumpet player will appear there. Label search, genre search, catalog search—how helpful and convenient do people want it? I’m surprised Tracklib doesn’t deliver food to producers so they don’t have to leave the studio.

Also, Tracklib is actively bringing on board small oddball labels and minority sounds, when most organizations—even distributors—will now only deal with the more commercial end of the market. That can only be good for the future of sampling, producers, and small artists, and indie labels. Tracklib is an important conduit of money from the haves to the have-nots; from the top-of-the-charts and festival fillers to the musical underground.”