*ripped from some dude on ITM-*

My 2 cents (for anyone that cares), from a DJ who first got into Acid house, and then "epic house" and then trance, and then progressive, and then techno, and then breaks, and then house and then a mix of everything together; who was very much involved during the confusing time that was the emergence of Progressive and Trance into two separate genres.

“Progressive” was, in my understanding, a reaction by the original purveyors of warm, uplifting and atmospheric dance music to the increasing ‘cheesiness’ of Trance, which happened in about 1997/8.



If you are bored and want to find out why I think that, read on.


"Epic House" was popular in about 1995-6. It was slower and more ‘dreamy’ and atmospheric than the happy hard and hi-nrg that was going on back in about 94. The old Renaissance CDs (Sasha, Digweed, Ian Ossia, Anthony Pappa, Dave Seaman etc) fit snugly into that category for me. Sasha released a compilation (featuring early BT and Blue Amazon et al ) called the “Epic House Experience” in 96, so maybe that qualifies my argument.

Epic house sound started to get a little faster and the lead synth lines became a little more the main focus throughout 96 and early 97, and people started referring to the sound as “trance” rather than “Epic” House.

About 1997, Techno – meaning the Detroit-esque minimal stuff – had started to become dominated by rolling tribal rythms, a trend that continued in a big way through to about 2002, and even now remains popular. Sure, tribal drums had always been one of the layers in a lot of older tunes, but around 97 the tribal drums had become the dominant element. This made ‘techno’ more accessible, and tracks by traditionally ‘techno’ artists started to appear in the “Trance” DJ boxes. For example, German act Der Dritte Raum’s Trommelmachine, a track of nothing but rolling tribal beats, a simple off beat bassline and some effects (heck, the translation is “Drum Machine”) off Sven Vath’s Techno label Harthouse, came out in 1997, and was absolutely caned by a lot of trance/prog DJS. I personally switched about this time to buying more Techno than “trance” or “progressive”.

And 1997 was about the time that the wave of Dutch and German trance DJs/producers/sound, a la Ferry Corsten, Tiesto etc, and the Gatecrasher sound started to gain mass-momentum internationally. Where well crafted sets had once started out slower and more atmospheric, building to a crescendo with some big powerful trance tracks (the perfect ‘journey’ set?), some DJs were now pounding out a two or three hour set of constant big energetic trance numbers. All these big, simple, ultra lovey-dovey lead synth lines and emotional heart-string-tugging vocals took Trance into territory far more cheesy than the original Epic House fans wanted to go.

For me personally (and this is not going to win me many friends) Paul van Dyk’s “For An Angel” in late 97 or early 98 (from hazy memory) signalled the parting of the “progressive” and “trance” crowds. It was being played as the crescendo of a lot of sets from the soon-to-be Progressive DJs, but became phenomenally popular with the younger trance crowd. And this was probably backed up by Binary Finery’s massive track “1998”.

The counter to all these big “cheesey” tunes was to cut out the euphoric lovey-dovey elements. Where Trance has become synonymous with big lead synth melodies and loved-up emotive vocals, “Progressive” was born out of the removal of those melodies (and, for a time, the vocals as well). What was left were simple tracks, mostly identifiable by their minimal basslines, and increased dependence on the intricate layering of percussion and atmospheric effects which build on each other and ‘progress’ the track to a more full sound. Essentially, remove all the wishy-washy light stuff, and leave the deeper, darker stuff.

That’s my understanding of “Progressive”, anyhow.

Basically, the more ‘epic’-inclined producers and DJs took a step closer to Techno without going all the way (although some, like myself, switched camp almost entirely) and let the trance scene move more towards the realm of hard house, which it is often bundled alongside of today.

Since that parting of Trance and Progressive House, Progressive dominated the Canberra scene (and a fair part of the dance-music loving world). With the revival of electro (thanks to a lot of techno producers, Dave Clarke for one), and the increased profile of former Epic House producers (?) Way Out West and Hybrid etc, breakbeats infiltrated the progressive sound. And so people felt the need to split the genre into Progressive House and Progressive Breaks. Like a lot of others, I’m sure, Progressive for me has become an umbrella term summarising the mood those Progressive genres generate, regardless of the beat underneath the music.

I think thee deep, dark sounds of pure progressive house is kinda what pissed a lot of people off, and turned them away. It did become over-produced, without much in the way of new sound, and kinda disappeared up its own arse in a “my sound is better produced than your sound” haze. A lot of it was very similar, and therefore boring, and, as Milky said above, it stopped being fun.

And that’s where the saviours of modern progressive come in. I give that credit to the Hybrids, the Way Out Wests, and the Brian Transeaus of the production world, who had the guts to carry-on producing (or re-introducing?) uplifting, emotional sounds. What I find funny is some people still describe thaose artists as “progressive”. In my opinion, they have never ventured far (thank god) from the original Epic House/Trance sounds of 1996! That’s not to say they haven’t progressed at all – production etc is far superior, sure – but the last year or two has seen a return to epic-esque, rich-tecturally, well-produced, emotive sounds. Check out the Hybrid set from Lot 33 if you want proof of that. It’s funny how “progressive” has taken us back in time some 8 years!

Funky house and party breaks have held reign for a while. Big generalisation - they are fun genres, boucny and entertaining, but don;t really venture too deep or require too much thought to enjoy. Some people don;t want that. They want more. They want to think, while dance and enjoy themesleves. They want emotion in their music, not just fun. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy funky house and funky party breaks, but I think there's a lot of people out there who are really missing what the latter epic house and early progressive house days provided, in terms of emotional stimulation.

So is Progressive making a comeback? Not in my book. I think it kinda peaked, burnt out, and is now rising from its own ashes, in the form of it's predecessor - the more "epic" style. Just people are so jack of coming up with/adhering to new genre names, they couldn't be bothered giving it a new one.

The end



Sorry for the essay. Didn’t mean to chew anyone’s ears off. It’s just a subject from an era that was critical in my evolution as a music fan and a DJ, and so I have a lot to say on it. I'm by no means suggesting my version is definitive. It is just an expression of my experience. Maybe someone out there read it and found it interesting, and maybe even learned something. Or not.

If you’ve got comments or disagreements with what I’ve written, I’d be keen to hear them. Would be interesting to see the development of Progressive music from someone else’s viewpoint.

Mark


*I agree with a lot of points on this...but then there are some points I disagree on...but ..I wanna hear some of you guys thoughts on this one....

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Ciao baby.