Paul Oakenfold - Bunkka

For approximately two years I have worked, off and on, at an arcade. Besides becoming unusually proficient in games such as Skee-Ball, Crazy Taxi, and Tekken Tag, I have also become sublimely acclimated to the "call noises" of each and every game in the arcade. A "call noise" is basically the noise a game makes in order to entice you to drop your pieces of silver into the game, the gentle persuading beckon of the game for you to caress its buttons and grapple... Okay, I'm not trying to get pervy, but that's what the games do. And I know when games are down, needing tickets, or needing a swift kick due to the call noises that have been ingrained into my head. It has become second nature, and no call noise is interesting or different or new. Sadly, this is not just a story for your amusement or even for your chagrin: This is how I feel about the new Paul Oakenfold album Bunkka. It's predictable, easy, and not in the least mind boggling/blowing/or bummer. It's not bad, per se, but it's all you'd ever expect from trancey-type Dj's, who put echos higgeldey-piggledy across the CD and nice, steady, lulling beats on each track. Just for the interested, Bunkka features Bjork-ish vocals ("Hold Your Hand") but nope, no Bjork- Can't capture her on something as blank as this, as well as Crazy Town member Shifty Shellshock rapping ("Steamy-Eyed Star"). Even Perry Farrell gets as boring on "Time of Your Life", as Grant Lee Phillips gets lazy-esoteric on "Motion". Okay, so I won't trash this album totally, because it's got some, er, okay tracks mixed in this Eurotrash effort. There's "Get 'Em Up" with Ice Cube showing the same infamous malice he made popular in the NWA, a neat cameo by Hunter S. Thompson ("Nixon's Spirit") as well as a moody, pretty ambient track aptly-named "Zoo York", and the brilliant and aboriginal guest vocal of Nelly Furtado and the brooding magnificent vocal of Tricky on "Harder They Come", which could make worm's meat of anything from Dirty Vegas... Bunkka is not a bad album, but it's nothing new, nothing exciting really, and, frankly, it's just as well that Paul Oakenfold stick to "Swordfish" like soundtracks, because that's the only place where his redundant and non-innovative style has any room. The saddest bit about all this negativity is I've seen Paul Oakenfold perform before, and the only great thing about his performance was the dancing painted girl (I don't know if she was with the show), which, like the guest vocals on this album, makes it painfully obvious that Oakenfold's star cannot shine alone. [www.pauloakenfold.com]