Good Tunes: 'Paul Van Dyk Live at Cafe Mambo Ibiza 1999'

Since I featured a set from Ibiza last week, I thought I would follow it this week with another from the tiny Balearic island: This short but amazing mix by Paul Van Dyk from 1999.

This set is special to me because I downloaded the mp3 on Napster when I was in high school. I still have the file on a Zip disk somewhere. This version, thankfully, does not include an annoying skip backward in the middle of the track, though there is one during Pete Tong’s introduction near the beginning.

A couple weeks ago I stumbled across this footage of Van Dyk mixing the set:



Wow! Obviously, there’s not much to see, but it is a cool peek at the past and visual for the mix. The setup looks very simple and basic: a cramped room, wires strung everywhere, an empty bottle in the corner, a woman handwriting track information for posting online later, and actual turntables spinning vinyl. It’s definitely a different scene compared to the Cafe Mambo videos from this year.