Trip-hop sits somewhere between hip-hop’s grit and the introspection of jazz, funk, and dub. It’s an atmospheric, downtempo sound built on breakbeats that tells stories in smoke and static, where the past and present blur into something dreamlike — a sound long tied to the Gen X soft-club sensibility.
It’s always been the sound of late nights: slow, cinematic, and perhaps a little bruised. The 1990s gave it form, a mix of hip-hop breaks, dub, R&B, and smoky vocals that hung heavy in the air. Nearly thirty years later, that same feeling is back, not as nostalgia, but as something new.
The sound that lingered
Born in Bristol’s underground, trip-hop never had a loud presence. Massive Attack, Portishead, and Tricky made music that was patient and moody. Something you felt, more than you danced to. By the late 1990s, hints of it started seeping into the mainstream.
Björk’s experimental sound carried traces of trip-hop’s pulse. Madonna’s 1998 record, Ray of Light, wove in its textures without fully claiming the genre. Even Lana Del Rey paired the trip-hop sound with pop glamour in the 2010s.
It never really disappeared. It just slipped into quieter corners, waiting for the right moment to return.
Trip-hop now: Not a revival but a recalibration
Fast-forward to 2025, and trip-hop is quietly seeping back into both indie and pop. What started as a smoky, late-night sound has found a new home, which makes sense, since everything feels nostalgia-driven right now.
You can hear it clearly in Addison Rae’s debut record, Addison. Even before release, her singles hinted at a moody, trip-hop-leaning direction, more introspective and textured in sound. Songs like “Headphones On” and “Times Like These” move slow and heavy but still warm. It is that familiar 2 a.m. sense of being lost in thought, or standing by the water as the world slows down.
“My life moves faster than me. Can’t feel the ground beneath my feet,” a confession tracing the same quiet confusion that made trip-hop so human, paired with its instrumental that drifts through the genre’s familiar haze. It’s trip-hop through and through.
That same pulse runs through Erika de Casier, Kelela, and FKA twigs. De Casier’s “Miss” leans into smooth R&B rhythms. Kelela’s “Contact” feels like that moment before a night out, getting ready under dim hotel lights, everything slow, sensual, and expectant. Twigs’ recent EUSEXUA revisits that same trip-hop mood too. They’re not recreating it, they’re reshaping it for now.
After, a duo that calls their sound “trip-pop,” captures a kind of Y2K trip-hop energy that recalls Frou Frou and Dido. They describe it as “hook-based-trip-hop,” vibey and lowkey but still structured, sitting somewhere between mood and melody. Their music has that angelic, cathartic edge to emotional themes, paired with production that feels cohesive, dreamy, and atmospheric.
The visuals match the sound, dreamy and slightly unreal. If you’re into Frutiger Aero aesthetics or anything adjacent, After’s music nails that vibe effortlessly. And if you love Addison Rae’s “Headphones On” or “Times Like These,” you’ll find a similar kind of float here.
Smaller acts like 16 Underground, Teather, and a.s.o. are carrying trip-hop’s darker edge, keeping that classic spirit alive through heavy basslines and late-night atmospheres. Vegyn’s recent discography definitely leans into a 90s trip-hop-inspired sound. Dusty drums, moody pacing, and that heavy-lidded atmosphere that sits somewhere between dream and decay. Tracks like “Last Night I Dreamt I Was Alone” push that feeling even further. These are the artists bridging the old and new, letting trip-hop evolve without losing what made it special.
You can feel its touch everywhere — in the beats, in the mood, in how it lingers. With albums like Addison getting real critical love, trip-hop’s pulse is back in the mainstream. Not loud, but steady, exactly how it’s always been.
Trip-hop today doesn’t feel like something artists plan for. It just appears. A sound that naturally finds its way into their music. It’s less a genre now, more a mood, living somewhere between melancholy and the calmness of it all.
Why It Hits Different Now
Trip-hop has always been music for the in-between — between genres, emotions, even hours of the night. Maybe that’s why it fits again now. In a world that moves too fast, it slows things down. In an era obsessed with spectacle, it creates space.
This isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about the feeling that it brings. Music that doesn’t shout for attention but stays with you quietly, long after it ends.
Men’s Folio Malaysia curates a playlist of artists keeping that feeling alive. They may not all be textbook or pure trip-hop, but each one echoes the genre’s tone in their own way.
Headphones On – Addison Rae
Deep Diving – After
Miss – Erika de Casier
Embarrassed Dog – Chanel Beads
Pillow Talk – trickpony
Can You Hear Me? – 16 Underground
Times Like These – Addison Rae
Girl Feels Good – FKA twigs
Contact – Kelela
Last Night I Dreamt I Was Alone – Vegyn
Falling Under – a.s.o., Alias Error
i wish you would make it easy – Babymorocco
Wholesale Anthem – Headache, Vegyn
Real Life – Acopia
Mindflower – Now Always Fades
Spirals On My Tongue – RIP Swirl, Ydegirl
Tequila Coma – yeule
WBWU – Purient
Boyracer – Hysterical Love Project
babygirl (like n01 else) – Night Tapes
With You – Teather
Hypersoft Lovejinx Junkdream – james K
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