lo-fi study beats

Japanese village?

asmr is designed to deliver a sensory response, lo-fi is more about vibez

― tiwa-nty one savage (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 2 February 2021 14:30 (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

exactly, asmr is for those who wish 2 feel, but as I said I wonder whether there has been an elision and people who don't really know what asmr is are consuming bad asmr content in a functionally similar ambient way to these lo-fi beatz

just learnt that dog latin has bowels of steel good 2 know

what are you feeling though? "low grade euphoria" according to the wikipedia page. still feels measured, controlled, vibelike

itt: people who don't get asmr or loffy

xps I sleep with brown noise. Should we poll all the noise colors?

asmr = weed
loffy = xanax

idk this^ feels wrong still lol

Brown Noise works better than White Noise as it's a deeper, more enveloping hum whereas white noise is a little on the harsh side.

co-sign

a lot of it strikes me as descended from Dilla

Wasn't there a thread on this the other day music playing in background for cat rescue centres, copyright free music for podcasts, timelapse vidoes of going up and down a ladder?

Nujabes is a key touchpoint too

co-fi would be a great name for a chill beats and coffee joint that i would never ever visit

lolol

A+ Nick

Guys I'm writing a big post

everybody clear the room!

or you're in for a slow and steady drumming

a lot of it strikes me as descended from Dilla

that big post going to feel so satisfying when it comes out

Ok, I've never really gathered my thoughts on this topic, although there was a good recent discussion about it here: ILM's 2010's blindspots

So here we go. For me the roots of it obviously go back to Dilla and the L.A./Low End Theory beat scene, although if you wanna go back farther you could just say that downtempo and trip-hop served the same function (see also early Four Tet etc). But there was a wing of the beat scene that was particularly focused on found-sound percussion and textures that were more influenced by r&b, New Age, etc. Lots of Rhodes, square waves, surface noise, and Roland SP404s.

Teebs 'Ardour' is a true classic of the genre:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLj29qehYLM

But for me the true template for 'lo-fi' is Shohmo's Bad Vibes album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIKMKki5l1M

At the time, I was extremely into this sound before there was a name for it, and I was trying (with varying levels of success) to make my own version of it too. Some other personal touchstones from when this still seemed like an exciting path in the early '10s:

Dropping Gems records out of Seattle/Portland:
https://droppinggems.bandcamp.com/album/djao
https://droppinggems.bandcamp.com/album/find

IG88:
https://ig88.bandcamp.com/album/breathing-suit

The first Torus EP that apparently doesn't exist anymore. Early Lapalux, Shigeto, Airhead, the first few milo EPs, etc etc.

Anyway, I never got into Soulection, but that seemed to be the writing on the wall as far as consolidating this sound into a brand/label/radio station that already felt a little watered down (although the producer Monte Booker who linked up with them was and is incredible).

When I first heard the term 'lo-fi hip-hop' I had no idea what it was referring to, but it quickly became apparent it was the final form of this sound after it had been reduced to basic components and anonymized for the world of streaming + playlists + algorithms. That was around when I made a hard turn toward dance music (and for awhile went way too far in the other direction with really abrasive sounds, as a reaction against making music for background listening). And I still feel a little sad about it, because making beats out of kitchen utensils and jazzy Rhodes chords is a pleasant activity, but it would feel like a pointless act.

Although like I said on the other thread, I'm sure people have their favorite lo-fi producers and I'm curious about that, and I do think there's room for a ton of skill and creativity, but also wouldn't be surprised if infinite lo-fi playlists were cranked out by AI starting soon.

this is like easy listening boom bap. lots of indie-ish guitars in there too. its not like listening to dilla or doom really. but it IS good to work to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qap5aO4i9A

xp to jordan -- booming post

booming bapping

plenty of crossover with the indie game music community imo

teebs' estara was very good IIRC though i did think it kinda twee at the time

oh and here's Japanese Village

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_zNPScqBb8

It's interesting because lots of it is copyright free youtube compilation background and yet much of it would probably do well as proper LP release material too. Same dynamic with ambient post-vaporwave artists similarly giving their music away for free on bandcamp etc.

music media socialite adam neely called this stuff "smooth jazz for millennials" and i think that's just about accurate.

candyman: yeah that's the big stream. I took this thread basically as discussing that one in particular.

Certainly there is more interesting work going on in instrumental/lofi hiphop* than you'll hear on that stream. It was an odd experience first hearing Shigeto and others like 5 years ago and trying to compile playlists, right as this total pablum was coming up alongside, just making the whole experience kind of tedious.

Is there some better genre title around? I guess it's adding "study" or "chill" that makes it clear enough we're not talking about knxwledge, ohbliv, dilla, the new madlib album, whatever

Is this not just downtempo?

its just totally functional music. i dont mind it. especially right now, this is actually something i appreciate.

Easy listening boom bap otm
No mention yet of not only the music being extremely similar from artist to artist but also the artwork?

boombient

i prefer the meditation and healing tones for chakra balancing and pineal gland cleansin tbh. but there's a similarity in principle i think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5dPe0yb4JQ

oh yeah

this stuff all comes up next to each other thru the algos

No mention yet of not only the music being extremely similar from artist to artist but also the artwork?

Yeah when 'lo-fi' came into vogue it also seemed heavily associated with anime artwork & video game streams

also playing-in-another-roomcore

xxp yeah that's the thing.

one thing you can do is avoid anything with anime looking art...per xps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WhUkxMKhrI

jut another extension of all the 'sad' music the past decade i think

the lo fi thing is a bit weird to me, as its not esp dirty, its just a bit under produced, and the textures are mostly on the more delicate side

shame that i cant see any track names on this youtube feed im listening to right now (while working ofc)

Yeah i don’t know why it’s called lo-fi really

though vinyl surface noise is often added onto it. I could be wrong but it seems like a trope with this stuff

xxp

Sometimes there is some static but not usually

that popular stream has the track names in the video, along the top. And you can scroll back for hours on YouTube. Fill your boots!

well i need a nap

"Lo-fi" was never apt and is a dumb name, although there's a strain of it that's built mostly on samples, maybe it's just supposed to be hazy sounding in comparison to trap beats. Boom bap vaporwave.

insomnia by team astro is so much like a classic R&B/hip hop beat but i cant put my finger on it.

whos the dilla or madlib of this genre though? :P

the only act i can recall is Mt Marcy. They seem like a pretty good example of the style

tbh i totally love these smoove sadboy beats. does exactly what it is meant to. i value modest ambition and consistent execution. waiting for the dj premier of this genre to emerge.

Minecraft soundtrack music is exactly like this, yes.

tempted to start making this music just so I can add in a few tracks with subtly disturbing melodic shifts and ruin everyone's studies

They recently added some more tunes in the 1.18 update too.

I do like the occasional xmas lo-fi song. There's an "Oh Christmas Tree" version I particularly like, will have to try and find out the source.

lol this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbfVLyKtLLc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQtJBfr2XvU

Reading that Kieran Press-Reynolds Pitchfork piece on the lo-fi beats scene getting co-opted by AI was very funny to me. Aside from the obligatory mention of Dilla and Nujabes as influences I sort of couldn't believe there was no mention of Low End Theory, Flying Lotus, Teebs, Shlohmo, even Soulection, etc. I wrote about this upthread, but to me by the time 'lo fi' became a thing it was already cooked, a smoothed-out and codified sound that was cashing on the algorithm.

tempted to start making this music

lol, maybe if you had...added beats?

there is some light drumming at some point. the beats are implied. you can't just jive bunny over segovia.

Technically not far off from “drumless” beats that sound like mirages of 90s east coast

https://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=185677