define progressive

[mikelac]

Ok, to all you music experts out there. Can you give me a solid definition of what progressive is? Is that even possible since it's constantly evolving?

mike

[4elements]

JUST LISTEN TO VAN DYK'S NEW ALBUM. BANGINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

[DJGaryMatthews]

LET THIS HOUSE BE PROGRESSIVE!!!

[cintron]

What progressive used to be:

Stuff by Leftfield - don't say a thing b/c they started it and named it. it's THEIR genre.

What progressive currently is:

I'd say check up on any of John Digweed's sets. That tends to be harder progressive.

For smoother progressive, check Dave Seaman.

just my $.02

[dialectics]

for me progressive has always been a backwards definition, being as it that the music doesn't seem to progress anywhere. to me progressive is more rhythmic music - intricate, textural, layered beats. not as pounding as techno, not as melodic as trance. your buildups are generally extremely short (on the order of seconds as opposed to minutes with trance) and your orgasms come not from repeated musical themes as with trance but from changeups and new introductions. and dropping the bass helps a lot too

these genre definitions are always subjective - so don't take this as fact. i always like to say that the same song played in a different context can cross over

diggers and dave seaman are the two difinitive prog acts IMHO, but dave seaman tends to stay constant in his style while digweed evolves a lot more.

peaz,

rob

[thehacker]

listen to richie hawtin's artifakts for a really excellent example of progressive (at least in the acid trance genre).

what progressive means to me is this (and i pretty much already explain myself to several people who attended centro-fly for richie, but i'll iterate it for those not present)...

a very solid foundation repeating for JUST Long Enough that the listener starts to wonder what will happen next, and then it's the tiniest most miniscule change that totally fulfills that wonder and expectation for the One Thing that would make that portion of the music that much more complete.

this could be a bass kick suddenly being dropped.

this could be a hi hat just thrown right atop a bass and snare.

it's always different.

but you know it when you hear it.

and it happens slowly and surely and carefully and deliberately, by degress, from start to eventual finish.

[blowflyii]

Progressive music is melodic and spiral like. It has new and old influences, and may be long as 10 minutes. The bricklayers and bridge builders to the next movement. Manic depressive music. Musical hallucinations formed by listening to one part of a song and separteing the breaks, movements, tone, and time. Awkward breaks and time signatures, music that inspires you to do something for yourself. Music to heal all of mankind.

[bigpoppanils]

for me, progressive means that there are lots of short buildups, and the music seems to be faster (in most cases)

[JonStephen]

Its sad, I used to like progressive so much. Now I just find it played out considering it seems like every new DJ is trying to do something with progressive.

I am still a fan of progressive tribal (and all tribal for that matter). Progressive tribal house is more layered than most tribal with a lot of high ends and sometimes even synth loops thrown in.

[bigpoppanils]

mmmmmmmmmm.........tribal.........yummmy:D

[thehacker]

Originally posted by djjonstephen

Its sad, I used to like progressive so much. Now I just find it played out considering it seems like every new DJ is trying to do something with progressive.

I am still a fan of progressive tribal (and all tribal for that matter). Progressive tribal house is more layered than most tribal with a lot of high ends and sometimes even synth loops thrown in.

pity that the label ain't around anymore,

but banco de gaia's work on planet dog

was really good for tribal/world-beat progressive...

he still releases stuff on six degrees tho.

[phuturephunk]

Progressive is a combination of both the beat pattern in question and the layering of the chords throughout the song.

There are three types of progressive subgenre's, these include House, Breaks and Trance. For matters of simplicity I will lump trance and House into one because they both have the same UNDERLYING beat pattern (aka Untz, Untz, Untz, Untz)

For Straightbeat (house and trance) the progression is in the beat patterns you hear:

For a basic house beat there is a Bass Drop every single Count giving you four pronounced thumps per bar

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

BD BD BD BD and so on . . .

For a progressive house beat there are also four thumps per bar, HOWEVER there is also a PRONOUNCED snare, snap or handclap on the 2's and the 4's

So the resulting beat pattern would be:

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

BD BD BD BD

SD SD and so on . . .

In the case of breaks, the progression comes more from the build up of the chords to a massive breakdown and rebuild towards the middle or end of the song. Progressive breaks are often mixed in with Intelligent breaks even though they mean two different things. Progressive Breaks also have a much more darkside slant then intelligent, So we can say that all Intelligent breaks are progressive, but not all progressive breaks are intelligent. .. and so on .. .

Why is progressive Straigbeat (again, house and trance) called progressive? Because of 2 extra snares on the 2's and 4's? Well, not entirely.. . . The reason that it's called progressive (and here's where all the house and tranceheads get mad a me . . ) is because it "progresses" to one step away from breaks, which, in turn allows it to be properly and smoothly mixed with breaks. .

Some background to validate: I started spinning breaks 3 years ago and then started loading in progressive house to add variety. Any breaker DJ will tell you that when the bass is flying and you have nothing to monitor except what's coming through the headphones on the que, the ONLY thing you have to listen for is that handclap, or snare, or whatever on the 2's and the 4's. The bass in the phones get's drowned out by the bass in the zone (the dancefloor) and the chords are almost impossible to hear (especially if the song that's riding in the zone is particularily forceful and the one you're queuing starts out soft) so the ONLY thing left to listen to is that pronounced snap of mid-to high range on the 2 and 4. Progressive house also has the pronounced snap on the 2 and 4 and USUALLY runs in the same BPM range as it's break counterpart. Progressive breaks on the other hand can range anywhere from baseline electro tempo (~120 - 125) BPM all the way through the low end of trance (~135-140).

The combination of the breaks and the straights adds a variety and effect that can be matched by no other Single genre set out there. . .

Good examples of Progressive break/house acts are :

Hybrid

Anything off of 4d recordings

Anything off of DB recordings (FLorida)

Starecase

Bassbin Twins

anyways . .enough babbling

[dialectics]

phunk, you are a legend.

[phuturephunk]

thanx Dialectics , one day I really hope to be one . . .ah to dream . .

I get all kindz of intelligent on things . . which explains why I'm sooo long winded. . .speaking of long winded, do a search on my name and look at my e-tardism post, it's a screamer . . .