The reasons Carter has been unable to recreate a comparable perfect house cd journey in years since stem mostly from the fact that although it is entirely mixed in Carters unparalleled style 'The Many Shades' tracks were selected and ordered by himself and Cajmere. In a classic studio sense I would view Carter as the artist and Cajmere as the producer, the artist submitting somewhat to direction from the latter. The whole project was a labour of love and mutual respect between a virtuoso DJ and an enigmatic producer who had taken a whole new generation of Chicago house warriors under his wing. Their complementary nature is most easily observed in 1993's 'Dreamstates'(included for obvious reasons) where Carter scats soulfully over a true African root Cajmere bassline. This potent combination would certainly account for what I consider undoubtedly the greatest house album of all time (circa 2007).

In my opinion quite simply the best house mix ever released commercially, and it is now some 9 years old! Usually when a DJ is asked to mix a compilation of a label's back catalogue or "greatest hits" the result is an album of fillers and dodgy remixes. But since the label in question is Cajual and the DJ trusted with the task is Derrick Carter, there was never any danger of that scenario. Carter was obviously given free reign to use any and all tracks from the Cajual/Relief catalogue, resulting in an undiluted, truly representative account of the sound of the label,DJ and their native city of Chicago. Highlights include killer vocals from Terence FM and Big Ed feat Dana, intense looped-up disco as only Sneak knows how, and raw jackin' acid tracks by Mark Grant and DJ78. All expertly mixed on 3 decks as only DC can, creating epic mixes and squeezing mind-blowing sounds from the records with intense EQ and filter work. The only "disappointment" has been tracking down some of the records to find that Carter had edited most of them to create his own tailor-made weapons for the mix! THAT'S what makes it extra-special!