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Column: 'Progressive Obsessive' - Dean Millson

Author: Dean Millson
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Dean 'Pull Up King' Millson's comprehensive progressive round-up puts him a nose in front of Keltec as the Spring Carnival 'Slacker Stakes' draw to a close

With Tranzfusion going through some changes (if you haven't noticed them already then you soon will), I thought it high time I got my act together for another edition of 'Progressive Obsessive'. Well actually that's a slight lie. When I was compared recently to being almost as bad as Keltec when it comes to submitting columns, I decided that was all the battering to my reputation that was required-so here we are again.

Despite the fact that I have to mention Keltec for the second time in two paragraphs, it really shouldn't be that hard to write this column, as once again there is an abundance of great music around. As I have mentioned a number of times here in the past, Keltec and Dan Mangan make up the dynamic duo of Mortar & Pestle and in my last column I previewed a forthcoming release on Heavy Rotation featuring a remix of Itsachickthing by Luke Chable. Well at the time it was quite a while away from being finished but it's definitely completed now, and I must say it is massive. Luke has really turned out a number on this one; a kinda fusion of the chunky progressive breaks we have become accustomed to, a particularly phat bassline rework, and the addition of a haunting piano melody-coupled with one of the most epic (but in a good way) breakdowns I've heard since, well, the last thing Luke did! Excellent stuff from a bunch of producers, and a label, that continues to shine.

Dan Mangan and Sean Quinn have also put together a huge breaks remix of Panopticon's Revealing The Door for Dave Seaman's label Audiotherapy. So big in fact that Dave has included it on Audio Therapy's latest CD release 'This Is Audio Therapy'. It's a double release, including one mixed disc (from Mr Seaman himself) and another unmixed disc of remixes, which is where Dan and Sean's mix ends up. Audio Therapy has definitely been one of the more musically diverse labels of the last few years and this looks set to be a great representation of this diversity.

Another producer that has blown me away with the quality of his productions in the last few months is a young gun by the name of Stuart McKeown. Hailing originally from Belfast, Stu has been living in Melbourne for the past 12 months and has been churning out some fantastic music. He's had quite a profound influence on my own sound actually. Since he's been living round the corner things seem to have taken a decidedly techy feel. In fact Stuart is one of the most German Irishmen I know. His most recent track, Chemical Thrust - a driving techy number, full of twisted sub-bass-is superb and I was fortunate to get a hold of Air Raid (under his Paper Scissors guise, a collaboration with another local producer Michael Napora) which I happily included on my Triple J mixup set from June this year. Keep an eye out for Stuart's work in the near future as I'm sure it will be making bigger waves than just my little old column very shortly.

He's also collaborated recently with another Melbourne producer Darius Bassiray on the wonderfully funky-but-still-extremely-twisted Gyppo Funk, which has never failed to hit a spot with punters when I've had the privileged of giving it a spin over the last few months. Not only does it get the floor moving, it's got the most ingenious use of a recorded phone message since Junior Vasquez and If Madonna Calls. Well actually it's much better than that. And while we're on the Stu and Darius tip, make sure you head down to www.edmdigital.com and pick yourself up a copy of Stu's fantastic remix of Darius' Keep Your Nose Clean, just for good measure.

On the compilation front, I'll be looking forward to what Nubreed have to offer when they mix the next in the Y4K series. It'll be out in Nove
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