Love Story 2. The Artist
It's hard to say who is my favorite DJ of all time, but
PAUL OAKENFOLD has
been the most pioneering and hard working DJ to me. His credits as a
producer, remixer and DJ are second to none but even more valuable is
his work in establishing the DJ as "an artist". Remixing
U2's 'Even Better
Than The Real Thing', which ended up doing better in the charts than the
original, scoring music for the
Swordfish movie, producing the Happy
Mondays' #1 album etc... It's everyday business today but it wasn't when
Oakenfold started in the 80s.
I first read about him from magazines like Mixmag and The Face during the
pre-internet time of the early 90s when we had to search UK magazines for
info about the music scene abroad. Many of his own productions and his
Perfecto label's releases are cornerstones in the history of progressive
house and trance.
BT's 'Flaming June', Man With No Name's 'Teleport'
or Grace's 'Not Over Yet' are timeless pieces of music that many of
us truly love. His
residency at Cream was inspirational in the way
that he developed his own sound and shaped songs into classics of that time.
I have very personal memories related with him - like waking up after my
18th birthday (painted red with lipstick by my friends!) in early 1995 and
hearing for the first time his legendary Dragonfly mix CD 'Voyage Into
Trance' and instantly loving the fresh and emerging Goa trance sound.
Or listening countless times to his Cream Live 2 CD while working in
the old school alternative clothing shop Dekadenz in the hot summer of
1996. Or my friend coming to Royl Cotton Club (where we were organizing
Unity in 1999) with a live MiniDisc recording from Creamfields festival where
Oakenfold opened his set with 'Unity' while the crowd was madly
chanting "Oakey... Oakey..." on top of the intro.
The most beloved memory must be the only time when I've met him.
It was July 1999 in Ibiza where he had a residency at Pacha. I had just
finished a remix of Jan Johnston's 'Flesh' for Perfecto so his manager
asked me to visit the DJ booth. Hanging around there were Renaissance
owners Geoff and Joanna, DJ Tiesto, Hooj Choons label owner Red Jerry,
Pacha resident DJ Pippi and Oakenfold while BT was playing live. It was
all very casual but I was totally frozen by the amount of legendariness
in the booth! All of a sudden Oakenfold grabbed me to get some drinks
in the bar where I could barely say "Vodka Red Bull would be nice".
I remember him as a down-to-earth, no ego, no attitude person, who
wanted to encourage new artists.
Oakenfold hasn't been in the European spotlight recently as he has been
living in States for most of this decade. Alongside scoring movies, having
the
biggest DJ residency in the US and remixing Elvis and Justin
Timberlake
he's been on a mission to "break electronic music in
the US". Even if it sounds like a rather massive task, with his track
record of getting things done I believe he is playing important part in that.
And the story is definitely
Not Over Yet.
-
Tapio "Orkidea" Hakanen - DJ, promoter, producer and music lover since 1991
More information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Oakenfold
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Paul+Oakenfold
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0642949/
http://www.myspace.com/pauloakenfold
http://www.pauloakenfold.com/
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