EPISODE 56! Rolling out once again with a new episode for you. Here is my summer special!
But first some news. It has come to the point where I can’t keep it coming month after month. Podgressive has been rolling out every month since 2010 with over 100 artists. It hasn’t been easy to find good guests lately that are suitable for my show and at the same time looking into my calender, I’m overbooked with both private and job related stuff. I wan’t to keep it coming but still with at least the same quality as before. Therefore, I have decided to keep em’ coming but only four times a year starting with this episode and on October 24th as my autumn special.
I hope that you all understand and hopefully I can pack the next one full of great content.
EPISODE 54! Time for some podcasting again. Tatsumi have just moved to another flat with his girlfriend and made this podcast in the middle of our boxes and chaos. To make it easier for him, he has invited just one guest this time. With us this time is a great talent from Stockholm, Spaanberg and Tatsumis set building up from techno to progressive trance.
So, grab your copy at Podgressive.com and have a great presummer weekend!
Hi guys and girls!
We have come to the end of November and the winter is soon upon us here in Sweden, this means it’s time for Podgressive, episode 48.
This time with a deep house-set from Eddy Cabrera, a live recording from Tatsumi Suzuki’s set at Kollektivet Sthlm’s Halloween party and an energic set from Stana.
Podgressive, bejbi.se and BouleBar had a second edition of the super awesome party BouleBass.
Main acts were Fredrik Grass, Amar S, Tatsumi Suzuki, Technophobia and Stavros
BouleBass, BouleBar Globen, Stockholm, Sweden, 2013.07.06
Pictures: 44
Kollektivet hosted Sundeck and the Monday Bar floor at the Monday Bar Black & White Cruise from Stockholm to Riga. We had our equipment and recorded our dj-sets and after some work I’m happy to announce this release of Podgressive EP043!
The content of this episode starts with my entire set and 20 minutes each from Kambiz, Amar S, Fredrik Grass, Jay van Kay and Steve Sundheden.
I will try to get all the track lists shortly but enough talking, let’s turn the time back to 6-8th June!
So click on the picture above to get to the downloadpage of the podcast!
DON’T FORGET TO GIVE YOUR SUPPORT BY WRITING A COMMENT, SHARE AND LIKE THIS EPISODE. ALSO SEND US YOUR SHOUT OUT’S OR REQUESTS TO info@podgressive.com.
Once again it’s time for the club concept that Tatsumi Suzuki, Technophobia, Patric from bejbi.se and BouleBar has come up with.
The idea is as genius as it is simple. Play Boule, drink beer and listen to bass. Boule, Beer & Bass.
Some of you might remember the party that #Podgressive and bejbi did last summer, the Podgressive Summerjam.
Well we thought that it was about time to do another party, and as usual there is a little twist in it.
Together with Podgressive, Technophobia and BouleBar Globen, bejbi.se proudly presents BouleBass!
Lineup is not yet ready, but it will be awesome.
And, BouleBar has made an special offer for this night only, for just 100kr you get a beer and a boulecourse.
You very often find an artist/project that makes one hit and then disappears. The next project had 2 major hits in the trance community, 2 big tracks that defined early trance. So which track am I talking about? It’s ofcourse Cygnus X – The Orange Theme (Bervoets & De Goeij Remix).
Matthias Hoffmann started out as an studio guitarist for artists like Quincy Jones and Sheila E but changed his musical interest after listening to dancemusic. Matthias started releasing his own material from 1988 and onwards.
He was also one of the founders of the Eye Q-label together with Sven Väth and Heinz Roth. It was also around that time that he met Ralf Hildenbeutel for the first time as Ralf worked as a studio partner for Sven Väth.
The Cygnus X-project took shape in early 1993 and released their first single, Superstring on Eye Q Records.
The first releases were an EP with Superstring and Positron and later in 1994 you saw remixes from Oliver Lieb and Cygnus X themselves. The big breakthrough for Superstring came in 2000 when Rank 1 made their famous remix. Rank 1’s remix got them a top 40 hit and peaked at no 33 in the UK chart.
Worth noticing is that Superstring (Rank 1 Remix) was the Sensation 2000 Theme.
What I really like is that Rank 1 made the track warmer than the original which is abit cold and dry. Superstring was released on a total of 26 releases and licensed to labels like Xtravaganza and Bonzai just to name a few.
Their next big track came in 1994 with The Orange Theme. By this time Ralf has already left the project.
The new remixes also gave Cygnus X another chart position, this time at no 43 in the UK chart. I just love how the track builds and builds and then a major breakdown. Major Goosebumps!
The Orange Theme has since been remixed by many more and reworked by artists like Deadmau5
.
Cygnus X version has been released on a total of 31 versions and licensed labels like Hooj, ID&T and Bonzai just to name a few.
In 1995 Cygnus X released their only album, Hypermetrical.
A fun fact is that the album doesn’t contain Superstring at all. The only track produced with Ralf on the record is Turn Around.
The album also spawned a few singles like Kinderlied (1995), Turn Around (1995), Synchronism (1995), Hypermetrical (1996) and Positron (2002) but none of the were the range of the ever so popular Superstring and The Orange Theme.
For me, the 1999/2000-remixes of Superstring and The Orange Theme were 2 tracks that defined trance when I first started listening on a major scale. I was more into house at the end of the 90’s. What fascinated me back then was the major effort the remixes put on their work. When you saw a track from Cygnus X you knew that cool remixes would follow.
And most often, it did!
Let’s go all the way back to 1996. Trance music was on the rise and especially one track took the world by storm. The track ended up as a top 10-track in more than 15 european countries. It even sold Gold in Germany and also sold Silver in France and the UK with an amazing 200.000 copies sold only in the UK. So which track am I talking about? It’s ofcourse B.B.E. – Seven Days And One Week. (buy on Itunes)
Goosebump points:
00:55 when the orchestral hit comes. 01.50 when Oh Yeah is heard just before the main melody comes on. 02.45 after the second Oh Yeah and when the hypnotic bassline starts. 04:38 when the breakdown starts and starts to fade. 05:06 when its all quiet except for the lead instrument. 06:01 after the orchestral explosion and the drums start playing again.
B.B.E. were french producer Emmanuel Top together with italian producers Bruno Sanchioni and Bruno Quartier. Emmanuel Top had done some acid-influented techno before the project and Bruno Sanchioni had quite some fame with various projects like Age Of Love which should be pretty well-known to you guys. Bruno Quartier had also done quite a bunch of various tracks under quite a few aliases.
The name B.B.E. comes from the first letters of their names.
B.B.E.’s first track was actually Seven Days And One Week. First released as an EP called Seven Days And One Week / Hypnose and later released as an own single with various remixes.
Over the years, the track has been released on various labels like Positiva, Urban, EMI and Armada Digital just to name a few. When it comes to remixes, i’d say that I still prefer the original club mix which still sounds pretty fresh even today.
A top tip: Listen to Hypnose, a really dark and hypnotizing track which reminds you of Eric Prydz alias Pryda.
The follow up to Seven Days was the amazing single Flash. Although released in late 1996, the major breakthough came in 1997 when it made it’s way into the UK top 10.
Worth noticing is that on a few versions, the track Photo (which is a personal favourite) appears. The track was later re-released as Enter – Load & Save. Also worth noticing that a few versions of Flash also contained the Rollo & Sister Bliss remix of Seven Days And One Week.
As I mentioned above, the track Photo was re-released as Enter – Load And Save. What they tried to do is to take the dark Photo and make it more ”fluffy”, more atmospheric.
What I really liked about Photo was that it was bang on dark and moody.
The fourth single, Desire was another chart-topper and made it’s way into the top 20 in Ireland and the UK. The Age Of Club-mix is worth a listening.
Deeper Love from 1998 was the first vocal track so far. The vocalist used was Joy Rose from the british house-collective Incognito. The track became another top 20 track in the UK.
Worth noticing is that on the album, the track is called Symphonic Paradise so the single is sometimes called Deeper Love (Symphonic Paradise).
This was also the year that B.B.E. released their debut album, Games, a 13-track monster which had all the tracks to date and a few more. The album did decent chart-wise and made it into the top 60 in the UK. I still got my album somewhere but haven’t really listened to it in quite some time.
After the albumrelease, the guys took some time off. They tried to restart the project after Emmanuel had finished his new studio in 2001 and even released 3 more singles which never made it into the charts.
The 2001 track, B.B.E. Vs Emmanuel Top – Orion was the first track. It isn’t bad at all. More trance-sounding than previous track which probably was a sign of the times when it was released.
The second track, Free, follows in the footsteps of Orion. I love the pumping bassline though.
The last track, Hollywood was more house than trance but still kept that simple bassline that many tranceartists at the time used.
So how to sum this up?
For me personally, B.B.E. were a big part of my listening back in 1996 when Seven Days first came out. I was all into the dream trance-sound that came with Robert Miles – Children in 1995 which I really loved.
The first 2 singles, Seven Days and Flash (and Photo) was easily in my top 10 tracks of 1996 as they represented a fresh new sound. I honestly can’t say that the tracks that followed was in the same league, not even by a long shot. I did love the album though which sounded really fresh for 1998.
The thing with classics like this is that they will always live on as long as people keep playing them. It’s really awesome to hear the classics, especially played by your favourite DJ. I know that I will keep on playing them for quite some time as I concider them true classics.
