Artist
Oakenfold
Why we feature this artist Paul Oakenfold: the DJ’s ear inside a pop song Starry Eyed Surprise gives Paul Oakenfold’s production a particularly light, open setting. Shifty Shellshock’s vocal has a casual, rhythmic character, while the arrangement leaves a grea…
- From
- United Kingdom
- Sound
- trance
- Active
- 1980–present
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The story of Oakenfold
Why we feature this artist
Paul Oakenfold: the DJ’s ear inside a pop song
Starry Eyed Surprise gives Paul Oakenfold’s production a particularly light, open setting. Shifty Shellshock’s vocal has a casual, rhythmic character, while the arrangement leaves a great deal of room around its hook. The record is one part of a career that moves between DJ sets, a record label and songs made with very different collaborators.
The Perfecto setting
Oakenfold founded Perfecto Records in 1989. The label became a setting for a broad electronic catalogue, with the producer’s own recording work developing alongside the practical business of selecting and releasing other musicians’ tracks.
That relationship helps explain the range. A DJ’s identity can include records with different tempos, voices and emotional colours, connected by the way they work in a larger sequence. A label and a solo album give that same ear other forms of expression.
Bunkka
The 2002 solo album Bunkka includes Starry Eyed Surprise, with Crazy Town’s Shifty Shellshock. The collaboration gives the track a recognisable vocal personality, while the production keeps the musical setting bright and uncluttered.
The interest lies in the balance between a relaxed delivery and a carefully organised rhythm. The voice can sound unforced because the arrangement has already done much of the work of establishing the track’s movement.
More than one kind of momentum
Oakenfold’s wider Perfecto history includes records such as Planet Perfecto’s Bullet in the Gun and PPK’s ResuRection, alongside the different sound of his own pop-facing collaborations. The examples belong to the same broad musical world without needing to share one surface style.
Starry Eyed Surprise is a useful first encounter with the song-minded side of that work. Following it into the label catalogue reveals a DJ and producer interested in several ways of generating momentum: a large electronic melody, a gradually changing atmosphere, or simply a voice placed at the right point in a groove.
Essential releases
Perfecto Records
The label provides a long-running setting for Oakenfold’s electronic music selections.
Bunkka
The solo album includes Starry Eyed Surprise with Shifty Shellshock.
Starry Eyed Surprise
A relaxed vocal performance gives the electronic arrangement a distinct pop personality.