Perfecto Presents: Another World

# In-Depth Review: *Perfecto Presents: Another World* by Paul Oakenfold *Perfecto Presents: Another World* is the second installment in Paul Oakenfold’s *Perfecto Presents* series, released on September 19, 2000, through Sire Records and Perfecto. Spanning two discs and roughly two and a half hours, the mix album is a return to the Goa trance and progressive trance sounds Oakenfold helped popularize in the mid-1990s with *Goa Mix* and *Perfecto Fluoro*. It arrived at a pivotal moment in electronic music history—just as trance was transitioning from underground club culture to mainstream American consciousness—and became a commercial landmark, though critical reception was notably divided. ## Lyrics and Vocal Content As a DJ mix album, *Another World* does not feature original lyrics written by Oakenfold. Instead, its "lyrical" dimension comes from two sources: the vocal tracks selected and the spoken-word samples woven into the mix. The most prominent vocal element is the recurring presence of Dead Can Dance and Lisa Gerrard. Four tracks across the two discs feature Dead Can Dance or Gerrard’s ethereal, often wordless vocals, including "The Host of the Seraphim" and "Sanvean". These selections provide a spiritual, almost liturgical quality that contrasts sharply with the driving trance rhythms. *Spin* magazine famously criticized this as a "diva parade that skates by like Lilith Fair on (dry) ice," citing "opera-lite from Jan Johnston" and "squishy spiritualism from Dead Can Dance". Oakenfold also incorporates dialogue samples from film soundtracks. Most notably, Roy Batty’s final "tears in rain" monologue from *Blade Runner* is used between the last two tracks on the first disc, alongside Vangelis’s "Tears in Rain". A sample from *Contact* (1997) appears in Tatoine’s "Music" on the second disc. These samples function as emotional anchors, lending cinematic weight to the mix’s more abstract passages. The actual sung lyrics—from tracks like Delerium’s "The Silence" featuring Sarah McLachlan (in Tiësto’s remix) and Jan Johnston’s "Flesh"—are treated as textural elements rather than narrative vehicles. They provide melodic hooks and emotional color, but the words themselves are subsumed into the larger sonic architecture. ## Music and Production Musically, *Another World* operates firmly within the progressive trance idiom, with excursions into Goa trance, ambient, and even a surprising classic rock remix. The production approach reflects Oakenfold’s signature style: long, seamless transitions, carefully managed tension-and-release dynamics, and an emphasis on atmosphere over immediate gratification. The tracklist draws from a who’s-who of late-’90s trance and progressive house: Timo Maas, Salt Tank, Max Graham, LSG, Tone Depth, and Blackwatch all appear. The album also includes Perfecto label signings like Planet Perfecto and Quivver, reinforcing the compilation’s role as a label showcase. The most talked-about musical moment is Quivver’s remix of Led Zeppelin’s "Babe I’m Gonna Leave You." Oakenfold "tapped Perfecto stalwart Quivver to apply the trance treatment to Led Zeppelin’s 'Babe I’m Gonna Leave You'"—a remix that "applies a sleek backing to a few of Robert Plant’s bluesier vocal lines". *Cleveland Scene* called it the album’s "most dramatic moment," describing how Oakenfold "shreds, tosses, bends, and forms Zep’s heavy, moldy blues into a spacey trance jam". It remains one of the more audacious cross-genre experiments in a trance mix from this era. Production-wise, the album is a continuous DJ mix, meaning the individual tracks are not presented in full or isolated form. Oakenfold’s mixing is technically proficient, with seamless beatmatching and carefully calibrated energy arcs. The first disc tends toward the more atmospheric and contemplative side, while the second disc builds toward more climactic, anthemic territory—culminating in Tiësto’s remix of Delerium’s "The Silence," a track that became an era-defining trance anthem. ## Themes The album’s thematic center is suggested by its title: *Another World*. This is music designed to evoke transcendence, escape, and spiritual release—themes long associated with trance culture. The recurring use of Dead Can Dance, Lisa Gerrard, and *Blade Runner* samples reinforces this preoccupation with the ethereal and the otherworldly. *Rolling Stone*’s review captured this well, noting that "with unexpected juxtapositions learned from hip-hop and a sense of spiritual release gleaned from underground disco, Oakenfold steers the ultra-European, classical-minded pulse of trance toward syncopated rhythms, drum-free interludes and actual songs". The album attempts to balance the functional demands of the dancefloor with a more introspective, almost cinematic listening experience. There is also a theme of curation as statement. By placing Led Zeppelin alongside Dead Can Dance and Timo Maas, Oakenfold asserts a broad musical palate that transcends genre boundaries. Whether this reads as visionary or merely eclectic depends on the listener’s perspective. ## Influence and Legacy *Another World*’s commercial impact is undeniable. At the time of its release, it became the biggest-selling DJ mix album in United States history, reaching the Top 50 of the Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart. It debuted at number 114 on the Billboard 200—the highest debut for a mix CD at that time—and received RIAA Gold certification for sales exceeding 500,000 units. In its first week, it sold 13,000 copies in counter sales, with over 80,000 shipped to stores across the US. Culturally, the album played a significant role in mainstreaming trance music in America during the early 2000s. It helped bridge underground club sounds with broader audiences, and its success paved the way for trance’s commercial peak in the years that followed. Oakenfold’s *Perfecto* label and the *Perfecto Presents* series became synonymous with a certain polished, accessible strain of progressive trance that dominated the early 2000s. The album also cemented Oakenfold’s status as a superstar DJ in the American market. His experiences touring the US directly influenced the *Perfecto Presents* series, and *Another World* was designed in part to introduce American audiences to the sounds he had been championing in the UK and Ibiza. For better or worse, it became a template for the commercially oriented trance mix album. ## Pros and Cons **Pros:** - **Eclectic curation with genuine surprises**: The inclusion of Dead Can Dance, Vangelis, and a Led Zeppelin remix gives the album a personality that many trance mixes of the era lacked. *Wall of Sound* praised Oakenfold’s "deliberate showcase" of selections that "err on the melancholy or contemplative side," calling it a "stellar reminder of why he’s remained a superstar". - **Technical excellence and flow**: Oakenfold’s mixing is seamless, and the two-disc structure allows for a genuine journey rather than a collection of disconnected tracks. The build from ambient textures to peak-time anthems is executed with skill. - **Historical significance**: As the biggest-selling DJ mix album in the US at the time of its release, it is a document of a specific cultural moment—the moment trance went mainstream in America. - **The Led Zeppelin remix**: Quivver’s rework of "Babe I’m Gonna Leave You" is genuinely inventive and remains a standout track in Oakenfold’s catalog. **Cons:** - **Formulaic stretches**: *AllMusic*’s John Bush acknowledged "a touch more variety" but ultimately described the album as "the same old trance album," with anthems that "wear out their welcome over the course of seven minutes and up" and an overall sound that "floats by without making much of a positive impact". The repeated formula of "prefacing more beat-heavy, climactic tracks with otherworldly vocals-only tracks" becomes "a bit repetitive after the first few occurrences". - **Divisive vocal and atmospheric elements**: *Spin* dismissed the vocal contributions as superficial, and the heavy reliance on Dead Can Dance’s ethereal aesthetic struck some critics as pretentious rather than profound. *Chicago Reader* called Dead Can Dance "medievalist poseurs" and criticized the album’s "wispy divas and chintzy celestial synths". - **Length and pacing**: At nearly 150 minutes, the album demands significant patience. *Cleveland Scene* noted that "after two and a half hours of thumping bass and repetitive, pounding beats, it manages only to lose itself in the mix," and that compared to Oakenfold’s *Tranceport*, the tracks "remain grounded". - **Critical score reflects mediocrity**: A Metacritic aggregate of 62/100 from six reviews tells the story: this is an album that pleased Oakenfold’s existing fanbase and sold enormously, but failed to convince critics that it was anything more than professionally executed genre product. ## Final Verdict *Perfecto Presents: Another World* is a time capsule of trance’s commercial ascendancy in America. It is technically proficient, occasionally inspired (the Zeppelin remix, the *Blade Runner* samples), and historically important as a commercial breakthrough. But it is also an album that struggles to transcend its genre’s limitations. Its eclecticism feels less like a unified artistic statement and more like a well-curated playlist. For listeners nostalgic for early-2000s progressive trance, it offers genuine pleasures. For those seeking the more adventurous, psychedelic spirit of Oakenfold’s *Goa Mix* era, it may feel like a retreat into safer, more commercial territory. It is a significant album—but significance and greatness are not the same thing.

Even as an avowed trance fan, and owner of this album, I don't this that it deserves to be on this list. For one, DJ albums are just a weird choice period. Secondly, there are at least 3-4 Oakenfold DJ albums that are better than Another World (Global Underground NY the best example). It was certainly nostalgic for me at least . 2/5

Holy shit. Two and a half hours of shitty DJ music across two different YouTube videos because it isn't on Apple Music or Spotify so I can't do anything else. My phone is slave to this album for those two and a half hours. Don't submit this. Find a way to take it back. Get rid of this. I am deeply unpleased, but there are worse things I've listened to. 2/5

Pretty interesting but perhaps not entirely right for this list? But you know what, I enjoyed it, the submitter finished the project and isn't just having us on, so it get my stars.

The audacity to put a nearly 2.5 hour DJ mix tape on this list. Just absolutely not.

I don’t get this at all

Not an album. Also really bad dance / edm, so it would score poorly anyway, but most importantly it is just not eligible

Ok I think I get the picture. I don't need to listen to listen to 2.5 hours of this.

It's a decent DJ set, but I think it just doesn't have the impact as it would in a club when I'm sat with headphones on at home listening to it. I'm not angry about it or anything, but it's just...there.

Too long and not really an album.

Stretching the meaning of album to include how music is released, circulated, consumed in other genres, this is a DJ Mix in which PO remixes, sews together, reworks and adapts a bunch of other peoples’ music into a cohesive seamless set of hard hitting bass heavy house/trance music. There’s something that always strikes me as douchey about this sound palette - the diva samples, synthetic bleeps, the repetitive big dumb beats - when I encounter it in the wild: it’s giving neon & and strobe lit box full of coked up Brits on holiday. But on headphones it works very well as toe tapping head nodding lock in, zone out music.

More brit edm

Not on Spotify

I was never really into dance music, save for the tracks that made it to the charts. I can see the charm of Fatboy Slim or the Chemical Brothers, but not Paul Okenfold. It was just taking other songs and putting a donk on it. Perhaps if I had gone to Ibiza or seen him live I may have a different opinion. Mixing tracks for an album is very different to mixing tracks live.

Decent music but nothing spectacular or extraordinary. Kind of vanilla.

It's decent music. I enjoyed it...but the album is way too long for one sitting. 3.5

A DJ mix album featuring different artists who didn't specifically record for this project? That's simply cheating and/or not understanding the requirements of this second list... There are great names in the tracklist of this trance album (Dead Can Dance / Lisa Gerrard, Vangelis, Led Zeppelin...). But even with that in mind, this is what I want to say to the user who suggested this, as gently as I can, but also firmly: "You should be ashamed of yourself. Now go to your room, and don't make a fuss. Thank you." Skip button, please. Verdict: NON PERTINENT ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 117 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 123 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 281 (including this one) ---- Émile, *quatre* nouveaux messages pour toi au dessus, du *Solid State Survivor* de Yellow Magic Orchestra au *Atrocity Exhibition* de Danny Brown

I understand that the original list lacks this specific type of electronic music, which is more driven toward party/rave environments than a listening session, so it deserves 1 extra star for that reason. Still, after 1089 albums in the original list and 352 in the user's list, this will be my first skip. I listened to the first 20 minutes, I swear I tried.

Insane to say this given all the techno on the original thing, but this feels like an important missing piece of the kinds of rave and club that the Dimery list was interested in. Possibly because it’s not exactly an album published as an album in that way. Anyway, a little bit of this bullshit goes a long way, and i’m listening to this at home, during the day, sober

Electronica, Goa trance, progressive trance, art pop. Ni fu ni fa.

Not on spotify?

This is a better-than-competent DJ mix. I might even go as far as to say that the selection, mixing and technique are exemplary. But. It is a DJ mix not an album. It's not to be found on most of the streaming sites. Presumably because it's a copyright minefield. The rightsholders would have thought to themselves in the year 2000 that maybe licencing their IP to Paul Oakenfold was a decent way of doing things, and I'm sure some royalties were fisted over - but that would have been for a CD with a known production run. In today's world, Led Zep would have kittens. A dance remix of their work? That any Tom, Dick or Harry could just stream to their phone? HERESY! I mean - I guess from a historical perspective, you could point to something like this as a "probably-never-to-be-repeated" artifact of late 90s and VERY early 2000s music - a mix album that would have been available to buy on CD, sat there on the shelves ready to buy. But as we all know, the early 2000s did a number on music - when the lawyers and "the executives" held more sway than artists, producers and A&R combined. On the basis of that - it's historical oddity - I'm not going to mark it down too harshly. It is a decent mix, and we're never going to see anything like it again. It is too long though. To the submitter - Look on Soundcloud for DJ Steve Thorpe's 2007 mix "blow the speaker". It is an absolutely superb example of this kind of thing.

An album is a cohesive, singular piece of art by a musician or band. A DJ mix is a smattering of different tracks/artists designed to invoke a certain mood for the dance floor. I’m not even seeing a single Oakenfold song on this mix, why not add one of his LPs if you want to acknowledge his work? Can’t imagine finishing the main 1001 just to throw away my user pick on something that isn’t even an album, much less a poor DJ mix. This did get me thinking about what, if any, mixes I would accept on the user list. The only thing that comes to mind is the 2manyDJs project by the guys behind Soulwax – the level of ingenuity and actual artistry on their re-interpretations and mixing is incredible, and they even made their own music vids using DVDs hooked up to CDJ machines. Highly recommend checking their work out if this questionable user pick left a bad taste in your mouth.

The Album did not exist on Spotify, so I listened to his Motion Picture Soundtrack für (Password) Swordfish https://open.spotify.com/album/7kyAZwsdEmRuLk7tsuEtD1?si=TNC8MzeSQwuguG3W-GzrHA&utm_source=copy-link

I can imagine this sounds great if you're drunk and tired. I'm neither. Sober and wide awake, it sounds like a modern, dumbed-down version of Jean-Michel Jarre. It just drifts along aimlessly, and it's way too long.

Not my genre. Sounds all the same to me

Link to Spotify didn't work and the album is not on there, so ended up with a curated playlist...

Reminds me of clubbing days… great and I think you should listen to a good DJ mix before you die.

Not on Apple Music so auto-1 sorry!!!

I found the music itself to be largely inoffensive, or even enjoyable. I'm sure in the late 90s in Ibiza or whatever it was probably life changing. Probably felt good to be grinding up on someone named Sheila and rolling on Molly and have your entire trip paid for by your parents because your college tuition was $500 a year. But driving in my car on the way to work, it didn't have a huge effect on me. I think if I go simply by my experience of listening to this music, I'd be tempted to give it a 3. Not too high or too low. But guess what? 1. This is only available on youtube, with ads every 4 minutes. 2. Those ads expanded on an already mind numbing 2.5+ HOUR EXPERIENCE 3. This is not an album of music by an artist. It's a recording of a DJ set. I have no issue with DJs and I recognize the skill/talent required to be a good one, but this is so far away from what this list is all about that I feel like the user who submitted it must be trolling. So 3 stars, with deductions for the above, we end up with a very reasonable 1 star.

Silence 2.5/5

Automatic one for not being a proper album. There is a line where so much is altered to make it original again but this isn’t that

Maybe I don't like trance or I just listened to this in the wrong setting. It's hard judging dance music from my office. Overall, it didn't do much for me.

Completely forgettable, but I didn't turn it off?

Dubious as always of the remix. It was certainly all easy to listen to. Where it succeeded best for me was taking familiar artifacts and presenting them.in a setting that subtly changed the affect. The Zeppelin number a good example of this. I wouldn’t object to hearing more like this.

I don't need to hear almost 2.5 hours of mid trance music. Seriously this shit is so bland and uninteresting. Not even drugs could make this interesting. There are very good versions of this out there but certainly not here. My personal rating: 1/5 My rating relative to the list: 1/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Bullet in a gun

Perfecto Presents: Another World is an album by trance dj Paul Oakenfold. I like trance, but to me Oakenfold is much too easy and smooth, not inventive or inspirating. This album is no exception: all commercial, bombastic and slick remixes. It bores the hell out of me.

I do wonder what would be the reason for submitting a nearly 150 minute DJ-mix for this project

50 years later, I still love disco. A bit monotonous but decent background sounds

Listened just to the first CD. It's fine. This genre doesn't really do much for me, but this occasionally made me visualize a really cool PS1 racing game, so bonus points for that. Strong 2/5.

Not for me

There are a few cool tracks, but both discs are kind of a slog.

First of all, not an album. It's a decent house mix though.