Paul Van Dyk
Seven Ways
(Mute)
I'd heard this guys name for quite some time in the electronic scene, and had even heard a few tracks of his on compilations and whatnot, but Seven Ways is my first real introduction to his music, and quite an introduction it is. Over the course of 2 CDS (there's also a regular 1 disc version of this release, I think), he packs in almost 160 minutes of music into 21 tracks and provides what is probably a great overview to his music.
The first disc of the set is the actual Seven Ways release, while the second "bonus" disc is 11 remixes and other singles that have been available on other releases. If you haven't heard his music before, possibly the best introduction is to simply say that for the most part it's trance light. While some probably beg to differ with my viewpoint, I think that it fairly adequately describes it. While he does dip into ambient (on the sixth track "Forbidden Fruit") and a little harder beat once in awhile ("Beautiful Place"), the rest of the track is tempered out with light piano touches and only a hint of an agressive acid line. Although a hard beat comes into play sometimes in the music, for the most part the driving force behind the songs are beats with a lighter edge. Even the progressions and backing sounds on the track are fairly light, and while it works sometimes, it doesn't do very much in the way of making individual tracks stand out as much. To keep the mood even more, the first disc is mixed together to provide for an uniterrupted trip to trance-ville.
In my opinion, the second disc works a little better, simply because there is some more variety thrown into things. While the songs on both discs are very well constructed and catchy, their is more changeup on the second disc and it makes for a more interesting listen. If you're into lighter trance stuff, this will definitely be your cup of tea. You can get a couple tracks on it that will fuel the dancefloor, but for the most part it makes for better light work music.
Rating: 6.75
