From: nuscss1@vms1.iscs.nus.sg (Vax BULLET-IN-Board SysOps)
Subject: Re: XDZebra Review #19
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: National University of Singapore Dept. of Computer Sc.
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 18:34:00 GMT

In article <1992Dec14.123246.10296@gssec.bt.co.uk>, squigg@gssec.bt.co.uk (Stephen Quigg) writes...
>While reviewing some Trance compilation , Pete Ashdown writes :
>>Herbal Infusion
>>havanna 
>>etc..
>> "a smoother than smooth collection of progressive house
>	What do you mean smooth ? 

Well..what do progressive house means ? Seems that most UK DJ's are afraid
to use the term because it wd pigeon-holed 'a vastly varied and improving
UK dance products'...

Personally I don't mind labels , and I think progressive house / hard house
can be used to describe these bunch of tunes represented by Guerilla , Cowboy
and Limbo/23rd Precincts (and lots of others Zoom , Vivational etc etc) they
are mostly lyric-less , have a rolling deep basslines , lots of hi-hats
(although not as hard as Todd Terry's hi-hats) and bits and pieces of
percussions , bongos and other things (harmonica , screechy buitar bits)

Thing is , being able to get stuffs from both sides of the Atlantic , U
do *can* tell the difference between UK and US house , and the songs on 
this compilation and the description above are produced by UK people *only*
or that's the impression I have so far , the US house are deeper with less
melody , more hypnotic , examples of good US house are DJ Pierre's stuff on
Strictly Rythm , George Morel's Morel Groove series and until recently
Mark Kintchen's stuff (and then there's the famous ones T.Terry T.Humphries
D.Morales K.Gonzales L.Vega L.Louis etc etc etc) I mean there's definitely
an obvious difference between the 2 camps ...

And personally , I think these tunes definitely fall below 140 bpm and Iusually
refuse to use the word 'techno' on them , trance and tribal feel are infused
in them and there are pure trance and tribal tunes , therefore the term
progressive in the first place...

>>Virtually all the tracks are calm 
>	I'll keep flaming reviews until they present a more acurate picture to
>the person reading it ...
> 
>The review wasn't a hasty effort ,and looked reosanable , but it ignores some
>startling facts :
> 
>	BONG !  Herbal Infuzion - The Hunter is a classic fast tribal dub song ,
>with lowwwww bass and frantic percussion , it could IN NO WAY be described as
>calm (although judging by the American's raving about Moby Dick's 1000000bpm ,
>then maybe a hurrican is calm to them ....)
> 
>	BONG !  Havanna Schtoom , while not exactly frighteningly fast (good!) ,
>still keeps up there with tha' big ones , and again , is as calm as one of that
>lad from Dundee's postings (YOU KNOW THE ONE I MEAN).
> 
> 
>	I accept disagreement can prevail , but maybe it's down to the fact that
>Americans and europeans seem to have different perspectives on dance music ,and
>this music may indeed seem calm to your average papa oui , so hey ! Lighten up!
> 
>see ya!   
>Stephen Quigg
>squigg@gssec.bt.co.uk 
>British Telecom , GSSEC , Glasgow
>(Nothing in any of my mail represents my Employer in any way)
Newsgroups: alt.rave