You have to drop all the way down to track 22 to find the weightiest signature in the batch: 'Take Me Higher', by Masi and Urban Strutters, arrives in an Original Demo Mix by Benji Candelario. Raised in the Manhattan of Studio 54 and Paradise Garage, Candelario has been remixing and producing since the late eighties, and as an A&R man at AM:PM he discovered and signed Crystal Waters. Finding one of his demos —3:48 at 124 BPM in Ab minor— sitting among emerging names says a lot about the format: legends and newcomers share the room with no visible hierarchy.
The other pairing with a verifiable track record holds slot 15: Lee Wilson and Coflo with 'We Gonna Make It', served in Coflo's own Make Em Bounce Mix. Cody Ferreira, a San Francisco-based producer, and vocalist Wilson are regular collaborators with several appearances on Local Talk, and the original of this song even made it to vinyl. Hearing it here, reworked by its own author into a bouncier 125 BPM shape, is a small luxury buried mid-list.
The I AM RAW triangle
The most curious thing about this volume is a circle of crossed remixes that holds itself together:
- 'VERSACE OP ME', by Bombasquad, shows up in the hands of I AM RAW (127 BPM, E minor);
- I AM RAW, in turn, hands 'WE JUST VIBIN'' over to a CRUNCHY CA$HEW remix;
- and CRUNCHY CA$HEW signs 'RIDE WIT' ME' solo, at 125 BPM in Bb minor.
Three tracks remixing one another sketch a micro-scene inside the record — a rare sight in a series this size.
The rest is range: Scott Doe opens with 'Religion' at 140 BPM, far above the album's average, and the closer belongs to Brain De Palma's remix of 'Paradise', alongside Distance, Ungaro and Phil Anker. Nothing But, one of Beatport's most prolific compilation machines with over 4,800 catalogue entries, works here as a shop window: two seasoned careers anchor the middle while a nursery of names to discover grows around them — enough to earn the 'Uprising' in the title.
Sources: RA · Bandcamp · Beatport
