Jimmy Van M: The Warm-Up DJ Behind America's Progressive-House Infrastructure

If you've ever wondered how British progressive house got a proper foothold in America, part of the answer is a bloke from Ghent who grew up in Orlando. Jimmy Van M spent the late 90s and early 2000s doing two jobs at once: running the booking agency and record pool that got records and DJs where they needed to be, and playing the rooms himself, often before the headliner, and deliberately so. His links with Sasha and Digweed tell part of the story, but the US infrastructure behind the music matters just as much. A touring network, local record shops and American DJs were building their own progressive identity rather than simply importing a British sound. The recordings and release connections here are worth hearing on those terms.