You are four years of age, living in Soviet-occupied East Berlin, and you are being raised by your mother in a single parent household, and as you hit your teens, you begin training to become a carpenter. Keeping in touch with the Western world is difficult at best, but you still manage to somehow smuggle music into the country and copy them among your school friends. Thirty years later, you’re one of the biggest names to have ever canvassed the world of EDM. Not bad hey? Well, that’s our man, Paul van Dyk, and here, his ‘best of’ release Volume is testament to what has been a remarkable career.

For mine, ‘best of’ releases can occasionally be just a little too common. For some, they come out every few years in a blatant attempt to milk short-term success, and unfortunately despite some curious track selection, they’re often nevertheless successful. Other times, they’re just plain old bad bad bad. Occasionally though, their release is a celebration of an era of ridiculously good music, of flashbacks to years and parties gone by, and a true testament to the artist responsible. This one, is without a doubt, right up there in the latter category.

Over a career that has spawned some absolute monster tracks, both from his own studio and those that he’s decided to remix and tweak in only the way that PvD knows how, there is a massive back catalogue of win. That being said, given that his music has evolved considerably over the years, and he made the decision of mixing all the tunes, making the sound consistent wouldn’t have been that simple a task. Each tune has been changed where required, and the first disc contains no less than 16 PVD originals. Then anthemic For An Angel has been modified to suit 2009 conditions, but still is well, amazing. Forbidden Fruit, the beautiful and relatively recent New York City, and the magical Another Way are all intertwined into an exquisite musical bliss. Throw in the likes of Tell Me Why (The Riddle) and We Are Alive and you begin to realise the true size of PVD’s impact on the EDM scene.

Turn to the second disc, and it’s loaded with tracks that he’s remixed for fellow artists, and you realise how multi-dimensional the German is. Pictures from Timo Mass, Guide Me God from Ghostland featuring Sinead O’Connor, Rendezvous from Tilt, Flaming June from BT and of course Love Stimulation from Humate. Unless you’re a die-hard trance fan, you might not know these tunes by name, but if you hear them, trust me, there’s a good chance you’re going to get all nostalgic and raise your hands in a pseudo-state of PLUR. That said, as much as they resemble a pretty fu*k-off assortment of remixes, one cannot help but be somewhat puzzled that the amazing PVD remix of 1998 from Binary Finary didn’t get a spot. Instead, we have a remix of Gimme More from Britney. Yes I know; strange times.

That aside, this is one for PVD fans. And if two CDs with a total of about three hours of bloody good dance music wasn’t necessarily enough, there’s a third disc included; this one chock full of video goodness. Six live tracks, and then no less than thirteen music videos, even including some tracks that didn’t make the cut on disc one. All up, a handy little ‘extra’ tucked away on the third CD, and makes for what is overall, a damn good release celebrating a back-catalogue of one of the behemoths of dance music.

The whole carpenting caper may have worked out for that Jesus character from way back, but there will be people celebrating for years to come that PVD went on and become a trance god instead.

Have a read of ITM’s recent feature interview with Paul van Dyk, and take a look at the tracklisting below…

Disc 1
1. For An Angel (PvD Remix ‘09)
2. Home (PvD Club mix)
3. Let Go
4. White Lies
5. Nothing But You
6. Another Way
7. Forbidden Fruit
8. Together We Will Conquer
9. New York City
10. A Magical Moment
11. The Other Side
12. We Are Alive
13. Time of Our Lives

Disc 2
1. Justin Timberlake – What Goes Around…Comes Around (Paul van Dyk Club Mix)
2. U2 – Elevation (The Vandit Mix)
3. Depeche Mode – Martyr (Paul Van Dyk Remix)
4. Timo Maas – Pictures (Paul Van Dyk Remix)
5. New Order – Spooky (Out of Order Mix)
6. Humate – Love Stimulation (Love Mix)
7. Faithless – Bring my Family Back (Paul Van Dyk Mix)
8. Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard – Poor Choice of Words (Paul van Dyk Remix)
9. Binary Finary – 1998 (Paul van Dyk Remix)
10. Lisa Miskovsky – Still Alive (Paul van Dyk Mix)
11. Britney Spears – Gimme More (Paul van Dyk Club Mix)