Out There and Back

Paul Van Dyk | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 20, 2000)
• Original Release Date: June 20, 2000
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Mute U.S.
• ASIN: B00004TLYL
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (190 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,327 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #3 in Music > Indie Music > Dance & DJ > Trance

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Paul van Dyk spent most of the '90s perfecting a strain of credible, melodic Eurotrance that connected with clubbers all over the globe. Having honed his style and established a trademark sound, the East German DJ brings it all together on this, an album the overzealous are calling the first great dance record of the century. It begins in fine fashion with the cool breakbeat shimmer of "Vegas," swiftly followed by "Pikes," a valve-pumping Ibizan knees-up that's a tribute to the island's fabled hotel. So far, so good--this is topnotch progressive house that's guaranteed to make them move. However, if you're expecting more of the same, beware, because from here on in it's out with the Glo-Sticks and on with the face paint as a succession of clichéd trance anthems rudely gatecrash the party. From the lunar-landings vibe of "Avenue" through to the sweet pop lilt of "Face to Face," hypnotic riffs, sanguine chords, and hollow metronome beats take center stage. Van Dyk's no ATB, but ultimately this is just as one-dimensional. --Paul Tierney

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pure pvd, June 20, 2000

By 

robert scott brown (los angeles, ca, usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out There and Back (Audio CD)

OK, OK...first things first. While some dour, pessimistic, and hopelessly tragic people out there may have declared the popularity of trance as its death knell--with all the trashy, same-y comps littering the record store shelves this summer with last years' ibiza holdovers and 'updated' remixes of four year old songs--you MAY be inclined to believe it. BUT I BEG YOU, DON'T DESPAIR...

Out There And Back is truly the trance record that Paul Van Dyk had to make, and one not only the trance, but the dance community across the globe, will thank him for. While some DJ/producers batter the same themes over and over until they decide to run it into the ground only to annoy us with their 'new', 'different' direction (BT are you listening?), PVD improves on his entire back catelog and makes music that is truly progressive on the dancefloor and off.

'Vega' is a welcome starter, echoing Paul's fantastic new-ish fascination with breakbeats as a set-starter ala his oft-included Starecase track 'First-Floor Deadlock'. The beats on this track are a perfect intro; a welcome change from most albums' tendency to begin with some murky synth nonsense. From then on in, Out There and Back starts like an album should...it progresses like a live set, not a collection of singles. Songs like 'Pikes' contain so many hooks and such crafted care that you swear it truly isn't possible for dance music to do all this. Perhaps the nicest treat is the fact that PVD newly remixed his three previosuly released singles, 'Another Way', 'Avenue', and "Tell Me Why (The Riddle)' espescially for the LP. These new versions mean that those who previously bought the singles get new versions of all tracks, all blended together in a seamless triple threat of power and grace. From there on in, get ready for the true PVD experience as he unleashes the prime time, soon-to-be anthems, four-on-the-floorfillers that anyone who has witnessed Paul live will truly enjoy and want to repeat ASAP. 'The Love From Above' and 'Columbia' are just amazing, pure and simple. Honed and headed straight for your solar plexus, these tunes just demonstrate that you don't always need chemicals or even a club to appreciate the creme de la creme of dance music. And as if that wasn't enough, the album ends with 'Alive', a song PVD has been playing on his US/UK tour lately and sounds like an anthem you've heard a thousand times while still seeming like it came from a daydream from 3012. The vocal and the hook summarize the-heart-in-your-throat beauty and power that PVD closes his sets with. It couldn't end any better than this.

This album is a mandate for the dance community. It pulls no punches, yet it doesn't pretend to be something obscure or different due to the tastemakers' disdain for current popular trends. Instead, it just makes plain that Paul Van Dyk is working at the peak of his powers and that is something we can be thankful for from the dancefloor to the freeways, out there and back.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paul van Dyk is INSANE! But he's made some beautiful trance, July 4, 2000

By 

TranceCanada (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out There and Back (Audio CD)

I mean exactly what I said... I have no idea how Paul van Dyk manages to produce such mindblowing albums or spin such dizzyingly hypnotic DJ sets(if you haven't seen him live then you are missing THE BEST sessions ever...). This disk harvests some enormously powerful tracks, starting off with the breakbeat-ish Vega, moving along till Another Way, then the faint background sounds of the "Tell me why" single featuring Ste-Etienne (also a gorgeous song, on Disc 2). Together we Will Conquer and the Love from Above are both songs that will curl your lips no matter how hard you try to resist. Finally, Out There and Back leads into We Are Alive, possibly the most emotional trance anthem(or, soon-to-be-anthem) that I have ever heard. Simply put- BUY THIS ALBUM and learn why Paul van Dyk is called King of Trance.

By the way, for those who haven't heard PvD mix live, I HIGHLY recommend downloading his "Ministry of Sound Session" off of Napster or elsewhere.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I must be too old..., December 24, 2002

By 

"deltafront" (Silverdale, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out There and Back (Audio CD)

This CD set would be perfect in only one of two situations. 1) You want to throw a party and you need a premixed CD with the loops built in, or 2)you listen to the first CD (since the second is remixes and a video) two songs at a time, leaving at least a day in between sittings. Sure, the melodies are nice, gentle and listenable - but they only last a few bars apiece, and are repeated ad nauseum over the same four-on-the-floor beat. No subtlety, no variance, just establish beat, cue in effects, and bliss out to the melody of the minute. That makes a song here. I must be getting old. I guess too much past 30, and the "ten songs looped together as one" concept just looses its appeal. Not that there aren't moments, mind you - but after five straight songs, they all just blend together and kinda get to sounding the same. Maybe that's the point?