I bought the original Renaissance album 1st time round, and it is in my opinion, the most overated album in dance music history, it may have inovated because it was one of the first mix CDs (and I believe there was a journey by DJs mix out before anyway), but that's like saying Mercedes inovated by inventing airbags & crumple zones, it doesn't mean one of those 1980's cars is safe now compared to something new. The Renaissance mix is like an early "Ministry Annual" CD, all it is is just the big tunes from the day mixed together sequentially, if memory serves, 3 mixes of 'song of life', tunes like Bombscare, and 'my friend Sam' that when 5 years old, sounded dated as hell. Northern Exposure 2 is nearly as good as 1, and Airdrawndagger, Involver 1&2, Fundacion, Avalon & the EmFire collection have got far more debth & lasting appeal. in my opinion, I've already listened to any of them more than the renaissance mix cd and for me sasha's sound is from mid 90's on, not that cheesy crap at the beginning. Saying that sasha's sound was better in the beginning is like saying that 'Help' was the best album the Beatles made, before they actually started making music with substance. If anything the 2nd mix collection from renaissance was the unsung classic in my opinion as by then Renaissance had a sound of it's own after the scene had segmented in the early 90's.
Now you may love the 1st mix CD because it reminds you of your first few times on the 'little fellas', but that's another matter!
Invol2ver is absolute genius & I look forward to getting to know it better over the next few years