Known to fanatics and followers as the High Duke of Dance or simply PVD, professional party starter Paul Van Dyk (born Matthias Paul) is a total beat-freaking legend.
Over the last two decades, he's uhntz-uhtnz-ed all across the globe, unleashing five stellar slabs of electronic tuneage, Rock-ing the Vote with Bono, and using the power of EDM to "Make Peace, Not War."
He's won DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJs poll ... Twice. He's been named Leader of the Trance Nation. He's even been saluted for his superior social media skills, seizing 40th place in Rolling Stone's exhaustive survey of the 50 Top Tweeters in Music.
And now Van Dyk is dropping his sixth studio record, EVOLUTION, with an album launch party at Ice Palace Film Studios during Winter Music Conference.
Sharing its title with his lazer-blazing, endlessly raving world tour, this new suite of PVD tunes is being hyped as "a document of where Paul is with his own musical evolution after twenty years of making music."
Specifically, though, it's a 15-part electro opus packed with collabo tracks. On "The Ocean," Van Dyk and Russian producer Arty go surfing on synths while Owl City mastermind Adam Young slips into a vocal trance with "Eternity" and PVD soundtracks some dark summer on "Verano" with Miami-based producer Austin Leeds.
Now available for free download via paulvandyk.com, "Verano" is a strangely shimmering scorcher. "There's a sunny Miami bass vibe to it," Van Dyk says, "and I'm coming more from the darker, Berlin underground side, and when [Austin and I] work together you find both sides there, but not in a separate way. It belongs together."
Paul Van Dyk's EVOLUTION Tracklist
1. "Symmetries" (Featuring Austin Leeds)
2. "The Ocean" (Featuring Arty)
3. "Eternity" (Featuring Adam Young)
4. "Verano" (Featuring Austin Leeds)
5. "I Don't Deserve You" (Featuring Plumb)
6. "The Sun After Heartbreak" (Featuring Sue McLaren and Arty)
7. "Rock This"
8. "Dae Yor" (Featuring Ummet Ozcan)
9. "All the Way" (Featuring Tyler Michaud and Fisher)
10. "If You Want My Love" (Featuring Caligola)
11. "Lost in Berlin" (Featuring Michelle Leonard)
12. "Everywhere" (Featuring Fieldwork)
13. "A Wonderful Day" (Featuring Giuseppe Ottaviani)
14. "We Come Together" (Featuring Sue McLaren)
15. "Heart Stops Beating" (Featuring Sarah Howells)
Officially, EVOLUTION is set to be released on March 20 through Van Dyk's own VANDIT label. But it's not until four days later that PVD will be hitting the 305 to host his WMC bash.
Yet even with a 96-hour time lag between drop date and beat-freaking celebration, Van Dyk plans to stay totally stoked, tweeting, "Miami! Get ready for my EVOLUTION album launch party at the Ice Palace on the 24th of March!"
So c'mon, beat freaks, fanatics, and PVD followers ... Start uhntz-uhntz-ing and don't stop till EVOLUTION drops.
The High Duke of Dance (and Planet Earth's 40th top musical tweeter) wants to party with you.
Paul Van Dyk's Evolution Album Release Party. Saturday, March 24. Ice Palace Film Studios, 59 NW 14th St., Miami. Tickets go on sale at noon on Tuesday, February 7. Call 305-347-7400 or visit big-time.com.
