**1/2 Paul Oakenfold

TRANCEPORT

(Kinetic/Reprise)

In England, Paul Oakenfold -- dance-minded producer, pop-hit remixer, recently crowned "World's Most Popular DJ" by the Guinness Book of World Records -- is house music's pop-charts point man. But on Tranceport, his American debut, Oakenfold displays a more global agenda. Packaged to look like an airplane boarding pass, Tranceport blends "progressive trance" hits from around the world, evoking the travel-and-motion images that have preoccupied electronic music ever since Kraftwerk jumped on the Autobahn. Wedding German rigor to Spanish passion, the disc builds to one absurdly emotional peak after another, layering angular electro-squelch over synthesized strings so emphatic they practically weep. It's all lush and unrelentingly energetic, and every song probably killed 'em in Ibiza. But chances are tracks like Energy 52's "Cafe Del Mar" will sound a little overripe to American listeners accustomed to harsher, funkier stuff. And compared with something like LA-based DJ Taylor's recent Resonance, a darker, dirtier take on the same sound, Tranceport feels like a tacky, calculated package tour. Still, it's hard to find fault with Oakenfold's mixing skills, and even when it dips into full-on Eurocheese, Tranceport is a convincing portrait of the dance floor as a borderless Utopia, as beautiful and temporary as a vacation on the Enterprise's holodeck.

-- Alex Pappademas