

Steve Angello – Paradiso
Steve Angello–one third of the now-defunct beloved supergroup Swedish House Mafia–has released the third and final installment in his trilogy of extended plays, entitled Paradiso. The EP completes what predecessors Genesis and Inferno started, a suite of house music compositions with allusions to Dante’s literary masterpiece The Inferno.
The EP is comprised of two tracks, beginning with ‘Break Me Down‘. Soulful and upbeat, ‘Down‘ encompasses familiar house territory for Angello but with soulful vocals. The second track, ‘Dopamine‘, encapsulates Angello’s newfound darker sounds, eschewing the bright and glossy big room genre that made him famous. The vocals from Barns Courtney sound as if they were lifted from Depeche Mode, while the percussive piano melody is dark and brooding.
Angello found inspiration in a lack of inspiration. He told Billboard magazine that he wanted to avoid crafting music similar to everything else on the radio and streaming services, and sought out the meditative confines of the church in his hometown in Sweden. Christian allegory inspired the entire project, and Angello accomplishes his goal masterfully, proving that the divine can be found even in the unlikely territory of electronic dance music.
The entire project is likely to lead into an album that explores the theme of the seven deadly sins and other ideas lifted from Angello’s religious exploration and Dante.
Listen to Paradiso below:

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