'Some say this is progressive house, but we all know this is progressive home'

[dolorosa_12]

Back in the day (by which I mean over a decade ago, when Youtube's algorithm just showed you music it thought you might like if you were using it without being logged in, as opposed to shoving horrific far right podcasters and video essayists in your face, which is what it does now), I stumbled on MrSuicideSheep's epic, four-part 'Taking You Higher' progressive house mix. I edited the final stages of my PhD to this music, wrote numerous job applications, and cleaned and cooked repeatedly with this on in the background. Many of the close to 100 systematic reviews for which I've done the database searches (a fiddly task that takes about half a day when it's easy, and multiple additional days longer when it's hard) were done to this soundtrack. I've discovered so much music I like through those mixes, and I'm very certain that multiple Dreamwidth posts have titles taken from some of the included songs.

I follow the guy (I'm assuming gender based on the 'Mr' in the Youtube handle, but obviously I have no idea) on social media, and a few weeks back, he started teasing that Part 5 of this mix was coming soon — after a pause of nine years. When it dropped, the comments were full of rapturous gratitude from people who had clearly used the previous four parts as the soundtrack to their lives in much the same way as I had. They reminisced about the stages of the lives at which they were when the earlier parts had come out, and how far they had come (graduations, marriages, children, new jobs, moving cities or countries, etc) since then. It was just such a nice moment of warmth and community, with people coming together across continents and oceans to celebrate music that had meant so much to them, and rejoice in a new addition to that stream of sound that connected them all. In that space, in that moment, everyone put everything aside, and just united in the sheer, earnest love of music.

The new mix itself is 4.5 hours long!

Comments

[kore]

Aw, that's lovely.

[dolorosa_12]

The whole thing makes me so happy!

[jesse_the_k]

I'm an old folk music fan; I had never heard "progressive house" before. This is lovely. (It's got enough melody for my brain to hold on to.)

The YT comments are so sweet -- this captures it so well:

lucasjames4549 "Some say this is Progressive House, but we all know this is Progressive Home."

Fingers crossed that I can do 1/60th of what you've accomplished with this music powering you.

[dolorosa_12]

I'm glad you like it! I like a lot of genres of music, but this is the sort of thing I listen to when I need to get a time-consuming and/or complex piece of work done, and really need to focus. It's got a beat that feels productive, and the vocals tend to be inane enough that they don't distract me.

That comment is so lovely! I may even replace the title of this post with it.

[trepkos]

So glad you found a new version of something you love!

[dolorosa_12]

A continuation, rather than a new version, but yes, it is delightful!

[darkmarcy]

Ah, the old youtube... I use Unhook Youtube on my browser which makes it super minimalistic with just the search bar on the front page, and any time I use the 'tube on our tv I get a whiplash of all those terrible popular videos the algorithm wants (unsigned in) me to see, ugh.

I had never heard of this mixmaster but your post is very enlightening and I love the community aspect and memories made to these mixes! There is good in the world <3

Now, should I start from the beginning with the first part, or jump straight into listening to this new release?

[dolorosa_12]

I think it depends how many hours you have to spare! This new mix is 4.5 hours long, and the previous four parts are also pretty long too. In my opinion it's better to go chronologically, but honestly each mix can be enjoyed as a standalone thing.

Unhook Youtube sounds super useful!

[superborb]

I enjoyed this mix! Thanks for linking it