My Direct Support Set for Cristoph @ Club Vinyl FEB 2020

#properPROG - KSTEELE Live @ Club Vinyl (Support for Cristoph) [FEBRUARY 2020]

It’s not progressive if it doesn’t push music forward: this is the position held by KSTEELE. Be it the next track in his mix or his ambitions out on the horizon, the Denver DJ always keeps it real and keeps it moving.

KSTEELE is the forerunner of #properPROG — less a genre and more a philosophy of sonic exploration. His refusal to conform has yielded an unpredictable style that holds captive house, techno and trance fans alike in rooms like Temple Denver, Bar Standard, Club Vinyl, and Meow Wolf Denver. Only a few short years into his electronic music career, he’s beginning to rapidly accelerate.

It’s a rare sort of confidence that allows KSTEELE to rise above the tribalism that plagues modern dance music. It only makes sense, though, as he’s no stranger to going against the grain.

Born Kalib Steele in Colorado Springs, he first fell in love with trance at boarding school when he found “For An Angel” by Paul van Dyk on a friend’s iPod Nano. He played the track on repeat every day. Even without access to a community who shared his newfound passion, he then explored much of the electronic music landscape on his own before graduating high school.

2013 marked a turning point as Steele touched down in Denver and immediately got involved with Global Dance, the city’s largest electronic music event brand. Doors opened to a world even bigger than the one he envisioned when he heard the otherworldly melodies of his formative influences. He started out as a promoter and quickly worked his way up to A&R.

It wasn’t until much later that Steele entertained the idea of performing himself. By 2017 he was constantly dazzling established artists in the trance-progressive arena with his knowledge of cutting-edge tracks on obscure labels. After enough respected tastemakers pushed him to take up DJing, he finally made his way to the other side of the decks.

KSTEELE debuted at Denver club Bar Standard in December of 2019. He was billed as the opener, but by the time his set ended he had a crowd that any local DJ would envy. More importantly, he demonstrated to all the right people in the city that his passion for music had manifested as a talent for music curation.

The years since have been kind to KSTEELE. His résumé now includes gigs at Club Vinyl, Larimer Lounge, Knew Concious, Temple Denver, Your Mom's House, Milk Bar, Global Dance Festival, X BAR, Meow Wolf Denver, Disco Pussy Las Vegas and both the Denver and Las Vegas iterations of Techno Taco Tuesday. 
He has played support for such well-known artists as Tinlicker, Jody Wisternoff, Simon Doty, Cristoph, Matt Lange, Charles D, John Monkman, Hannes Bieger, Grum, Moon Boots, Shay DeCastro, Qrion, CRi, Estiva and Matt Fax. KSTEELE also boasts strong ties with Denver promoter TheHundred Presents, Knew Conscious, and techno/progressive label JourneyDeep Records.

KSTEELE has covered this much ground in such a short period of time because he’s building something bigger than himself. It’s not lost on him that he’s among a small handful of Black artists active in the trance-progressive range of the electronic music spectrum. He wants his success to lead the way for others in his shoes who might not otherwise see a place for themselves in this community.

At the same time, KSTEELE attests that proper progressive is not a creative range at all. He believes that every piece of music is unique in itself, and whatever meanings we give to the words that become genres will never measure up to the sounds themselves. His drive to unearth a diverse array of forward-thinking gems is what makes his music progressive. His seamless mixing, stage presence, and immediate connection with the audience is what makes it unquestionably proper.

Listen closely enough to the moments that make up a KSTEELE set and you can hear the omen of a not-so-distant future. One thing is for sure: There’s no telling where the #properPROG movement will take him next.

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