Midtone – Pearl

This is progressive house - the perfect tune a deep driving beat and bassline and then one of the best breakdowns, moody, uplifting, moving and those ethnic chants drop and the tune goes off. A beautiful and much overlooked record. Buy it on sight. Its that good

It actually really surprises me that more people apparently haven't heard of this beautiful progressive trancer. The breakdown of the original is sincerely one of the most beautiful, and I would probably award it a top 25 spot for all-time, I have ever heard. A shy synth lead line fades in so smoothly against a wailing guitar, eventually coming to full force as another melody one octave up is played on some spooky strings that will leave you shivering cold, all the while ethereal vocals chant off in the distance. When I first heard this, it left me weak all over as the melodies wrapped around me tightly. My first reaction was, simply, "This song lifts me up to nirvana." Genuine euphoric trance without fluff. Pearl is spiritual bliss.

The Darren Christian mix comes off as more tribal and perhaps more club friendly, leaving some of the more euphoric melodic lines hidden. It features some more subliminal elements and the percussion is more varied, while the original pulls no punches and is largely focused on melody than groove.