What is Progressive

Wed, 09 Aug 2017 18:56:45 +0100

Or why Progressive Psy tracks you know are probably not Progressive at all

A few days ago I introduced Psytrance Guide and got tons of feedback. Most people are happy with subgenre names, some few are pissed-off. That’s fine.

But what’s interesting is that quite a lot of people were saying that the audio samples I’ve put in the Psytrance subgenre are actually Progressive Psy and not Psytrance. It’s not the first time when I see this misconception, so today I’d like to talk more about this and explain why this is wrong.

What does Progressive mean

First things first, the word “progressive” is an adjective that gives some quality characteristics to the noun. In music, words like this were introduced to describe a certain mood of the genre, for example:

Deep	House
Hard	Techno
Uplifting	Trance
Progressive	Psy

Eventually, these words became part of the genre names, but their original meaning hasn’t changed.

Progressive music gives a sense of progression and slow build-up over time

Talking about progressive specifically, it gives a sense of... well, you guessed it, — progression. Whereas in some other genres you just want to skip forward and finally listen to “that drop”, in Progressive music that sense of progression and immersive building-up is the goal itself. It’s very consistent, often with no climax or big emotional peaks which other genres typically have.

And the difference is not only in aesthetic. In progressive music, a sequence (whether it be a melody or, let’s say, a pad) lasts much longer, sometimes it can go pretty much the entire track duration as the opposite to non-progressive music which typically changes sequences every 16 or 32 bars.

In House and Trance

Before we get into Progressive Psy, let’s take a look at some progressive examples in other genres first.

This is a proper Progressive House:

Rick Pier O'Neil — Throaty (Original Mix)

Rise and Fall — Second Chance (Luke Porter Remix)

Dmitry Molosh — Delirious (Original Mix)

See how smooth and straightforward these tracks are? If you just scrabble through you might think that nothing really happens in these tracks, it’s just the same loop keep going. But if you listen carefully from start to finish, you’ll notice how one layers builds-up over another, how it all sums up together in a mesmerising experience. This is what Progressive is all about.

Now let’s take a look at more trancy examples:

Cosmithex — Shipment (Original Mix)

Atmos — Into The Groove (Original Mix)

John 00 Fleming — Mustang (Relaunch Remix)

I intentionally put so different tracks here. As you can hear they vary in tempo and rhythmic patterns, however, each of these tracks has a clear sense of progression and slow build-up over time.

In Psytrance

As we approaching Psytrance territory, let’s take a listen to some older iconic tracks that widely considered as the roots of the Progressive Psy subgenre:

Ace Ventura & Liquid Soul — Psychic Experience (Original Mix) 2007, 135 BPM

Funky Dragon — Full Moon (Original Mix) 2005, 135 BPM

Beat Bizarre — Milk Tooth (Original Mix) 2005, 135 BPM

And here is some proper Progressive Psy of the present days:

Protonica — Subground (Original Mix) 2012, 135 BPM

Funky Dragon — Future Race (Original Mix) 2017, 138 BPM

Atacama — Dance Of Rebirth (Original Mix) 2018, 140 BPM

As you can hear, the production quality certainly gets better over the past decade, and Progressive Psy as a subgenre has evolved becoming more dancefloor-focused. But the thing is, it still has the same smooth and straightforward progression just like the older Progressive Psy of the ‘00s and just like both Progressive House and Progressive Trance. And that’s the key point.

On contrast, here is what many people tend to believe Progressive Psy is:

Arhetip & Lyktum — Soul Awareness (Original Mix) 2015, 138 BPM

Vertical Mode — Lazer Shot (Original Mix) 2012, 136 BPM

Zentura — Sonic Masala (Lifeforms Remix)

You probably realise by now that this is not Progressive despite it share a similar tempo range and even the same driving bassline. The last track above might be especially tricky because it’s a remix of a Progressive tune, but don’t get confused: that climax by the end clearly puts it out of the Progressive territory.

Psytrance like this usually has much more prominent leads and overall more “occupied” sound spectrum with filtered leads, textures, acid riffs, one-shots, and special effects. Also, Psytrance typically has more beat interruptions, transitions, and breakdowns; one lead can start and in 16 bars after a totally different lead might come instead.

I hope now you see the difference that simply because a track has 136 to 138 BPM it doesn’t automatically put it into Progressive area.

I call everyone to love music regardless of its genre name, but since we have to use some names for our verbal and written communication with each other to describe music, let’s use the right names then.

Introducing Psytrance Guide

Mon, 07 Aug 2017 11:33:19 +0100

A great place to discover Psychedelic music

Dear fellows, I’m pleased to introduce you to the Psytrance Guide:

PsytranceGuide.com

Backstory

If you are a millennial, you probably remember the Ishkur’s Guide to Electronic Music. How awesome it was! As a music lover and a person who likes it when things are organised nicely, I used to spend hours on that site.

I was always thinking, too bad that guide is abandoned, outdated, and hence no longer reflects the variety of genres we have today, in Psytrance in particular. But then I realised: I could do it myself. I can do a website that probably won’t be that cool and fancy like Ishkur’s guide, but fun and informative enough, especially for those who are new to Psytrance.

And, in fact, I did.

What is this, exactly

PsytranceGuide.com is the ultimate, up-to-date guide to Psytrance music genres. It covers twenty subgenres, and I’m planning to keep it relevant through time. Each subgenre includes several audio previews that have been carefully selected, a typical BPM range, a little description, and lists of some noticeable artists and labels that are worth checking out if you like some particular subgenre.

Keep in mind that most of those subgenres have no “official” names. Everything on that site is a subject of my personal vision and experience in the Psy scene. However, I did my best and researched a bunch of niche community websites to make sure that I’m not alone in that thinking, and I will keep making it more accurate.

Who is this for

Basically, for everyone. If you are new to Psytrance or if you have a friend to whom you’d like to introduce Psytrance, it’s a great place to discover the whole variety of music spectrum that Psytrance have today. However, if you are an experienced trancer, I’m sure you’ll find a lot of fun too, just like I did when I was making that guide.

A special note to DJs. If you have a large Psytrance DJ collection but everything from Astral Projection to Zen Mechanics tagged simply as “Psytrance”, use PsytranceGuide.com as a reference to update your ID3 tags properly. This is something I use for my 12,000-tracks collection, and it works great.

Feedback

If you found a bug, or if you would like to contribute in any way, or if you have some feedback or just want to say hello, don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

Daniel Sokolovskiy’s Blog: posts tagged Psytrance Guide