27-03-'00 Dieselboy @ System Upgrade

Submitted by: DJTheJoker @ 23-12-2015 21:50

Length: 01:05:51

More info
System Upgrade was my 4th and final mix CD release for Moonshine back in 2000. I was on a roll at this point, given that my last CD “Soldier’s Story” had been released only one year before. I was super motivated by the freedom that I had finally been given to select all of the music in my mixes, and this tracklist reflects a truly diverse selection of really great drum and bass from that era. Being able to kick things off with the remix of “Mindscan” by the legends Ed Rush and Optical was truly an honor for me. At that time stateside artists and DJs were still struggling with garnering respect from the UK. I feel that this mix was sort of a transition for building trans-Atlantic relationships during that unfortunately tense era. Dillinja came through with a beast of a remix for American super producer Hive with “Ultrasonic Sound”. Decoder did serious justice to his remix of my tune “The Descent”. And E-Sassin was one of my favorite artists at the time and straight killed it with tracks like “Symptom”. A true American DNB classic. The rest of the mix was filled out with plenty of great music from the likes of Bad Company (the first time they licensed a tune for the American market), Kemal and Rob Data AKA Konflict and of course Dom + Roland, Tech Itch, etc. Was always super happy with the tunes I was able to get for this one. And yes, this was another mix I did in my pajamas sitting on the floor of my living room in my apartment in Philadelphia. Very classy! The artwork was handled by Justin Fines, otherwise known as Demo Design. I discovered his work on a flier at a rave in Detroit back in the 90s. He was way beyond most flier designers at that point in time. Currently he is killing it in the world of TV commercials here in NYC. Was very lucky to have him on board for this project. The concept of the mix was elevating consciousness through music. This theme played out through the title of the mix, the graphics, the liner notes, and the intro (which was a collaboration between myself and a Mr Justin Geller). Here is a fun story. The rainforest environment FX in the intro were recorded in binaural sound (that means in headphones they should sound like they are in true 3D audio). We also used a sample from one of my favorite new age / synth artists at the time named Steve Roach. Outside of the new age music scene I didn’t think he was well known. Buuut…Moonshine ended up getting contacted by his lawyers for my illegal sampling of his track. I had to forfeit all of my income from the CD to pay Steve Roach back for using his music in my intro without clearance. To this day I am still not sure how he found about it. Long story short, “System Upgrade” is a mix that reflected the vibe of drum and bass at the time and it was a very important stepping stone between what I had previously been doing before mix wise and what I would go on to do with the “6ixth Session” and future mixes. And, to this day, people still tell me that it is their favorite mix. I don’t disagree. I feel like this was an important moment in the progression of the US drum and bass scene.