Orkidea - Pure Progressive 1

It took a shade under thirty months for Pure Progressive to rock past its one-hundredth release. That was time enough for the label to bring music from near enough every prog operator of note through its doors and onto floors. Penner, Barone, O’Glue, Saint-Jules, Schossow, Driftmoon, label honch Solarstone (naturally) - you name ‘em, they’ve all received their P.P. pin. If there was any surprise to be had it was that Pure Progressive’s resisted a full-blown compilation until now. Time is time though and July 2020 sees Solarstone’s progressive progeny emphatically score that notch. At the wheelhouse of its mix/disc-deuce is none other than that flying Fin, Orkidea - a genre prognosticator himself who’s recorded for the label many a time. Notably perhaps it was ‘One Man’s Dream’ - their hundredth release, as well as his longstanding Solar-association - that saw him earmarked to mix-helm ‘PP Vol. 1’. Either way he’s seized both opportunity and reins to deliver a stupendously mixed first edition - and one that brings the best of his and the label’s artistic cohort to your ears. Amongst them - well an embarrassment of progressive riches abounds. Genre forefathers like Way Out West rub shoulders with scene-starters like Oakenfold, whilst a host of respected outfits from its dawn - Deepsky, Sunscreem, Desert, Slusnik Luna, Pink Bomb and others - see their works remix-reimagined. Orkidea’s split his edition clean down the middle, dividing it into “Artist” and “DJ” mixes. The former of which offers a major spyglass into what his album follow-up to 2015’s ‘Harmonia’ beholds. In-mixed-form it features no less than 12 tracks, including premieres for new cuts like ‘Rebel Time’ and his Sunscreem team-up ‘Perfect Motion’, as well as the just-out-there ‘That Feeling’. The latter meanwhile comes flush with many an edge-cutter from 2020’s prog class. Yotto, Grum, Paul Thomas, gardenstate, Forerunners, Allende and a horde of others pack out the second disc’s tracklist. Collectively ‘Pure Progressive Vol. 1’ serves the clearest possible vision of what’s-currently-what in the world of prog.