Whenever I share something recent from Paul van Dyk, it always makes me reminisce about his older work. No matter how decent his new mixes are, they will never compare with the banging sets he used to put out. One such example is this week’s throwback, a set recorded in 2002 during Love Parade weekend in Berlin. There are two possible reasons for this perceived drop in quality. Either the music has gotten crappier, or his track selection has fallen off. I tend to lean towards the former, but I can’t help but think that Paul is not working as hard as he used to. I have no idea if he is or not, but I can say for sure that his older mixes definitely have more of a bite to them. It may help if Vandit starts signing up some new talent so he has more material to spin with. Or, he could just start spinning some of these older gems again and I wouldn’t complain. The mix starts off with the excellent Moonshine from Liquid Recordings. There are plenty of goodies in this one including a handful of nice PvD-edits. Two of my favorite include his remixes of Marco V’s I Feel You and Reloop’s Fucking Society. There’s striking energy throughout the entire thing and the tracklist keeps me interested song after song… check out how many white tracks he played, the crowd must have been going nuts. Paul’s live mixing has always been world-class, but you can’t really tell as much in this mix because the sound quality of the mp3 is just alright. I’m sure it was 100x better live, which makes me extremely jealous of this crowd in attendance.

Paul van Dyk – Essential Mix – Live at Love From Above, Love Parade weekend (July 14, 2002) Columbia Hall, Berlin DE
01 Project Medusa Exor – Moonshine (Exor Part II) (Liquid Recordings)
02 Klea – Tic Toc (Paul van Dyk Re-Edit) (Incentive)
03 Vert – Sky (Magik Muzik Remix) (White Label)
04 Misja Melsloot – First Second (Original Mix) (Gesture Music)
05 John Askew – The Door (Discover Records)
06 4 Strings – Driving (Nebula)
07 Marco V – I Feel You (Paul van Dyk Remake) (White Label)
08 Rapid Eye – Circa Forever (Rapid Eye R.E.MIX) (ATCR Records)
09 Nu-NRG – Supersonic
10 Malte & Marc De Clark – No More Rain
11 Oceanforce – Euphoric Dream (White Label)
12 Analog Sound – Stupid (Headline)
13 Fischerspooner – Emerge (Dave Clarke Remix) (MOS)
14 Blank & Jones – Suburban Hell (White Label)
15 Tayfum – Der Traum (Energie Berlin)
16 Antiloop Remixes from the Rebels Room – Trespasser (White Label)
17 Prime Mover – The Weapon (Vandit)
18 Reloop – Fucking Society (Paul van Dyk Re-Edit) (White Label)
19 Dick Van Nille – Outside / Stubby (Drohschiebe)
20 The Spacefrog feat. The Grim Reaper – Follow Me (Mr Bishi Dub) (White Label)
21 Insigma – Open Your Eye’s (Insigma Mix) (ATCR Records)
22 Solid Sleep – Club Attack (Paul van Dyk TPOD Mix) (Vandit)

Download the set here