Sasha's recent direction

Hursty

It’s Birmingham though, its a fucking shambles of a place

mono-stereo

NasserAlazzawi I wouldn’t worry about it Naz. Prog was a made up concept anyway that didn’t really fit any specific sound. It had its day over a decade ago. Sasha has always played a mix of genres, nothing new with him playing house stuff.

[deleted]

mono-stereo

Prog was a made up concept anyway

Sure, inasmuch as disco, house, techno, jungle etc are made up concepts, as are all genres when you break their evolution down.

that didn’t really fit any specific sound.

haha, this has to take the bait for one of the silliest things a trancecracker in denial has said. you couldn’t be more wrong. Of course it did.

Progressive is a sort of tasteful adult form of trance, slow-burning and subtle, as purveyed by globetrotting DJ superstars like Sasha, John Digweed and Seb Fontaine, and created by producers like Breeder and Hybrid. Progressive’s roots go back to the English ‘progressive house’ sound of 1992–3, as pioneered by Leftfield and Spooky (whose Charlie May now collaborates with Sasha in the recording studio) and pushed by labels like Guerrilla, Hard Hands and Cowboy. Trance without the cheesy E-motionalism, house purged of its gay disco roots, techno stripped of black feel or jazzy tinges – progressive seems mostly defined by its inhibitions and checked tendencies. So what makes it ‘progressive’, precisely? Perhaps because, unlike deep house, none of the sounds used in the style really resemble ‘real’ acoustic instruments. The music seldom ‘moves’ like a conventional instrument does (the basslines, for instance, couldn’t really be imagined as played on a bass guitar). With its abstract whooshing sounds, blurry pulses and stereo-panning effects, progressive has evolved into the ultimate ‘big room’ music, the sheer spectacular size of its sound perfect for the main dancefloor at superclubs.

In addition to size, progressive is into length: long tracks, long sets, the long mix. DJs like Sasha and Digweed deliberately select characterless tracks rather than orgasmic anthems because those ‘run of the mix’ sort of tracks can sit together for a protracted period. You can’t really tell when the transition between records starts or is completed. The result is a level, peak-less experience (Sasha and Digweed ration out three climaxes per nine-hour set). Progressive’s sonic featurelessness carries over to the DJs (an endless roll call of Nicks, Johns, Daves), and the blankness of the track titles (‘Force 51’, ‘Overactive’, ‘Emotion Surfer’, ‘Rhythm Reigns’, ‘Gyromancer’, ‘Supertransonic’), which avoid conjuring up images or outside-world evocations in favour of a vague spirituality/futurity. Purging all the aspects of rave that harked back to earlier youth movements like hippy and punk (or, for that matter, disco or hip hop or reggae), progressive has achieved a perfect non-referential purity.

Quoted in Simon Reynolds - Energy Flash, chapter 19.

Let the hot tempers commence!

Dry-Tinder

Birmingham’s glory days of clubbing were probably, GodsKitchen at the Sanctuary, Sundissential, when it was on a Sunday and didn’t go Hard House, Atomic Jam, Wobble and a few one off events at Que Club, all of which were over by the end of the 90’s

RichM

Dry-Tinder Atomic Jam @ Que club were such good nights in the mid / late 90’s. One of my favourite nights to go to

Dubman

Dry-Tinder
I went to a huge Nye rave at the Aston villa center in the early 90’s. Can’t remember what it was called though.

bosstrabs

Dry-Tinder In the late 90s, there was also Moneypenny’s, Baker’s and Ministry of Sound Bar which, although not what I was into, were regularly rammed.

Phil-McRackin

RichM they had an interesting little exhibition about the Que Club at the museum in town. Took my lad who asked why everyone looked so happy and were pulling funny faces.

Amps

RichM Atomic Jam

I had mates who would travel from all over for them. Never went myself. Very techno?

strummer

NasserAlazzawi
Don`t know mate,had a better night lined up.

RichM

Amps proper techno in the main room and used to have a drum n bass room too

Mad_Cyril

RichM proper techno

Did it have a certificate?

Amps

RichM Yeah, that fits with what little bits my memory is clinging too.

Cankles-McJeggings

My mate went to see the bald one in Perth. The pre warm up bar was almost empty , the club after was empty.

Cankles-McJeggings

I went all of them and you couldn’t move. They always let too many in Moneypennys. If there was ever a fire you’d have been fucked. Edit never went mos bar. Never even heard of it.

bosstrabs

Cankles-McJeggings Edit never went mos bar. Never even heard of it.

Ministry of Sound Bar was really a short-lived cash-in on the superclub phase, it was around 1999-2001 but was in a really decent building on Broad Street as I remember (may have even been an abandoned church?)

I only went once, they had some decent names on, I think I saw Jazzy M who was Ministry resident at the time. Could probably fit about 4-500 people and there was a dancefloor in the middle, overlooked by a second floor gallery. Yet it did feel like a bar, and attracted all the Broad Street All Bar One type weapons, so kind of shit.

I think MOS sold out and it struggled on as the de-branded ‘The Bar’ for a year or so after.

There was a phase of this idea of a bar-mini nightclub hybrid being the next big thing, Cream also tried it with BabyCream on the Albert Dock, which was shite.

Phil-McRackin

bosstrabs yep, it was called ‘The Church’ and is now a Popworld.
West End Bar was a popular after hours place although the other side of town from GK. Steering Wheel was round the corner from Mr Egg and not too far from the station.

Amps

bosstrabs BabyCream

Things you thought you had forgotten about.

bosstrabs

There were also a few other afterhours clubs besides Sundissential, maybe the Hub? The Steering Wheel? They were always lively and we would end up in them for a couple of hours between GodsKitchen finishing at 4am and the first train back at 7am-ish.

Cankles-McJeggings

Yeh have no recollection of that at all. The hac did the dry bar at the same time. All trying to cash in

bosstrabs

Yes, and MOS bar only had a licence until about 1am I think, so what was the point when you had to fuck off to go to a proper club anyway.

Dry-Tinder

Phil-McRackin

I was just about to post about the West End Bar. I ended up there after Gatecrasher at the Que Club. Once was enough, there was some serious club vermin in there.

Phil-McRackin

Dry-Tinder yeah, I moved down here 98 missed its heyday….think it closed not too long after. Mates used to tell me it was pretty wild and full of ‘characters’

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