Midnight City (Eric Prydz Private Remix) - M83 (self-released, 2012)

If you are one of those people who hate dance remixes for ruining fantastic originals, this may distress you a bit at first, but don’t look away now. Yes, Eric Prydz has vastly reconfigured M83’s 2011 hit Midnight City, to create a club-ready trance/progressive house track. But he is one of the most respected remixers and producers out there, who can count to his name achievements such as being the only dance producer ever officially allowed to remix a Pink Floyd song. So no, it’s not the original. It’s far more intense, and aspects such as the lyrics have been vastly pruned back. But if you’re in a big-room club somewhere past midnight, I can promise you there isn’t a version you’d prefer. And tough luck if there is, as you likely won’t hear another either.

Slaughtered (Modcast #95) - Memory Tapes (October 2011)

David Hawke, otherwise known as Memory Tapes, recently put together an extended mix, comprising of all new material, for Modular’s Modcast. Hawke had this to say about the mix:

I find I listen to mixtapes more than albums a lot of the time, so I wanted to make a new record in the form of a mixtape instead of a single or EP etc. It’s all new, original Memory Tapes stuff just put together in the form of an extended mix.

Rocking a quite unique sound that could be described as prog chillwave, the first album from Memory Tapes, 2009’s Seek Magic, was a beautifully sprawling and emotive record, and is up there with my all-time favourites. But then with this year’s eagerly anticipated follow up Player Piano, he just seemed to lose the magic somewhat. According to interviews, he was trying craft a more concise album influenced by 60s pop, but in the end the whole thing just felt oddly devoid of the rich emotion and nostalgia pervading his first album.

Thankfully this mix, enigmatically entitled Slaughtered, sees him returning to the emotive sprawl of his first album, with a splash of 90s rave thrown in the mix. At times I’m not sure whether it is a mix, or more of a very lengthy through-composed track, but either way, it’s something special. Check it out above, or you can download it here.

A Dark Distance - Shifter & Carvell - A Dark Distance (2008, BozBoz)

If the people at the gigs I played actually wanted to hear it, this kind of deep progressive house would be all I played. But seeing as they don’t, I just listen to it a hell of a lot by myself instead.

Even if it’s a couple of years old, this track by Shifter & Carvell is still one of my absolute favourites. Unfortunately, it’s one of four tracks the pair ever released, so there’s not a lot more where this came from. But I’m always one for quality over quantity.

Mirage - Pryda - Mirage (2011, Pryda Recordings)

It’s a big year for Eric Prydz. The debut of his EPIC live show was just a couple of months ago, and the debut of the first live show under his Cirez D moniker is at South West Four in August. In the meantime, he’s hosting a string of club nights with Annie Mac at Amnesia in Ibiza, and hosting his own stage at this year’s Creamfields in London. That’s all before the actual music releases: imminent releases from both his progressive house guise Pryda and his techno alter-ego Cirez D were confirmed not too long ago. We’re going to have to wait a little longer for the new Cirez D material, but his twentieth Pryda EP, Mirage, was just released today.

Eric Prydz is one of the most consistently acclaimed producers in electronic music, but even so this EP has to be one of his best— from the effervescent title track Mirage, to the driving, bass heavy Juletider, and the swirling, impelling With Me, each of the three tracks are absolutely top notch.

Interfere (Dub Edit) - Airbase feat. Floria Ambra - Interfere (2009, Intuition)

One of my all time favourite tracks, this surging, uplifting trance track is one that has stayed with me long after I stopped really listening to the genre.

Eric Prydz just uploaded the full set from the world premiere of his EPIC show in London a few weeks ago, and it’s nothing short of what you’d expect from a producer and DJ who barely ever puts a foot wrong. If you couldn’t be at the concert, this is the next best thing. You can download the full set from his SoundCloud.

No Turning Back - Gui Boratto - Take My Breath Away (Kompakt, 2009)

One of the most beautiful vocal techno tracks you’ll hear.

Brotherhood - Roddy Reynaert & Man Of Goodwill - Jaytech’s Anjunadeep:03 Sampler (2011, Anjunadeep)

Another track featured on the recently released Anjunadeep 03 compilation, this time from the second disc, mixed by Jaytech. Though James Grant’s first disc and Jaytech’s second are both very good, in this compilation, as in Anjunadeep 02, Jaytech’s mix manages to slightly up the ante, and deliver a stronger mix with more consistent song choices.

And one of the most outstanding tracks on Jaytech’s mix is the collaboration between Anjunadeep rising star Roddy Reynaert and newcomer Man Of Goodwill, Brotherhood. From the funky, undulating mid-bass line, to the surging buildup that heralds the effervescent melody, this is a really excellent progressive house track, and hopefully just the first of more good things to come from the duo.