Until One

DJ: Swedish House Mafia.
Photographer: Christian Larson.
Swedish House Mafia's first mix album, Until One, is sure to please clubgoers from Miami to Ibiza (not so coincidentally the title of one of the two songs the Mafia recorded themselves for the mix). The three superstar DJs who make up the group, Axwell, Steve Angello, and Sebastian Ingrosso, all placed in the Top 25 of DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs of 2009 list, and it's easy to hear why after a spin of the record. It's filled with the kind of uptempo floor-fillers that dancers crave, mixed one after the other like some kind of sweaty, glittery marathon of thick synths, diva vocal interjections, and fist-pumping breakdowns. It's a resolutely mainstream experience geared toward pleasing the maximum amount of listeners -- the edgiest the mix gets is dropping in Daft Punk's "One More Time" near the end. To that end, the mix succeeds wildly and it'd be a miracle if you made it to the end without getting up to bust a few moves. Tossing in current favorites by Empire of the Sun, Benny Benassi, and Miike Snow along with old jams like "You Got the Love" by the Source and Candi Staton, the DJs have a good feel for dynamics and crowd-pleasing transitions. You can easily hear why they are so beloved by happy dancers worldwide. As producers, they are less successful. "Miami 2 Ibiza" and "One," the two tracks they made for the album, are standard house jams without many distinguishing characteristics (apart from Tinie Tempah's weak rap flow on "Miami"). Not every DJ dream team is up to the challenge of creating great original tracks, though, and it's hard to criticize Swedish House Mafia when their mix is otherwise such a blast. ~ Tim Sendra