James Holden

Smallman1 this is a popular view, however I regret to inform you that it is quintessential historical revisionism. If you deign to examine the record, when he had left silver planet, sasha and digweed were already disowning the merger of trance and house so beloved of the progressive lifestyle and capitulating to pure mnml tech house. Holden kept it alive well into the late 2000s. After all, who was playing Midimiliz - Trace Function in 2005 outside of the psytrance scene? Peak time wrecking ball prog, that one.

how could you, for instance, dare to deny that this is quintessential gu013 material, only updated to take account of the technological advances of laptop production in 2007?

I should like to agree with you that his new music is disappointing, but this is because the virtuous crusade to keep the real progressive house sound and lifestyle alive was disowned by all the main practitioners. He was a lone warrior. Putting myself in his shoes, if enough music is not coming into my inbox to constantly reenact 1999, what else could I do? and I also regret to inform you that you must take responsibility for isolating him so callously because you became ashamed of liking trance because you could no longer chat up hipster birds.

Of course as an older and wiser man your youthful follies can be excused and you may be forgiven, but what is written in tablets of stone cannot be erased.

pure 2010 peak time wrecking ball prog

It is only recently that your friends mr smallman have realised the error of their ways and are now returning to peak time wrecking ball prog. for instance:

I was going to say that either you’re a massive troll, or that you need your ears tested. But then I realised you must be Flares and so it’s clearly both.

Anyway, it’s likely futile but I still might as well quickly tear this down:

[deleted] After all, who was playing Midimiliz - Trace Function in 2005 outside of the psytrance scene? Peak time wrecking ball prog, that one.

The riff and the beat is pure electro house.

[deleted] how could you, for instance, dare to deny that this is quintessential gu013 material, only updated to take account of the technological advances of laptop production in 2007?

It doesn’t require much to “dare” to point out that the misstress barbara track is a limp, ping-pong ball beat, melodic minimal track with yet another metallic electro lead, which has absolutely zilch to do with gu013.

[deleted] pure 2010 peak time wrecking ball prog

LOL - this is the funniest one of the lot. 118 bpm slo-mo glitchy crap = “peak time wrecking ball prog”?!?!?!

[deleted] It is only recently that your friends mr smallman have realised the error of their ways and are now returning to peak time wrecking ball prog. for instance:

This is also a highly amusing part, because in referencing Avalon Emerson you actually have managed to mention someone who now sometimes plays fairly close to the mid-late 90s prog trance sound, yet you posted an older track of hers which doesn’t really encapsulate this (her sound does move around a bit and she can be quite eclectic mind). If you wanted to actually post an example of it then you should have gone for this:

[deleted] Holden kept it alive well into the late 2000s.

It’s just nonsense. ‘Come To Me’ was the last real prog track he made (which in 2004 was in fairness pretty late for the genre). One could even argue it was actually ‘Nothing’ in 2003 and that ‘Come to Me’ was already a blend with the more minimal and glitchy stuff he was heading towards.

But yeah, from that point with his Border Community stuff he disappeared up his backside with the more minimal/electro stuff along with everyone else. You posted a track from his 2006 ‘At The Controls’, but that mix was an example of him having almost entirely jumped the shark from the, already fairly minimal but still prog-laced 2003 Balance mix, to an overly noodley minimal style.

hugopal

But yeah, from that point with his Border Community stuff he disappeared up his backside with the more minimal/electro stuff along with everyone else. You posted a track from his 2006 ‘At The Controls’, but that mix was an example of him having almost entirely jumped the shark from the, already fairly minimal but still prog-laced 2003 Balance mix, to an overly noodley minimal style.

It has been found that no big dj was playing stereotypically late 90s progressive trance in 2006. our examinations must conclude that you are correct about Avalon Emerson on this point, but we cannot accept that he had jumped the shark and Digweed had not. to jump the shark would indicate a vibrant scene, which would have been abandoned to rot away. One of Digweed’s representative mixes from 2006 demonstrates to us that this was not the case and progressive elements were sought for below 135 bpm. But whilst it has been seen that Digweed and his company zoned on the more housey elements of the progressive sound, Holden focused on the more looping, arpeggiated trancey elements. Denying this as objective fact would seem to be akin to being a creationist to us.

Further trials must be carried out to understand why digweed also jumped the shark then, according to your claim. https://www.discogs.com/master/22640-John-Digweed-Transitions

[deleted] It has in fact been found to be techno and trance, based on discogs ranking. Very close to peak time wrecking ball prog, is it not? Further more, it has been ascertained that it does not contain a riff like Tom Neville - Just Fuck or Alter Ego - Rocker. Two great representative tracks of the electro house genre.

No, it is not.

It sounds similar to something like the Vitalic tracks from the same era e.g.:

The riff could even be from Adult:

In fact, if you look at the (misleadingly labelled by discogs) page for the album that Midi Milliz track is on, you’ll even find a review from a bloke back in 2005 stating that he was initially disappointed by the album because it was a departure from their usual sound, and. I quote:
“The rest of the tracks [including Trace Function] are really nice, a bit less in my vein since I’m not a big fan of electro (they’re not electro tracks proper, just slightly influenced), but quite a pleasure to listen to nonetheless.”

I don’t see how there’s any argument that it’s very much a move away from prog/trance and towards electro.

[deleted] Further trials must be carried out to understand why digweed also jumped the shark then, according to your claim

They both jumped the shark.

[deleted] Digweed and his company zoned on the more housey elements of the progressive sound, Holden focused on the more looping, arpeggiated trancey elements

This is silly. Both moved towards a more electro sound. Holden’s ‘At The Controls’ was already more robotic and minimal, and less trancey and melodic than his already fairly glitchy ‘Balance’ mix only 3 years prior.

The fact that Digweed’s biggest track on his label when the sound was beginning to change was the ‘looping, arpeggiated’ (not trance) Guy Gerber ‘Stoppage Time’ also says it all. And the other biggest tracks in his sets were probably those of Tiefschwarz - who were not “the more housey elements of the prog sound”.