I used to do a lot of hiphop/lofi stuff but have been slowly moving into doing more ambient stuff. Drums are still important to me and I don’t think I will ever do an ambient track without drums, but making the two work well together is currently one of the most difficult parts of production for me. It seems like every track I start now turns into a dub techno track lol. So I was wondering what other genres you all think merge drums and ambient well. I have also heard some nice ambient drum and bass, but want some more different kinds of inspiration to help me out of a rut .
you’re asking for something very difficult because the only good answer is trip hop. I mean we could try and invent a genre, but you’re up against a brick wall my friend.
There’s some middle ground in hip hop still. I don’t know if it can still be found, but some of the early Who Cares? albums are a bit in this pocket… Ambient hip hop. A lot of swimmy reverb. Sax player. An Electric piano…
Electronic drums and drum samples are preferred. They don’t need to be in any specific style. I wasn’t really thinking “new age world music” kind of stuff, but inspiration is inspiration lol.
I don’t know what your definition of “drums” is, but quite a few Ulla tracks have beats, which I think are some of the most well integrated I’ve ever heard in ambient music.
I got halfway through your post and started thinking of drum n bass, but looks like you’ve got that covered. I’ve been listening to the Earth albums by LTJ Bukem, which you might enjoy if you’re not familiar. A lot of different tempos in the mix on that.
For more breakbeat stuff No Moon has some nice ambient stuff. Other stuff is quite heavy. 653 Miles EP might be worth checking.
Downtempo almost Balearic stuff by LOVA you might like. Glysophia EP and Elusive Realities sundown mix.
These suggestions are all quite deep and groovy but you might be after something a bit straighter and glitchier.
Did you ever hear Keinseier? A (non annoying) synthfluencer that makes high quality stuff and I think the drums are very well done.
a few examples from the top of my head when i think of ambient + drums.
theres usual suspects like boards of canada and aphex twin, but i personally dont think of them as ambient.
oh and also osamu sato
P.S. not all tracks on these are ambient-ambient, so skip around!
P.P.S. radiohead also has a ton of ambient drum stuffs. dig more if you like vocals.
@substan is an Elektron monster, with so many ambient tracks that layer in percussion. Just engage with his YouTube and get washed over with inspiration.
I’ve struggled with this a lot.
For ambient to stay ambient, it’s better IMO to have the beat in the background.
Thinking of the beat as something that gives the ambient part a pace, a breathe.
A kick with some reverb on the first step every 64 steps is a simple yet effective way to do so.
Using sounds as rhythm (e.g. light background noise cut with silence, Radiohead’s Spinning Plates like), or using chords as rhythm is a good way too.
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