Lento violento, sometimes shortened to simply lento, is a style of

electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...

that developed in Italy. Its name means ''slow (and) violent'', as this style typically has a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

between 85 and 115 beats per minute (BPM). It consists of a hard

kick A kick is a physical strike using the leg, in unison usually with an area of the knee or lower using the foot, heel, tibia (shin), ball of the foot, blade of the foot, toes or knee (the latter is also known as a knee strike). This type of ...

, like the ones present in hardcore or

hardstyle Hardstyle is an electronic dance music, electronic dance genre that emerged in the late 1990s, with origins in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Hardstyle mixes influences from techno, new beat and Hardcore (electronic dance music genre), har ...

, but played at a very slow tempo, with vocal samples and dark and acid sounds or loops.

Origins

The first tracks with the lento violento sound were "Anima Ladina" by Ottomix (1991), "Panic Mouse (stress mix)" by

Gigi D'Agostino Luigino Celestino di Agostino (; born 17 December 1967), known professionally as Gigi D'Agostino (), is an Italian DJ and music producer. In 1986, he started his career as a DJ spinning Italo disco. His biggest chart successes include " Bla Bl ...

(1996), "Ibiza" by Ottomix (1998) and Alex Castelli's "Enjoy", that was co-produced by Ottomix. Although at that time, they were not called "lento violento" yet. These tracks were influenced by the more

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

and

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

-oriented tracks like

Mauro Picotto Mauro Picotto (born 25 December 1966) is an Italian electronic music producer and DJ, and previously a member of the Italian Euro house group "R.A.F.". He became well known as a solo artist with songs including " Komodo (Save a Soul)", "Pulsa ...

's "Lizard", "Iguana", "Pulsar", "Tuttincoro" or "Raggattak" by Joman (Joy Kitikonti), all from the Italian BXR label. While some individual tracks were popular in the clubs, the style itself was not established until DJ/producer

started with a series of productions in 2003, like "Ripassa". Indeed, he coined the name for this style, and he releases most of his lento violento songs on his own label Noise Maker, using aliases like Dottor Dag, Lento Violento Man, Uomo Suono, Orchestra Maldestra, or La Tana Del Suono, to distinguish these songs from his

Italo dance Italo dance (also written Italodance) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the mid-1990s in Italy as a regional development of eurodance; its sound subsequently evolved into a distinct yet closely related form. The genre had ...

work. Other artists started to create similar tracks after the success of this style. Also several compilation CDs are released with lento violento music, like the ''Movimentolento'' series.

Reemergence in hardstyle

Italian producer

Technoboy Cristiano Giusberti (born December 19, 1970), known by his primary stage name Technoboy, is an Italian hardstyle DJ and producer from Bologna. Cristiano is also a manager and producer for 'The Saifam Group', a record company. He began in 1992 ...

, in his track "The Undersound" released in 2009, fused lento with modern hardstyle elements; while the track claims to christen the new genre "undersound", the term "lento" is still used occasionally to denominate hardstyle tracks. Technoboy himself has continued to use such motifs in his tracks like "Catfight", and the track "MF Point of Lento" by

Brennan Heart Fabian Bohn (born 2 March 1982), known professionally as Brennan Heart, is a Dutch DJ and hardstyle producer. Career Brennan & Heart In 2002, Fabian Bohn co-founded with Pieter Heijnen (known as DJ Thera) a duo named Brennan & Heart concentrati ...

and

Headhunterz Willem Rebergen (born 12 September 1985), better known by his stage name ''Headhunterz'', is a Dutch Disc jockey, DJ and Record producer, music producer. Rebergen is also a Voice acting, voice actor. He has done Dubbing (filmmaking), dubbing for ...

explicitly calls Technoboy the most prominent artist of the genre.

References

External links

Noise Maker label overview
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

Official Gigi D'Agostino forum
(in Italian) {{Electronica Italian popular music Hardcore music genres Electronic dance music genres

Origins

Reemergence in hardstyle

See also

References

External links