I've always thought I could get into jungle, but the more I listen to it, the less convinced I am of that. I still suspect that if I had given it more of a chance back in the 90s, before I started digging into Arabic and Latin music, it might have clicked for me. Kind of weird how it's like a dance music genre made out of jazzy drum solos. I like rhythmic complexity, but not into it.
― On the Heat Release of Burning Karaoke Music Compartments (_Rudipherous_), Friday, 28 October 2011 16:11 (twelve years ago) link
It's not that I hate it either. I don't mind leaving it on, but it's as if it adds nothing by being on.
― On the Heat Release of Burning Karaoke Music Compartments (_Rudipherous_), Friday, 28 October 2011 16:13 (twelve years ago) link
So glad that this thread exists. Tim have you heard/do you have the following tape? DJ Rap with Remadee and Det on Kool FM, December 93: http://www.sendspace.com/file/luj4gkOne of my all-time favourite pirate tapes, in any genre. This prob sound weird by whenever I listen to it I always think 'Hey I bet Tim & the ILX Funky dudes would love this sort of thing'.
― Mr Andy M, Friday, 28 October 2011 16:48 (twelve years ago) link
kinda sad this thread ceased to exist. been working on a jungle article for a local website lately, and your insights (tim) are A+. not to say the other blurbs weren't worth it, obv (it would be great to see this grow) but...he started it.
― rusty_allen, Friday, 6 April 2012 23:50 (twelve years ago) link
Thanks rusty.
I think if I ever were to write a book it would be some big unified theory thing about rhythm (qua rhythm) in dance music.
With a readership of about 5.
― Tim F, Saturday, 7 April 2012 01:13 (twelve years ago) link
BTW I hadn't noticed that THE FINEST JUNGLE TUNE EVER* is now on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qljpMmCM3ko
* or top 5 at any rate.
I was going to say "it saddens me that someone like lex couldn't get with this", but that's not quite it... More like: when I think of how much joy the drums on this give me, it makes me think that not being into jungle rhythms in and of themselves would be like not having one of the five senses, the whole world would seem a bit of a lesser experience.
But srsly what this tune does with snares is like one "holy fuck" after another, a ridiculous thunderstorm of beats.
It's actually what I imagined what Black Secret Technology would sound like based on the descriptions before I heard it.
― Tim F, Saturday, 7 April 2012 01:19 (twelve years ago) link
Another totally amazing, rhythmically lifechanging tune from the same comp, rendering drill & bass redundant well before the fact:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjxR1PTUN5c&feature=relmfu
― Tim F, Saturday, 7 April 2012 01:21 (twelve years ago) link
Yay it's back.Whenever I get comments from people IRL along the lines of 'quite like jungle but I just don't find it very danceable' (which is an understandable attitude to it in some ways, I'm not slagging lex or anyone else for holding it) this is always one of the tunes I start them off with:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MIsA1AiStY
― Mr Andy M, Saturday, 7 April 2012 12:32 (twelve years ago) link
Also bit WOW @ the Radical Sound and Dub Technicians tunes. Any time I think I've heard it all with jungle things like these come along and I realize I've still got so far to go (which is a good thing obv).
― Mr Andy M, Saturday, 7 April 2012 12:35 (twelve years ago) link
*big WOW
― Mr Andy M, Saturday, 7 April 2012 12:36 (twelve years ago) link
that "what is love" mix's directly from Jungle Soundclash Volume 1
Strictly hardcore!
― moullet, Saturday, 7 April 2012 20:19 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvMZYz5HoCs
this is one of my favorites, i don't think it sounded quite as generic as it sounds now in 1994 BUT what happens at about 3:15 is still amazing to me (and even though the first part is kinda undistinguished i like the hook enough)
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 20:46 (twelve years ago) link
if you compare it though to something like remarc though bizzy b's drum edits are way more brutal and they snarl like detuned synth almost, in remarc there's quite a lot of slightly dated isolated percussion hits (sorry metalheadz)
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 20:52 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qm1F3Z_YnI
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 21:31 (twelve years ago) link
at the beginning its like the speakers are firing missiles at you
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 21:33 (twelve years ago) link
does what it says on the tin, but ...
(the melody slips out and back) "under from a bass drum"? "thunder from a bass drum"? "wonder from a bass drum"?
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 21:40 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t5Cr2tForc
^^ kinda like autechre until the diva shows up ... and then its like autechre again for a split second and then it just turns into seasick drum rolls
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 21:45 (twelve years ago) link
fukin tune! wikid upload --
SKYTZOO
for a second you think the diva's coming back in but then its just the sound of brain cells dying
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 21:47 (twelve years ago) link
actually maybe that's why some people hate jungle, it's too much like IDM
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 21:50 (twelve years ago) link
on one hand i had to log in to flag the most-liked comment on youtube ("dj rape lol")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1YtJFBObQQ
on the other hand
http://goldenerajungle.net/mixes/rap/xdjrapx.jpg
The fanboys getting very hot under the collar
― mmmm
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 22:00 (twelve years ago) link
while we're getting anachronistic, i believe i detect some early todd terry infuence sneak in around 2:22, gets especially pronounced about 20 seconds later
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 22:04 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7nbPUNxFKE&feature=related
i love how the toms and stuff are folded into the break, otherwise its not that special except it has the sexiest breakdown ever, somehow turns amens into trance snare rolls and it doesn't suck
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 22:32 (twelve years ago) link
and here's the "dj rap get raw remix"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ggzXMp8tsc&feature=related
early techstep w/o the dred bass
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 22:38 (twelve years ago) link
euphoria + techstep = cyberdelic?
unfortunately she kind of only had a talent for the breakdowns
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 22:40 (twelve years ago) link
she does do a good trick at the end of some bars though where the drums mimic little tiny scratches and rewinds
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 22:45 (twelve years ago) link
Belated uuuuhhhh at What is Love. Restraint, nonrestraint.
― Jedmond, Saturday, 7 April 2012 22:45 (twelve years ago) link
one more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzzec3gl98&feature=relmfu
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 22:59 (twelve years ago) link
^^ very psychedelic about 3 mins in
― the late great, Saturday, 7 April 2012 23:01 (twelve years ago) link
i tried the radical sounds one and the beats actively bother me, in a bad way. there's no...pulse to it, it's just all over the place and i can't make sense of it in my head. i like the bass though and would probably like a house remix without those beats. sorry :/
this thread has only made me realise that when i've enjoyed bits of jungle in the past it's because i was basically ignoring the beats, when i actually focus on them i can't enjoy any of it.
― lex pretend, Monday, 9 April 2012 17:52 (twelve years ago) link
haha it's okay lex i'm resigned to this now. Thanks for trying again!
― Tim F, Monday, 9 April 2012 21:17 (twelve years ago) link
He's just being willful.
― MikoMcha, Monday, 9 April 2012 21:27 (twelve years ago) link
Been playing this one an awful lot recently:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5BuitZ-_A8
Sort of like Music Box's slightly more melancholy cousin.(Not aiming at conversion here, just felt like posting it).
― Mr Andy M, Monday, 9 April 2012 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
it also explains pretty neatly where our opinions on funky tunes differ radically - it's not just a "rhythm nerd vs sonics nerd" thing, it's that the bits I find the most exciting you are actively tuned off by. "House Girls 6" being an apt example.
― Tim F, Monday, 9 April 2012 22:43 (twelve years ago) link
In some ways funky expresses a direct line of descent from jungle that bypasses uk garage, in that at its most rhythmically perverse it explores a kind of constructive messiness (but not too messy - that's always the tension) that was very rarely part of garage's make-up (though there are exceptions).
― Tim F, Monday, 9 April 2012 22:45 (twelve years ago) link
the ne plus ultra of funky for me was always the initial wave of do you mind/in the air/falling again. the vocals and melodies and textures. i don't actually think i ever loved a funky house tune for its rhythm. dump a more straightforward beat behind them and i'd pretty much get the exact same things out of the music.
― lex pretend, Monday, 9 April 2012 23:04 (twelve years ago) link
which is why i find even the best funky instrumentals just...okay, rather than best thing ever. i would rather hear ill blu remixes of the entire top 40 before an ill blu vocal-free ep again.
― lex pretend, Monday, 9 April 2012 23:06 (twelve years ago) link
i don't even know what this means. i'm pretending not to like jungle?
― lex pretend, Monday, 9 April 2012 23:12 (twelve years ago) link
hmm it sounds a little bit like bragging that you only read books for the verbs
― the late great, Monday, 9 April 2012 23:19 (twelve years ago) link
"i only care about plot and characters - you could write "to the lighthouse" in 19th century vernacular and i'd be happy"
― lex pretend, Monday, 9 April 2012 11:04 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yeah, see, I love all three of those tunes but "In The Air" and "Falling Again" are (already) rhythmically so straightforward that they could never sum up what I love about funky - or not what I love about funky specifically at any rate.
It's a similar issue with a lot of rhythmically straightforward jungle tunes - as much as I adore Alex Reece's "Pulp Fiction", Lamb's "Gorecki (Global Communications Remix)", Doc Scott's "Shadowboxing", Boymerang's "Still", Dom & Roland's "Can't Punish Me" and Lexis' "Destination Unknown", they're too linear to be the tunes that spring to mind when I think of what I love about jungle.
Though that Gorecki remix is probably a tune that you would get with Lex.
― Tim F, Monday, 9 April 2012 23:26 (twelve years ago) link
i remember not really liking the "gorecki" original back in the day!
there was a minor discussion on one of the music compression threads about what people get out of films, actually - for me plot and character are absolutely paramount. obv i care about cinematography but it's rarely the thing i go to get excited about. people who get excited about set design baffle me.
not gonna lie, while i've loved a lot of funky since that initial wave, the failure of the genre to recapture what i loved about it has def been a source of annoyance.
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 06:18 (twelve years ago) link
i'm not sure how i can so easily appreciate, say, "stupid hoe" as a beat qua beat though when rhythmic complexity in jungle and funky is a distraction at best.
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 06:19 (twelve years ago) link
Just find it hard to believe at a certain point that you could listen to so much UK dance music (hardcore continuum, etc.), and not be into jungle. I guess it's entirely possible, but that whole lineage seems to be entirely about rhythm...
― MikoMcha, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 07:49 (twelve years ago) link
But it's about which bits of UK dance music I've loved and the different types of rhythm. 2-step and grime both tend to use much steadier, pulsier beats - and the singers/songs and MCs are front and centre. As discussed elsewhere the UK dance I like most atm is textural rather than rhythmic in appeal. UK dance music post-jungle pretty effectively removes the biggest obstacle about jungle for me, ie the focus on undanceable rhythms that just code as "wacky" and purposeless to me
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 08:21 (twelve years ago) link
i'm just saying that i don't think rhythm and melody and harmony and lyrics etc etc are as separable as this conversation is making them out to be, not any point about what you pay attention to or whether you should like jungle or not
― the late great, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 08:31 (twelve years ago) link
guess i should come clean and say i sympathise with lex for the most part - obv not to the rhetorical lengths he's gone to but nevertheless the mystical boners jungle rhythms seem to provide many have always eluded me somewhat
in particular i recall studying the metalheadz oeuvre at length round the time of whenever yall polled it and feeling very "if u say so"
idk, not to dip a toe too far into the shallow waters of self-mythology but my first feeling is i am maybe one more for "juxtaposition" personally, whatever it is i mean by that
― r|t|c, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 12:20 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIMQjLuG0OY
lex will you concur with me that this magnificent tune is a triumph greater than any other posted heretofore?
― r|t|c, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 12:23 (twelve years ago) link
HAHA i actually heard that nookie mix of 'the dreamer' vahid posted this very weekend flicking thru the car radio dial!! but er i spent the entirety of the rhythm bit racking my brains where i knew the sample from
― r|t|c, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 12:28 (twelve years ago) link
geir to thread
― I'm going to allow this! (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 10 April 2012 12:44 (twelve years ago) link