Most genres of dance music loosely correspond to specific tempo ranges. House thumps away at around 120 beats per minute; techno presses the accelerator to 130; drum’n’bass carves its tornado-like path anywhere between 160 and 180. These buckets are, in part, a practical consideration, facilitating the DJ’s beatmatching. But there’s also an expressive dimension to such divisions, and as the lines around subgenres have gradually dissolved, certain tempos have emerged as both organizing principles and creative playgrounds. When dubstep…
