In 1998 I recorded a song called Jeweler’s Dive. It was one of only a few jazz-inspired drum and bass tracks I made during my loungy, loungy period of the late ’90s. An edited version enjoyed a mini-celebrity on Terminal Beats, a compilation released by indie jungle Chicago outfit Forte Recordings. (Old school ruffians will remember Midwest legends 3D and Snuggles.)

The following year I remixed the song for another indie dance music label in San Francisco, Cosmic Flux Musiq. I was really into Earth Wind & Fire during this period of my life (believe it), and managed to fold samples of their gorgeous New World Symphony into the bridge of the remix.

Sadly, Cosmic Flux chose to pass on the remix. It was an ironic choice, considering the original version of Jeweler’s Dive was on the demo that got me signed to them in the first place.

(Listen to the remastered version of the Jeweler’s Dive EP here.)

The original was done on an Ensoniq ASR-10 sampling workstation (shown below), and the remix was made with the Cakewalk app and an Akai S2000 (also below).

Both songs are deeply dated by today’s standards, but they were important steps in finding my sea legs as a producer. I remember being so proud of them at the time!

While the technology never seems to change, somehow—all these years later—drum & bass is still a thing. And thank heavens for that.