If you only buy one album this year, make it this. Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden have produced one of, if not, THE album of the year. A single CD artist album hasn’t had this many hits since the Beatles. 12-tracks of pure progressive perfection.

Fresh from delivering (personally) the best Essential Mix of 2006, Gabriel & Dresden follow up with their second artist album, Tracking Treasure Down. Following up from their incredible first album Bloom was never going to be easy, but the American duo have easily surpassed that with this almighty album.

Things kick off instantly with the set-starting and near heavenly Let Go. This uplifting progressive anthem with angelic vocals sets the mood perfectly for where this CD is about to take you. The angelic vocals are provided by regular G & D vocalist Molly Bancroft who features prominently on this album with Let Go, Dust In The Wind, Closer and G & D’s latest single and massive anthem Tracking Treasure Down. While I wouldn’t call the album mixed as such, the tracks do flow seamlessly into one another, which is so brilliantly worked that at times it has you second guessing yourself as to which track you are still on or up to.

Song two and it’s Eleven with vocals provided by the gorgeous Scarlett Etienne. This is the first time G&D have used Scarlett, a regular for house label OM Records, and it’s a match made in heaven, so to speak. Eleven is a deep progressive anthem with sweeping effects and a nasty undertone that will definitely become a favourite for progressive DJs in Australia. This could be used to best effect for sets earlier in the night when trying to lay a deep, chunky platform for a headlining act.

Next up is the best song on the album in my opinion. Enemy has everything you want out of a progressive anthem; uplifting, driving, vocal fused progressive heaven. Vocals are provided by Jan Burton who also provides the backing for Not Enough, New Path and Dangerous Power. This song has a fantastic drum beat and rolls along in an uplifting driving manner with a nice big-room kick-in and has a hands in the air euphoric feeling to it.

Onto the fourth song and after a hat-trick of songs all similar in stature Dust In The Wind takes a temporary change in direction for the album with a more eclectic and electro feel to it. Vocals by Molly Bancroft, it has a more electro-house, near minimal, feel to it and while is still thoroughly enjoyable, won’t make it onto my highlight list. What will make it onto my highlight list is the next track, Mass Repeat, which sums this track up perfectly as that’s what you’ll be doing once you listen to it. Electro infused, driving anthem that is no doubt going to be devastating dance-floors nationwide upon release. This is a weapon…

Following up brilliantly is Closer, with vocals brilliantly deliver by Molly Bancroft once again. A driving prog anthem with deeply laid electro elements, this really takes the album up a gear in tempo and style. Track 7, Not Enough, brings the album back a gear is a chilled out synth-driven down-tempo number with vocals by Jan Burton. Oddly position in the album it definitely stops the momentum created by the previous couple of songs and especially the preluding Closer.

The 8th production on this album is the short Amsterdam Interlude which brilliantly links Not Enough to the next highlight on the album, New Path. As Amsterdam Interlude drifts out of your senses, New Path kicks in with immediate authority. Vocals once again provided by Jan Burton, this brilliantly produced anthem has the same driving electro sound that accompanies the later half of this album and has a devastating big-room sound to it.

Getting towards the final stages of the album and it’s the track entitled Sydney which raises my eyebrows about. How could you produce a song that represented a self indulgent city that is over-populated and over-priced is anyone’s guess. The resulting production however clearly defines for me that Josh & Dave only made it to the beautiful Sydney tourist sites such as the Harbour and the Opera House as the track is devastatingly beautiful. This up-tempo, driving tune is close to one of the best songs on the album. With a frenetic pace and a killer breakdown and ensuing kick-in, this is definitely one for the box for a peak time set. With subtle percussion elements and effects it’s definitely going to be a fan favourite.

The penultimate track on the album is Dangerous Power, a euphoric feel-good track with prominent vocals by Jan Burton once again and really sets the album up well for the last track on the album and Gabriel & Dresden’s latest single Tracking Treasure Down.

A month or so ago I had the pleasure in reviewing Gabriel & Dresden’s latest single, Tracking Treasure Down, twelve mixes of it to be precise. If this isn’t already one of the biggest anthems of the year then by the end of our summer it definitely will be. Euphoric, uplifting, driving with heavenly vocals by Molly Bancroft, this is one of the biggest songs of the year. Following in a long line of master-class singles, Gabriel & Dresden don’t fail to impress by finishing off their album with this progressive piece of perfection.

Don’t worry about what has been released already this year or what is to come, this is THE album of 2006.