My name is Patrick, i am the president and founder of USCworld. It would not surprise me if you had never heard of us - before visiting this website. Still, there is a very good chance that in one way or another, you have at some point had contact with people from our team. This is because USCworld operates together with several other organizations, mainly in the creative realm. And many of you will probably be familiar with one or more of those. Curious? Then keep reading.

The origins of USCworld

If we look at it very precisely, the history of USCworld began in the late 1980s, with a group of friends who enjoyed playing computer games. At the time, however, we found the prices of those games abs urdly high. In our view, games are meant to give people enjoyment, and that should not require such a high price tag. As an out-of-hand joke, some of us tried to bypass copy protection - and, contrary to expectations, one day we succeeded with the help of a tool called 'The Final Cartridge' 3.

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This led to an internal exchange of games, in a time when people were far less concerned with copyright than they are today. We also wanted others to benefit from this, convinced that we were convinced we were not doing anyone any harm. That is when we started calling our team "Uilen Software". The name itself was chosen partly as a joke, because most of the crew knew each other from a local scouting group whose logo featured an owl. The Dutch word for owl is "Uil", or "Uilen" in plural. 
 

Intros and creativity

At that time, several groups were active in distributing software whose copy protection they had cracked (Hotline, Fairlight, and many others). These groups operated professionally and made money from distributing their cracked software. For the people of Uilen Software, however, it was simply a hobby. But one we took quite serious nevertheless. Many of the other groups usually made use of an “intro” that appeared when the cracked software was launched. This was a digital animation (often with sound) in which the group’s name was shown, demonstrating that they had succeeded in breaking the game’s copy protection. The most creative person within Uilen Software - who turned out to be me - was given the task of creating these intros. Since there were hardly any programs available for this at the time, it was largely manual work: literally every element of an intro had to be created from scratch. I cannot even begin to imagine how many hours of work i put into the first intro's.

1992 – More emphasis on music

The first intros were therefore very basic and not distinctive; often little more than an image and some text - which, for that time, was already quite something. That changed in the early 1990s, when Uilen Software acquired its first sampler. With this device it became possible to record short fragments of music, allowing the intros to be taken to a higher level. We soon realized, however, that the more professional groups would likely do the same - which would once again make the intros of Uilen Software less distinctive. We therefore decided not to use 'standard' music, but to remix it; to create a new version of an existing track. Today this is relatively easy if you are somewhat creative, but in 1992 - with a maximum of 16 seconds of sampling per recording - it was a substantial task. Even so, these remixes apparently appealed to many people.
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From intros to independent listening

Because the software we cracked was mainly distributed within our own social circle, we were able to get direct feedback. The team discovered that some people actually enjoyed listening to the remixes, even separate from the intro itself. One of the members of Uilen Software therefore uploaded the remixes to several Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). A BBS can be described as the predecessor of the internet: a computer connected to a telephone line, which people could access with their own PC to download files. One of those BBS systems was Fortress BBS, at the time the largest BBS in the Netherlands. Something unexpected happened there on a sunny late summer afternoon in 1992: one of the remixes became download of the month. That was the moment when the idea emerged within the team of Uilen Software to place more focus on music.
 

A turning point

This was an important moment in the history of Uilen Software. Most members were by then around 18 years old, and partly due to the rise of (strictly illegal) CDs such as Mtv Braun Eurocharts and Hit Explosion, copyright began to receive increasing attention. As a result, the well-intentioned 'cracking-hobby' of Uilen Software risked drawing the unwanted attention of copyright watchdogs, such as the predecessors of the Dutch BREIN foundation. Some team members initially continued their cracking activities under the name USC (Uilen Software Crew), while i (Patrick) focused on music - under the name Unlimited Sound Control (ironicaly both abbreviated as USC). From that moment on, the part of the team that was breaking copy protections was fully separated from the other part of the team (just me, at that time) that was working with music. But because friendly contact remained, a special and unexpected co-operative project came into existence in 1995......
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1995 – A year to never forget

At the beginning of the summer of 1995, i was contacted by one of the former members of the Uilen Software Crew. Together with his brother he had come up with the idea to turn a large old garage into a kind of youth club, specifically for people who did not feel at home in regular nightlife venues - because they were “different” (too young, too old, too tall, too short, too heavy, too thin, lesbian, and so on). They named it Meetpoint, and wanted me to create remixes they could play there. We collaborated under the name TMoM (short for The Members of Meetpoint) and this combination turned out to be golden. 

Meetpoint’s rise and fall

Not long after Meetpoint opened its doors as a youth club, it became busy every weekend. During the summer holidays of 1995, Meetpoint was open almost every night, and the volunteers running the place often had their hands full with all kinds of tasks. Several dj's played their music in Meetpoint, but the remixes from Unlimited Sound Control were played very regularly. Their creator (yes, it's me) was given the artist name dj Cash. I personally consider myself more of a “megamixer” (in the studio) than a DJ (on stage)...but hey, why not. The special target audience that visited Meetpoint grew into a very close-knit group of friends during that magical summer. Unfortunately there are no pictures - the ones you see here are from the reunion party. 

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Even more unfortunate, Meetpoint’s success also proved to be its Achilles’ heel. Because local residents/neighbours had difficulty accepting the “alternative” crowd that was being drawn to the venue. Although there was never any report of actual nuisance, the pressure from neighbors caused the main sponsor to withdraw after just one year. But the crew didn't give up. 
 

1996 – The major breakthrough

The Meetpoint friends group found a new “home base” at the legendary Galaxy nightclub in Landgraaf, where I knew several staff members. From within the group of former Meetpoint-visitors, the demand remained for cassette tapes (and later CDs) with (re)mixes of the music from Meetpoint - probably in an attempt to preserve some of the “magic of that time”. As the only remaining member of team Unlimited Sound Control (USC) i decided to start a bootleg mix series: initially on cassette tapes, and later also on CD ("The Magic Sound Of Meetpoint"). By then, I was no longer just creating remixes, but mainly megamixes now. 

 

This happened at exactly the right moment, because around that time, International Dance Promotion (IDP, the largest DJ organization in the Benelux in those days) took over the agency of the Dutch branch of the Disco Mix Club (DMC, the largest DJ organization in the world at that time). IDP’s headquarters were located in Landgraaf, just a few kilometers from both Meetpoint and Galaxy. That year, the Dutch edition of the famous Technics DMC World DJ championships even took place at Galaxy -->
 

From hesitation to collaboration

Several members of Meetpoint urged me to participate in the DMC battles in 1996. Because the DMC championships were primarily focused on turntablism (hip-hop), this did not seem like a good fit to me. One of Meetpoint’s founders considered this a missed oppurtunity and contacted the people behind IDP/DMC Holland, which led to an invitation for a visit to their headquarters in Landgraaf. During that visit, a collaboration between DMC and USC was agreed upon. The founder of Meetpoint who had arranged the contact with DMC decided to jump in to this deal and joined Unlimited Sound Control. From that moment on, USC (as in Unlimited Sound Control) consisted of two people: myself and the founder of Meetpoint. ​​

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From 1996 through 2004, team USC worked together with IDP/DMC at countless music events in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, England, France, and the United States. We shared stages with artists such as Paffendorf, Fragma, Extince, Brainpower, Bellini, Grandmaster Flash, Popmaster Fabel, and many others. Almost every weekend, team USC was working on a music-related event somewhere in the world. In that unforgettable period, countless experiences were gained. One of the other DMC crew members was dj Garry, who was also a resident dj at discotheque Galaxy at that time. Amazing, how things just connected.   
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Personal connections

With some artists, team USC worked together more frequently. Over time we developed more personal connections, even outside of work. Among them were obviously DJ Garry (you might know him from the hit Dream Universe) and Daniela Klein (Damae, the singer of Fragma). Sadly, most contacts faded after DJ Garry passed away due to a fatal accident in april 2018.
Damae and i are still connected on LinkedIn, and she visited DMC's dj school.nl (where team USC also worked for) several times. On her facebook page she has a picture of the videotape/dvd that i have filmed during my work as cameraman for DMC.

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1998 – USC works at the DMC Technics World dj Championships for the first time
June 1998 - DMC-Holland DJ Battle (Kerkrade, Holland)
June 1998 - Landgraaf Euregio Dance Event (Ubach Over Worms, Holland)
July 1998 - Technics/DMC Dutch dj Mixing Finals at the Megafestatie '98 (Utrecht, Holland)
August 1998 - Technics Dance Promotion Tour at Dancing Altamira (Schoorl, Holland)
October 1998 - Discom / Mixmove at the Palais Des Sports (Porte Versailles, France)
October 1998 - Technics/DMC World Dj Championships Final at Palais Des Sports (Paris, France)
December 1998 - Back To Planet Rock at the Jaarbeurs (Eindhoven, Holland)​​​​
 

​1999 – Organizational growth

The year 1999 was a peak year for team USC. The video recordings I had made and edited as a cameraman during DMC events and at the DJ school were officially released on VHS (and later also on DVD). It was for sale in dutch warehouses like V&D and online via Discogs amongst others. Yes, the same vhs/dvd that Damea has on her facebook. The well-known dutch dj Jean also wrote a message to our team when he received the video. Team USC had meanwhile grown fully accustomed to appearing on television, which happened quite regularly in those days. Most footage can be found on a different page on this wesbsite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Meanwhile the DMC events kept going on...
March 1999 - Firato Fun Dome at the Firato Expo Center (Amsterdam, Holland)
April 1999 - Technics/DMC Eliminations at De Toog (Noord Scharwoude, Holland)
April 1999 - Battle Of The Highlands at Discotheque Fenix (Sittard, Holland)
May 1999 - Beats'n Pieces at the Jaarbeurs (Utrecht, Holland)
June 1999 - Megafestatie at the Jaarbeurs (Utrecht, Holland)
August 1999 - Dutch Technics/DMC Mixing Finals at Carte Blanche (Weert, Holland)
August 1999 - German (!) Technics/dmc Mixing Finals at Tramcenter (Köln/Frechen, Germany)
September 1999 - Technics/DMC world dj championships finals (Milwaukee / New York City, USA)
September 1999 - Technics/DMC World Mixing Finals at the Hammerstein Ballroom (New York City, USA)
September 1999 - USC attends the Technics-dmc World Team Finals at the Hammerstein Ballroom (New York City, USA)
September 1999 - Wireless & Mobile Trade Fair at RAI (Amsterdam, Holland)

Building an international network
​The ambition arose within team USC to further expand the organization. One idea was to start an international friend network for people they worked with while abroad. The goal was to stay in touch outside events and eventually create opportunities to establish USC branches in other countries.​​ An intake form was developed by us, allowing people (the ones we worked with during events) to fill in their contact details and interests. These forms could then be mailed back to USC. We'd collect the returned forms and tried to connect people who shared similar interests. It could be compared to traditional pen friendships, but in a modern format and exclusively for people working at events.

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It worked pretty well - just not in the way we had expected. Forms started coming in from all kinds of people, including many who had never worked with USC at an event. Probably people copied the application forms.​ We decided to view this unexpected development positively. Through a contact at Music Television (MTV), USC was given the opportunity to place a call for participation on MTV Teletext, which caused the network to grow explosively. Within just a few months, there were nearly 200 members in more than 15 countries worldwide. A copy of the membership list from that time is still online (link). Today, with the internet, such growth would not be unusual. At the time, however, everything was handled manually and by traditional mail. The tiny post office box in the village where USC was based, overflowed almost weekly with mail from all over the world - often so much that it would not even fit in the tiny p.o.box at the postoffice in our hometown.
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The first website

The unexpectedly rapid growth made the USC team consider building a website. None of them had any experience with web design, so the most creative member of the team (me, again) was tasked with teaching himself how to build a website through reverse engineering: i downloaded the source-code of the DMC website, and started to learn how it was built. From there, i started building our first own website. It was quite a cumbersome process, because at the time I did not yet have an internet connection at home. All development was done offline. A few months later, the first website (www.UnlimitedSound.net) came into existence. The international friend network found a digital home there. That website is no longer online at this moment.

Almost immediately, the number of visitors grew so rapidly that the hosting provider increased its prices due to excessive data usage. Because this no longer fit within the team’s budget, USC switched to another provider in 2003, along with a new domain name. Since the company US-Computer already owned USC.com, and the Utrecht Studentent Corps was using USC.nl, the new website found its place at USCworld.com. From that moment on, the organization increasingly became known as USCworld, even tough the addition 'world' actually only applies to the domain name. Meanwhile the work for DMC continued:

February 2000 - USC meets DMC's founder & president Tony Prince at the DMC World Headoffice (Slough/Redham, UK)
March 2000 - Technics/DMC Mixing Championships at Doornroosje (Nijmegen, Holland)
April 2000 - Technics/DMC Mixing Championships Eliminations at Night Live (Maastricht, Holland)
August 2000 - German Technics/DMC Mixing finals at Tramcenter (Köln/Frechen, Germany)

September 2000 - Technics/DMC World DJ Championships at The Milennium Dome (London, UK)
August 2001 - German Technics/DMC Mixing finals at Tor3 (Düsseldorf, Germany)

September 2001 - Technics/DMC World DJ Championships at the Apollo (London, UK)

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Changing times

Around that time, more and more people gained access to the
internet, and platforms such as Hyves and Facebook emerged.
This made it easier for people to find like-minded individuals
around the world on their own. As a result, the USC(world)
website was visited less frequently. Additionally, around 2001,
the number of DMC events gradually began to decline, as
Christie Z (branch manager of DMC USA) explains in this video.
Sponsorship revenue had been steadily decreasing since “9/11”.

This created some free time for team USC(world), time we used
to develop a brand new project.

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This project was called Full Moon Run, inspired by the countless kilometers the team had driven over the years traveling to and from events. The concept involved organizing a kind of car rally on every night of a full moon. The inspiration came from the infamous Cannonball Run, but instead of sports cars, team USCworld deliberately used older vehicles. The link to the full moon originated from the fact that the first run took place spontaneously during a night with a full moon. Although the project initially started as "something on the side” it attracted more and more participants over time. Eventually, however, rising fuel costs made it financially unsustainable. At the end of 2004, the decision was made to temporarily bring the project to a close. The final run in this project took place in May 2005: from the Netherlands through Germany and the Czech Republic to southeastern Poland, near the Ukrainian border - and back, of course.
 

2006 – The world after DMC Netherlands

Following the september 11 2001 attacks, sponsorship income had continued to decline, as Christie Z explained in the video. This made it increasingly difficult to organize battles and events. IDP shifted its focus to the DJ school, in which they were pioneers for many years. Eventually IDP sold the branch ownership of DMC. Since the last IDP/DMC event involving team USC had taken place in 2005, an uncertain period followed for the USC team. Ironicly, the 'Full Moon project' gained a more permanent traction in the form of CarbageRun without the influence of SCworld. It would go too far to claim that our Full Moon Run was the inspiration, as it is entirely possible that another party came up with a similar idea independently. By that time,

one of the original members of USCworld left the team to return to the “roots” (breaking digital security). His place was taken by two new members with experience in the music business: DJ Dave Power and DJ Bas P. This new dynamic quickly led to a new project: a legal online radio station. That same year, DJ Dave Power launched USCworld.nl, focused mainly on online radio.

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2007 Radio projects

The online radio station was called Radio Xperience and soon attracted a decent number of listeners. One day, the crew was approached by MC Q, owner of a local nightlife venue called Ski Hut. He asked if the radio stream could be used on the Ski Hut website. In exchange, MC Q would cover the licensing costs. Eventually, MC Q took over the station entirely, and USCworld moved on to create a new one. Over the years, this led to the creation of stations such as Radio Tycoon, Radio Meetpoint, Radio Feestcafe, and others. Several of these stations were later taken over by sponsors as well, beause (as with Full Moon Run and Meetpoint) long-term sustainability proved difficult without sponsorship. At the end of 2006, DJ Bas P left the team due to family circumstances, leaving USCworld once again as a two-person team: Dave (dj Dave Power) and Patrick (me).

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2007–2012 : A quieter period

From a business perspective, a quieter period followed. Since 2006, i was commuting 150 kilometers (single trip) to my work daily, leaving little time for major new projects. The focus during these years was mainly on expanding the studio where the bootleg mixes were still being produced, and on further developing creative skills. In 2007 we organized the Meetpoint Reunion Party, and arranged the flyer artwork for a hardstyle event called "Maximum South". Team USCworld became linkpartner of NineForNews in that period. However, it would take until 2012 for USCworld to seriously step back into the spotlight.
 

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2012 – Formal foundation

In 2012, USCworld was officially registered with the Chamber of Commerce as a non-profit cross-media agency. This means the team can work with all kinds of media: photo and video editing, audio production, web design, and much more. Just as Uilen Software once shared cracked software without a profit motive, USCworld primarily works on 'creative projects for others' out of enjoyment. Any financial compensation is a simply welcome bonus, not the primary goal. It did not take long for the team to become the regular creative supplier for several national organizations such as Stichting Moeder met een Missie and Stichting HartverwarmendWijs. Since that period, the abbrviation USC stands for 'Umbrea Sunt Communis', (pig)Latin for “the shadows are shared”; reflecting the fact that USCworld literally operates behind (in the shadow of) its clients. That said, the name USCworld no longer requires an explanation - it has become a brand in its own right. 

 

After 2012, USCworld completed many projects, mostly commissioned by others. The only 'in-house' project that originated in that period is the Mix by Mix Project, originally created at the request of an online radio station owner: the concept involved aproximately 30-minutes (year)mixes from the 1980s to the present, in the style of a Grandmix. Because the mixes (produced in the studio by me) were well received by a diverse online audience, i decided to continue the series independently. Therefore, after the yearmixes, i created other mixes too: sorted by style, by artist, by genre, or simply whatever i came up with. I hold an informal world record for a mix with 1335 tracks in 6 hours and 45 minutes. Click on any review image down here to enlarge.​

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​2018 – Space for growth

In early 2018, a long-cherished wish came true. The team acquired its own business location in a large shared commercial building on the edge of a vast forested area. This created literal space for creative growth. New projects included graphic design for Amonsound Productions, CelXpert, Club100 Lanaken, Nova Ratio, as well as work for UWV and the Dutch Police. For a client in Italy, USCworld translated a game from the Google Play Store into Dutch, German, and English. USC built the website for corpusinbalance.nl. I worked on a film set alongside well-known Dutch actors such as Peter Faber, Joes Brauwers, and Tygo Gernandt. I even got a registration on IMDB.com (the official international movie database) that way. I also created a replacement admission portfolio (within three days!) for a student of Artemis Academy after the original had been lost. To top things off, USCworld also received a YouTube Award nomination for most creative non-profit channel in that same period. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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​​2020 – The corona period

The alleged “corona pandemic” disrupted everything. Many of our clients were forced to stay home or close their door, and assignments declined sharply. During this period, USCworld contributed to several corona-critical projects, by lack of other resources. For the online group Orde van Rode, this contribution led to growth on X from 1,600 to more than 14,000 followers.

The website www.djCash.online was also created during this time, where all mixes from our Mix by Mix Project were published. The site attracted visitors from many countries, as people searched for entertainment during lockdowns. At the same time, lockdowns had a severe impact on many clients: due to compensation measures for lost income, the commercial building housing USCworld was repurposed, forcing the organization to vacate the location. The post office box in Leidschendam and the automated phone line were also discontinued as a consequence of the aftermath of the lockdowns. In the middle of all the chaos, i stumbled upon a way to get in touch with Andreas Peine, the creator of the legendary DeepDance bootleg mixes that inspired me to get into the craft of mixing back in in 1995. We exchanged some messages, and he agreed to sign one of the many DeepDance mixes i have. Unfortunately i never heard from him since then - neither has he posted anything on his facebook website, or released any new mix. Sometimes i wonder if something happened to him in the corona period.

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2025 – “Hey Patrick…”

With those words, I was warmly welcomed on a cold January morning in 2025 at the location of IDP's djschool.nl, now housed in a monumental farmhouse in the Limburg village of Ransdaal. It felt as though I had never left, even though roughly twenty years had passed since I had last closed the same large oak farmhouse door behind me, after IDP discontinued the DMC branch membership. After a short tour of the building, we caught up, over a warm drink. Sitting across from me was Michel Haan: former professional footballer at Roda JC, later active in education...but above all: the general manager of djschool.nl and IDP, roles in which we had worked together for many years. Conversation quickly turned to “the good old days,” making it clear that at heart we were still the same kids we had been back then. Dozens of photo albums soon appeared on the table, and memory after memory resurfaced.

 

At the end of that heartwarming afternoon, I once again closed the farmhouse door behind me - this time with the promise that my next visit would not be long in coming. In my hands, I carried a cardboard box filled with old VHS tapes containing footage from the years when USC(world) and IDP/DMC Holland worked together. These would be digitized in my studio - a substantial but rewarding task. On the drive home, I glanced at the box on the passenger seat, which seemed to be looking back at me. We understood each other. I realized how special the piece of history I was carrying truly was. At that moment, I decided to dust off our old website and use it to tell the story you have just read. This site will continue to grow as more material is converted: photos will be scanned, videos digitized, and memories turned into text.
 

Looking back on the text i've typed here, i realize that the USC crew and i have experienced extraordinary things. And i'm sure rid does not end there. Whatever the future may bring, we have been able to make many people happy with the things we've done. What better way to express this than to share a few posts from the "Wall of Fame" from our previous website. The reviews are mostly in Dutch, as most of our clients are from the Netherlands.

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