Release date: 2001
Description: This disc raises as many questions as it answers. It advertises “110 of the Best Party Songs” on the front of the booklet, and the disc itself says it “Contains 110 songs in MP3 format. For use in your computer or MP3 CD player.” Good so far. But that’s it! The inside of the booklet contains the names of the artists and songs, but it looks like they tried and failed to alphabetize them. The CD has MusicMatch Jukebox installers on it and the orange/blue blobs logo on the back of the jewel case insert, but it doesn’t call attention to the installers anywhere (such as with instructions on how to install) and the CD doesn’t seem to have any way to autorun it.
So besides that I can’t find any information on it from the internet, it’s hard to find any information on it from itself. But it has a few surprisingly large names on it to go with the range of suspects. There’s even the mp3.com special of six artists starting their names with punctuation so they go first in the alphabet. It’s a classic move!
The songs
In the true spirit of mp3.com (and maybe Christmas), punctuation and capitalization is as presented on the disc, regardless of ridiculousness. Of course, given the scythe of renamed files in file sharing, it’s not like many of these choices would have lasted long in the wild. If some premier Napster file provider wanted to call it something else, that’s what it would be known by forever.
| Artist | Song | Notes |
| ! ! Silverknight ! ! – hard house | Back To The Nu Skool | It is in fact hard house. |
| ! Richard Gow ! | 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 | |
| !DEL | La DJ | This might be classified as happy hardcore. Then again, all the MP3s are tagged as Blues. |
| (OrBiT) | Blade Runners | |
| *Starbust* | Camel Delight | Uses some Eastern scales, which is interesting, but it also has one of the cheapest snares I’ve ever heard. |
| .:DJ:.:Transmission:. | ((Life))[drama]instru(mental) | Starts at 130 bpm and then drops to 110 bpm a few minutes in, connected by a sequenced line that appears to be in triplets in one of the sections but isn’t in the other thanks to the tempo change. It works well enough, and it’s certainly memorable out of this compilation. |
| 0 And below | No Prejudice | Seemingly influenced by BT’s “Nocturnal Transmission” from Ima. |
| 063 | Bad to the Bone (063 Mice Avatars Mix) | |
| 7.1 | 2001: Feel the Vibe (trance mix) | This has “cheap trance compilation” written all over it. I absolutely would have played Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition to it. (I wasn’t good at the game, but I liked providing the soundtrack for the room.) |
| ABACK TRACKS | 100% Kissin U – Trashcode REmix | Could go in a fan video for EarthBound. |
| Alien Headspace | dotcom | |
| Alpha One | A L O N E | |
| Andy Lindsay | Dew Track | A bit like Way Out West’s “Sequoia.” |
| Ant Opus | AG_Club_It | |
| the Astronomer | Chem | |
| Astronaut | 7480 | |
| asu | d.e.m.o.n.i.a | |
| bitstream dream | don’t go away (remix) | |
| blue:tech – (Native State Media) | Control Factor | This artist must have played the Mega Man franchise at some point. Or listened to Kraftwerk’s “The Hall of Mirrors.” |
| Boston Case | Boston Theme(Mastered) | |
| Candy Ravin’ | lesgocandyravin by DJ Niv | This song is perfectly named for how it sounds. |
| Caradryan | Airborne | |
| Chilly bob | This is the time | In the same ballpark as Daft Punk’s “High Life” from the same year. As a full vocal song, it’s easier to remember than a lot of this compilation. |
| Chompa | Mexico | |
| Christian Bloch | Cricket (Spaced Out Remix) | One of the bigger names here. It sounds like a Monolake loop that was left on the stove for too long, but the loop itself is good at least. |
| Collision Records | Alliance (Arksun) (Spacial Remix) | |
| Cyberscape | Deep Space Robot Patrol (2001 Re-Master) | A decent example of orchestral breaks. |
| DaNice | Alc-O-hol [Instrumental-Mix]_copy | |
| DANILKIN | Wonderful Pills | |
| Decibus | DIS’&CO. UNLTD. | |
| Der Fancy Boys | Alpine Massive (2000 Remix) | |
| disco_diablo | Noc It Back | Gabber with some jungle frills. I don’t know gabber well, but this strikes me as one of the more listenable examples. |
| Divinorum | Biochemical Structure | |
| DJ Gerard | Schmoov (DJ Gerard Mix) | Competent light funk sort of thing. If he emailed it to Royksopp, they probably liked it. According to DJ Gerard’s Soundcloud, this is a remix of an artist called Void, and it’s from 1999. |
| DJ Groove | Last Night We Shared Our Dream | |
| DJ IONIC | DiscoTec | |
| DJ Mozy | Bliss (2001 Dreamwave Edit) | |
| DJ PAC & FELIX THE CAT | LET’S THE HOUSE BOUNCE … | NOT AS LOUD AS THE CAPITALIZATION IMPLIES. |
| DJ Radiance | Dark Horizon | Jungle near hardcore tempo. It uses up all its ideas in under 3 minutes. |
| DJ Weapon X | Can U Feel – Remix | |
| DJSande | Deep Under (Club Mix) | |
| d-sire | Deep Fusion (Extended Abyss Mix) | Another gamer party song, but it’s decently done. |
| d-Whack | Crying (da beat mix) | |
| Ed Turbin A.K.A. ISOLATOR | 11sandy | I hope he made a business card with this alias on it. “Partner with me so I can isolate you!” |
| elektro sport | 046 – paddy | Runs on claps in a distinctive way but has too few ideas for its length. |
| endorphine | 030 – 3893 | Jazzy jungle. |
| fingertwister | 07.00 am disaster | A little bit Crystal Method. |
| FLASH TRAXX | AH YEAH! | |
| fred:lock | OregoB | |
| FreeBrick | Ask Me Sheep | I choose to assume FreeBrick was a Breakout-style game played for a Windows Entertainment Pack. |
| Gangsta Zero | Darkness Eludes | |
| Gorilla Man | In Flux featuring Aural Existe | |
| Groovy DeeVibes | Living a life between Funk and Jazz | |
| Hoxygen | Anything (Hoxygen Club House Mix) | |
| HypnotiK | De-examine | |
| Ikarus | Dance for Life – feat. Sandhya | |
| Imphenzia | Daydreamer [ratatak.com promo edit] | No idea what ratatak.com was, but it’s referred to via vocal sample a few times here. It’s a decent trance tune. |
| Indikator | Critical Mass | Oh, right, big beat was a genre around this time. If I’d forgotten, I won’t forget now. |
| The Inorganic Project | Desert Sitar | |
| Insomniak [Live_PA] | 202020 | |
| IZM & Skyler Mic | #$&!er | That song title is actually how it’s written; I didn’t censor it. |
| Johnny Dark | 1925 (reworking) | |
| Jonas Blanck | Destiny | |
| Josh Gabriel | Wave 3 – Club Mix | Does not stand out as much as you might expect given the name. It mostly stands out in having been EQ’d very well, which is a relief to my ears as I write these notes. |
| Kahr | A misstake (K A H R) | This is only 1:44 long. I know Kahr’s work a little bit because BasicLUX Records used one of his songs in a compilation. It’s got a unique sense of swing (the tempo kind, not the Brian Setzer kind) that I like. |
| K’s Groove | Celluloid Therapy | Apache-style groove. |
| level.9 | Dawn | Interesting choices in a jungle setting. A lot of bright piano to go with the reese bass. |
| Liquid Sequence | Another Level | |
| Lord69 | 3 minuters promenad | |
| LovERS UNDERGROUND | “Set You Free” – 70’s Super Jam | It is 70’s in style. It’s neither super nor a jam. |
| Masada | Chemical Structure | |
| Master2001 | Crazy Like Me | |
| Mentalfunk / DJ Axel Funk | Back to earth (live) | |
| Michelle Husmillo | HIGHER LOVE | |
| Mikel Fair | Come in Me (featuring Nadine Renee) | Mikel Fair is the real name of 303infinity, who was one of the biggest artists on mp3.com with his song “Winter Rain” and some others. He sells his entire oeuvre of 100+ songs on Bandcamp for a few bucks. (More on Nadine Renee in a moment.) |
| Minimal Crew (EMC) | Africana part1 | |
| Mystical Sun | 15 Billion Years (Big bang mix) | I was never expecting Mystical Sun in a million years, and certainly not with a hardcore-ish beat. His song “Pure” off Deeperworlds appears to be where this song eventually went. |
| Nadine Renee | “Sexy DJ” Remix1stPlaceWinner-Phear | Nadine Renee had some chart success before this compilation, which is a big deal in the mp3.com world. But she died mid-career from childbirth complications. |
| Native Alien | Luv Groove | |
| O dog Sands | Circular | |
| O dog Sands | Creme’ (12″ Vinyl Mix) | This is the song I had to buy a special .iso program for – it couldn’t just be any .iso program; I had to research them carefully. It was because of one of those apostrophes/quotation marks being in the file name. I don’t know how they got it on there, but Windows won’t get it off. So I effectively paid $20 for this song. It wasn’t worth it as a song, but you bet I play it a lot to get value out of my purchase. And there’s also a good shot I’m literally the only person in the world who’s heard this song off this CD. |
| Paris By Air | Dance | |
| Parotic Music | Carl Sagan | Surprisingly pleasing swung techno. |
| Pink Caffeine | So Sweet and Sexy (Club edit) | |
| platelet | 2024 | |
| RaveCore 3 | E | |
| Ropelab | “Oraciûn” (“Prayer”) remix | |
| ROTATOR | ChampionshipRoxxx | |
| route 909 | Breaktweet | Atmospheric drum and bass, possibly before it was called that. |
| Samantha! | Power | |
| science 2 | Sunset ( Science 2 remix) | |
| Simon V | Bleeding | |
| skylab2000 | *AUBURN (SLAPPED UP DUB)* | |
| Spark | bypass | |
| Starcatcher | Don’t Look Back | |
| Subsonic Headdub | Area 52 | |
| Subsymphonic | You Got Me (MacGuru Mix) | |
| Surrounder | Absolutely Amazing | |
| This Black Forest | Amaryllis | |
| Trancenden | 3 2 1 | |
| Trancentral Station | DJ’s Horseplay | |
| Tristan Dee | Beyond the Sunshine – Kynt (RMX) | |
| Twisted Pair – Hole in the Floor | Destiny | |
| Vlove | “Love in Ibiza” (Radio Edit) | I wonder if they made this vocal track hoping the mention of Ibiza would be enough to get them some plays in Ibiza – and I wonder if that worked. |
| void. | bender | |
| VONZY | All Night Long (My Groove) – b-side mix | |
| wookster! | Feel the groove | |
| X-Terior | 2000 Years (Next Millenium) | |
| Xylox | Dawn is a Dagger | A bit goofy in a good way – a laid-back funk track that chooses to keep cluttering itself up with breakdowns. It’s not far away from µ-Ziq’s headspace in this era. |
| Yoshida | Protect Yourself (Extended Mix) |
That was a long table. Why not have one less than half the size with RealJukebox (1999)?
restlessmosaic.com 