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World renowned DJ, mixer, and producer Paul Oakenfold has
put together a collection of his most prized electronica-timbered
mixes, remixes, and original compositions for his Greatest Hits
& Remixes album, released by Ultra Records in coordination
with his own label Perfecto. The compilation showcases Oakenfold's
ingenuity and affinity for dance hop/electro-pop assortments covering
original works like his own watermarked dance-club track "Ready
Steady Go" to the remixes he has done for such recording artists
as Dirty Vegas, Radiohead, Madonna, U2,
and Everything But The Girl. There are extras like the mixes
he did for soundtracks, beginning with the prowling, subterranean
electronica imprinted on "Dread Song" from Matrix Reloaded
and his trance-hop tweaked rendition of the James Bond theme
from Die Another Day. The material has Oakenfold all over the
place from urban, hip-hop, R&B, and chamber music to mid-tempo
and dreamy-pop always working in digital beats and surges of excitable
synths.
The album commences with a familiar party-pop tune "Starry Eyed
Surprise" used in the Diet Coke TV commercials. Elements of urban
and hip-hop are mixed with the electronica sequences to fashion sparkling,
carbonated spurts. The album rotates a sunny vibration with buoyant
keyboards on Happy Mondays' tune "Step On" and sprightly,
flashy synths on the Smashing Pumpkins' single "Perfect."
Oakenfold's mix of Massive Attack's song "Unfinished Sympathy"
coordinates an R&B voicing with electronica modules, and stylizes
violin toned samplers with hip-hop vocals for Oakenfold's remix of
Mark Ronson's track "Stop Me" featuring Daniel Merriweather
on vocals. Oakenfold's remix of Justin Timberlake's hit song
"My Love" alternates vocals with T.I. and has an
acid-pop timber primed for clubs, as too do the digital workings of
Dirty Vegas' track "Days Go By", with layers of instantaneous
popping sonics folding into the dreamy glam-pop tumescence.
Oakenfold experiments with sci-fi/fantasy fielded synths on his original
compositions "Ready Steady Go" and "Southern Sun."
An assortment of chanting synths are stippled by digital beats creating
festive environs for Madonna's single "Sorry" and U2's "Beautiful
Day." His electro-pop grids are marbled with lounge-jazz textures
on "You're Not Alone" as the blissful vocals of Olive
purvey a likeness to Sade. The starry acid-pop rotations in
Radiohead's track "Everything In Its Right Place" produce
a panorama of liquid crystal psychedelics, which also pulsate through
the synths in Everything But The Girl's tune "Missing" and
Brittany Murphy's "Faster Kill Pussycat." The synth
complexes fall into a comatose state repeating the layout over and
over into an acid-hop daze. The album concludes with the industrial
electro-punk motions emanating through Hans Zimmer's "Jack
Theme Suite" and the funk-induced electronica of Underworld's
"Born Slippy Nuxx". But Oakenfold's most impressive digital
workings have to be the enhancements he made on the James Bond theme
song for the film Die Another Day. He kept the horn and string
arrangements intact and worked his wizardry around the basic melody,
creating an invigorating sonic elixir.
Oakenfold's Greatest Hits & Remixes album is a terrain
of acid-tasseled pop. It's flashy club music dressed with hip-hop
and urban trends. Oakenfold will embark on a short tour of America
to promote the album. The deluxe edition of the album features a bonus
documentary DVD perusing the life and times of Oakenfold with insightful
interviews from friends, family members, and business associates filmed
in London, Ibiza, and Los Angeles. It's everything you ever wanted
to know about Paul Oakenfold.
-Susan Frances
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