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Paul Oakenfold

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Paul Oakenfold

Paul Oakenfold (born August 30, 1963 in London, England) is a record producer and one of the best-known DJs worldwide. He is also one the worlds leading Trance DJs.

History

In 1987, Oakenfold and his friends, Trevor Fung and Ian St. Paul, spent several months in Ibiza, Spain, where they fell in love with the dance club music (see 1987 in music). Using influences from Ibiza's sound, Italo disco, soul and house, Oakenfold produced Happy Mondays' Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches, followed by productions of remixes for U2, Massive Attack, Arrested Development, The Cure, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Simply Red, New Order, The Doors, and The Shamen with production partner Steve Osborne under the collaborative name Perfecto. Many of these remixes were released under his label Perfecto Records.

In addition to producing records, Oakenfold also mixes them. He first started playing in clubs as a teenager and soon built up a reputation as a top party DJ. However, it wasn't until the early 1990s when the name Paul Oakenfold was associated with the DJ elite. The reason for this rise in public admiration was his adoption of a new breed of dance music called Trance, something he discovered on the hippy beaches of Goa in India and fused with similar sounding European records to create his own distinct sound. He took this to the mainstream when in 1994 he created a two hour set for BBC Radio One's Essential Mix. This set became known as the Goa Mix and to this day is the most requested broadcast on the BBC radio network.

In 1996, Oakenfold mixed one disc of the double album Fantazia House Collection 6, a UK House music compilation series that had been massively successful at the time. He brought his distinctive style to the mix.

After a short spell as a member of the band Grace, Oakenfold became Cream's resident DJ from 1997 to 1999. During this time, he began to concentrate on building an American audience, which led to the US release of Tranceport in 1998. The album was well-received by American trance music fans, and even garnered him modest acceptance in the mainstream American music scene. Oakenfold followed Tranceport with arguably his most successful album Perfecto Presents Another World which introduced millions to his mixing skills. His popularity across the Atlantic is slowly growing thanks to his work on the film soundtracks of Swordfish, The Matrix Reloaded, Collateral, Die Another Day, for which he remixed The James Bond Theme. He later worked on the James Bond video game, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, contributed to the soundtrack of the Japanese anime film "Appleseed" in 2004 and provided the theme song for the FIFA series of soccer video games since 2005.

In 2002, Q magazine named Oakenfold in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die".

In the same year, Oakenfold released his first solo album, called Bunkka featuring artists like Nelly Furtado ("The Harder They Come"), Ice Cube ("Get Em Up") and Shifty Shellshock, then the lead singer of Crazy Town ("Starry Eyed Surprise"). His latest effort is 2006's A Lively Mind.

In 2004, Oakenfold's famous song "Ready Steady Go" was reproduced with some Korean lyrics for the movie Collateral, and was included in the film soundtrack. "Ready Steady Go" was also used in Saab commercials, the pilot for the television program Las Vegas, the film The Bourne Identity (during a car chase scene), and the Alias episode "Snowman".

'A Lively Mind' was released on June 6, 2006. The first single 'Faster Kill Pussycat' is a collaboration with the actress Brittany Murphy, and was released on May 2, 2006. Oakenfold's 2006 CD was released by Maverick Records.

Also, in 2006, to accompany the new Transformers: Cybertron film, Paul remixed the Transformers theme.

Paul is a big fan of Chelsea F.C., but also likes surprisingly Fulham F.C.

Dyslexia

Paul Oakenfold has admitted to struggling with dyslexia as a child [1] and has stated his intention to help dyslexic children [2].

Discography

Year Title
2006 A Lively Mind
2005 Perfecto Presents the Club
2004 Creamfields
2004 Perfecto Presents Great Wall
2002 Bunkka
2003 OST Matrix Reloaded
2001 Swordfish Original Soundtrack
2001 Perfecto Presents: Paul Oakenfold in Ibiza
2001 Voyage Into Trance - Re-release
2000 Perfecto Presents Travelling
2000 Perfecto Presents Another World
1999 Essential Millennium with Pete Tong & Fatboy Slim
1999 Resident: Two Years of Oakenfold at Cream
1998 Tranceport
1998 Global Underground 007: New York
1997 Global Underground 004: Oslo
1996 Perfecto Fluoro
1994 Journeys by Stadium DJ

Singles

Electra

as part of 'Balearic House' group 'Electra'

  • IT'S YOUR DESTINY / AUTUMN LOVE ( FFRR Records - 1989] # 51 UK

Solid Gold Easy Amex

remix of former Red Box b-side

Paul Oakenfold

as Paul Oakenfold presents Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force:

as Oakenfold:

  • Southern Sun / Ready Steady Go (Perfecto - 2002) # 16 UK, #9 US dance

as Oakenfold with vocals by Shifty Shellshock Of Crazy Town

  • Starry Eyed Surprise (Perfecto - 2002) # 6 UK, US: #10 dance/#41 Hot 100/#13 Top 40 Mainstream/

as Oakenfold with vocals by Nelly Furtado and Tricky

  • The Harder They Come (Perfecto - 2003) # 38 UK

as Oakenfold:

  • Hypnotised (Perfecto - 2003) # 57 UK, #16 US dance

as Oakenfold ft Brittany Murphy

  • Faster Kill Pussycat (Perfecto - 2006) #7 UK, #44 AUS, #4 US dance

as Oakenfold ft Pharrell

  • Sex 'N' Money

Paul Oakenfold with Steve Osborne

as Rise:

  • The Single (Perfecto / EastWest Records - 1994) # 70 UK

as Perfecto Allstarz:

  • Reach Up (Perfecto - 1995) # 6 UK

as Virus:

  • Sun (Perfecto - 1995) # 62 UK
  • Moon (Perfecto - 1997) # 36 UK

as Grace:

  • Not Over Yet (Perfecto - 1995) # 6 UK, #4 IE
  • I Want To Live (Perfecto - 1995) # 30 UK
  • Skin on Skin (Perfecto - 1996) #21 UK
  • Down to Earth (Perfecto - 1996) #20 UK
  • If I Could Fly (Perfecto - 1996) #29 UK
  • Hand in Hand (Perfecto - 1997) #38 UK
  • Down To Earth Remix (Perfecto - 1997) #29 UK

Paul Oakenfold & Andy Gray

as Element 4

  • Big Brother Theme (Channel 4 Music - 2002) #4 UK

Remixes

See also

References

  1. ^ www.literacytrust.org.uk - Reading Champions 2002 Paul Oakenfold
  2. ^ Passed/Failed: An education in the life of Paul Oakenfold, DJ and producer
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