Last year, through his sixth artist album, electronic music
legend
Paul van Dyk changed up perceptions of the PvD sound, wholesale.
Over the course of 2012, ‘
EVOLUTION’s multiverse tracklist spawned five
single sales‐ chart smashes, an epic, globe‐circling 150+ date tour,
sustained fan & press veneration and an ever‐widening stylistic
scope of DJ support.
Now that ‘the originals’ have been established, the time has
come to let the remixers speak as Paul’s evolution becomes an
out‐and‐out revolution! Handpicked by the man himself ‐ from the ready‐to‐break to the firmly established ‐ the remix gathering has assembled. Let the reworks begin!
“Naturally, the original versions of EVOLUTION’s tracks were my
and my co‐producers visions. To‐date, the singles have brought some
wonderful, creative remixes with them – ones that blew me
away when I heard them and which I played in‐club and on the radio
throughout 2012. They were the seeds for this album; now is the right
time to push the boundaries of ‘EVOLUTION’ that bit further”
-
Paul van Dyk, Berlin, January 2013.
Comprising 17 fresh‐off‐the‐desk reworks from a full company of
van Dyk’s fellow production studionauts, this is where evolution ends
and full‐scale revolution breaks out.
Sowing the uprising’s first seeds is the production brotherhood
of Woody van Eyden and Alex M.O.R.P.H., who are respectively tasked
with retakes of ‘Sun After Heartbreak’ and ‘Such A Feeling’ (aka
‘Verano’). Drawing on a wealth of nirvana harmonics, thermal synths and
Sue McLaren’s and Elijah King’s vocal talents, they reposition PvD’s
original versions in an entirely new light… and time of the night.
Opening the tempo & tone throttle that little bit wider,
musical mutineers Kyau & Albert, Maarten De Jong and John
O’Callaghan zoom‐in on additional peak‐time aspects. Their radical
interpretations of ‘Open My Eyes’, ‘Symmetries’ and ‘I Don’t Deserve
You’ levy drums, percussion and distortion that are altogether more
floor‐ atomic in nature.
The popularity and musical latitude of ‘I Don’t Deserve You’
emphasize this Plumb‐vocalled peach with two further reconfigurations.
Having already been voted one of the 15 biggest trancers of the year on
Armin van Buuren’s ASOT radio show, ‘Deserve’ gets some house flavour
into her system. Dubbing up the vocal, Gabriel Ben lets the hats hiss,
the percs ride and the rhythms flow on his mix. Meanwhile, another
American producer WAWA rolls one big piano moment in after another,
inciting ravenous uplift and fanning ‘(R)Evolution’s flames even
further.
Taking things momentarily deeper and more‐subversively
progressive, the Directors Cut mix seizes on ‘Love Ammunition’s lyrical
metaphor. Michelle Leonard’s vocals scorch the room, underpinning a
potent groove and sure‐shot drop. The album stays with her redolent
tones as Giuseppe Ottaviani takes control of ‘Lost In Berlin’, building
it up into a mainline titan.
With PvD’s full backing, other remix‐revolutionaries are given
free reign to take the music where they see fit. Pedro del Mar &
Double V rock up a storm on the Sue McLaren‐vocalled and Arty‐coproduced
‘The Sun After The Heartbreak’. Elsewhere, youngblood Uzbek producer
Exense masterminds the ‘Rock This’ rebuild. He tactically whips it into a
powder‐keg progressive piece, holding back the pitch‐bending synths and
rousing a titular shout to the break’s final precipice. Elsewhere,
audio guerrillas like Niels von Ahorn, Robert Mint, Nick Callaghan &
Will Atkinson and others perform coup after coup with eclectic,
thrilling reworks that build into the consummate ‘EVOLUTION’ revision.
