Top tune by a top DJ (For An Angel - Paul Van Dyk)

Member Name: samredmore

Product:	For An Angel - Paul Van Dyk
Date:	27/07/01 (256 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Classic track, Uplifting trance, Best tune of 98

Disadvantages: Changes speed

Born in East Germany, Paul van Dyk started DJing in 1988, after moving to Berlin. He soon started playing at clubs around the city and set up his own 'E-Werk' club, where he did a monthly party, with guests such as Carl Cox, Sasha and John Digweed. He won the 1999 DJ of the year in Mixmag magazine, as well Best International DJ in the same year in Ministry Of Sound magazine. He now has a residency at the club 'Amnesia', in Ibiza.

Previous releases of "Beautiful Place", "Forbidden Fruit" and "Words" did nothing to prepare him for the success that "For An Angel" was to bring.

"For An Angel" was originally on Paul van Dyk's 1994 album "45RPM", one of three albums, not including compilations and remix albums, released by Paul van Dyk, but was remixed and released as a single on August 24, 1998.

The track "For An Angel" was released on the record label 'Deviant', which has been around since 1994, and concentrates on developing artists producing 'Electrical Music'. "For An Angel" was the 24th release on the label, which now has 39 tracks in its back catalogue, including other, more recent Paul van Dyk hits such as "Another Way" and "Tell Me Why (The Riddle)", which I personally do not like.

The track "For An Angel" was played constantly at clubs through the year of 1998, and also achieved a good amount of commercial success, often being played on the radio by top DJs. And Judge Jules.

The 12" vinyl copy of "For An Angel" features 3 mixes on it. The PvD 'e-werk club mix', the Way Out West mix and the Terry Lee Brown Jnr mix.

The track was written, performed, produced and remixed by Paul van Dyk, with Way Out West and Terry Lee Brown Jnr providing additional remixing.

On the A-side of the record is the Paul van Dyk E-Work Club mix, which is an e
xtended version of what was played on the radio, and most probably the version you'll have heard if you heard it at a club. It is a top quality track, with only one thing on which I can complain about it, which I'll get to later.

This mix is 7 minutes 43 seconds long, which is about the standard length for this style of track.

The track starts off with just a beat, which consists of 2 loops of 4 bars, before there is a vocal saying "For An Angel". Personally, I prefer it when tracks do not have these samples that simply say the name of the track, and these samples are usually only on the radio edit. However, it doesn't sound too bad on this track, which is good as radio edits of tracks such as "Gouryella" by Gouryella and "Airwave" by Rank 1 have, in my opinion, been ruined by having these needless samples. Anyway, on "For An Angel", it can be quite useful to just play this sample over the top of a track, and give anyone listening a hint at what is coming in next.

After these two loops, they are played again, but this time with added cymbals as the track builds up. After these two loops, part of the "For An Angel" bass line kicks in, and this is where the track really starts to take off. After 4 loops of this, there is a mini breakdown where it says 'For An Angel' again and the full bass line comes in, as the track continues building up towards the breakdown.

The track continues building until it reaches a very uplifting breakdown, featuring a brilliant, melodic piano tune. The beats come back in along with the bass line and the track continues, with a couple of 'For An Angel' vocal samples.

The track then reaches the second breakdown, at which point the track is completely broken down and start building up again. This continues building, with beats and cymbals and the like being added to the track as it reaches the third breakdown.


The third breakdown, in my view, is the peak of the track, where it has been building up more and more to this breakdown, in which the piano tune comes back in. It is at this point the track is at its most uplifting, as more and more is added before the beats come back in and the sample saying "Do you really like it? Is it is wicked?" cuts back in to take the track to the next level.

Actually, I lied about that last bit, and really it only has the 'For An Angel' vocal sample, which sounds considerably more pleasant than I expect the Pied Piper sample would do.

There is another mini breakdown as the track starts breaking down as it reaches the end. The track continues breaking down until there are only beats going. Right at the end of the track, these beats stop and there is only the same sound going that featured on the second breakdown (when it was building up again). This sound again builds up until the end of the track, when it stops and echoes a little.

Okay then, I said there was only one thing on which I can really complain about this track, and I consider it be a complaint of big enough proportion to prevent me from playing this track at any time other than as my last track.

What I have noticed with a few tracks, mostly progressive trance ones, but most notably with this one is the way the track changes tempo, thus making it virtually impossible to mix it without the speeds of the records being wrong, making the mix sound like something from the Radio 1 Mix Selector.

The track starts off quite quickly and remains at a constant tempo up until the second breakdown, which is good as you can mix it in fine without any problems. (I find it to be quite easy to mix in.) But once the track reaches the second breakdown, it slows down so dramatically, it is as if you have adjusted the pitch and moved it down by 2%. The track continues at this tempo until it reaches the third breakdown, where it decides to
speed up again to about the same tempo as at the start of the track, only to speed up even more at the final mini breakdown, after which you have to mix in the next track and, inevitably, it is too slow and you end up having to slow down "For An Angel" throughout the mix. I am sure top DJs such as Carl Cox would be able to mix this without any hassle, but for amateur DJs such as myself and Pete Tong, it is a nightmare. Surely, as it is produced on computer, it is not too difficult to set the tempo and stick to it throughout the track?

Other than this major problem, the track is perfect in my opinion.

I'd give this mix 9/10, only being prevented from reaching top marks by this tempo problem. So 10/10 if you are not a DJ and only listen to the track unmixed or whatever.

Onto side B and the first mix is the Way Out West mix, which offers a different kind of track to van Dyk's belter. This track is a much darker track than the A side, and does not feature the bass line of the E-Werk club mix. This mix is only 5 minutes 48 seconds long.

It starts off with just beats, with a cymbal coming in quite soon afterwards, and the track reaching a mini breakdown in which you hear a sneaky sample of the "For An Angel" tune. The beats come back in and the tune goes away again. The track then features quite a strong bass line and builds up a little towards the breakdown. There are plenty of sound effects going on at this time, up until the breakdown is reached.

The breakdown has a break-beat drum throughout, and features the same chords as the tune from the PvD mix, making it quite uplifting all the same.

This breakdown finishes and the beats come back in, along with the strong bass line from earlier and a few extra sound effects. This continues until fairly near the end, when there is another breakdown, which is the same as the first, with the same tune and break-beat running throughout.

Aft
er this breakdown, there are only beats that run to the end of the track before stopping with an obscure vocal sample.

I cannot really say if this track features the same tempo problem as the PvD mix, as I have never tried mixing it. This probably gives a clear indication as to which mix I prefer, although this is a refreshingly different take on the original.

I would give this mix 6/10.

The second mix on side B is the Terry Lee Brown Jnr mix, which is very different to the other two mixes. It is 6 minutes 28 seconds long and is a much more progressive track than the other two mixes.

This mix starts with no beats, but they quickly come in to the track. This beat continues with a little bit more being added every few bars. This mix is deeper than the other two mixes and, I think, a little boring.

There are many sound effects going on throughout the build up to the breakdown, where there is no real resemblance to the original mix. If I were to hear this mix on the radio, I would not expect it to be a remix of "For An Angel", as there is nothing from any of the other mixes in this one.

The track has three breakdowns, and stays virtually the same throughout, with a few things changing gradually.

After the third breakdown, when the beats come back in, the track gradually starts breaking down and sounds maybe as if it will continue breaking down until there is only a beat. Unfortunately, the beats then stop and the tune continues playing right until the end, which I imagine would be difficult to mix, but, as with the Way Out West mix, I have never actually tried mixing it myself.

I would give this track 4/10, as it is a bit too boring for my liking.

Since the success of "For An Angel", Paul van Dyk has released a further 7 tracks, and had commercial success in the UK with the tracks "Another Way", "Tell Me Why (The Riddle)" and "We Are Alive"
, as well as continuing to grow in the amount of fans of his DJ skills he has.

Overall, a top tune by a top DJ.

Thankyou for reading my opinion.

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