By: Jonathan Gross

Trends come and go in the electronic music industry. What's hot one year is gone the next, and what used to be the latest hot genre is now a "throwback" at best, and tired at worst. But one overarching category of music that remains relevant in perpetuity is the chill stuff we need to close out a long night of raging, or get us through the work week drudgery until we can get to that party.

Downtempo music has always served a purpose, and frankly, the term is too diminutive to encompass all that gets that haphazard label on it. While loud, rowdy, intense dance music will always have its primetime spot, producers of chillout tunes are starting to get recognized and lionized for their soothing sounds. As the latest EDM boom flattens out, and the headbanging youth of dubstep start to look for something less testosterone-riddled and more substantive, the musicality of downtempo productions will continue to gain a foothold in the festival circuit. Acts like Bonobo, Tycho, and Emancipator have built massive careers around lush, symphonic compositions that illicit more head nods than bangs. Beauty is back in the spotlight.

To that end, Liquid Stranger, Random Rab, and Frameworks all converged at the Electric Glen in Electric Forest to discuss the place of downtempo music in the contemporary dance music space. Panel host Anand Harsh also chatted about the importance of a set at the festival with the three newcomers to the event. Covering a wide array of topics, while still burrowing deeply into the downtempo head space, fans will get an understanding from the audio taken from the panel of where this acclaimed sound fits into the big party. You can also watch the panel as it was live streamed from on-site at Electric Forest.

Stay tuned for more podcasts of the panels which included Papadosio, the entire Doomtree collective, and Mark Hill of The Floozies.