Some debuts arrive loud. Others open like a window. Scottish producer Brannen’s first release under his own name, Tulips, belongs firmly in the second camp. It sits in that fertile space between progressive house, deep house and old-school house thinking: patient, melodic, and built to move rather than shout.
That patience is not accidental. Brannen spent years as a live musician before this chapter. In 2012 he started with Another Blurry Photo. In 2014 came Thirty Three Connection. Until 2019 he was behind the kit and on lead vocals in both bands. From 2019 through May 2025 he worked as zildjianpinky, learning electronic production and slowly shaping the sound that now carries his name. Tulips is the point where those two lives meet: a drummer’s sense of groove inside modern electronic arrangement.
He describes the project as melodic, organic and emotive. The palette he names is specific: warm synths, evolving textures, organic percussion and cinematic melodies. That is also where current listening habits line up with him. Progressive house has been finding its way back into playlists and longer DJ sets, not as a festival-drop nostalgia trip but as music that actually develops. Deep and organic house keep pulling listeners who want tactility instead of purely digital sheen. A five-minute-plus cut like Tulips (the Spotify listing runs 5:20, with an instrumental version alongside it) is built for that kind of attention.
His influence list is wide on purpose. Ben Böhmer, Marsh, Yotto, Hosini, RÜFÜS DU SOL, deadmau5, BICEP, Moby and Tinlicker sit next to Massive Attack, Ludovico Einaudi, Radiohead, Sigur Rós, M83, Faithless, Pure Reason Revolution, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Bon Iver, Talk Talk, Depeche Mode and Roxy Music. You can hear why he would put them in one sentence. The electronic side wants lift and space. The alternative and ambient side wants atmosphere that does not collapse when you take the kick away. Old-school house DNA is the glue: groove first, then the journey.
He is already pointing past the debut. Keep Dancing With Me is listed as a follow-up. After more than a decade of making music, Brannen is treating this name as the place where live-musician habits and studio electronics stop competing. That is a useful frame for anyone following the 2026 wave of progressive and organic house: the records that last tend to come from people who already know how a room feels when a drummer is actually playing.
What do you think of this kind of debut — slow-bloom progressive house from a live-band background? Drop a thought in the comments.
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