Review: Paul van Dyk – Evolution
We recently received a strange white package in our mailbox, after playing with the bubble-wrap for over 3 hours we finally found the CD in the remnants of the packaging. A mysterious black cover appeared, with a to wide-spaced lettering telling us “Paul van Dyk – Evolution”. Also there was a logo printed on it!
We smashed the CD in the nearest CD-player, but we throw miss… but at the second try we nail’d it! And then the journey started with a some live sounds, pianos, subtonic bass, nice beats and the sound of fastening our seat belts. We juggled the album towards each other and we found the backside, with the magic playlist of Evolution. The first track was “Symmetries” featuring Austin Leeds. A DJ/Producer based in Miami, Florida. This song contains 80% piano, 9,95% trance and 0,05% pure magic, a great song to re-live the smashing summer on a rainy day.
The next song was a big surprise to us. Why? because Arty featured on it! Arty – the young talented DJ/Producer from Russia – best know from his tracks: Rebound (a collab with Mat Zo), Kate and and his Rock-N-Rolla remix of Ferry Corsten’s ‘Punk’. Well, enough about Arty now we head back to his collab with Paul van Dyk “The Ocean”. They start of with with a typical Arty beat followed by a deep and relaxing melody played on a piano, with a angel voice singing something we couldn’t unravel. when completely unexpected the beat drops in. From then we leave earth to escape the revolution. (Well not really but we like to think that way)
On the next track we found a feature with Adam Young, who finally stopped singing about ‘fireflies’ a song you heard 7 times in a hour on the mainstream radio channels back in the days. After his track Youtopia with Armin van Buuren, it’s now up to Paul van Dyk to work to together with grown’d up voice from Owl City. The unique sound of Adam Young will be easily be found in this track, but this track feels a bit like an old man on a maternity ward.
It’s a bit of a misfit according to the rest of the album, beside that it’s a nice track to listen to while driving home after a visit to your mother in law.
Now in space heading for the moon, traveling at 12,000 mph. We engage the auto pilot and grab our Macbook’s, (Arno grab’s his crapbook) to check out the latest youtube updates from Armada-music. Soon to be smacked with their talent of trowing intro’s in your face, but we recognize something…Verano! the fourth track on this album. What is, to be honest, a epic song. Always ready to bombard the dance floor.
After a fast kick-start we slow down in cyber-space to sit back, relax and listen to “I Don’t deserve You” and “The Sun After Heartbreak”. To slower tracks that break-up the album in to two parts, during these slower tracks you have the time to re-take back your breath.
Fully recovered we jump up to the dashboard en push the mysterious red button. by pushing the button we where pushed back in our seats while “Rock This” was blasting out of the speakers. The only song that is’t a collab between Paul van Dyk and an other artist. It sound like something Skrillex could have made but without WUB WUB WUB! Now pulling over 9g’s, our vision is turning to black. But we still hang on to ”Dae Yor”. A blasting track with Ummet Ozcan, a dutch guy from a small village close to the EDMupdate headquarters. “All The Way” is a classic trance track with great vocals, the song feels balanced and stabilized like a steady-cam.
When a ninja and a rocket-scientist meet each other things will not work out, that is exactly the seem feeling that we have listening to “If You Want My Love” a colleb between Caligola and Paul van Dyk. Two different worlds of music what will never merge, result: a quite brilliant 15 sec intro, but after that some dude decided to open his mouth…
We thought we where heading for the moon but after the latest TomTom update, we discovered we where “Lost in Berlin”. Michelle Leonard guides us with her fantastic vocals trough this wonderful city and leads us to the arcade hall where we heard a brand new track. but we didn’t listen to it because we where playing the Arcade version of Angry Birds Space. But when we finally defeated the space pigs we noticed the sounds of “Everywhere”. The unique male vocals and uplifting melody pulled our attention towards this monster track.
The album is finished off with three tracks that literally tries to stop your heart beating and than vaporize your ears! Real trance lover can’t miss this album in their collection, it’s a true master piece combining classic trance with modern sub-genres.
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