Jungle Rhythms

haha tim i was basically trying to coax lex into paying more attention to jungle by spoonful-of-sugar'ing it via tunes with elements i know he loves already.

i'm not doing very well with these selections i'm afraid (three in) (didn't get to the end of any of them), i'd previously thought i just didn't know enough about d&b but i think i just don't like it :/

i don't like the way the beats...sound? i'm not putting it very well but they don't have any OOMPH to them

that "wishing on a star" track is pretty good though!

So being a 'sonix nerd' means rating Nightslugs, but disliking the entire genre of d&b and jungle (bar 'Wishing on a Star)? Seems weird. I feel bad for you :(

how on earth are you meant to dance to jungle? it's like idm to me tbh

You either follow the snares high-road martial arts-style or go for skanking to the slow-down dubby basslines. Usually, a bit of both. Also, drugs.

This would be my contribution, not sure if it sings enough for Tim though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2NNM5UWlQo

With jungle you dance half-speed to the bass (the opposite of how I dance to dubstep, which is double-speed to the bass).

Are you more of a vocals rather than beats man Lex?

How about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XtDgEjZPTE

Guys I think you're on a hiding to nothing here (although it does genuinely surprise me that Lex isn't that interested in rhythm as a focal point of music in its own right).

the dillinja tune was okay, i like the moodiness of it

i like beats, i just need...steady beats when it comes to dance music

That's fair enough I suppose.

this is the only d&b tune i've genuinely loved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UlCZYoQMBI

no lay's voice isn't just decoration, and the beats work so well with it

and there are so many awesome contrasting synth elements

Haha that's total "empire state of mind" logic right there.

in what way? no one's ever said "empire state of mind" is a good version of any genre (except maybe pop)

Lots of people think "empire state of mind" is a good rap tune because of Alicia Keys.

well that's understandable? she is the only thing about it that miiiight push it into worthwhile territory

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.

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.

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/luj4gk
One 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'.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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).

*big WOW

that "what is love" mix's directly from Jungle Soundclash Volume 1

Strictly hardcore!

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)

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)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qm1F3Z_YnI

at the beginning its like the speakers are firing missiles at you

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"?

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

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

actually maybe that's why some people hate jungle, it's too much like IDM

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

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

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

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

euphoria + techstep = cyberdelic?

unfortunately she kind of only had a talent for the breakdowns

she does do a good trick at the end of some bars though where the drums mimic little tiny scratches and rewinds

Belated uuuuhhhh at What is Love. Restraint, nonrestraint.

one more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzzec3gl98&feature=relmfu

^^ very psychedelic about 3 mins in

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.

haha it's okay lex i'm resigned to this now. Thanks for trying again!

He's just being willful.

In retrospect Trace and Nico's "Damn Son" sounds rather like a hot uk funky rhythm played too fast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvhZofXqr_A

Remarc - RIP, DJ Hype Remix. Completely mental.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5nIqbq3S-w

Therapy? - Loose (Photek remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E8ebG0faFA

^^^ more d 'n b I suppose, but still great

This Klute remix of Lamb's "Little Things" - so awesomely on that Arcon 2 tip of destroying you with science:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mjzgcX9_ZU

that was good - enjoyed that. i don't know why i find so much of jungle/d'n'b boring though. where i live it's almost the law that you have to like jungle but unless it's something outstanding, i tend to find it inert or just a bit uninteresting after a couple of tracks.

i definitely prefer the furious ragga-based stuff from the early nineties to the more jazzy, stop-start stuff from the mid-decade onwards. I find that stuff frustrating.

check the reverb on this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KABz5IfhzUs