Trip Hop and Downtempo Radio: Slow Beats, Streaming Live

Published

Title card for the guide: Trip Hop and Downtempo Radio, in amber on black with an equaliser motif

You can listen to trip hop and downtempo radio online in any browser, with no download and no account: open 72FM, search for "downtempo" or "trip hop", and press play. The slow, heavy beats that came out of Bristol in the early 1990s fill some of the most-loved stations on the internet — SomaFM's Groove Salad above all.

Downtempo

  • SomaFM Groove Salad — ambient, downtempo and chillout from San Francisco, one of the most-voted stations in the whole directory.
  • SomaFM Secret Agent — downtempo, lounge and 60s spy jazz.
  • SomaFM Beat Blender — deep house and downtempo.
  • Deep Radio — deep house, downtempo and nu-jazz from the Netherlands at 320 kbps.
  • Lounge.FM - 100% Austria — downtempo and lounge, all from Austria.

Trip hop

  • GDS.FM — trip hop, nu-jazz and experimental music from Zurich at 320 kbps.
  • Radio Caprice TripHop — trip hop at 320 kbps.
  • Australian Digital Radio Network - Trip Hop — trip hop and acid jazz from Sydney.
  • ABradio Chillout — chillout and trip hop from the Czech Republic.
  • THEBRISTOLSOUNDWEB RADIO — the Bristol sound.

Broken beats

  • Brokenbeats — atmospheric drum and bass and downtempo at 320 kbps.

The sound

Massive Attack's Blue Lines in 1991 slowed hip hop down, soaked it in dub and soul and made the Bristol sound; Portishead's Dummy and Tricky followed, and the music press named it trip hop. Kruder & Dorfmeister in Vienna and Thievery Corporation in Washington took it into the downtempo and lounge of the late 90s. Bristol radio, ambient radio and lo-fi radio, its younger cousin, go further.

A route in

  1. SomaFM Groove Salad, the classic.
  2. GDS.FM, for trip hop and nu-jazz.
  3. SomaFM Secret Agent, for spy-movie lounge.

Search for "downtempo" or "trip hop" on 72FM to find them all, and save your favourite.

Stations with a page on 72FM

Live Downtempo stations from the open directory, most-voted first.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a trip hop radio station online?

Yes — GDS.FM, Radio Caprice TripHop and Australian Digital Radio Network's Trip Hop channel play it. Search for "trip hop" on 72FM — no download and no account, with the daily free listening included.

Can I listen to SomaFM Groove Salad on 72FM?

Yes — SomaFM Groove Salad is in the directory, along with Secret Agent and Beat Blender.

What is trip hop?

Slow, heavy beats with dub, soul and hip hop in them, from Bristol in the early 1990s: Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky.

What is downtempo?

Electronic music at a slow tempo for listening rather than dancing — the chillout and lounge side of the 90s and after.