1. 12 LIVE WIRE
Some of it sounds
like a modem, it’s
true. But some of it
sounds really good.
Here’s how to tell
one from the other
by Suprateek Chatterjee
O. PROGRESSIVE house is
N not a villa for liberals; bass drop
doesn’t mean the bottom has
fallen out of your world.
Electronic music has seeped into pop,
Grandpa’s
Photo: THINKSTOCK
Guide
rock and other traditional genres over
the last decade. Using electronically
generated sounds (from synthesisers,
computers or samples of previously
recorded music or instruments), this
Photo: GETTYIMAGES
To Electronic
form of music is everywhere today.
You’ll hear its most popular avatar,
electronic dance music or EDM, at
clubs, ghetto pubs and even shopping
malls. But like most contemporary
Music
music, it has many sub-genres, and
new ones get added to the list every
year. Actually, every six months!
If the confusion over grindcore and
hardcore wasn’t enough, now you have
to decipher stuff like Nu Skool and BASSHUNTER
Brostep. So, if you feel like a bit of a
fuddy-duddy in the middle of all this,
don’t worry. Use our guide to catch YOUTUBE KEYWORDS:
Basshunter, Cascada, DJ Splash
up and get with it.
PROGRESSIVE
HOUSE TECHNO
The sound was big in the late ’90s and
The most common sub-genre of EDM. the early part of the following decade.
It’s often played at nightclubs and It has recently blipped to life again in
music festivals such as Sunburn. the underground scenes in the UK and
Progressive house is a descendant of DEADMAU5 USA. You’ll know it by its repetitive
house music, an electronic version of 4/4 beats at a tempo of nearly 150 bpm.
disco characterised by steady 4/4 beats YOUTUBE KEYWORDS: Armin van Buuren, Axwell, Deadmau5 Expect harsh sounds from retro
and offbeat hi-hats (just say ‘untss devices like drum machines with
untss untss untss’ repeatedly and you’ll mid-to-high-range frequencies.
get the idea; just try not to do it in Photo: GETTYIMAGES
public). House tracks generally tend ARJUN VAGALE, 34
DJ PEARL, 34
to build up slowly and steadily, TECHNO HAS MADE A BIG
leading to an intense climactic cho- WHEN I STARTED OUT ABOUT 13 YEARS COMEBACK in the last two years
rus. Confident lead line, tight drums AGO, MY COLLEAGUES and I would introduce each and I’m really happy to be
and doubled kick drum characterise other to different styles of music and artists. At that dabbling in it. The energy and
a solid progressive house track. Like time, we had chanced upon the earliest propo- the edginess techno possess-
rock music, the word ‘progressive’ nents of progressive house music artists es is much required in
simply refers to a different approach such as John Digweed, Sasha and Nick War- today’s electronic dance mu-
to the same genre, with different ren and would try and play that style during sic. A decade ago, it became
instrumentation and arrangements. the less commercial nights at nightclubs. a little too mainstream,
In the case of progressive house, Progressive tracks are usually very long and but now it’s found its
there’s a tendency to make the music build gradually with a lot of progression. Today, place as an underground
sound more dramatic by adding tra- any big-room music with big crescendos and movement.”
massive drops is being passed off as progressive
ditional instruments such as piano and Arjun Vagale is DJ-producer,
house, which has led to a little bit of miseducation member of techno and progres-
a string section (programmed in using sive house collective Jalebee
amongst the DJs of today.
keyboards or sampled). Cartel
Pearl is a popular DJ and co-founder of Submerge
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