We Are Planet Perfecto, Vol. 1

Album Review

Continuing his prolific output in 2011, superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold follows up The Goa Mix and Never Mind the Bollocks...Here's Paul Oakenfold with We Are Planet Perfecto, Vol. 1, the first installment of a series showcasing the best that his influential Perfecto label has to offer, past, present, and future. Choosing to showcase his talent a little more third time round, the trance pioneer features here on 12 of his own tracks, from a 2012 mix of Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Otherside" to his Top Ten single with the late Brittany Murphy, "Faster Kill Pussycat," to collaborations with former Bros frontman Matt Goss ("Firefly"), Infected Mushroom ("I'm Alive"), and Robert Vadney ("Popstar") alongside two remixes of Nadine Loren's '80s covers project (Tears for Fears' "Head Over Heels," Milli Vanilli's "Blame It on the Rain"), ensuring that the 38-track collection is a slightly more cohesive affair than its two predecessors. Elsewhere, two of the label's biggest anthems receive an airing, although Grace's "Not Over Yet" is rendered unrecognizable by Max Graham vs. Protoculture's progressive trance reworking and Perfecto All-Stars' "Pig Bag" is restricted to just a one-minute looped interlude; chart hits by Lady Antebellum ("Need You Now"), PPK ("Resurrection"), and Ce Ce Peniston ("Finally") are given the warped techno treatment; and there are two remixes apiece from Phynn, Liquid Soul, and Remy Le Duc. Any fledgling clubbers hoping for a beginner's guide to trance should perhaps look elsewhere, as despite several mainstream chart hits, this is very much aimed at the genre's aficionados. But for those who know their stuff, this is a pretty solid overview of a label whose future looks as bright as its past. ~ Jon O'Brien, Rovi