Dieselboy is, without a doubt, America’s most in-demand drum ‘n’ bass DJ, and after releasing dozens of underground mix tapes and six highly successful commercial mix CDs, it’s understandable that he’s a little wary of putting out just another straight-ahead mix CD. So, why not assemble a diverse group of American and British producers to remix their favorite tracks, then compile the results in mix format? Even better, why not use hip-hop, house, and even trance tracks to start with?

Because the results could end up sounding like ProjectHuman, that’s why. Just because the tracks Dieselboy is using on ProjectHuman are ultra-exclusive and commendably open-minded doesn’t mean that they fit together well enough to generate a mix with a discernible theme — or, in some cases, that they’re any good at all. Although Dieselboy’s mixing is as impeccable as ever, the track selection is all over the map. The Terminator-like “storyline,” which he lays out in an incredibly hokey movie-trailer-style voice-over, never really pans out during the course of the session. The fact is, Dieselboy has always walked a fine line between having the freshest tracks and exercising discriminating taste, and ProjectHuman proves what we’ve always known: He had to slip eventually.

This article appears in Apr 11-17, 2002.