Next thing I knew, they drugged me. I collapsed. I could feel it now more than ever. In my brain... growing. I woke up on a cold bed of stainless steel. I was back at the lab. My birthplace.

The fluorescent overhead lights flickered and sprung blindingly to life. I shut my eyes. I knew why they were there-- I was never meant to be born, let alone escape. It was what was alive in my skull they wanted.

I remembered now where I was when they found me. It was Sunday and I'd ended up in some hole-in-the-wall New York night club. The DJ was spinning something incredible. I never found out exactly what it was, but it was there now, inside my head. And they were determined.

The music had been more focused on electronic danceability than complex breakbeats. It went from jazz to funk to full-on techno and back again. with traces of subtle futurism. It featured guest vocals by Everything But the Girl's Tracey Thorn and remixes by Roni Size and Grooverider. It really had control of me.

I regained consciousness in mid-surgery, but was still numbed by the drugs. I don't think they cared. I was resigned to my fate, and with my cranium half split open, I knew I could never escape and survive. I laid listening to it as it emerged from within my mind. Hard, jarring beats, yet so soothing... If this beautiful sound was my gift to the world, my sacrifice was well worth it.

-Ryan Schreiber