Paul Oakenfold – Perfecto Vegas

Album Reviews • Monday August 10th, 2009 • 11:16 am

Paul Oakenfold stands today as the grandpappy to many a producer/deejay. Call it trance, dance, techno, house, club – it is each of those things at times. Call it what you will, but he made it, did it, does it better than the lot of them working today. At age 45 now, this guy just won’t stop – he’s opening Madonna shows across Europe in the next month, recently remixed the title track off her spankin’-new greatest hits package, and late last year took to his first-ever resident DJ throne in the States.

Now he drops more than two hours of Perfecto Vegas on craving ears. It’s fashioned from sets at the 25,000-square-foot Rain nightclub tucked into a Vegas casino resort. This is where he abides, where he conducts the business of the gyrating masses, compelling them to all but break their necks on the floor as he trots out his latest sonic concoctions, as well as those of trusty others.

The songs all come fine-tuned from 2008 and ’09 dance-floor skirmishes held at the Rain club. Listened to whilst driving, Perfecto can only make you feel as though you’re in a car commercial. And that you’re significantly cooler than you are. Split across two discs, Oakenfold gleans top-notch tracks from a range of electro-craftsmen and mic-wielding sirens.

Remix god Adam White gets ample play here, notably on “Feel My Magic” and “Flammable,” collaborating to great effect with Nat Monday. Joe Echo’s “On All My Sundays (Liam Shachar Remix)” provides all the rainy melancholy a disc like this needs even as “Funkiton Won” from Shawn Michaels and Kenneth Thomas percolates with a relentless energy that permeates this whole crop of songs.

Shining brightest amidst the two dozen or so producers and artists may be Robert Vadney. (No small feat to stand out from this audio armada.) His “Fallen Angel’s Symphony” opens Disc Two and intersperses some tranquil piano with an otherwise epic, thundering wall of sound. The self-referential “Club Perfecto,” manic and controlled at the same time, nearly lives up to its name, but it’s Vadney’s regret-laced “Away From You” track that truly flirts with perfection.

Other standouts include a remix of “Let the Music Play” from Shannon (probably the most nondescript name in music), which boasts intervals of sad-eyed vocals and frenetic beats both. On “Wish You Were Here (Ehren Stowers Remix),” nymphal singer Colleen Riley injects a primal longing into that titular line as she rides out producer Kenneth Thomas’s electronic waves. This album, basically an oversized mega-mix from Oakenfold, remains all about the sounds, but from time to time the lyrical feelers come out and surprise.

Seamless transitions, an Oakenfold staple but a tall order for many a deejay, keep this batch of tracks cogent and harmonious from start to finish. The record opens with Hibernate’s “Left Alone,” chock-full of ambiance and much unlike the rest of the thumpers housed here. Perfecto closes with fitting cool-down outro “Eclipsing the Sun (Barry Jay Remix),” courtesy of Barrington Lawrence and Shefali.

It’s a pretty project, Perfecto Vegas. Oakenfold continues with his penchant for merging the club-banging with the cerebral. After a few listens through this party pressed to disc, one is left with a profound desire to get down, left with antsy limbs and much to mull. Something says Paul would have it no other way.

Tagged as: Dance, House, London