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Saturday March 4, 11:05 AM
Influential DJ Oakenfold back with new album
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NEW YORK (Billboard) - It was just shy of a decade ago when
Paul Oakenfold was first introduced to the United States via
two releases on compilation powerhouse Global Underground. Now,
he is primarily thought of as a DJ on the cheesier side of
trance, a somewhat unfair categorization.
Oakenfold's interests were always diverse: Those first
double-CDs featured tastes of breakbeat, hip-hop and plaintive,
folky vocals, in addition to the mentholated soundscapes of
early trance. Before the launch of his DJ career, he served as
A&R manager of London-based Champion Records, a veritable
stockpile of classics, signing records by then-unknowns like
Salt-N-Pepa, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Price, Raze and Royal
House.
His debut artist album, 2002's "Bunkka" (Maverick), was a
licensing gold mine, with pop-conscious single "Starry Eyed
Surprise" becoming the very recognizable soundtrack to a
sun-baked Diet Coke commercial. A 2003 remix of Justin
Timberlake's "Rock Your Body" was straight-faced disco
nostalgia, and landed on the radio.
So if you have been listening closely all these years,
Oakenfold's second artist album, "A Lively Mind," out April 11
on Maverick, makes a whole lot of sense. The 12-track set is
undoubtedly the work of a trend-aware, genre-independent,
former talent scout with an eye on more mainstream success.
And while each track is an independently licensable
vignette, the overall sound is trance-rock: guitar licks
ranging from Dick Dale surf to Foo Fighters power pop, over
tough beats and basic synth riffs. For an artist sprung from
the trance genre, where 14-minute tracks and all-night sets are
the norm, it is catchy, smart, expertly rendered stuff.
"I can make a DJ compilation with my eyes closed,"
Oakenfold says. "But songs are really hard to come up with. You
bare your soul. You put everything on the table."
Like "Bunkka," "Mind" features blockbuster collaborations:
Pharrell Williams does his hip-pop/soul thing on "Sex N'
Money"; Grandmaster Flash gives "Set It Off" shades of "Planet
Rock." But the album's finest moments belong to the unknowns
Oakenfold has chosen to embrace.
"They were exciting, they were vulnerable, they were
nervous: They were everything you'd want to find in a young,
developing act," he gushes about Bad Apples, a band he first
heard at Los Angeles' Key Club. Lead singer Ashley contributes
vocals to cry-for-mercy ballad "Vulnerable."
Oakenfold found Spitfire -- his favorite collaborator on
"Mind" -- outside a coffee shop. The singer shares writing
credits and performs on "No Compromise" (reminiscent of
"Bunkka" hit "Ready Steady Go") and "Feed Your Mind" (a paean
to after-hours antics with a "Sympathy for the Devil"
interpolation). Both artists have signed album deals with
Oakenfold's Perfecto label.
And in her music debut, actress Brittany Murphy coos it up
Juliette Lewis-style on first single "Faster Kill Pussycat,"
which could pass as a remix of last year's guitar-sampling Deep
Dish hit "Flashdance." It seems that riffs are standard
equipment for dancefloor bombs these days. "Finally, eh?"
Oakenfold agrees. "Where has everyone been?"
Reuters/Billboard
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