Originally posted by evo8
id rather listen to McProg than that Guy J set personnally :-/
I love the shimmering fullness and production quality that's coming out of modern prog, but at the same time I feel so much of it is lacking in any real...drama. While early and mid 2000's prog could easily veer into pretentiousness, even those cuts at least had a definite sense of peaks and valleys, but a lot of the newer material gets into an atmospheric headspace and then just hits the cruise control button.
Maybe prog now more than ever before needs to be appreciated within the context of a set.
SYSTEM-J
Those online sets Guy J posts for free are equivalent to CD1 in an old prog compilation, and approximately how he played for the very first hour of the night when I saw him open to close. He ripped it up far, far more live. In fact, one of my grumbles afterwards was a few too many monster breakdowns in succession, so I can't agree with the "lack of drama" accusation.
Yes, the majority of prog coming out of the website labels is a bit wishy washy, but if you spend any time digging into the less famous territories of classic prog you'll realise how large a percentage of the output in those cherished times was comprised of murky pseudo-tribal "dark" wank. Nostalgia, and all that. The key, as always and ever, is good DJs to sift for the gold dust.
MSZ
Took a listen to that guy J set at work today, my lord, where exactly is the fire in that set, where is the heart? Dont get me wrong its technically almost perfect and super chill to wind down to. Im personally not a fan of the ol insert some clichey tech house rolly beat and sprinkle over some atmospherics and voila new-age prog technique, I find I get more proggy heart these days from deep-house but nevertheless, I still manage to find great prog today so im not really complaining in that sense. I still really like Guy J's tracks, ive been keen on his track "Octavia" in recent times for sure, which is pretty mcproggy in a way.
evo8
it just seems to be all about the production, getting it sounding big, fx in the right place etc
but no real soul or something, a lack of feeling
not ragging on Guy J in particular, plenty of those kinda guys are at the same thing
im sure somewhere there are guys ripping it up prog wise but so many djs, so many sets.....
MSZ
There is a party this weekend near me, the lineup is as follows:
Guy J, Eelke Kleijn, Guy Mantzur, Chicola, Khen, Sahar Z
I imagine its going to be the same techy boring prog for hours upon end, which makes me want to skip, but Ill probably end up going anywhere since its an outdoor venue. Gametime decision depending on weather. It boggles my mind how people on this site who have been listening to music for this long praise this so much, but whatever floats their boat.
Paradox Lost
You two should give that Khen set a listen before you write off prog as unworthy of your time, if you haven't already. I'm with you on many of the same listening impressions, but that Mixmag set just burns red hot despite all the individual tracks being fairly lukewarm, which speaks to the point I made earlier that the overall enjoyability depends mostly on the craftsmanship of the person stitching it all together. There are very few of these tracks I would make a point to hunt down outside of the larger set.
SYSTEM-J
me, this is a thread about McProg. I wouldn't praise any of those DJs, having seen most of them, except Guy J who is solid. However, in a thread asking for lightweight melodic prog, I'd take the sets I posted (and particularly tunes like Lost Desert - Nepal Sunrise from Guy J's set) over McProg any day of any week. But I suppose this is TA, where nostalgia rules supreme.
Click on the mixes in my sig and hear the kind of tunes I'm actually playing.
miamitranceman
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
me, this is a thread about McProg. I wouldn't praise any of those DJs, having seen most of them, except Guy J who is solid. However, in a thread asking for lightweight melodic prog, I'd take the sets I posted (and particularly tunes like Lost Desert - Nepal Sunrise from Guy J's set) over McProg any day of any week. But I suppose this is TA, where nostalgia rules supreme.
Click on the mixes in my sig and hear the kind of tunes I'm actually playing.
The thread was on topic until you made your initial comments and told us about your superior music tastes....
Back on topic, I'd also check out the producer "Erconomics" and his track "Tuscany Drive", among his others.
