PAUL VAN DYK GLOBAL DOUBLE COMPILATION/DVD MUTE RELEASE: FEBRUARY 11, 2003 REVIEW: MARCH 24, 2003

I’ve been having a bit of a soft spot for Paul van Dyk’s soft trance techno since I heard his album ”Out There and Back” some years ago. His music is pretty straightforward and catchy, and mainstream, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with that in his case, I think. Good music is still good music.
Anyway, this is a kind of retrospective of Paul’s career, and features 13 tracks from different albums. Hearing all the tracks together like this gives the impression that this guy might do well in trying to vary himself more. At least he should try to find at least more than one sound for the bass drum, as it soon gets very repetitive. All the songs are mixed together into a continuous mix, and this makes this problem very apparent.
“Global” also comes with a DVD, which in essence contains the same thing as the CD, but with accompanying images from Paul van Dyk’s live performances and trips throughout the world. It’s quite funny to see the hysterical Japanese fans talk about Paul like he’s a god, and also interesting to see the massive "Love Parade" in Germany where thousands and thousands dance away dressed in, umm, colourful outfits.
This is a good summary of Paul’s nice electronics and a good introduction. There might be many Release readers who enjoy synthpop, futurepop and electro but haven't yet discovered van Dyk and perhaps they will enjoy him. Anyway, you should get hold of it if you want some good melodic trance to shake your booty to. I think this is better than many of the other trance acts from Holland, and Paul seems to think about song structures and melody more then most.

JOHAN CARLSSON