Paul Van Dyk has been releasing music since the early ’90s, and in the world of electronic music that’s a very long time. He’s a trance pioneer, but if his 2007 album In Between was any indication, he’s getting a little tired of the genre. This was his most non-trance album to date, embracing house, techno and even some pop-friendly dance music into the mix thanks to guest appearance by Pussycat Doll Jessica Sutta. If you thought that the departure from trance was a mistake for Van Dyk, then you’ll probably eat up Hands On In Between, a remix album that trances up the original in a big way, with mixed results. Trance is in its very nature a droning and repetitive genre, and that’s not helped here by the fact that multiple songs are remixed multiple times, while others tracks from the original In Between are left off entirely. Why include two remixes of “New York City” but none of the far superior “Sabotage”? Even more maddening is the snub of “Fall with Me,” the David Byrne-featured track that served as a perfect closer to the original album. It’s a scientific fact that David Byrne makes everything better, so why he was needlessly cut out here is insane. But even though Hands On In Between is Byrne-less, it should still satisfy the fans of Paul Van Dyk, even if they were lukewarm on the original version. (Mute Records)
