James Holden

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”.

hugopal It has been found that Guy Gerber Stoppage Time was in fact ahead of its time and pioneered the later sonic directions of Armin Van Buuren, so it must be considered purist trance.

Observe:

As for Tiefschwarz, they are tech house, which Digweed was playing as early as 2000 in his communicate mix cd. Albeit our research has found it was the south london and not berlin tech house sound. Which in fact makes a case against the prog sound.