Progressive dance music: Encyclopedia II - Progressive dance music - Progressive house

Progressive dance music - Progressive house

Progressive house has its origins in Britain in the early 1990s, with the output of the Guerrilla record label and Leftfield's first singles (particularly "Song of Life") inspiring, according to various accounts, either Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle fame or then Mixmag editor Dom Phillips to coin the term. In 1992, what was to be the first superclub, Renaissance threw open its doors in the small mining town of Mansfield, and its DJs - particularly Sasha and the then-unknown John Digweed - were instrumental in pushing the sound in its early days. The music itself consisted of the 4-to-floor beat of house music allied to deeper, dub-influenced basslines and a more melancholic, emotional edge. Often, the ethereal "swirly" textures of early trance could be heard in the mix, and various other elements from across the electronic spectrum. "Song of Life", for instance, has a trip-hop like down-pitched breakbeat and a high-energy Roland TB-303 riff at various stages.

The centre-of-gravity of the sound, so to speak, has shifted over the years. After the release of Brian Transeau's (aka BT) debut album "Ima", for instance, the bulk of the style's records were in a more ethereal, melodic style. (That record was also an enormous influence on the nascent progressive trance sound.) Then, as trance became more and more popular and melodic, prog darkened and acted as a deliberately underground counterpoint, merging with tribal house to produce many very minimal percussive tracks as this decade kicked off. Modern progressive house tracks have innovative bass lines and strong closed atmospheric sounds. This particular style made the rise of a new sub genre, 'Dark House'. (It also marked the return to the sound of Sasha and Digweed, who had picked up and popularised the progressive trance sound in the interim.)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Progressive house", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki