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Then again, I did visit a club in Vienna, Austria.let's just say the occupants' dancing styles were.unique.Both Disc get 2/5 stars. Always a market for everything.Two discs full of tacky athems and re-mixes that I still have not figured out how anyone could actually dance to. I bought this album the week it was released. I should have went with my initial reaction of awe regarding the sheer number of tracks that were on each disc (always a bad sign that your in for anthem mania), but a was still a novice electronica shopper then.It still obviously sold enough copies to please the powers to be as there is a second album under the same title.
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. 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). 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.
Seriously. German DJ Paul Van Dyk grew up smuggling forbidden Western music into his ears from beyond the stones of the Berlin Wall. His on-the-fly in-house mixes put to shame this set of overly-mediated and thought-to-death discs. 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. He also toys with U2, Timo Maas, Sippin' Soma, and Ashtrax with more than mediocre results. A four-star effort, if anything.Disc 2 is just strange.
it's all well-done stuff, but it smacks of moderation, like Van Dyk was harnessing himself. 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. four-on-the-floor backbone. 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. He tries for a heftier, more progressive Eurotrance feel, something that has as much gut-deep oomph as it does cloud-light wistfulness. Although the whole of Disc One wants more flavor to make it mind-watering, it is energetic and electrifying. 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. Worth a listen, I'd say, but not worth much more.
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. Whatever the case, the entire first record, while decent, is decent in a monotonous way. Almost every single song on the second CD traces a cloned, rhythmic rut. 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. same. Van Dyk does some excellent things with IIO's "Rapture," a club staple I'd long thought was past its prime. He meanders through some complex beats, clinging melodies, and frenetic layering. There are a few rich and brilliant seams in this mostly unbroken bedrock, though.
Involver already ousted this cd. A simple analogy of this compilation would be a girl I guess during that first meeting when your eyes meet hers and you feel like you can fly, or when a serious problem solves itself or when you remember some incident from your childhood; PVD packs it all here, patents it and commercializes it. But I am digressing. My point si this is not Sasha,s Diggie or even Oakie's uncannily seductive sound. Maybe next time. He cannot mix period.
To be fair, this is in fact Paul Van Dyk's first attempt to mix a cd and it is a tragedy that it took him so ling to try it out. Paul Van Dyk cannot mix. Some of the most impressive starry eyed melodies I have ever heard in my life are on this cd and I'll back up that statement with my life. Is the mixing any good. Yes. I am no DJ; I have not paid my dues but I am a demon of a sampler, I was literally the first person in my country to pick up a faithless cd so I have a scary ear for music. This album is a tsetament that the art of mixing; that is track selection, timing, synth key and pad matching, sound proofing for seemless transistions ans what have you is not something you learn overnight. It took Sasha almost twenty years but when he arrived, the world was stunned.
Will this become a classic. Is it trance. From the preternatural Lexicon 4 track to Dreamland and Joker Jam's drooling innnocence is enough to melt even the hardest cynic. NO there is no mixing (intentionally. But that does not detract from the album.
YES. Very Highly recommended. Does this have any replay value. Even the reviewers at rolingstone who hardly ever criticize trance albums had to give Sasha the Kudos he deserves. yes Is it good trance.
It is as if by some luck PVD realized his weakness in this new direction and decided to overdo things with track selection and BOY DOE HE OVER DO IT. This is something else and after giving it the proper listens it deserves I believe this to be in the midst of one of the the top twenty electronic compilations of all time. The transistions simply illustrate his fetish for the euphoric whooof of airplanes, his tracks are too short to be truly psychedlic inducing and transistions from track to track suck.
Best songs:InnocenceFirstFeeling goodAnother late ThursdayRaptureSuperconciousKillin' MeAutummCristalleFour DaysEmpireOut ThereShout, C'monEpic MonolithMassiveQuestions Must Be AskedActivitySecrets & LiesInto the NightIn ProgressSection ODreamlandI know, thats a huge amount of the songs. Heck, this isn't a 5 star review, it's a 5000 star review.I can't believe I wasn't sure I wanted it. I love this CD. They really are that good. Silly me. It has a great blend of grooves that actually helps me feel at peace. Paul Van Dyk is a music genius, I look foward to buying POD vol 2.
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
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