FOR AN ANGEL

Paul Van Dyk

There’s something not quite right here, you know. Many years ago, Paul Van Dyk came up with a tune called For An Angel, which rightly became something of a trance classic. He also created a few other songs besides, but I’m not bothering with those because their names aren’t at the start of this review. So, back to the tune in question then, and somebody’s decided it’s time Paul Van Dyk brought out a greatest hits collection, filled to the brim both with tracks that he was responsible for making and others that other people made and then gave to him to play around with. Now then, the standard procedure when bringing out a Best Of is to go with one of two options; one, release a brand new single to show the kids you’ve still got the old magic or two, have one of your most famous songs reworked and remodelled to show the kids your music will never die even though some of them insist on listening to Basshunter instead. Surprisingly enough for somebody so heavily connected with the genre known as "dance music", Paul Van Dyk has gone for the second option. It’s a funny old world, isn’t it? Not only that, he’s done the job himself... which is possibly where for once, he’s gone wrong. No doubt he thought he could update it and bring it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, but if you’re going to remix a trance classic then surely you’d expect the refitted version to take a lot less than two minutes to properly get going, especially when the whole thing only runs for five and a half. When it finally does decide to kick off it’s very good, but it’s missing the whatever-it-was that made the original an eight minute work of art. I think it’s possibly because the new version sounds as though it’s been tailored to fit in amongst all the other tunes that end up being dumped onto a Clubland compilation, and that’s a shame because the Mark I model still stands head and shoulders above all that. Updating old tunes is never easy and there have been plenty of attempts that have gone tragically wrong, but if you’re starting with something that’s been designed from the outset to be updated and upgraded you should have something of a head start. This really could and should have been so much better, but sadly all Paul Van Dyk’s done with this particular remix is remind me just how good the original was.

FIRE

Kasabian

Oh good, they’re back. No, really, I mean it. Better than that, they’re on form too. See, I’m not always miserable. What we have here is a song that has absolutely no idea what it wants to be, but it’s determined to try everything it can think of and have a hell of a lot of fun as it does so. Fair enough, they’re re-using the gimmick they used with Empire (the verses and the chorus sound like they come from two totally different songs), but it works here too so I’ve got no problem with that. This time round, the verses are easy-going, gentle and sound like the result of a one night stand between country music and glam rock... as you’d expect, obviously. On the other hand, the chorus sounds a bit more like the Kasabian we know, which means things get considerably noisier and faster. Great stuff. I would make it my single of the week, but as I've only reviewed two you've probably guessed that already.