Album Review: Until Now by Swedish House Mafia

With Until Now, house music supergroup Swedish House Mafia (Axwell, Steve Angello, and Sebastian Ingrosso) offer their second compilation of productions, remixes, and favored tracks, following the blueprint of their 2010 set Until One. The bad news is that the album coincides with the group's splitting up and farewell tour, but the good news is that the dancefloor fillers are bigger and more powerful this time out, starting right with the group's own opener, "Greyhound," which combines a Gary Numan-esque new wave bassline with pure post-trance bliss. It's a keeper, as is their "kick this party up/start a riot" anthem with Knife Party called "Antidote," while their Tinie Tempah team-up "Miami 2 Ibiza" also goes back to the '80s and puts some Kraftwerk-like robot beats behind the U.

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Electronic dance culture was established around the idea of artistic collaborations. The original dub producers altered the work of reggae musicians with their sound systems, house DJs reworked disco tracks to create a more minimal vibe, Detroit’s techno pioneers took to the tables to further deconstruct the sound, and much-lauded tag-team sets allowed for DJs and producers to hone their craft and expand individual track selections. There is a long heritage of influential pairings (Frankie Knuckles and Derrick May, Sasha and John Digweed, Erol Alkan and Boys Noize, Aphex Twin and µ-ziq, the trio behind Magnetic Man), but no electronic supergroup has ever pushed their genre to the heights at which the Swedish House Mafia is currently performing progressive house music.

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Having recently announced their split, Swedish House Mafia are releasing this compilation to accompany their farewell tour. Around a third of Until Now is their own music, as embodied by Greyhound – best summed up as John Barry meets the Chemical Brothers – and the jaunty Primark house of this week's No 1 single, Don't You Worry, Child. The rest is remixes and retweaked old hits, such as Miami 2 Ibiza, which has sprouted a soft-rock verse lifted from Dirty South's Walking Alone.

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A loose mix best experienced with your critical faculties compromised. Matthew Horton 2012. House music's power is in communal experience, from the warehouse parties of the early adopters, through the cult of the DJ with every clubber worshipping at the altar of the 1s and 2s, to the colossal arena ….

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