Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Playa d'en London
Posts: 9825

Radio One (early sunday morning) played the re-scheduled essential mix of sash and john digweeds gig at the Miami Winter Conference from late March. This being their opening gig from their Delta Heavy tour of the USA.

Now, as of late the whole 'progressive house' scene is being heavily criticised by people within the industry. The music is no longer as it was back in 1994 - 1997. Back then music was inriched with melody. Not so much the case nowadays.

And why? Well, back in 1999 trance became so over bloated with commercialism and so downright cheesy and mainstream that dj's and producers opted for something deeper, darker and far less melodic.

Now theres nothing wrong with this style. But its now got to the point were far too much of it sounds the same. The term BSPF ( bog standard proggy fodder) gets thrown around a lot.

I do agree that some producers try to be too 'deep' and 'dark' bordering on techno. Again, I dont mind this but if your in a club you expect something just a tad more uplifting.

But like any cycle in music, it will change.

Sasha has already began to mix breakbeats into his sets.

The 'essential mix' radio one played also proved how important these 2 dj's are. The set fucking rocked.

tracklist:

1. Tijuana - Groove is in the Air (Moonface unreleased remix)
2. Unknown
3. Unknown
4. Moby - We R All Made Of Stars (Timo's mix)
5. Yunus - Lullaby
6. Shmuel Flash - Chilling Moments (Bedrock remix + dub?)
7. Yunus - Red Pilot
8. Adam dived - Headfirst
9. Solid Sessions - Janiero (James Holden Mix)
10. James Holden - Nothing
11. Deceptions - Eastern Promise
12. Chimera - Just Wanna Do My Thing
13. Moby - We R All Made of Stars (Timo's mix) (Again)
14. Unknown - One for the Road
15. Flash - Hazy March


probably means nothing to you, but its was sublime. the sasha album (set for release in september) will re-shape the scene altogther. i'm pretty certain of that.


this post from a music forum i frequent basically covers what progressive house is - for anyone who isnt sure and may care:


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"Progressive House originated as a straight cross between Trance and House.

It was mainly associated with a club called "Renaissance" (though Guerilla and Cowboy records is were it truly began a few years earlier).


Justin Robertson and other DJ's such as Fabio Paras, Dean Thatcher and Terry Farley developed this 'dub house disco' style, as it was originally penned, in small venues in and around London. S & D took the baton from these guys and shaped and molded it further.

Sasha and John Digweed were residents at Renaissance and it was they who pushed this particular strain of house. One of the early Progressive House tunes is generally regarded to be Leftfield - "Not Forgotten (Hard Hands Mix)".

Other tunes that exemplify this early style of Progressive House would be Farley & Heller "Perfect Motion", Moonchild "V.O.A.T", Spooky - "Little Bullet", Fluke "Slide" and Leftfield "Song Of Life".

The adjective "Progressive" came from the fact that the music was less sample based and incorporated "real" instruments in songs. In 1994 Sasha and Digweed released a compilation entitled "Renaissance: The Mix Collection", this is seen by many as the definitive Progressive House compilation.

As the years went on the emphasis in Progressive House shift towards the trancier elements in the genre.

The difference in these two styles can be illustrated by comparing the original Renaissance compilation with Part Four. Around this time Sasha and Digweed released Northern Exposure 2, which while also very Trancey also incorporated a plethora of breakbeat tracks.

The Progressive House of today is much different from both styles outlined above. When Trance exploded in 1999 and become very popular many people jumped on the bandwagon and an awful lot of substandard releases folllowed.

Given that the Trance format which these substandard copies were following was in itself quite derivative this meant that Trance quickly became a laughing stock in the dance community (although it could be argued that it already was). As a result of this Progressive House producers tried to distance themselves from Trance. Gone were the huge breakdowns, the string laden, chord driven tunes of old. And in their place a far deeper, more percussive and darker style of production took hold.

The two DJs that this shift can be readily attributed to are Steve Lawler and John Digweed. Lawler was the man who is responsible for the proliferation of the tribal sound in Progressive House.

Whilst resident at Home he was directly influenced by Danny Tenaglia's DJing. Tenaglia had been pushing Tribal House for years but it was only when Lawler started to do it that people took notice. This is a shame but that's the way things panned out. The turning point in Progressive House has to have been when Lawler released the record "Rise In". A dark, throbbing, percussive vocal track that sounded completely different to the standard Progressive House that was being played. How much of this can be attributed to his engineer is debatable but regardless of this it was still a landmark track. John Digweed's contribution to the current state of Progressive House is a cause of much consternation among Progressive fans. Digweed's acolytes laud his decision to move to a much darker and deeper style of music. The emphasis shifting to percussive tracks, on building a set, and the very sparing use of so-called "big tunes". Digweed's opponents cite him as the embodiment of all that is wrong with Progressive House. Accused of taking the fun out of Progressive House by his insistence on using baseline driven, melodically sparse, drum orientated tracks. Music that they say has become tired and boring, where the introduction of a hi-hat is seen as the peak of a track.

Whilst the quality of productions has dropped and an awful lot of producers seem to be running low on ideas and a worrying percentage of Progressive House tracks are beginning to sound very alike with customary bongos and one-note baselines, there are still good Progressive House records being produced.

To say that Progressive is music that is forward thinking and different from everything else that is being released would be wrong in my opinion. To find music like that one must look to the Aphex Twin's of this world. Artists like Squarepusher, Autechre and Plaid. The somewhat pretentiously entitled realm of "Intelligent Dance Music".

However, all is not lost for Progressive House and as with any genre that becomes popular a backlash is inevitable. We are in the middle of said backlash. When it is over the hangers on will have been shed and the music can reinvent itself and evolve."

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i dont think i have the likes of fiend and co hooked on proggy just yet but give me time. tiesto is fine but theres nothing like a journey sasha and digweed can take you on...........

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