Progression:

Right, so many of you at some point have probably wondered 'What's the deal with this Progression thing' (mostly those who are new to the whole Progression series) or for those of you who wanted to know more about the history of it or what it means, I thought i'd write this blog to actually talk about it.

It was sometime in early 2003 when I was just playing out some new tunes that were doing it for me back then and thought why dont I record a mix with them on it so I can listen to them in my car. So I routed the mixer output from a 2 channel behringer mixer and an ancient Denon 2400 cd player to my computer and started playing out these tunes. The set had NO planning or direction or anything, it was just me wanting to record a few tunes that I could listen to in the car continuously and mixed the way I would have liked to hear it. After 70 mins of recording that session, I burnt it to a cd and took a few of my friends out on a drive along the beach to hear the whole set. Turns out they all loved it.... and Progression 1 was born. What made that set special for alot of people (and for me) was that while these tracks on their own were brilliant, when put in a set and mixed in this manner, turned out to deliver a new emotion, feel and experience that it could not do on its own...

So I burnt a few more copies of it and gave it around to some more friends, and everybody loved it. It was very flattering for me since this was not some planned effort to create a new brand or series, it just became that way, and turned out to be the defining sound for me through my career. So i continued on and made another Progression CD the next year and two more followed over a period of 3 years. During this time, these mixes had reached tons of people from all over and were receiving quite a following. The one thing thats hugely encouraging (and satisfying) is that even after all these years, many people still listen to these mixes and often use the term 'classic' to describe it to me. To me, achieving that is very important : being able to create something that stands the test of time and has appeal even after years of it being around.

At that time I just needed to name this set something that made logical sense to what it was about... and Progression was the most logical name at that point, since the music style was progressive house, presented in a sequence that made a musical progression.

Doing a Progression CD is the hardest thing for me, since the expectations are so high not only from others, but from myself. Describing any form of music is an extremely difficult task, but if i absolutely must describe The Progression sound, it can be described as Melodic House music, mixed and presented in a Progressive style.

Whats with the arrows you ask? It has become the style/theme of Progression, the culmination of various arrows coming together to move in one direction depicts different sounds coming together to form something new collectively, move in one direction, forward thinking or forward movement... or just Progression :)

Whats in store for Progression? - The fifth album is due this year and i'm already thinking about what to do for it, I plan to produce some of my own material to take the series forward, so work on that is already underway. In the meanwhile we have the Progression Summer Sessions, which will be held at Sparks (Chennai, India) through April, May and June. These nights are going to serve as a local outlet for all my music, and your dose of Progression.

I hope all the work that has gone into these mixes has meant something to some of you, at some point of time, and hopefully I will continue to entertain you in the years to come.

Stay tuned for more and a big thank you for all the love and support!

Love,

Tanseer