Chris Cox

Back in the late '70s, disco-bashers insisted that the Euro-dance sound would crash and burn by the time the '80s arrived. But those who made that prediction were about as insightful as the people who, in 1956, insisted that rock & roll would be dead and gone by 1960. Not only did Euro-dance music live to see the '80s, it kept evolving and was still alive and well in the 21st century. A rewarding collection of 21st century dance-pop, this 2002 release finds producer/mixmaster Chris Cox (of Thunderpuss fame) providing a nonstop 72-minute club mix that is very European in its outlook. Not all of the artists whom Cox chooses are from Europe; Delirium's hypnotic "Silence" (just to give one example) features Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan. And Cox did the mixing in Los Angeles, where he is based. Nonetheless, Provocative Trance is consistently European-sounding -- and most of the time, Cox favors the more pop-friendly side of Euro-dance music (which is quite different from taking a rave-oriented approach). Provocative Trance isn't the sort of dance music that is all beat and little or no melody -- quite the contrary. Most of the tunes that Cox selects have a melody, an honest-to-God song structure, and some vocal personality -- in other words, all of the things that would be missing from a hardcore techno mix at a rave. DJ Testo's "Flight 643" is rave-friendly, but a much more melodic approach prevails when Cox mixes familiar dancefloor hits like Daft Punk's "One More Time," DJ Encore & Engelina's "I Can See Right Through to You" (a Scandinavian favorite), and DJ Sammy & Yanou's remake of Bryan Adams' "Heaven." Club hounds who like their Euro-dance music with a lot of melody can't go wrong with Provocative Trance. ~ Alex Henderson, All Music Guide