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Paul Oakenfold
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Paul Oakenfold
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Paul Oakenfold --'Rane mixers are made to a very high quality, I have been using them for years. I would highly recommend anyone to use one.'
Paul Oakenfold makes his debut as a live performer this fall when he hits the road in support of his latest release 'Bunkka.' Until now Oakenfold has spent the past several years relentlessly touring the universe as the world's leading DJ, playing into his pivotal role in the rise of club culture.
This sheer diversity of this music, and his eclectic choice of contributors, shouldn't come as a surprise. Indeed, Oakenfold's restless imagination has been evident throughout his career. His signature can be seen in everything from the early rise of hip-hop and the re-invention of British dance culture to the Balearic explosion and the birth of 'Madchester'.
Most recently, Oakenfold's talents have also been recognised by the American film industry. Oakenfold scored the music for John Travolta's 2001 movie, Swordfish, and also contributed to director Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes.
Running concurrently with his burgeoning film career, Oakenfold recently had five albums in the American Top 50 Electronic Chart. They included Perfecto Presents Another World which, when released at the end of 2000, became America's biggest-ever DJ mix album. Oakenfold was also the headline DJ on Moby's massively ambitious Area:One travelling festival tour of North America last summer.
His career began in London at the end of the Seventies, when Oakenfold learned the DJ craft in small clubs around the city's West End. Oakenfold's rising reputation led to a job as an A&R man at the UK-based Champion Records.
From Champion, Oakenfold moved to the London offices of the Profile and Def Jam record companies. By this time, however, Oakenfold priority reverted to his DJ career, an ambition soon to be amply fulfilled.
Oakenfold changed European youth culture in the late-Eighties and early-Nineties. He was among the first DJs to start regular club sessions on the Spanish island of Ibiza, leading to a new sound in dance music and the now annual pilgrimage of European youth to the island each summer.
Oakenfold also started regular 'Balearic' club nights in London, attracting not only the regular London dance audience but also a cross-over of youth culture and styles, including the UK rock bands Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses which were subsequently to become pivotal in influencing British popular music.
In 1989 Oakenfold and his production partner Steve Osborne were asked to produce Happy Mondays. The result was the Madchester Rave On EP, a record that inspired a whole generation of UK artists. It preceded the biggest album of the band's career, the Oakenfold / Osborne produced Pills 'N' Thrills and Bellyaches in 1990.
It was the start of a long connection between Oakenfold and rock music. He was the DJ at several significant British rock concerts and, along with Osborne, re-mixed such UK bands as New Order, The Cure and Massive Attack. Indeed, the Oakenfold / Osborne team were nominated by the BPI - the UK equivalent of the Grammy Awards - as Best Producers in 1990.
A year later, in 1991, Oakenfold was approached by U2, who were then finishing the Achtung Baby album. He ended up re-mixing Even Better Than the Real Thing and Mysterious Ways, giving the band an entirely new dimension.
Indeed, Oakenfold's mix of Even Better Than the Real Thing was released as a single in its own right, reaching higher in the UK chart than U2's original version. These activities were the start of Oakenfold's very long partnership with the band. He was, for instance, invited to DJ on the historic ZOO TV tour and, most recently, Oakenfold re-mixed Beautiful Day, a number one hit for U2 on U.S. dance charts.
Determined to control his own destiny, Oakenfold launched his own UK record label, Perfecto, in 1990. In the subsequent years, Perfecto has been not only a conduit for Oakenfold's own re-mix activities but also a platform for new talent, encouraging such European DJ talents as Timo Maas and Hernan Cattaneo.
As a re-mixer, Oakenfold has been attributed with an enormous number of credits, working with everyone from Arrested Development and Snoop Doggy Dogg to Madonna.
Paul owns a Rane MP 2016.
