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The Politics of Dancing | 
 enlarge | Artist: Paul Van Dyk
Label: Ministry of Sound Us
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy Used: $6.57
You Save: $7.41 (53%)
New (3) Used (14) from $6.57
Rating:  130 reviews
Sales Rank: 58038
Format: Original Recording Reissued
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 824669500226
EAN: 0824669500226
ASIN: B00005R5MX
Release Date: November 6, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: For CD/DVDs, the discs may have visible marks that do not affect play. The cover and/or artwork may show heavier wear than in "Very Good" condition.
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Digital Reason- Ashtrax | | • | Innocence- Joker Jam | | • | First- Private Taste | | • | Feeling Good- Jimpy | | • | Vega- Paul Van Dyk | | • | TBC.- Southern Comfort | | • | Iio - Rapture (Tastes So Sweet) | | • | So Alive- Sippin Soma | | • | Killin' Me- Timo Maas | | • | B.W.Y.- Maja Na Damu | | • | Elevation- U2 | | • | Autumn- Paul Van Dyk | | • | Cristalle- Viframa | | • | Furthermost- Solicitus | | • | Four Days- Subsky | | • | Empire- Second Sun | | • | Out There- Paul Van Dyk |
Disc 2
| • | Shout C'mon - Sagitaire | | • | Epic Monolith - Micro De Govia | | • | Massive - Ralphie B | | • | Questions Must Be Asked - David Forbes | | • | Activity - Way Out West | | • | Interference - Connector | | • | Secrets & Lies - Blank & Jones | | • | Reach Me - Lexicon 4 | | • | Reset - Jamnesia | | • | Into The Night - 4 String | | • | Let's Go - Activex | | • | In Progress - Signum | | • | Section 0 - Walter & Gelder | | • | Club Attack - Solid Sleep | | • | Starchildren - Guardian of the Earth | | • | Dreamland - Nu-NRG |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Considering his uber-DJ status, it comes as something of a surprise to learn that The Politics Of Dancing (and, presumably, feeling good) is the first-ever mixed outing from one of dance music's most reluctant figureheads. Having said in the past that he didn't think he could bring the atmosphere of a club to a compilation, it has taken the full weight of the ubiquitous Ministry to persuade the legendary Berliners to their turntables for a steroid-pumped two hours of music. Despite his aversion to the term, rippling Eurotrance is the order of the day here, with Van Dyk stamping his authority by way of no less than 11 of his own tracks or remixes scattered across two seamlessly mixed compact discs, the tracklisting for which has also been dissected and rebuilt in the studio into what amounts to a series of exclusive versions. Message understood? --Kingsley Marshall
Album Description
With several releases under his belt of his own original tunes, Paul Van Dyk, puts together a killer mix CD including tracks from Joker Jam, Iio, Timo Maas, Way Out West, Blank & Jones, David Forbes, Sipping Soma and more. Ministry Of Sound. Slipcase. 2002.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 125 more reviews...
 There is Irony With The Album's Title July 8, 2007
Cloudman (Vancouver, BC)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this album the week it was released. I should have went with my initial reaction of awe regarding the sheer number of tracks that were on each disc (always a bad sign that your in for anthem mania), but a was still a novice electronica shopper then!
It still obviously sold enough copies to please the powers to be as there is a second album under the same title. Always a market for everything.
Two discs full of tacky athems and re-mixes that I still have not figured out how anyone could actually dance to. Then again, I did visit a club in Vienna, Austria...let's just say the occupants' dancing styles were...unique.
Both Disc get 2/5 stars.
 Four-On-The-Floor Filibusters April 17, 2007
Mark Eremite (Seoul, South Korea)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
German DJ Paul Van Dyk grew up smuggling forbidden Western music into his ears from beyond the stones of the Berlin Wall. Plucking the musical currents freely from the air of oppression, Paul Van Dyk slowly developed an affinity for trance electronics, the mind massage of musics. His career started when he was 20, and sixteen years and multiple albums/awards later, he's still going strong, one of the top Trance DJs still performing today.
So, you can understand why I'm so bewildered by the stunning lack of innovation in this two-disc set. Don't get me wrong, as the title implies, this is all danceable stuff, but as anyone who's ever tapped their toes can tell you, it doesn't take much more than an incessant beat, some heavy bass, and stubbornly catchy hooks to fill the floors with bent knees and raised arms. It may be danceable, but is it memorable, is it something you want to possess and revisit?
Disc 1, maybe. Van Dyk takes some of his own creations (the untinctured and trancy "Autumn," the metal house splinters of "Out There," the deep, dream-washed beats of "Vega") and mixes them with some pretty standard fare gussied up with Van Dyk's usual flair for soul-heady producing. He meanders through some complex beats, clinging melodies, and frenetic layering ... it's all well-done stuff, but it smacks of moderation, like Van Dyk was harnessing himself. In an essay included with these discs, he refers to this disc as a "warm-up." Maybe he was afraid of spending his creative allotment. Whatever the case, the entire first record, while decent, is decent in a monotonous way. There are a few rich and brilliant seams in this mostly unbroken bedrock, though. Van Dyk does some excellent things with IIO's "Rapture," a club staple I'd long thought was past its prime. He also toys with U2, Timo Maas, Sippin' Soma, and Ashtrax with more than mediocre results. Although the whole of Disc One wants more flavor to make it mind-watering, it is energetic and electrifying. A four-star effort, if anything.
Disc 2 is just strange. He tries for a heftier, more progressive Eurotrance feel, something that has as much gut-deep oomph as it does cloud-light wistfulness. What he comes up with is an uneven batch of numbers that sound like they were assembled, Frankenstein-style from other, more successful compilations, lined up with the exact ... same ... four-on-the-floor backbone. Seriously. Almost every single song on the second CD traces a cloned, rhythmic rut. It's a shame (and a little mind-boggling) that Van Dyk didn't look for more diversity in the track listing, because what he does with these songs in the upper registers is pretty interesting (see Way Out West's "Activity" for a good example). Otherwise, although it's not what I'd call bad trance, it's definitely a prime example of high grade soft cheese, and it all tastes the same. A two star disc, at best.
Van Dyk is an artist who is capable of much more than this, although it's likely that he's a man whose live show energy loses potency when distilled into a crystal box and prepackaged for the masses. His on-the-fly in-house mixes put to shame this set of overly-mediated and thought-to-death discs. Worth a listen, I'd say, but not worth much more.
 Trance has never hit higher high's November 9, 2006
Kamal Al-salihi (Chicago)
I am a Van Dyk fan by nature, so consider my review biased. But it is biased for a reason. his Cd's are incredible. There has never been anything like them. The Politics of Dancing 1 is no exception. It is an absolute must have for anyone who calls themselves a trance music fan. Buy this Cd, and in a few weeks you'll be at your computer writing a review just like this one here and the other hundred or so already out there.
 Probably wondering if it lives up to its hype aren't you? July 20, 2006
7.52 (California)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
To be fair, this is in fact Paul Van Dyk's first attempt to mix a cd and it is a tragedy that it took him so ling to try it out. This album is a tsetament that the art of mixing; that is track selection, timing, synth key and pad matching, sound proofing for seemless transistions ans what have you is not something you learn overnight. It took Sasha almost twenty years but when he arrived, the world was stunned. Even the reviewers at rolingstone who hardly ever criticize trance albums had to give Sasha the Kudos he deserves. But I am digressing. My point si this is not Sasha,s Diggie or even Oakie's uncannily seductive sound. This is something else and after giving it the proper listens it deserves I believe this to be in the midst of one of the the top twenty electronic compilations of all time.
Paul Van Dyk cannot mix. I am no DJ; I have not paid my dues but I am a demon of a sampler, I was literally the first person in my country to pick up a faithless cd so I have a scary ear for music. He cannot mix period. The transistions simply illustrate his fetish for the euphoric whooof of airplanes, his tracks are too short to be truly psychedlic inducing and transistions from track to track suck. But that does not detract from the album. It is as if by some luck PVD realized his weakness in this new direction and decided to overdo things with track selection and BOY DOE HE OVER DO IT. Some of the most impressive starry eyed melodies I have ever heard in my life are on this cd and I'll back up that statement with my life. From the preternatural Lexicon 4 track to Dreamland and Joker Jam's drooling innnocence is enough to melt even the hardest cynic. A simple analogy of this compilation would be a girl I guess during that first meeting when your eyes meet hers and you feel like you can fly, or when a serious problem solves itself or when you remember some incident from your childhood; PVD packs it all here, patents it and commercializes it. Is it trance? yes Is it good trance? Yes? Is the mixing any good? NO there is no mixing (intentionally. Does this have any replay value? YES. Will this become a classic? Involver already ousted this cd. Maybe next time.
Very Highly recommended.
Amazing music. A must buy!!! November 30, 2005
Darkslayer (Charlotte, NC)
I love this CD. It has a great blend of grooves that actually helps me feel at peace.
Paul Van Dyk is a music genius, I look foward to buying POD vol 2.
Best songs:
Innocence
First
Feeling good
Another late Thursday
Rapture
Superconcious
Killin' Me
Autumm
Cristalle
Four Days
Empire
Out There
Shout, C'mon
Epic Monolith
Massive
Questions Must Be Asked
Activity
Secrets & Lies
Into the Night
In Progress
Section O
Dreamland
I know, thats a huge amount of the songs. They really are that good.
Heck, this isn't a 5 star review, it's a 5000 star review.
I can't believe I wasn't sure I wanted it! Silly me!
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