The Dining Rooms

The Dining Rooms - Numero Deux on Milano 2000 (MI 2019 2LP) is a cornerstone of early-2000s Italian downtempo, and the double-vinyl format underscores just how cinematic this album really is. The Milanese duo craft smoke-hazed, late-night pieces where jazz samples, live instrumentation and trip-hop beats weave into noirish soundscapes. You get slow, head-nod rhythms, brushed drums, upright bass, Rhodes chords and ghostly vocal snippets that feel like fragments of forgotten European films. There's a strong sense of pacing: some tracks are skeletal and dubby, others swell into full-band crescendos, but everything maintains a cool, slightly melancholic tone that defined a whole era of lounge and nu-jazz compilations. On 2LP, the music has the room it needs - bass is deep but controlled, reverbs and ambience are clear, and the space between the notes is almost as important as the notes themselves. Essential for downtempo and trip-hop collectors.