The Swordtail imprint is rapidly becoming one of the hottest playgrounds of jacking house tunes and atmospheric progressive. After having released a series of high quality recordings, it now is time for Alexander Popov (not related to the swimmer) to maintain that level of quality with this four-track release entitled Hypnotize.

The title track by Popov opens with a solid house kick and a series, echoing synths and chopped-up vocals. Instead of opening up towards a break, the track comes with a lot of really cool breaks that each have their own power and impact upon the listener. Musically speaking, the track's a real proggy trancer with a pallete of deep synths, low basses and, as said before, various cool breaks. A very nice and deep progressive record. Recommended!

The Blue Room Project of Hypnotize starts of in more or less the same way as its predecessor. A thumping kick introduces us to the sequence, and what follows is an almost exact copy of the original track. The only thing that seems to differ is the beat, which is a bit softer than the one used in the original mix. The original mix, however, came with more versatality and originality.

"...the track's a real proggy trancer with a pallete of deep synths..."

Jim Sivers mix is a deeper, even more proggier version of the original tune, with an extra dosis of hypnotism and flowing synthesizers. Lots of elements from the original mix are used, which makes this remix again sounding too much like its source. However, Sivers' ambient touch and sense of deep melodies give this track a certain beauty that will certainly appeal to the progressive fanatic.

Last one of this EP is Lo Tide's mix, which can be described as one big ambient journey. There is not a single beat to be heard on this one. It's just synths, but whoever thinks this might sound boring can't be more wrong. Using only the vocals, synths and melodies from the original mix, Lo Tide delivers a beautiful, melodic trip in the form of a 'new age meets progressive' track. Well-balanced and loaded with melancholy, this one's an original addition to another quality Swordtail release.

Swordtail delivers another fantastic release that will certainly make waves in the progressive scene. Hypnotize is a great track that combines the two most important elements in progressive music: solid beats and a mix of beautiful and uplifting strings and synths. This makes Hypnotize a must-hear track. The only downside of this EP is that the Blue Room Project Mix and Jim Siver mix are a bit too similar to the original. Apart from that: a great release on a great label.