How progressive house sounds in 2009 (Interview w/ Daniel Portman)

Our friend & PP member Freddie is off for a while so i wish him a really awesome time there where he's heading off. ;)

Weird thing happened with Beatport this morning; they have made some changes so there is no more option Just Added in the sidebar - thats why i cant supply u with links to the best & freshest releases from today (or maybe nothing has been added this morning; we'll see yet). So i surfed a bit through Beatportal and stumbeld upon one interesting article called How progressive house sounds in 2009. Its basicly set of interviews with some of the most respective Progressive artists of today. U can read full article here (How progressive house sounds in 2009) and i picked up the intervew with Daniel Portman to show u here today at PP. So lets here what he has to say about modern progressive sound. ;)

How progressive house sounds in 2009 (Interview w/ Daniel Portman)

Hailing from the Swiss-made Helvetic Nerds axis of artists (which includes EDX, Chris Reece, and Dinka), Daniel Portman has developed a sound, that shares little in common with the progressive house movement of old, but his music still retains some of prog’s key elements thus pushing him towards that osmotic box.

Melody progression, subtly interchanging sound lines, and buckets of arpeggiated synths have bundled him as progressive in scope, albeit adrenaline-fueled and digitally smoothed.

He represents the new guard of progressive house producers, who value energy and explosive drops as much as delicate beat astuteness.

In 2009, Portman’s firecrackers have reached some of the biggest imprints operating in the murky grey between progressive house, trance, and commercial techno, including PinkStar Records, Enormous Tunes, Anjunadeep, and Unreleased Digital, who recently dropped his dancefloor destroyer ‘Virtual Suicide’.

How has progressive house changed over the years?

Every kind of music has changed over the years, and so has progressive house. Back some years ago popular progressive house was mostly kinda tribal house beats, swinging hat loops, and deep basslines.

Over the past few years there was a progression of new sounds from deep house as well as from the trance genre that mixed with electro and house beats, and so progressive house became a new face. The progressive genre is certainly the most flexible genre, where it has allowed to combine with all kinds of dance genres today.

Describe what the term ‘progressive’ means to you, in the context of prog house.

Well, it’s the word itself: it’s a progression, with alternative build ups. You don’t have to follow any structures or rules. As I already said, progressive means you’re able to combine forces from different styles of house music, to lead creativity out of bounds. There are no rules at all! I’m proud to be tagged as a progressive house artist.

Is progressive house gaining in popularity?

Progressive house is always gaining popularity as the genre is changing often. The different influences always brings progressive house to a new and brighter audience.

Since I’ve followed this scene, I’ve been surprised by how much progressive house as grown. There was a time when house DJs didn’t give a shit about progressive house because it was too different to what they were playing in their sets. But nowadays, I figured out, DJs from all genres watch the progressive scene and also support and play this kind of music.

Which progressive house artists should we keep an eye on, and why?

There are a few great producers that I follow regularly. Let me pick a few artists who do progressive house the way I’d consider “progressive”.

Henry Saiz’ music is brilliant, it’s a bit trance influenced on the atmosphere with techy beats, and he’s always doing great mixdowns.

I’m a big fan of Dousk, as he’s able to combine progressive house and techno. I love his work.

Most of my DJ sets contain tracks or remixes from D-Nox & Beckers. Their stuff is continuously top quality, and it’s not only my crowd that dig their music.

Stan Kolev and Jerome Isma-Ae – What else do I need to say? They are progressive house. They’ve been both a big inspiration to how my music sounds today