Resonance Theory | 01

A late-night journey through downtempo’s secret corridors: Belgian lounge breezes (“Matrass Mambo”), French cinematic funk (“Get Misunderstood”), Hull-bred ambient dub (“The Great Attractor”), and Tokyo-via-London MPC ritual (“Plum Rain”). Adjust your subwoofer, dim the lights, and ride these sound waves.

Matrass Mambo - Sven Van Hees

Characteristics - Forss

Get Misunderstood - Troublemakers

Dorothy's Groove - Red Astaire

Come On - Marden Hill

The Great Attractor - Fila Brazillia

Kiara (Original Mix) - Bonobo

Damn - Nightmares On Wax

Form to Follow - Tm Juke

The Child - Alex Gopher

Sugar Planet - Flunk

Plum Rain - Anchorsong

Cry Osaka Cry - Arovane

Heavy - Bullitnuts

“Matrass Mambo” – Sven Van Hees

Belgian downtempo architect Sven Van Hees wrote “Matrass Mambo” while living in a beach hut near Marbella; the field-recorded gulls in the intro are literal neighbors. Released in 2002 by Life Enhancing Audio. The track pairs loose-limbed bossa percussion with brushed jazz horns played by Antwerp sessionist Frank Deruytter, then glues everything together with a Roland JD-800 pad that Sven always runs through a Boss SE-50 for final shimmer. First pressed on the Calypso LP, it quietly became a Café del Mar sunset essential.

“Characteristics” – Forss

Early naughts electronica infused with jazz and hip-hop vibes, syncopated beats, and soulful samples. Eric Wahlforss—better known today as SoundCloud’s co-founder—crafted this piece by chopping Blue Note jazz riffs into a Max/MSP “swing engine” he coded from scratch. Released in 2003 on Sonar Kollektiv. The resulting beat staggers and lurches like a drummer caught mid-tune-up, while a sub-50 Hz sine undercurrent keeps heads nodding. Soulhack, the album housing “Characteristics,” was mixed by Jazzanova’s Axel Reinemer at their Kreuzberg studio, giving it that trademark Sonar Kollektiv polish. Though never charting, it became a Worldwide FM staple; Gilles Peterson called it “future bebop for laptop kids.”

“Get Misunderstood” – Troublemakers

Funk, jazz, and cinematic samples create a layered, groove-driven ride. Recorded on Guidance Recordings in 2001. This Marseille trio built the track around a warped vibraphone loop from a 1960s Claude Bolling soundtrack reel they found in a flea market. They layered it with brushed drums recorded in their parents’ wine cellar—hence the natural reverb—and filtered upright-bass stabs sampled from their earlier single “Electro Shock.” Released on Chicago’s Guidance label in 2001, it crossed scenes: downtempo heads loved the cinematic strings, while house DJs pitched it up for 3 a.m. slow-burns. Artwork nods to vintage French film posters, reinforcing the group’s cine-jazz obsession.

“Dorothy’s Groove” – Red Astaire

Swedish edit king Freddie Cruger (aka Red Astaire) flips a 1974 Dorothy Moore soul cut, isolating the Fender-Rhodes lick, adding MPC-flanged breakbeats, and sprinkling hand-clap FX sampled from a Brazilian batucada record. Released in 2005 by GAMM Enterprises and pressed on their hallmark stamped white labels (only 500 copies), it sold out in a weekend. The tune’s dusty swing made it a favorite opener for Jazzy Jeff’s more soulful sets and still pops up in Opolopo or Kon mixes today.

“Come On” – Marden Hill

Trip hop jazz meets bossa nova with retro-chic lounge aesthetics. Produced by London duo Mark Daniels & Peter De Putron, “Come On” fuses mod-jazzy vibes with a bossa-nova lick lifted from Eumir Deodato. Rumor has it James Lavelle discovered the group while crate-digging at Camden’s Cheapo Cheapo Records—he signed them to Mo' Wax on the spot and released their record in 1994. The 12″ famously features sleeve art by Ben Drury, reflecting the label’s design-forward ethos.

“The Great Attractor” – Fila Brazillia

Cosmic, dub-inflected downtempo from Hull’s sample-science duo, blending jazz, squelchy funk, and abstract breaks. From the 1997 album Luck Be a Weirdo Tonight on Pork Recordings. The title references the mysterious gravity well pulling the Local Group of galaxies—bandmate Cobby read about it in New Scientist and liked the cosmic gravitas. Luck Be A Weirdo Tonight became Pork’s biggest seller, and this cut, in particular, landed on Mixmaster Morris’s Chillout Room playlists at Glastonbury. Its squelchy Moog leads and dubbed-out guitar chops are early blueprints for what would become “future jazz.”

“Kiara” – Bonobo

A lush blend of Eastern strings and downtempo breaks from Bonobo’s breakthrough Black Sands LP. A great example of cinematic and exotic electronica. Released in 2010 on Ninja Tune. Bonobo’s live band versions replaced the sample with a string quartet, with live footage still racking up YouTube views.

“Damn” – Nightmares On Wax

George Evelyn drops “Damn” mid-sequence on In a Space Outta Sound, landing with his smoked-out signature: relaxed hip-hop swing, warm Rhodes swells, and that unhurried Leeds bounce. The hook is built around a lifted fragment from Al Hirt’s 1967 cut “Harlem Hendoo,” a crate-standard jazz source that Evelyn filters and beds into low-end you feel more than hear. The parent album arrived on Warp in 2006, becoming a selector favorite—French DJ/producer Folamour singled it out in his “10 Best Nightmares On Wax Tracks” feature as classic NoW: “dope jazz-infused instrumental hip-hop… an unexpected drum groove.”

“Form to Follow” – TM Juke

Brighton producer Alex Cowan combines live Rhodes chords, Alice Russell’s stacked backing vocals, and guitar riffs run through a Roland Space Echo. Released in 2003 by Tru Thoughts on Maps from the Wilderness, the song gained cult status after Gilles Peterson spun it three times in one Worldwide episode, calling it “broken-beat soul you can trust.” Kinny’s ad-lib scat at 3:02 was a spontaneous studio joke that stayed in the final mix. Vinyl is scarce: only 1,000 copies of the Forward EP were pressed.

“The Child” – Alex Gopher

Gopher time-stretched Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child” into a head-nodding French stepper, layering live horns by Paris jazzmen Henri Deoz and Fred Boutier. Released in 1999 on Solid/V2, the track reached #50 on the UK Singles Chart and was licensed to every chill compilation of the early 2000s. French Touch-meets-jazz via sampled soul vocals and warm Rhodes-driven house.

“Sugar Planet” – Flunk

Norwegian downtempo group’s dreamy and melancholic electronica with acoustic instrumentation. Oslo trio Flunk blend nylon-string guitar, glitchy drum edits, and Anja Øyen Vister’s whispered vocals captured at 3 a.m. in a snow-damp attic—tram line 11 can be faintly heard if you crank the intro. Released in 2002 on Beatservice. John Peel aired it twice, prompting BBC Radio 1 listeners to flood the station asking, “Who is Flunk?” It remains a staple on Nordic coffee-house playlists.

“Plum Rain” – Anchorsong

Masaaki Yoshida tracked this tune live on an MPC1000, triggering kalimba and koto multisamples while a percussionist overdubbed frame drum. Released in 2016 on Tru Thoughts, the title nods to Japan’s tsuyu season—early-summer rainfall that smells like ripe plums. Boiler Room recorded Yoshida’s quartet version; vinyl sales spiked within 24 hours.

“Cry Osaka Cry” – Arovane

Melancholic gem from German producer Uwe Zahn—layering skittering micro‑beats with glassy pads and distant field recordings. Released by City Centre Offices on the 2003 EP Lilies. Regularly cited on “best glitch” lists. The title was inspired by a rain‑soaked stay in Osaka following Zahn’s mother’s passing—capturing grief and urban solitude. Zahn wrote it after a rain-drenched Osaka stay in the wake of his mother’s passing; spectral field recordings of streetcars open the track. Lilies is now a touchstone for Tycho, Helios, and Haujobb alike.

“Heavy” – Bullitnuts

Deep dub and downtempo groove with thick sub‑bass, skanking guitars, and swirling space‑echo - a late night, smoky, drug‑laced climax. Released in 1999 by Pork Recordings, this track was recorded in a converted Hull fish warehouse. “Heavy” rides a dubbed-out groove, sub-bass from an SH-101, and cavernous tape echoes courtesy of a Roland RE-301. Pork’s pig logo became shorthand for “buy on sight” in chillout circles.