Paul Oakenfold - Creamfields

As Good As It Gets For Paul Oakenfold

Oakenfold's early commercial mixes of the 90's and his countless live sets definitely contributed to my great appreciation for electronica and my early love for trance music. Although my tastes have changed and I no longer considered Paul Oakenfold a good DJ (especially in relation to his track selection and constant dubbing and remixing of music from the genres of rock, pop, and everything in between), Creamfields is not a bad album to have. I think this is mostly for its genre eclecticity. Creamfields is not a pure trance album. There are tracks pulled from the genre of break-beats, progressive, and even house on this one.

Disc 1 is less of a signature Oakenfold set. "Wadi" by Sultan & The Greek is a classic progressive house track but I like the dub by Deep Dish on Global Underground 25: Toronto released a year earler much better. However, this disc does have my favorite track of the album with "12" by Tilt. The closing track "Jump The Next Train" by Young Parisians feat. Ben Lost is one of the album's worst tracks with its cheesy vocal chorus being the title of the track itself. Horrible.

The set on Disc 2 has Oakenfold written all over it. If you are a big fan of Paul, then this is likely the set of the two you'll enjoy more. Harder than the first, but again not purely trance. There are scattered break-beat tracks featured throughout the set. Oakenfold also waits until track 11 (Mauro Picotto's "Lizard") before really cranking up the energy. Not my style, but should please the hard trance enthusiests.

Both disc 1 and disc 2 get 3.5/5 stars and in my opinion this album is better than both Tranceport and Perfecto Presents Another World. July 5, 2008

M-Azing

This truly is an amazing compilation. OCEAN OF LOVE; possibly my favorite trance song ever. It really moves me. I personally think disc two is the best. They are both really great though March 20, 2007

A respectable "comeback", of sorts, for Oakenfold

I'll be honest, classically, I have not been the most devoted Paul Oakenfold fanatic out there. I only own this, Tranceport, Global Underground 007: New York and A Voyage Into Trance, but I have heard enough of both his live and studio mixes to know where I'm coming from with this release.

I am really not enthralled by the Perfecto label's output, either. I think Oakenfold has been sliding down the commercial slope, getting ever-so-perilously close to the edge before managing to climb his way back. Only to repeat the process. Yet, to his credit, he has been releasing progressivly less cheesy mixes lately, and I think Creamfields is the cream of the most recent crop for him. It's got style, with a surprisingly good track progression and better-than-average mixing. It gives a new impression to his name which used to represent the juggernaut of the trance subculture to me. That was a long time ago, of course.

I like both discs pretty much equally. At times, I think the beats, some laced with vocals, could be comparable to GU007:New York's first disc, although that may be giving Creamfields a bit too much credit. Regardless of what artist or other mix I could compare this one to, it's decent and worth picking up as it finds a cozy place in my harder trance rotations along with Thrillseekers, Armin, Tiesto and Solarstone. I can't listen to Tranceport anymore, and AViT was so dark, brooding and monotonous that I've given up on it entirely.

I gave this mix 4 stars primarily because there are too many instances where Oakenfold throws in a transition, shifts the bpm or tosses in a funky little rhythm that I felt should have continued for much longer to act more as frontrunners than as transitional sound bytes between one 4/4 beat to the next.

All-in-all, however, if you find yourself just beginning to get into the genre, or have already cemented your place within it and have lost faith in Oakenfold's ability to appeal to the real fans of dance music, give this album a try. It might be the catalyst needed to convert you back to the dance floor; this album cries, "Join Us". Not an unappealing proposition, all things considered.

~Lex December 27, 2006

As if you needed this review to tell you it's good.

With the number of people talking about how great this CD is, I'm kind of wasting my time writing this, but of all his CDs that I own, this is definately my favorite and is the one I listen to the most.
Paul Oakenfold has gotten somewhat popular lately with a more commercial sound and I read that his older stuff was different. This double CD is creative, it moves you, it's what deep trance is supposed to be. Tranceport is very good too. If you like this album I would recommend you check out In Trance We Trust,Special Collectors Edition by DJ Cor Fijneman, Universal Religion Live by Armin Van Buuren and some of the In Search of Sunrise series by DJ Tiesto. These few CDs are my favorite Trance CDs and I have alot. July 13, 2006

A great trance album!

This a great trance album, I enjoy listening to it much more the Tiesto "Waiting for sunrise LA" or Armin "State of Trance 2006" June 8, 2006

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