Record Review - 2 November 21 2001

Holland’s DJ Tiesto (Tijs Verwest to his parents) gained notoriety in the late-’90s by helping — with Benelux contemporaries like Armin Van Buuren and Ferry Corsten — popularize Dutch-style power trance in the United Kingdom. Barreling ahead at upwards of 145 beats per minute (200 is the extreme) through a storm of synth stabs and bass swells, it’s some of the most violently visceral dance music in the world.

Still, the U.K. preference is closer to 130 bpm, smooth, commercially friendly progressive trance, wrapped in warm synth pads and draped with ethereal female vocals. And if DJ Tiesto’s debut collection of original productions is any indication, “progressive” isn’t the appropriate word to describe his sound’s evolution. But it is the style he seems to prefer these days.

Tiesto — who runs his own label, Black Hole Recordings, on which he’s just released the seventh “live” installment in his Magik mix series — hasn’t completely given up banging epic builders by any means - his emotional, crescendo-laden mix CDs are proof of that. But a majority of In My Memory — save for the previously released, tightly paced tech-trance of “Flight 643” and “Suburban Train” — takes its cues from the popularity of the Delerium singles, or any other track, for that matter, featuring Sarah McLachlan (whom Tiesto has remixed). Much of it plays more for the deep, dark corners of the club (preferably not visited alone) than for dance floor epiphanies.

A warm, commercial, female-friendly affair, In My Memory blends nicely, but doesn’t build as powerfully as Tiesto’s live sets.

DJ Tiesto spins Fri., Nov. 23, at Club NV.??