A set of remixes for a competition held by Robert Miles via his website and by his label, Hardmonic Music Ltd. back in 2001. Couple of winning remixes were released the following year on a CD compilation; mine didn't get selected.
Of the lot on this release, "Freestyle Remix" was the 'main' piece, the one where a lot of my work effort went into. Second remix does more a run-off-the-mill drum'n bass thing. The third remix was quite the quick, fun filler for the submission. Just because. I hope Robert got a good laugh out of it the least. Source samples for the remix were delivered on cassette but (iirc) the tape noise wasn't much of an issue with what I made.
In my books Miles' album 'Organik', the one with 'Connections' on it, was one interesting step to a new direction with its cool cinematic grooves. Especially so after his mid-90s pop trance / dream house success. I read some tracks on the album even made their way to movie soundtracks.
Despite the album being excellent, 'Connections' didn't personally move me much. To me, the song doesn't really live up to its name in the sense that it would "connect" all these funky bassline phrases. It comes across foremost as a bunch of disconnected bass jamming. Maybe I missed a point of the song, who knows.
Anyway after giving it some thought how to approach my remixes, this lack of connection then became the angle with "Freestyle Remix". I wanted to take the source material to a direction that would make the bass parts connect - a tune where all these different basslines would flow smoother from one to another. Having only a single Akai S2000 (with 2Mb sample memory) for the remix, I wasn't able to make use of all the basslines though.
Original version of 'Connections, from album 'Organik' (2001):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gxmqw7ds0s
In memory of Robert Miles, thank you for the music. Rest In Peace <3