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Paul van Dyk

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A friend has sent you the following article from PopMatters.com Reviews: Paul van Dyk by Mike Prevatt 12 March 2003 “Global” Tour Things did not look promising. As he and his crate-toting handlers barreled through a crowd of people hanging out near the stage of the Mayan theater in downtown Los Angeles, German DJ Paul van Dyk had the steely focus of a man determined to get where he needed to be undisturbed. And yet, one young fan decided he was going to acknowledge his hero anyway, with a simple pat on the shoulder. Van Dyk snapped his neck around and threw said fan a cold, hard look that screamed, “Don’t fucking touch me.” Hard to believe this guy was now going to take to the turntables and spin three hours of airy, uplifting techno, the sort where kids bum-rush the stage, dance with their eyes to the ceiling and pogo as if they’re seeing U2 or No Doubt. Paul van Dyk has always seemed the hands-off sort of guy. Past gigs have seen the acclaimed producer/DJ perform with the aloofness of an indie rocker, his hardened face rarely cracking despite the shrieks of joy his deliriously glowing sets elicit. He’s the antithesis of superstar jocks like Paul Oakenfold, BT and Tiesto, who shamelessly ham it up behind the decks, matching the crowd’s bouncing and fist pumping and ultimately encouraging more of it. Or maybe the guy would rather express his joy solely through the music he plays. Which is why it was such a pleasant shock that, a few songs into his L.A. set (his second in three months; he three-peated SoCal superclub Giant’s lauded New Year’s Eve bash as its headliner), van Dyk was jumpin’ ‘n’ pumpin’ about, even allowing for the occasional smile. His spastic arm cranking and elastic body-bopping punctuated beat launches and sudden shifts in the music’s tone. He was completely in sync with the sold-out crowd, and that’s sometimes as much as you can hope for at a club gig that costs $40 to attend. Van Dyk’s L.A. set was part of a promotional tour aimed at hyping his recent release, Global, a remixed retrospective of his work that dates back to the early ‘90s. (It also includes a documentary-style DVD that shows van Dyk on an international tour.) It’s his third American release in as many years, and through these albums—including 2000’s Out There and Back

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