Alesso cashes in two Ultra Taiwan IDs on long-awaited ‘PROGRESSO VOL. 2’ mixtape

by: Ross Goldenberg Jun 4, 2021

Dancing Astronaut asked and Alesso answered. PROGRESSO VOL. 2 is here.

Getting up at the crack of dawn purely to watch Alesso (and the handful of other Ultra Taiwan artists) stand before a COVID-19-free crowd thousands of miles away was a highlight of a year that did not have many. It’s been more than than two years since the Swede brought PROGRESSO VOL. 1 to life just a few weeks before a vintage progressive house showcase in Virginia Key for Ultra 2019, but when Alesso scattered a trifecta of club-laden IDs throughout his set that November 2020 evening in Taiwan, Dancing Astronaut had a hunch: some of them just might make up the second volume in the PROGRESSO series, so we stacked the then-possible PROGRESSO VOL. 2 on our roster of the most-anticipated projects of 2021.

Alesso preluded his Ultra Taiwan house masterclass with the mouthwatering news that it would present not one, not two, but three yet-to-be released tracks from his production chamber. As the lights dimmed and everyone assumed that the set had reached its destination, Alesso flashed the words “Together Again” across the main stage LEDs to acknowledge just how momentous of an occasion Ultra Taiwan was as other parts of the planet continued to struggle in their bouts with COVID-19. Similarly employing that tagline for his forthcoming Los Angeles shows this July, Alesso fittingly stamped two of the three Ultra Taiwan IDs on the mixtape as “TOGETHER”—which is known to set livestreamers as the ID paired with the “Cool” acapella—and “AGAIN.”

As with the seminal PROGRESSO installment, both constituents are a nod to Alesso’s early 2010s house dealings, and despite the absence of one of Dancing Astronaut‘s most anticipated IDs of 2021 in “Somebody Like You” on its tracklist, PROGRESSO VOL. 2 provides reassurance that the series is here to last.

Stream PROGRESSO VOL. 2 in its two-track glory below.