Announced only a week in advance on Eric Prydz's Facebook page, the release of Pryda 037 coincides with the unveiling of details surrounding his upcoming EPIC 5.0 event in London next May. As such, this EP seems more like a marketing exercise than an artistic statement (its banal, business-report style title hints towards an awareness of this), so despite hardly being an essential entry in his discography, it's a solid release nonetheless.
Prydz introduced us to his Pryda moniker back in 2012 with Eric Prydz Presents Pryda, a sprawling triple-disc set that, once you agreed to play by its grandiose, hyper-extended rules, proved highly worthwhile in single-disc helpings. Pryda 037 is more of the same: mature, confident, progressive trance tunes that unfurl over eight-minute runtimes without ever seeming overlong.
Aside from his mastery of dynamics, much of Prydz's strength lies in his ability to distil just enough of his influences to reference them without pandering or seeming obvious. While a broad '80s streak ran through Opus (his previous long-player), this time it's '90s trance that can be heard at the core of things. The production is slicker, and the massive peaks and valleys of the era have been flattened somewhat to suit the slow-burning Pryda sound, though flashes of Paul Oakenfold's seminal Tranceport (to give one example) rise out of the embers every now and then.
Fans eager for new Eric Prydz will immediately feel at home with Pryda 037, but even they'll likely admit he's not exactly breaking new ground here. He still manages to leave one wanting more though, and that's an admirable feat.
(Pryda Recordings)Prydz introduced us to his Pryda moniker back in 2012 with Eric Prydz Presents Pryda, a sprawling triple-disc set that, once you agreed to play by its grandiose, hyper-extended rules, proved highly worthwhile in single-disc helpings. Pryda 037 is more of the same: mature, confident, progressive trance tunes that unfurl over eight-minute runtimes without ever seeming overlong.
Aside from his mastery of dynamics, much of Prydz's strength lies in his ability to distil just enough of his influences to reference them without pandering or seeming obvious. While a broad '80s streak ran through Opus (his previous long-player), this time it's '90s trance that can be heard at the core of things. The production is slicker, and the massive peaks and valleys of the era have been flattened somewhat to suit the slow-burning Pryda sound, though flashes of Paul Oakenfold's seminal Tranceport (to give one example) rise out of the embers every now and then.
Fans eager for new Eric Prydz will immediately feel at home with Pryda 037, but even they'll likely admit he's not exactly breaking new ground here. He still manages to leave one wanting more though, and that's an admirable feat.
