Progressive Electronic Music

Progressive in the context of modern dance music (occasionally progressive electronic dance music or prog) is a term that includes a collection of electronic dance music genres which draw upon the use of progressive performing techniques and includes the styles of progressive trance, progressive house, progressive techno and progressive breaks.

Most electronic dance music tracks released are produced with certain features that are favourable for DJs to beatmatch records together seamlessly. Unlike the song structures of genres like hard house or Hi-NRG, the peaks and troughs in a progressive dance track tend to be more subtle. Layering different sounds on top of each other and slowly bringing them in and out of the mix is a key idea behind the progressive movement.

The term "progressive" typically refers to the structure of a track which occur incrementally. An exception is progressive trance. The term Progressive trance usually refers to a type of trance music that features a less prominent lead melody and focuses more on atmosphere. In the case of progressive house, the term "progressive" can also refer to the style's open mindedness to bring in new elements to the genre. These elements can be a variety of sounds, such as a guitar loop, computer generated noises, or other elements typical of other genres. Progressive electronic is also a term for a sub-genre in new age music and contains elements of progressive rock, classical music and ambient music and electronic music. It has been used to describe artists such as Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre.

Progressive house

Progressive house has its origins in Great Britain in the early 1990s, with the output of Guerrilla Records and Leftfield's first singles (particularly "Song of Life"). Mixmag editor Dom Phillips coined the term to describe this type of music. In 1992, the dance club Renaissance opened in Mansfield. Its DJs - particularly Sasha and John Digweed - were instrumental in popularizing its early sound. The music itself consisted of the 4-to-4 beat of house music with deeper, dub-influenced basslines and a more melancholic, emotional edge. Often, it featured elements from many different genres mixed together. "Song of Life", for instance, has a trip-hop like down-pitched breakbeat and a high-energy Roland TB-303 riff at various stages.

There have been many shifts in style in progressive house. After the release of BT's debut album Ima, for instance, many of the genre's subsequent records featured an ethereal, melodic style. As trance became more popular and melodic, progressive house darkened and acted as an underground counterpoint, merging with tribal house to produce many very minimal percussive tracks.

Meanwhile, the Melbourne-centered Australian progressive scene, whose luminaries include Phil K and Luke Chable pioneered a distinctive sound of their own - marked by melodic pads and delicate melodies. This style was pushed heavily in Britain and elsewhere by DJ Dave Seaman and Australian Anthony Pappa. Its influence even fed back into trance, with many sub-genre trademarks finding their way into the so called "Anjuna sound" centred on Above & Beyond's record label Anjunabeats. Since 2005, progressive house's popularity has lessened in dance music, with most of the scene's major DJs playing electro-, tech-house, and minimal.

Progressive trance

Progressive trance is a popular sub-genre in trance music and contains elements of house, techno, and ambient music. Trance became more focused on the anthemic qualities and melodies, moving away from arpeggiated analog synth patterns. Acoustic elements and spacey pads became popular with compositions leaned towards incremental changes à la progressive structures. Progressive trance contains distinctive sounds in many tracks, such as unusual basslines or original synthesized sounds, which generally makes it more "catchy". Phrases are usually a power of two number of bars in most typical progressive trance tracks. Phrases usually begin with the introduction of a new or different melody or rhythm.

Compared to trance, the progressive wing is usually deeper and more abstract, featuring a lower average bpm (around 125-135) and a recurrent melodic structure intuitively described in a 'build-up -> climax -> break-down' manner. Each of these three structural elements are emphasized temporally and/or in their intensity (a 'build-up' sequence can sometimes last up to 3 or even 4 minutes), while subtle, incremental/decremental acoustic variations (i.e. gradual addition/substraction of instruments) anticipate the transition to the subsequent structural element of the track. The initial build-up and the final break-down are generally very similar, adding a feel of symmetry to the general structure of the melody. Furthermore, a progressive trance track is usually longer than a regular trance track, ranging in length from 5-6 to even 12-13 minutes.

Although there is a general and increasing tendency to associate progressive trance with progressive house (or vice-versa), virtually rendering these two sub-genres identical, there are however distinctive characteristics apart from the strong similitudes between them: progressive trance inherits from its parent genre (trance) a wider melodic flexibility, while progressive house is usually darker and more minimal.

Popular artists in this electronic music genre include ATB, Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, Gabriel & Dresden, Markus Schulz, Cressida, Deepsky, Manny Ward, Mike Mikhjian and Lost Tribe.

Progressive psytrance

Progressive psytrance is the progressive form of psychedelic trance. Contrary to most progressive trance, progressive psytrance is usually darker and focuses more on psychedelia rather than melody. Influential artists in the genre include (in alphabetical order) Atmos, Igneous Sauria, Jaia, Phony Orphants, Sensient, Son Kite, Ticon, and Vibrasphere.

Progressive breaks

Progressive breaks essentially grew out of Australian nu skool breaks and progressive house. Due to its origins in those genres, progressive breakbeat typically features atmospheric pads and melodies. Most artists working in this genre also work in other closely related genres such as breakbeats and progressive house. Hybrid is one of the few popular artists who exclusively works in this genre. Other popular breaks artists include Digital Witchcraft, Luke Chable, Momu, and Way Out West.

Progressive drum & bass

There are a few forms of drum & bass which are considered progressive. Neurofunk, a variant of the techstep subgenre incorporates elements of jazz and funk along with multiple electronic influences including techno and trance. The style also follows the progressive form as found in other genres. Drumfunk, a relatively new subgenre, can also be considered progressive. Contemporary atmospheric drum'n'bass have also been described as progressive.

Similarities in progressive genres

Since about 2000, progressive house and progressive trance have mostly converged. While the faster (130-140bpm) records are usually described as progressive trance, most producers from both styles have moved towards a slower (110-130bpm) tempo and are thus typically classified as progressive house. Many psychedelic trance artists have also moved to a slower (125-138bpm) range branding their style as progressive trance.

source: wikipedia