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Did Junior Vasquez spearhead the dark prog genre?

Junior Vasquez in his prime was like the face of new york city clubbing. He was the resident DJ at Sound Factory from around 1989 to its closing in 1995. After Sound Factory closed, which nightclub was founded shortly after? Twilo. Have I attended Twilo? Hell no, but I have no doubt this specific track was being hammered there:

Pete Lazonby - Wavespeech (Junior Vasquez Mix)

This remix came out in 1996, several years before progressive house started getting darker during the tail end of the 90's. Junior turned this trance classic into a hard house stormer and that style was huge in new york city at the time. yes, even though it's "hard house", you can hear tribal elements, a dark atmosphere, and a hint of progressive - three elements that made up the dark prog movement during the turn of the century.
This is a new york city track and yet, it had such a crossover appeal into the UK that Sasha and Digweed endorsed this track and made it famous over there.

What I've said so far is just a theory though. I'm not saying I'm right. I could be talking out of my ass, but I felt that this one track/remix was a special one and could have influenced a whole branch of british and american progresssive house producers ever since it came out.

Doesn't seem far-fetched. The dark prog movement always had something of a New York connection -- John Creamer & Stephane K, Saw Recordings as spearheaded by Satoshi Tomiie, etc. They all partied/worked there and made friends with established DJs and producers before making the darker stuff they're now famous for. I'm sure there was a local influence.

If I recall, Ishkur also has this on his guide for "dark house" aka Brit House aka progressive circa 2001.

yeah. John Creamer & Stephane K, Satoshi, all those guys made dark prog a truly memorable movement.

I didn't know Ishkur had a Dark House branch in his guide (I'm on it now). It's just a coincidence that I thought of the same track as him regarding its influence on the scene. It's a fluke I guess.

I don't think Vasquez "spearheaded" it but there's no doubt the thumping tribal-garage sound he helped pioneer was a big influence on the development of dark prog. I would still say Sasha and Digweed were the ones who brought together the NYC flavour with British progressive to codify the sound. If you listen to the second disc of Northern Exposure, Castle Trancelott's The Gloom is as much proto-dark prog as Wavespeech even though it has no NYC lineage.

Tenaglia was part of it too. This thread is gonna be good.

True. Junior and Tenaglia were pretty much 1A and 1B when it came to top tier new york DJ's in the 90's.

This article regarding the new york house scene back then is incredible

quote:

The big names were the British progressive-house tag-team DJ duo Sasha and John Digweed, whom Twilo hired in 1996 to commandeer the last Friday of every month. �New York was always a hard place to get your foot in the door,� says Digweed. �Then Sasha and I did a mini-tour of the States in 1996. New York was one of the dates, at Twilo. The night went incredibly well and the owners came to us both with the idea of playing each month. That night went on to last five years.�

http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/.../new-york-house

btw, I was never a fan of that 'hard house' tag for NY, considering how there's a hard house genre from the UK, which has a completely different sound. that new york house sound of the 90's should be called either garage house, tribal house, or a combination of the two.

OP's track reminds me of this:

From everything I've read about Junior Vasquez, he sounds like a massive prick though. He had a fantastic reputation as king of Sound Factory and he went to some desperate measures to stop anyone else bursting the bubble. He fell out with Danny Tenaglia when the latter became resident at Twilo, post-Sound Factory. Tenaglia even went to see Junior play and was thrown out of the club by the bouncers because Junior "didn't want him taking notes." Here's how Tenaglia put it:

quote:

"Junior just wants to be in a world by himself. He hates competition, which I find really sad. I know him on a personal level. I've had dinner with him many times and I've been over to his house. We got pretty friendly until I became a threat to him. Then he just... He just didn't want to anymore". Because you're a DJ working in New York? "More so since I moved to Twilo," continues Danny, "To be honest I understand his passion for that room. He helped it become what it was when it was the Sound Factory. He was there from the off. But life moves on. I feel sorry for him because he's very successful and I know he's not enjoying it. He's probably wealthy enough to do whatever he wants. He could travel the world. He could play wherever he liked. But he won't do that because he knows that he can't take what he did at the Factory and bring it to life anywhere else. "When he was there, the Factory had no competition. But he refused to take a Saturday off because if someone like Frankie Knuckles played in his place, they would have sounded great. It was such an overwhelming room in terms of the sound, the atmosphere, everything. He knew that he couldn't even give up one night. He'd work with the flu. And he didn't have an opening DJ because he knew they'd have sounded good too."

He also fucked off Sasha big-time the first time he played at Sound Factory:

quote:

"My worst ever gig was at the Sound Factory in New York with Junior Vasquez. He treated me like a complete fucking twat. On the night I was supposed to play for four hours. But after just an hour, these two big guys came in the DJ booth and told me to leave because Junior had arrived. He walked into the booth and wouldn't even catch my eye, let alone say anything to me. "As soon as he started playing, these banks of amplifiers which had been turned off while I was on suddenly kicked into life. And I wasn't even allowed to leave my records in the booth, I had to take them into the club with me. It was a really humiliating experience."

And apparently Vasquez was famously disappointing when he finally did leave NYC and play overseas. He played two gigs in the UK in 1997 - Cream and Ministry Of Sound, I believe - and they even chartered a private train to take him up to Liverpool. Apparently he completely bombed at Cream, and by the end of the night everyone had abandoned the main room to see Oakenfold in the Annexe.

It all adds up to a picture of a man who was very good at playing to one particular crowd at one awesome club, but knew that much of his legend was due to that crowd and that club, and was very jealous and protective of it. It does raise an interesting point that's perhaps been forgotten a little now big DJs don't really have residencies and instead jet over the world: the way certain styles and sounds work so much better for regional crowds and in specific venues. How many DJs have built their reputation for driving crowds crazy in one city or even one club, only to disappoint when they use their fame to tour the world?

Very interesting Jack. Thanks for that post.

Yea I'm not surprised at all to read that about JV. He was self absorbed completely insecure from I've seen and read. I do respect his music knowledge and production skills.

I mean this Sasha quote from above says it all:

"As soon as he started playing, these banks of amplifiers which had been turned off while I was on suddenly kicked into life. And I wasn't even allowed to leave my records in the booth"

Here's an interview from a couple of years ago.

If Heisenberg had a baby with a burrito....

quote:

Originally posted by Dykes_on_Jay If Heisenberg had a baby with a burrito....

Lmfao hahaha

Junior Vasquez is also known for releasing (what has to be) the second or third most sampled Loleatta Holloway acapella. Although he wasn't allowed to do so but he wasn't the main culprit, that was actually Shep Pettibone doing. Read more from this discogs comment on the release in question

some of the tracks that have used this acapella is Armando "100% of Disin' You", Moguai "U Know Y" and countless Eric Prydz-productions

The Low End Specialists paid homage to Wavespeech in their track Smoked Pieces. good stuff.

Killahurtz - West On 27th also pays respect to exactly where Sound Factory and Twilo were located, 530 West 27th Street.

this was a 2011 trailer for "Back In The House" a NY house documentary about the 90's, but I heard it's never going to be released. what a fucking shame.

JV @ 9:35

I think at this point its obligatory for me to post in this thread (surprised Scoops isn't in here yet!). There was definitely a bit of crossover between the dark prog and the tribal hard house that dominated NYC club life in the late 90's... hell even to this day you can see traces of it when you go to see a prog DJ in NY - they'll play a bit of tribal for the audience.

Some great articles and insight posted in this thread too. I'd love to see NYC become a prominent place for dance music again.

quote:

Originally posted by Mr Game+Watch I think at this point its obligatory for me to post in this thread (surprised Scoops isn't in here yet!). There was definitely a bit of crossover between the dark prog and the tribal hard house that dominated NYC club life in the late 90's... hell even to this day you can see traces of it when you go to see a prog DJ in NY - they'll play a bit of tribal for the audience.

hahah I'm here

No label dominated dark prog and the tribal house label like Twisted Records did back in the late 90s; even mixed in some Diva vocals. It was the label the really captured that sound for NYC. And their roster of talent was top notch at that time with the likes of DJ Vibe, Tenaglia, SuperChumbo, Murk, Saeed, etc.


AS far as Junior Vasquez is concerned, there I no bigger prick in the industry then Junior. We had him do a Twilo (Vasquez) vs Exit (Tsettos) vs Tunnel (Baez) at a club in north jersey a few years ago and the guy kicks baez out of the booth and off the decks just so his crew can hook up his turntable. needless to say, we had to deal wit 5 minutes of silence. and 45minutes later, Junior walked out. Luckily Baez saved the nite

quote:

Originally posted by Mr Game+Watch I'd love to see NYC become a prominent place for dance music again.

It has, albeit for a much more underground sound.

Yeah, New York is absolutely huge for dance music in America atm, seems to concentrate most of the European talent coming through as well.

New York is still thriving its just in Brooklyn now and a lot of the strong parties are TBA locations, not always at the clubs.

What about this release? It certainly helped in popularizing it.







I'd also argue that Steve Porter lead the way with his "Porterhouse" sound which he made accessible to the U.S. To me he really set the trend for early 00's prog.

He made the darkest prog ever, hands down...and made heaps of it too.

quote:

Originally posted by Syntonic What about this release? It certainly helped in popularizing it. I'd also argue that Steve Porter lead the way with his "Porterhouse" sound which he made accessible to the U.S. To me he really set the trend. He made the darkest prog ever, hands down...and made heaps of it too.

No

There is no such thing as the "dark prog" genre. I don't know where you guys come up with this nonsense.

Forget the Steve Porter comment, OP's 'dark prog' gets me confused with early 00's dark Progressive/Brit House.

Title should say Dark Progressive House.

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