Eric Prydz, Pryda, Cirez D: whatever name you know him as, the man is a progressive powerhouse. This March heralds his triumphant return to Toronto with a stop at UNIUN, presented by INK Events. This event will be the second date of Prydz’s North American club tour. The show was announced on January 10th, 2017 and was unsurprisingly sold out within hours of the tickets going on sale. Oddly enough, the show occurs on March 2nd, 2017, which happens to be a Thursday, and goes from 10PM until 4AM, much to the chagrin of many nine-to-fivers. Then again, what better way to kick off a weekend than by starting it early?
Hailing from Sweden, Prydz has been on the scene for a number of years, but initially recieved widespread acclaim for his hit Call on Me, released in 2004. Don’t expect to hear him play it anytime soon though. Eric has expressed something akin to disdain for the track and has sought to distance himself from it, a sentiment which many fans support.
The last time Prydz was in town was under his Cirez D alias at UNIUN in May of last year. That performance, however, was a foray into his techno productions, rather than the more progressive sound of Pryda. Going even further back, the last time he played as Eric Prydz was in October of 2015 at an invite-only event sponsored by Heineken.
Last year saw the release of his most recent album: the aptly named Opus. It is, in my opinion, a masterwork of the progressive house genre. Released February of 2016 on Virgin Records as a 2 disc CD, Opus features a number of previously released singles, such as Generate, as well as the title track. A bit surprising, but not unpleasantly so, were the two songs featuring vocal collaborations. Moody Mondays features vocals from The Cut and put me in mind of 80’s synthpop. Breathe‘s vocals are performed by Rob Swire of Pendulum and Knife Party fame.
Last December saw the debut of a new track which caused quite a stir. Known as Lillo, the track is dedicated to fan James Lillo who, unfortunately, recently lost his battle with cancer. The track features the signature Pryda sound: those rising progressive tones with a lilting atmospheric melody throughout.
Prydz recently tweeted an image alluding to a new Pryda album and has been hard at work on the new EPIC 5.0 tour, which is set to debut in London on May 27th, 2017. Having been overlooked in the past due to a lack of a multifunctional space, many fans are eager to see Prydz bring one of his EPIC tours to Toronto. In the meantime, his March show at UNIUN is sure to Generate delight amongst the Toronto electronic music community.
LINKS:
INK Events
Event Page
UNIUN Nightclub
Eric Prydz
Scott Copeland – EDM TOR
