A Swedish producer based out of L.A., Eric Prydz first hit in 2004 with the Steve Winwood-sampling "Call on Me" and then became better known for "Proper Education," a 2006 cut that turned Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt.
2" into a slamming dancefloor-filler.
His loopy, spacy, and hooky brand of progressive house kept him in good standing with the dancefloor faithful until the 2015 single "Opus" put him back in the general public's eye with its epic nine-minute buildup and a remix request tweeted out by Kieran Hebden, aka the left-field producer Four Tet.
Perhaps Prydz is the modern-day Giorgio Moroder, equally loved by both the electronica elite and sweaty club kids who never bother to look at a record label to catch a name.
Both factions will be pleased with Opus, the long-awaited debut double album, which neither challenges nor fades into the background but entices and pleases the whole way through.
The highlights are numerous as "Floj" sounds as if Moroder joined the Human League and they went all instrumental, then Pendulum member and Deadmau5 collaborator Rob Swire proves he can emote at half tempo on the well-needed second-disc respite dubbed "Breathe." "Liberate" is the ultimate in uplift as it combines the attractive swirl of vocal trance with the sweaty beats of tribal house, then "Moody Mondays" with the Cut offers itself up to EDM, darkwave, and indie dance playlists because with Prydz, genres were made to borrow from and blend.
Tacked at the end is the always necessary "Opus" in all its glory, and while the Four Tet remix would have been nice to have (along with the recent Chvrches collaboration "Tether"), Opus, the album, is keenly constructed and an excellent beginning-to-end journey in spite of its size.