Paul Oakenfold

“Pete Tong said it perfectly: getting a release on Perfecto is like a badge of honor,” Paul Oakenfold recalls. “A dance music badge of honor! Those words really meant a lot to me as we began to consider how to properly pay tribute to Perfecto’s first three decades as a record label.”

Pete Tong, of course, is dance music’s longtime tastemaker supreme– but don’t just take Tongy’s word for it: in 2003, none other than the late Queen Elizabeth bestowed an award on Oakenfold on behalf of the British Empire as a “Pioneer of the Nation” for his contributions to dance music. All aspects of that legacy are coming together with “Perfecto 30”: a expansive series debuting in 2023-2024 spanning unique global events, musical releases, and exclusive artist/DJ performances that reflect not just 30-plus years of the Perfecto imprint’s success, but the goalpost-moving achievements of Oakenfold, Perfecto’s co-founder and figurehead, as well. Indeed, it’s hard to separate Perfecto’s landmarks from Oakenfold’s storied history as arguably the first global superstar DJ, paving the way from Ibiza and the Glastonbury main stage to smash Las Vegas residencies; as a hitmaking producer for everyone from Happy Mondays to Madonna and U2; a pioneer of contemporary electronic music soundtracks for games and hit Hollywood movies like Swordfish and Bourne Identity; and an innovator of DJ culture across genres, crucial in bringing underground club sounds from trance to EDM to a worldwide mainstream audience (and that’s just a partial list). “Paul’s attitude in starting Perfecto was quite visionary, quite refreshing– I think he started a brand, really, that also happened to be a label,” Tong notes in the upcoming documentary Welcome to Perfecto.

“Perfecto 30 is really the umbrella for it all,” Oakenfold explains. In addition to the release of Welcome to Perfecto (which features additional commentary from the legendary likes of Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox, Todd Terry and David Guetta, along with cultural perspective Mixmag’s Nick Stevenson and DJ Times editor Carl Loben), Perfecto 30 will include a series of remixes and DJ mix recordings featuring everyone Oakey OGs like Carl Cox to new jacks like Franky Wah. Meanwhile, Oakenfold himself will make a series of special DJ appearances crisscrossing America and the UK to Ibiza and Australia– many involving the parties, festivals, and superclubs like Cream where he made his name; in them, he plans to revisit Perfecto classics and deep cuts like PPK’s “ResuRection,” Planet Perfecto’s “Bullet in a Gun,” and his own smashes like “Starry Eyed Surprise” (the hit collaboration with Crazy Town’s Shifty Shellshock from Oakenfold’s platinum debut solo album, 2002’s Bunkka). Oakenfold also promises a special event at an epic, unexpected venue where dance music has never been played before, which is no small promise. After all, he was the first DJ to play Stonehenge, Area 51, the Great Wall of China, and base camp at Mount Everest – and when he played at the Special Olympics in Abu Dhabi, his set was broadcast to over 760 million worldwide households. “All I can say is we’re looking at one of the oldest cathedrals in England,” Oakenfold notes with a mischievous smile.

Most of all, “Perfecto 30” will celebrate the full heritage and influence of the dance-music empire Oakenfold has built– from helping create DJ superstars out of the likes of Hernán Cattáneo, Mark Ronson, and David Guetta to bringing underground dance sounds to fresh ears. “I can honestly say, Perfecto tipped me on to house music,” Fatboy Slim claims, pointing to hearing early Perfecto classic “I’ll Be Your Friend” by house-music legend Robert Owens at a Brighton club as a career-changing epiphany. “I learned trance from Paul Oakenfold,” Todd Terry admits in Welcome to Perfecto, citing his groundbreaking mix CD’s like Another World and the Tranceport series. Indeed, with trance revivalists like Evian Christ currently redefining the big room sounds Oakenfold popularized and neo-electronic groups like Sextile exploring the Manchester grooves he helped produce in the studio for Happy Mondays, Perfecto’s diverse sound remains more relevant than ever. Across the main Perfecto imprint and its four sub-labels– Perfecto Records, Perfecto Fluoro, Perfecto Black, and Perfecto House– the label has touched nearly every significant dance movement of modern times, from progressive, trance, and EDM but also drum and bass, Balearic, electro, and beyond; as such, on his last artist album, 2022’s Shine On, Oakenfold found himself collaborating with a diverse creative crew including Cee Lo, Luis Fonsi, Aloe Blacc, Azealia Banks, and Zhu. Oakenfold points out Perfecto 30 will also launch a number of releases of today’s most cutting edge dance-music artists and producers including Velvet Cash, Danny Stubbs, Blink, Adam White, and Nat Monday. Oakenfold’s syndicated Perfecto Radio show, meanwhile, still draws 25 million listeners internationally on a weekly basis to hear him spin his latest tunes and dancefloor discoveries. For the next chapter of Perfecto, meanwhile, Oakenfold claims he’s returning to the roots of the label’s original mission.

“I’m going back to doing straight club records– underground tracks that I love,” Oakenfold says. “You have to understand, Perfecto is now a thirty-year-old brand: there are generations that have grown up with the sound. They got into dance music and have grown up with the label, collecting our vinyl from day one. It’s turned into much more than a label. So to celebrate that spirit, I’m just going to do what I’m good at and really love – and go out in a blaze of glory for my last dance!


The Crystal Method

For nearly three decades, The Crystal Method has remained one of the most influential and well-respected acts in electronic music. Co-founded by Scott Kirkland and Ken Jordan in 1993, the GRAMMY®-nominated duo defined the sound of a generation—pioneering the big beat genre, popularizing electronic music with mainstream audiences, and establishing America as a force in the widely European and British scene. While Kirkland reimagined The Crystal Method as a solo act in 2017 following Jordan’s retirement, the momentum has never slowed—even during a pandemic. Now, after an unprecedented year, the innovative musician, producer, and DJ continues the evolution with The Crystal Method’s seventh studio album, and his second solo outing, The Trip Out.

A follow-up to 2018’s acclaimed The Trip Home—which took fans on a nostalgic, sonic journey—The Trip Out finds Kirkland looking to the future and embarking on collaborations with some of today’s most exciting, and musically diverse, artists. Primarily written in 2020, the album loosely centers around the idea of escapism—a timely theme amid a year of shuttered venues, canceled tours and global lockdowns.

That thread runs particularly deep in the soaring lead single “House Broken” which features a soulful performance by the GRAMMY®-nominated singer and songwriter Naz Tokio. Written alongside Mark Evans, a Los Angeles-based producer who contributed to several tracks on The Trip Out, the up-tempo song was born out of a shared feeling of isolation. “Naz and I talked about how we were feeling trapped—how we just wanted to express ourselves and share experiences with others,” recalls Kirkland. Nearly two years later, as he returns to touring, Kirkland notes that the song profoundly resonates with fans. “It’s a great release for the pent-up energy that we all felt.”

The Trip Out spotlights a new generation of electronic stars including DJ Taylor Chung (aka Wenzday), who co-produced the pulsating “Step Back.” The mid-tempo song, says Kirkland, “perfectly blends our two sounds. Taylor flipped the track on its side and gave it a modern sensibility.” Additionally, producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist David Mårtensson (known professionally as VAAAL) was a frequent collaborator of Kirkland’s, working on tracks like “Act Right” and the riotous album opener “Watch Me Now,” which features cathartic vocals from rising singer-songwriter, Koda.

“Let’s Trip Out” featuring the Haitian-American rapper King Green also builds upon that theme. Alternating between high-energy beats and spacey, expansive breakdowns, the futuristic song picks up from where The Trip Home left off, as Green invites listeners to emerge—from their homes, their minds, and their current state of being. “There is no doubt you need this,” he declares.

Another hip-hop artist making a big impact on The Trip Out is Billy Dean Thomas. The self-proclaimed “Queer B.I.G.” offers a fierce performance on the gritty “Act Right,” rapping over a menacing, reverb-soaked drum and synth loop. “Billy is a genius,” proclaims Kirkland, who recalls that their “diabolically rhythmic” vocals were delivered in mere hours. The spontaneous track, he adds, “was one of those magic moments.”

Throughout the recording process, Kirkland also reunited with old friends. Among them was guitarist Jim Davies (The Prodigy, Pitchshifter), who joined in for the high-octane instrumental track, “Get Dirty.” The brooding, mid-tempo album closer “Post Punk” meanwhile was produced alongside the celebrated British DJ, Hyper. Borrowing a soundbite from Jim Jarmusch’s Stooges documentary, Gimme Danger, the track is built upon distorted synths and heavy drums, while Iggy Pop—in his signature, gravelly voice—asserts his individuality. “I don’t want to be a punk. I don’t want to belong to any of it,” he pronounces. “I just want to be.”

As The Trip Out began to materialize, Kirkland’s mind often traveled to the 64-bit video games of the late ‘90s. While fine-tuning each track, he imagined race cars, spaceships, and otherworldly vehicles zooming from level-to-level, as players escaped from their own realities. That cinematic quality has long been an integral part of The Crystal Method’s music, which has appeared in more than 100 film, TV, and video game soundtracks over the last 25 years. As The Crystal Method, Kirkland has also composed original material for a variety of projects, including the theme to the long-running Fox TV series Bones and the score to the 2017 documentary Hired Gun: Out of the Shadows, Into the Spotlight. Most recently, he was tapped by the Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro to score the Netflix animated series 3Below: Tales of Arcadia and Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans.

It’s been a long and thrilling journey for Kirkland, who rose to fame with The Crystal Method’s 1997 debut Vegas. The seminal title became the second-ever platinum electronic album in the US, while today, it remains a perennial best-seller. Over the next two decades, The Crystal Method continued to ascend: topping the charts with Tweekend (2001) and earning GRAMMY® nods for Legion of Boom (2004) and Divided by Night (2009)—both of which were included in the Best Dance/Electronic Album category. Kirkland and Jordan further revolutionized the genre with their Community Service continuous mix albums—and then parlayed that format into the fitness space, partnering with Nike and Apple to create the groundbreaking Drive: Nike + Original Run LP. They released their final album as a duo The Crystal Method in 2014.

Along the way, The Crystal Method has played more than 1300 shows across the world—headlining such legendary festivals as EDC, Lollapalooza and Ultra Miami and touring with an array of acts: from Guns N’ Roses and Tool to The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers. That musical versatility also extends to an extensive discography of official remix partners, including Linkin Park, New Order, Hans Zimmer and the Doors.

Look for The Trip Out to be released on leading international electronic and dance music label, Ultra Records. For Ultra, who just celebrated their 25th Anniversary in late 2021, this is a resigning of one of America’s most successful and iconic electronic acts to the label, as the bands classic mix compilation albums Community Service (2002) and Community Service II (2005,) were both Ultra releases which charted Top 10 in the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart, and in Apple’s Top 5 Electronic Music album chart many years before the event of streaming.

“It’s really humbling,” says Kirkland, reflecting on his career to date. “I can’t really express how amazed I am that we’ve been able to take this idea of two hungry individuals with some synths, some drum machines, and a love for electronic music and transform it into a career that has lasted over 25 years.” He adds, “Above all, I’m very fortunate to have an enthusiastic fan base that continues to show up and support The Crystal Method’s legacy.”