pryda. the return of single(s).
I hate singles. I hate buying them unless they have exclusive content or remixes. Other than that I avoid them, as the replay value is really quite low. An Alternate mix, possibly an instrumental for the hip hop producers to sample, we all know the drill. Unless it’s Madonna with her 15 remixes spanning all brands of house music and electro or the myriad tinkering Mr. William Orbit did on Ray of Light, that I’m fine with. But normally, normally singles are either 1.) Absolute bollocks, or 2.) The only song of value on the whole damn record and you’re even more frustrated after you buy the official release. The single is ruined by the rest of the record sucking. It’s simply maddening.
So with the death of [most] record stores, I concluded the idea of a single as a medium would simply die off. EP’s, like small mammals after that horrible meteorite crash 65 million years ago, would inherit the earth. But I was wrong, thankfully.
I digress, yet again. Beatport really is the best way of buying music if you are of the EDM persuasion (and as you’ve noticed, I am certainly playing for that particular team) and there is something really magical about Beatport and the releases it places on your computer screen. Somehow, I find more music on beatport than I do in iTunes. I become a man of needful things: I need this, I need that, I want that release, no I don’t care how much the WAV handling fee is (which Beatport, seriously? Can’t we all just get along and use FLAC?). Then somehow I’ve blown fifty bucks in thirty seconds. That’s what Beatport is! A stripper joint! (really I do love you Beatport, it’s all in good fun)
In the last 6 months of me looking through Beatport, Pryda keeps popping up. Yes yes Eric Prydz of “Call on Me” fame. But the Pryda releases in this last 2 years are truly wonderful tracks, many of them at least. But i think what’s most interesting is how well they stand alone. These are tracks released in small groups, or simply by their lonesome. “Melo” is by far my favorite, with a crisp sound, verbed out drums running in and out of the mix and a hook, my god such a hook. It really shouldn’t work, but you want these tracks on repeat, like Inspiration, it doesn’t feel as if the song ends, just that it should play over and over and over.
I don’t know what Eric is adding to his productions; subliminal messaging hidden in the mix, outright hypnosis in the album covers, maybe kicking it old skool with dicks and twats in the album art like coca cola used to (I shit you not, really interesting history, and it’s the same art you find at Ruby’s diners, hopefully, sans the smut, or tragically, depending on your preference). I really don’t know why, but this is just wonderful techno. It has a clean production above all but a characteristic vintage 80’s sound.
Most other artists produce albums that have wonderful continuity and are made up of the sum of their parts, but made better by each part. I site “Raver’s Diary” by The Dusty Kid, or Trent Reznor’s two greatest works, The Fragile and The Downward Spiral. But Pryda makes tracks truly just for now, they are for you, the listener to revel in for as long as you like. And that is the odd thing, you just let them keep playing Put your headphones on, forget the song name, really it doesn’t matter.
What’s most interesting is Pryda has released enough singles and EP’s to comprise an album, but here they stand, alone and wonderfully distinct, each one. Which I think reveals the beauty of this man’s talent. That he really only needs five or seven minutes of your time and he has you for the rest of the night.
Listen to Melo, turn repeat on. Call it a science project. I imagine you’ll enjoy it.
I apologize if my humor made this post a bit odd, but I was feeling a bit saucy this evening/morning.
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