Progressive House
Progressive house emerged in the early 1990s in the UK, incorporating elements of deep house, trance, tribal house and tech house.
While in other genres the add-on »progressive« is used in terms of »experimental« or »avantgarde«, here, it describes the structure of the music. Progressive house tracks usually lack climaxes, anthemic choruses or breakdowns but are rather constantly evolving around a characteristic drum loop to which layers of sound are regularly added and subtracted from. Often, a lead synthesizer sound is used which reminds of a plucked instrument. Progressive house tracks usually have a moderate tempo between 120 and 130 bpm and feature an impulsive bass drum, lots of pad sounds and sometimes vocals.
The first progressive house track probably was Leftfield's debut single »Not Forgotten« from 1990. In any case, it laid the foundation for a respectable British house style independent from its US American and European relatives. Another highly influential genre track with some distinctive British house sound was »Passion« by Gat Decor (1992), one of the earliest and best-known progressive house hits which peaked at No.29 in the UK singles charts. In 2001, the first progressive house track reached No.1 in the UK: »Touch Me« by London-based Portuguese producer Rui da Silva and British singer-songwriter Cassandra Fox.
Two important names in promoting the progressive house genre are djs John Digweed and Sasha. With »Renaissance: The Mix Collection«, they released the first compilation for a nightclub ever in 1994. In 1996, they released their highly acclaimed album »Northern Exposure« which is considered to be a genre landmark, had a monthly residency at NYC club Twilo from 1997 to 2001 and successfully toured the USA. Both had also success outside their partnership. For example, together with Nick Muir, John Digweed also forms the duo Bedrock (e.g. known for their track »For What You Dream Of...« featured in the movie »Trainspotting« in 1993) and Sasha hit No.1 the UK Dance Charts (and No.23 in the UK Single Charts) in 2000 with Darren Emerson and the track »Scorchio«.
Notable later examples of progressive house include »Pjanoo« by Swedish dj/ producer Eric Prydz (2008) and Canadian producer Deadmau5' »Strobe« (2009). There has always been a close relationship between progressive house and (progressive) trance and it’s often not easy to distinguish one from the other – in the early days, the labels »trance« and »progressive house« even were often used interchangeably. For example, »modern« or mainstream progressive house productions do often have anthemic choruses, climaxes and breakdowns, examples being not only aforementioned »Strobe« by Deadmau5 but also Otto Knows' »Million Voices« (2012), »Runway (U&I)« by Swedish duo Galantis (2014) or »Sunshine« by David Guetta and Avicii which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance/ Electronic Recording in 2012.
Progressive house enjoys a lot of mainstream success though some criticize the inflationary use of the label.
