Ibiza
Like your favorite gourmet restaurant, Paul Oakenfold always mixes the familiar with pleasant new twists. OnIbiza, Oakenfold is every inch the vintage progressive house-trance DJ, packing both discs with springboard dynamics, variety, and spice. The first track, "Waiting," is a John Creamer remix of a Nat Monday composition, and it gets the pulse jogging with over 10 minutes of invigorating trance.Depeche Modechips in with aDanny Tenagliamix of "I Feel Loved" (different versions of which can be found on theCD single), and Oakenfold contributes his own lush mix ofU2's "Beautiful Day." The collection is brought steaming home by Insigma's house-trance driver "Open Your Eyes" and PPK's dramatic but house-fun "ResuRection (Space Club Mix)." Things do get a bit wonky midway through the record's first half, asRadiohead's "Idioteque" is too twee and tart for this mix's overall tone. It takes the freeway-crunching "Transit" by Arena to bringIbizaback into comfortable contextual territory. Nobody manages to pack clubs worldwide like Oakenfold, and when he's really trying, nobody can pack a club into two discs and a plastic box like Oakenfold, either. OnIbiza, the man put some elbow grease into his mixing board.--Steffan Chirazi