Eric Prydz

by Stewart Mason
Swedish DJ and producer Eric Prydz releases singles and EPs under a variety of project names, including Pryda, Cirez D, Sheridan, Dirty Funker, Moo, A and P Project, Axer, Hardform, Dukes of Sluca, and Groove System. Most of these singles are released on his own labels, which include Mouseville, Pryda, and Pryda Friends. Under his own name, however, Prydz favors straightforward, club-oriented house with a line in remakes of mildly cheesy pop songs from the 1980s. Prydz's first release in this style was 2004's "Call on Me," a sensation in Europe upon its release. Built on the hook from Steve Winwood's 1987 hit "Valerie" (with new vocals by Winwood), "Call on Me" hit the top of the singles chart in both England and Germany, spurred in large part by a somewhat controversial video consisting of an overtly sexual aerobic routine that had no less a personage than U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair publicly commenting on its salaciousness. Prydz followed this in 2005 with "Woz Not Woz," a beat-heavy instrumental revamp of the 1980 Was (Not Was) single "Wheel Me Out" that was less commercially successful but more musically inventive. This was followed in 2006 by "Proper Education," a remake of Pink Floyd's smash "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2" that sets Roger Waters and the schoolchildren chorus to a considerably funkier backbeat; this single was also released in a Daft Punk remix.