Search - Paul Van Dyk :: The Politics of Dancing

Germany's Trance God

Michael Mayhem | Greenville,SC | 05/09/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Next to "Global"this is PVD's best cd.This is one hell of a mix,featuring energetic,body movin'tracks that will make you wanna hit the club.Cd 1 is a little more on the light side,and sets the mood just right for your night.Cd 2 on the other hand is super uplifting,and will keep you going nonstop.P.O.D is very well mixed and includes one the best trance tracks known to man,"Dreamland"by Nu NRG.This mix is highly recommeded if you love dance.By the way ...P.O.D II will be released sometime this summer,(Sept.20th to be exact)until then this will have to do"

Four-On-The-Floor Filibusters

Mark Eremite | Seoul, South Korea | 04/17/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"German DJ Paul Van Dyk grew up smuggling forbidden Western music into his ears from beyond the stones of the Berlin Wall. Plucking the musical currents freely from the air of oppression, Paul Van Dyk slowly developed an affinity for trance electronics, the mind massage of musics. His career started when he was 20, and sixteen years and multiple albums/awards later, he's still going strong, one of the top Trance DJs still performing today.



So, you can understand why I'm so bewildered by the stunning lack of innovation in this two-disc set. Don't get me wrong, as the title implies, this is all danceable stuff, but as anyone who's ever tapped their toes can tell you, it doesn't take much more than an incessant beat, some heavy bass, and stubbornly catchy hooks to fill the floors with bent knees and raised arms. It may be danceable, but is it memorable, is it something you want to possess and revisit?



Disc 1, maybe. Van Dyk takes some of his own creations (the untinctured and trancy "Autumn," the metal house splinters of "Out There," the deep, dream-washed beats of "Vega") and mixes them with some pretty standard fare gussied up with Van Dyk's usual flair for soul-heady producing. He meanders through some complex beats, clinging melodies, and frenetic layering ... it's all well-done stuff, but it smacks of moderation, like Van Dyk was harnessing himself. In an essay included with these discs, he refers to this disc as a "warm-up." Maybe he was afraid of spending his creative allotment. Whatever the case, the entire first record, while decent, is decent in a monotonous way. There are a few rich and brilliant seams in this mostly unbroken bedrock, though. Van Dyk does some excellent things with IIO's "Rapture," a club staple I'd long thought was past its prime. He also toys with U2, Timo Maas, Sippin' Soma, and Ashtrax with more than mediocre results. Although the whole of Disc One wants more flavor to make it mind-watering, it is energetic and electrifying. A four-star effort, if anything.



Disc 2 is just strange. He tries for a heftier, more progressive Eurotrance feel, something that has as much gut-deep oomph as it does cloud-light wistfulness. What he comes up with is an uneven batch of numbers that sound like they were assembled, Frankenstein-style from other, more successful compilations, lined up with the exact ... same ... four-on-the-floor backbone. Seriously. Almost every single song on the second CD traces a cloned, rhythmic rut. It's a shame (and a little mind-boggling) that Van Dyk didn't look for more diversity in the track listing, because what he does with these songs in the upper registers is pretty interesting (see Way Out West's "Activity" for a good example). Otherwise, although it's not what I'd call bad trance, it's definitely a prime example of high grade soft cheese, and it all tastes the same. A two star disc, at best.



Van Dyk is an artist who is capable of much more than this, although it's likely that he's a man whose live show energy loses potency when distilled into a crystal box and prepackaged for the masses. His on-the-fly in-house mixes put to shame this set of overly-mediated and thought-to-death discs. Worth a listen, I'd say, but not worth much more."