2013 has been a year for big room festival bangers, whilst the world of progressive house has been barren and bare for a large part of this year. With the fall of the mighty Swedish House Mafia, and Avicii moving towards a more country driven sound, the truth is EDM has lacked any major players to keep the progressive house flag flying high. Even the likes of Tiesto and Hardwell have begun to churn out big room electro. Whilst last year I would have defined a track like 'In My Mind' as a festival anthem, it seems that now tracks like 'Tsunami' take that 'Anthem' status. For this reason it really does give me great joy to showcase a true progressive anthem, from the legendary Ivan Gough (who many will forget was largely behind the aforementioned 'In My Mind', which captured the hearts of so many all over the world), alongside Walden and Jebu. Penelope Austin delivers a breathtaking vocal which is far from the samey sounding vocals that have become consistent in progressive house. Instead it is rich and gritty, with a real substance to it. Something you would expect to hear more commonly over reverberating acoustic guitar, rather than soaring synth work. This vocal climaxes into struck synth chords, so full of hands in the air emotion and pumping energy, a true progressive banger! It is a big call to make, but I think I can safely say that THIS is my top progressive track of the year so far, and I really do hope it will do well when it drops on Beatport next month! Until then, enjoy the preview!

-Finn Lurcott