van Dyk for Prime Minister! (The Politics Of Dancing Vol.2: Mixed By Paul Van Dyk - Paul Van Dyk)

Member Name: thequy

Product:	The Politics Of Dancing Vol.2: Mixed By Paul Van Dyk - Paul Van Dyk
Date:	22/01/02 (316 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The Essence of Dyk (oo-er missus, titter-ye-not)

Disadvantages: Wot is e on wiv?

THE BACKGROUND
According to the discography on http://www.paulvandyk.de/, the decade between 1992 and now has seen a total of 108 releases from the über-meister of Euro-trance, Paul van Dyk. Even allowing for a lot of duplication where tracks are released on vinyl as well as CD, there’s no denying Mr van Dyk has been a busy little bee (sorry, but dedication to detail does not extend to picking out how many discrete entries there are). Credits include early dance classics (as part of Teutonic acts Cosmic Baby and Visions of Shiva), and more recent cross-over-into-the-commercial hits including For An Angel, Words and Flaming June (with Brian Transeau).

Meanwhile, PvD the DJ is an international superstar, especially revered in his native Germany where he was instrumental in the development of the Berlin dance scene, including the legendary annual Love Parade, and in the UK where his lengthy residency at the superclub Gatecrasher cemented an already solid reputation for mind-blowing sets. For me and a lot of the people I go out with, he ranks up there with Orbital, Sasha and the Chemical Brothers in that if we’re at a big event like Creamfields, we find out when and where PvD is on then plan our itinerary accordingly. Of course, sticking to what’s planned is another matter but the intentions are always there...

You would be excused for thinking the beginning of this op belongs in ‘Paul van Dyk in general’ but what I’m getting at is that considering mix-CD’s take up entire sections in HMV and are an almost obligatory money-maker for any ‘self-respecting’ DJ, it’s quite remarkable that The Politics of Dancing is the first ever mix-compilation from someone who deserves more than most to cash in on his name.

PvD has long maintained that he didn’t do compilations because he didn’t think he could bring the atmosphere of a club to the studio and without the crowd to fe
ed off/react to, the mix would be artificial and bland. Judge Jules, Paul Oakenfold and other purveyors of the “Pack in top 10 hits then sit back and wait for my %” principle would do well to take note. I don’t imagine that PvD ever has problems paying the rent but still find it admirable that he has thus far resisted the temptation to churn out mix compilations that could easily net him several hundred thousand pounds as soon as clubbers see ‘Paul van Dyk’ on the cover.

This begs the question - does Politics of Dance mean that one of the final bastions of ‘Doing it for the Music’ has finally succumbed to the commercial principles of so many of his peers? What has happened to make PvD break the habit of a decade? Is he running for Prime Minister? Does anyone give two shakes of a baboon’s private parts?


THE RHETORIC
The sleeve has a long intro from the man himself and we learn that ‘Politics’ refers to the uneasy relationship between the authorities and the dance community. The former tolerate the clubbing scene because you can only clamp down so far on something that’s supported every weekend by millions of people. On the other hand, they won’t leave it alone because it is also synonymous with the use of recreational drugs. Zero tolerance drug policies have therefore led to somewhat harsh treatment for high profile clubs throughout the world from the UK (Home, Fabric) to New York (Twilo) and Australia.

PvD’s concern is that this singular focus on a regrettable (he is an avowed abstainer) characteristic of clubbing is stifling the scene as a whole:

“If you go and see how a record label works, the people there who are involved in electronic dance music are different. Why? Because they seem to have much more of a free mind, they are always trying to find new ways of bringing music across. I can’t stress enough that this is
a youth culture although authorities view it as just entertainment – going out, having a party and enjoying yourselves”

Dance is one of the few genres to fully embrace change and innovation* and from a common base of electronica and acid house, the term ‘dance’ now covers music as varied as ‘drum & bass’, 'garage' and ‘hard house’.

* I’d like to emphasise that this doesn’t imply that other genres don’t evolve and move on, only that dance does it more often and to greater extremes than most.

It’s a worthy point that PvD makes - that dance risks being known for the drugs when there is so much more to it - and one that I felt obliged to support by drawing your attention to it. But in terms of relating to the CD itself, the link is somewhat tenuous. Perhaps if there was some mention of some of the profits going to related causes (errr, Free Home anyone?) or more prominent statements that Dance Does Not Mean Drugs? Instead, we have small print that says something akin to “Yep it’s a shame but what can I do I’m only one man I know I’ll produce a mix compilation”.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m pretty chuffed I can now buy a legal copy of a PvD mix and I fully agree with what he has to say regarding ‘politics’. But to claim that the latter is justification for the former is, excuse my French, extracting the urine. Now PvD is surely aware that he doesn’t need to justify releasing a mix AND that it will sell by the truckload without having to use a marketing gimmick. In conjunction with his longstanding reputation as a nice guy and man of principles, this leads me to accept that he truly believes what he says. It just sounds a bit OTT to my ears - and they be sympathetic ears at that.


THE CONCEPT
There’s more. To overcome his aversion to doing an artificial (i.e. no crowd)
mix, PvD built ‘Politics…’ around a central concept – himself i.e. everything he did from production to remixing to DJ’ing would be brought together in one compilation. The result is a playlist dominated by his own tracks/remixes while on the tracks he’d previously had nothing to do with, he might tweak them a bit - add a bassline here, change a chord there.

The concept of the mix then is like the politics aspect – fine principles when you understand what he’s getting at but nothing revolutionary and if it were anyone else, you’d think it was a blatant piece of chest beating and back patting. It’s not just anyone else though. This is Paul van Dyk and I’m inclined to forgive him the odd spot of self-indulgence - kinda like the eccentric uncle who dresses and smells a bit funny but always knew exactly what you wanted for Xmas.


THE CONTENT
There are 33 tracks across 2 CD’s and once you’re aware of the Concept, it’s no surprise that 11 of them are PvD’s own/remixes. Most of the remaining tracks have also been tinkered with but unless you know the originals inside out, this is almost irrelevant. ‘Almost’ irrelevant because PvD’s tweaks ensure that both CD’s are Pure Paul van Dyk.

And what is ‘Pure PvD’, pray tell?

Err... Euro-trance.

Very funny. Now earn your miles - and no jokes about Class A either.

OK, the typical PvD sound is energetic, uplifting, melodic trance. The texture never gets too thick and you can usually pick out each ‘voice’ in the music and follow with ease what that particular line is doing. Each and every voice has a lively part to play in the bigger picture – swirly sound effects that go nowhere are avoided. Vocals are rare but not entirely unknown. Breakdowns can go on for ages but when the beat kicks in it’s usually after an
engaging, simple build-up i.e. no snare roll for 32 bars while you clean your nails and check for text messages. The tempo is not breakneck but fast enough to ensure a good workout on the dancefloor.

The most common bassline is the off-beat one, as found in For An Angel and Words. If you don’t know what ‘off-beat’ means, think of how dance music is counted in bars of 4:

1......2......3......4....../1......2......3.. ....4...../1......2......3...... 4../etc etc

Now divide each beat into 2 so that you’ve got 8 notes of equal length in each bar. Let’s call these notes ‘quavers’. Carry on counting in 4 but say “and” for the quavers that lie in between the 4 primary beats:

1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and../1-and-2-and-3-and-4- and../1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and../ etc etc

The kickdrum and snare play the 1-2-3-4’s (the beat) while the bassline plays on every ‘and’ (the offbeat), usually repeated notes, only changing pitch to announce a shift in the harmony. This sounds incredibly boring but simplicity is often the key to effectiveness and offbeat basslines provide a solid and surprisingly catchy foundation. They also provide continuity as tracks can share this common root yet be totally different in the rest of the detail.

Naturally, if EVERY track was built on an offbeat bassline, things would get tedious so they’re also interspersed with funkier offerings – check out #6 on CD2 for a prime example of the latter.


The sleeve explains that CD1 is what PvD would play if a guest DJ was on after him – he doesn’t want to overwork the crowd with too many anthems or in-ya-face stormers or the guest will have a hard time building on that. In DJ terms, this is the equivalent of holding the door open for someone or letting the other car through first – thoughtful, courteous and highly appreciated by the recipient.

><br>NB: although UK crowds tend to see PvD playing the role of guest, he holds several residencies in Germany and, until recently, Twilo in New York.

Even allowing for the ‘Go easy cos there’s a guest DJ to follow’ attitude, CD1 would probably get annoying if you were in a club as there are far too many breakdowns. Just as you’re getting into the music, the beat dies and you’re left with a load of poncey, twirly treble and midrange notes. If I were on the dancefloor, I’d probably lob a tomato or two in his direction ;-). As driving or background music goes though, it’s perfect :-)

CD2 is what he would play AFTER a guest DJ. Needless to say it rocks and is ideal for getting you in the mood at the beginning of a night out.

Paul van Dyk ranks with Sasha and Digweed as the only 3 DJ’s who have never played a duff piece when I’ve seen them live. All the other top names disappoint from time to time but I can honestly say that every track I’ve heard from the Top Trio has grabbed me by the short & curlies and demanded that a) I dance and b) I ask them what it’s called. I never ask of course but both sentiments are internal gauges of whether I like something or not. What makes this consistency so impressive is that they rarely rely on proven winners, the anthems of the day.

All this is present in the Politics of Dancing. The only established anthem is a superb remix of IIo’s Rapture, and some of the other melodies ring a bell (sic), but otherwise the tracklisting is full of relatively unknown gems. Undiscovered treasure! Be the envy of your trance-loving chums!! Until they get to HMV of course.


THE EXECUTION
The beatmatching is flawless but you wouldn’t expect anything less in this day and age where computer software allows blips to be smoothed out before the master copy is transferred to CD.

A couple of the mixes (as
in "transition between tracks", not as in "version of track") sound relatively abrupt if you’re used to DJ’s like Sasha and Digweed. However, this is because the kind of tunes that PvD plays do not lend themselves to long drawn out mixes - musically, he still fits them together extremely well. ‘Fit’ and ‘musicality’ (woah, think I just made that word up) are entirely subjective but an example of an opposite extreme is Stardust and For An Angel - theoretically you could beatmatch them but musically, they just don’t fit together.


THE VERDICT
The theme and accompanying rhetoric make for interesting reading but I’m not entirely sure what he’s trying to achieve (I’m not altogether convinced this is a money making exercise either). Who cares though because if you’re a Paul van Dyk fan this CD is route 1 to audio heaven. If you’ve not been converted yet then this is the best way of getting acquainted. I’ve seen him live a fair few times and you have my word that this is Pure Paul van Dyk. Nuff said.

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