Eric Prydz Presents Pryda

For the past two weeks, I literally felt like there was a new Eric Prydz track out everyday! And all the tracks were good! They're actually all previews for his upcoming album "Eric Prydz Presents Pryda." Prydz first broke into the electronic scene with his dance-infused hit "Call On Me" which sampled Steve Winwood's "Valerie." I will admit, loving the Winwood track, and loving dance music, the track was a guilty pleasure. The sexed up video drew a lot of attention to the track as well.

His next release was also a dance version of a rock song, this time it was Pink Floyd's song "Proper Education." I don't know why, but I vehemently disliked the track, and so my verdict of Prydz was on the fence. At the same time, he was collaborating with the likes of Steve Angello and Axwell, doing remixes and collaborations.
I joked with Prydz on Twitter that his track with Angello called "Woz Not Woz" reminded me of the group that made the 1988 track "Walk the Dinosaur," Was (Not Was). Turns out that they did sample the group's track "Wheel Me Out." The joke totally backfired on me! haha!

Sweden's Prydz was quickly becoming grouped with Angello, Axwell and Ingrosso, but when Pete Tong declared them the "Swedish House Mafia," Prydz wanted to distance himself from them. While his first productions took on more of a house sound, his techier edge distinguished him from the group. People try to make it look like after he broke away from SHM there was some kind of animosity, but I am pretty sure that is not the case.
Eric Prydz has his own tracks as well as two other monikers, Pryda and Cirez D, each with a distinct sound. He achieved a great deal of success with tracks like Pjanoo and Niton, but one of my favorite is Cirez D "On Off."

This year, all of a sudden, I kept hearing new tracks from Zane Lowe, Annie Mac and Pete Tong's BBC Radio 1 shows within the last 2 weeks ALL THE TIME! They are all actually tracks to his upcoming album, some made years ago but finally being released for his fans.
First there was SW4, which I suppose is named after the electronic festival held in London.

Then there was You

Then Agag (is this a Swedish word?)

Javlar (another Swedish word?)

Leja (I think this might be his daughter's name)

But my favorite is this. Allein. Beau.ti.ful.

EDIT 5/12/11: This discovery doesn't really change the impact the song has on me, except that I truly thought the vocalist was female. I did think it was an original piece but I guess this makes more sense considering the vocals are in German and not Swedish. Polarkreis 18 (Polar circle) achieved success in their native Germany 4 years ago with "Allein Allein." Since then, the group has disbanded, which is such a shame because their electropop was really good.

I asked Eric Prydz via Twitter if he sampled this and he said no...hmmm...tbc