WELCOME TO THE JUNGLIST MASSIVE, WE'VE GOT FUN N GAMES: 2017 Rolling Drum and Bass/Jungle/Liquid/Neurofunk/170

This is a great record. Peak era Wax Doctor meets Non-Amen Source Direct. Epic, widescreen and edited to fuck

https://open.spotify.com/track/6MwCj6KoJ25FHZnifs947T?si=s3EX3hliQ4GWZ2OzQuURUg

Another week, another sparkling LP, this time from Skeptical on Exit

https://open.spotify.com/album/3EJbB2ggCt1RFlb3EPrrgb?si=jmsyCPyiT66OH0TQ96AFrg

New OneMind album is tremendous. Like if Photek has made an entire album of tunes like “Rings Around Saturn”.

Very sad news about longtime don and Metalheadz alumni, Spirit

https://www.dogsonacid.com/threads/pray-for-duncan-aka-spirit.795576/

This just came out last week and it’s lovely, still totally on point:

https://open.spotify.com/track/6E1cAWhvGMyJ4ILj0lZ5LC?si=5S3kxpfrRa-H5t4QtnJaqg

And Phantom Force will live forever....

https://youtu.be/81Gq3qJ0azM

i've still got to check out that onemind album

the new kid lib is beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_z504DNv9c

Yes, it’s basically Shadowboxing but this is a destroyer

https://youtu.be/uxIUvvbzE0E

nice! that twisting bassline reminds me of 90s tech itch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn97WwaRcI0

also cannot get enough of this HOJO CLAN label and their low-slung, droning halfstep

their newest EP, the WHITE GORILLA CULT EP is an absolute destroyer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhlDkn6oyu8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWN_-qgcwAE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noD9PHSPQFk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M87ETRdaw_U

Digging this, thanks

Generation 3 EP by Commix. One of the most complete dnb EPs I’ve heard in forever. 4 varied tracks, all excellent but this is a belter. Slight vibes of Commix’s own “Emily’s Smile” and the long forgotten “Future Realities Part 2” by Dave Wallace.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N4kqVWkkB1U

commix vs fabric is easily one of my favourite of the series.
something is clearly in the air.
2 major label d-n-b cds from years ago that a few months back were available via amazon market for pocket money have now jumped up massively in price.

That Shikem Hanzo White Gorilla cult upthread was a great shout, thanks! This is the same dude

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6L-fRx4QfjQ

Here’s a fucking banger from ilx’s most unfashionable genre

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7mkF5J7JjMU

was just thinking about reviving this thread, in order to share some just released hardcore shed-ism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lO1ktLcE4w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-h9YB-YWjM

Best new jungle I've heard in forever:
https://sullyuk.bandcamp.com/album/swandive

I really enjoyed these:

https://asc77.bandcamp.com/album/isolated-systems

https://asc77.bandcamp.com/album/an-exact-science

I don't have specialist ears for this kind of music, but the following comp demanded a Top Ten slot this year:

https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/img/Q2puam13Uk1EM1hMcHowK0ZIZW4xQT09/new5026328504520-black-riot-sleeve-copy.jpg

Black Riot
Early Jungle, Rave and Hardcore
Soul Jazz Records
...Featuring classic and seminal tracks from the likes of Levictus and Krome &Time, alongside a host of rare and little-known ragga & junglist hardcore tunes from the likes of Babylon Timewarp’s hypnotic Durban Poison, Rhythm for Reasons’ mad ‘The Smokers Rhythm’, The Freaky rave-y breakbeat sound of ‘Time and Age,’ Trip One’s super dark ‘Snowball’ and loads more!

Expect super heavy basslines, equally heavy twisted Amen drum loops, even heavier ragga vocals! Original jungle style - roots and culture - from the earliest days of drum and bass.

Included with the album is a free limited-edition graphic mini-novel “Black Riot: The Mysterons save Planet Earth from the Xatheroid Angels.” This is the third collaboration between Soul Jazz Records and writer/illustrator Paulo Parisi, the highly respected author of graphic books on Jean Michel Basquiat and John Coltrane.

This new graphic story continues the story of black electronic dance music – this time set around the birth of Jungle and continues onwards from Soul Jazz’s earlier ‘Invasion of the Killer Mysterons’ (Jamaican electronic Dub, co-compiled by Kevin Martin (The Bug)) and Mysterons Invade the Jackin’ Zone (about Chicago Acid & Experimental House).
More info, audio: https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/product/black-riot

I'm enjoying those ASC tracks, but d&b tracks are so long, lol. I checked the clock after listening for over 20 min...still only on track 3. I seriously don't understand why they need to be 7+ min.

Yeah, the album is always a little longer than I expect it to be; otoh I listened the EP (which came out first) a lot, and I always wanted it to be longer.

god help me I enjoy this:

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

That Black Riot comp sounds amazing from the clips

Yeah, whole thing's great on YouTube.

From 2018 but this EP is great:

https://iambop.bandcamp.com/album/untitled-pattern-ep1

this “aphrodite dub” is really cool imo, from Jonny Reebok:

https://jonnyreebok.bandcamp.com/album/aphrodite-dub-ghost-town-riddim

speaking of 2018 I love this coco bryce track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sf7_1cPLLc

Yessss! I'm a little taken aback this thread even exists, I didn't realize there were fans at all here.

I was going to point out the glaring omission of Tim Reaper so far but since we're on Coco Bryce do you know Ma Bae Be Luv (2020)?

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

Getting back to 2018:

Tim Reaper , Dwarde & Gand - Globex Corp Vol. 5 B1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMSOR4VJXe8

Wow, that's sick

xp, the Coco Bryce I mean

Here he is with some 'jungle-tech' (not so different at all from old school hardcore tbh). Some jungle-tech is undoubtedly much worse, but with higher bitrates than the old stuff at least.

Tim Reaper - Sequence 2 [2020]

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

xp also

But yes, sick...in the head. Now it's got me wondering what kind of gear they're using? I'll have to try to find an interview after I root through this one and the club thread you just bumped, and which I was also shocked, yes shocked to discover.

*I do have to note that I would like to lodge an objection to the thread title here.

The Jonny Reebok is real nice too brimstead. At first I was like 'eh' and then I was like 'yeah'!

heck yeah I love Tim reaper!

just discovered this dust-e-1 track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GxRN53k5-E

the Johnny Reebok is cool because it has all this vague 2step AND breaky electro energy going on, but it’s elegant and smooth af, it sounds really fresh to me idk

Right? It's almost a weightless feel, quite sparse.

But the late great was on to Coco Bryce back in 2017, right around the time I was thinking that all new music was sounding very much the same as what was popular ten years before, and I should mostly just listen to lots of old disco and reggae etc.

coco bryce brings sick amen revivalism

https://soundcloud.com/cocobrycebeats/coco-bryce-raid-7th-storey-projects-12014

― the late great, Saturday, April 15, 2017 4:46 PM (four years ago)

So yes I do in fact prefer revival of thirty year old music styles to ten year old music styles. There's still a lot of unexplored potential in jungle tho (compared to house at least).

There was a 2020 rolling thread too, I've fallen out of the dnb habit the past 12 months or so so I never made a 2021 thread.

I was thinking maybe we could do separate threads for the neo-techstep purists vs the rest of us? I don’t really see that there’s so much great material being released that new thread is needed every year tbh.

Anyway idk what this even is. Pretty sure it’s >160 tho.

Joy Orbison - red velve7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNDJPMT7g2A

(Sorry if it seems like I’m locked into a pattern of lazy drive-by posting lately. Busy busy.)

This is the mood today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9uyCaeiqRU

Omni Trio - The Half Cut

Basically an edit of their remix of Music Is The Key by Foul Play. Sadly absent of the little filtered drum fills that almost define that remix.

Idk if the visuals are from BBC Planet Earth 1 or 2 but not totally inappropriate. I also wouldn’t say no to a half hour megamix of the different versions of this song.

Wish I could offer a list of top releases of 2021 but it feels like I’ve been playing catch-up all year. There has been some great jungle on some of the year end lists I’ve seen, for straight d&b the only standout for me has been that one dBridge roller, which I can’t currently remember the name of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3O2u_PjZkY
Paradox - Soviet
One of the best "straight d&b" tunes of the year, if you can call it that? Scorching bassline from 2:12.

Oh and this one. Unlike anything else much - it's in 12/8 until the beat drops, and has more chord changes than typical d'n'b in the 2nd half...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8CB-kwwwOw

Grey Code - Opal

The Paradox is certainly what I’d call straight d&b, I think the style is drumstep? It’s fine, I’m sure it could fill a big room.

If you take issue with the connotations of “straight” we could call it trad drum & bass but that seems more ambiguous. It’s clear to me that jungle and d&b are diverging so it’s helpful to have some terminology to distinguish the two.

For whatever reason the drum & bass ‘scene’ is among the more toxic communities in electronic music. I’m not saying everyone involved is soiled by association but there’s something about this music that seems to attract douchebags.

There’s not a lot I find compelling about it anymore, knowing it’s a genre that has this somewhat regressive fanbase, and it’s not like there’s been a whole lot of innovation there in the past oh fifteen years. (I could mostly say the same the same of techno at this point tbh.)

Opal is a lot more compelling. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a composition in 12/8 haha. Good to see Metalheadz isn’t just phoning it in these days like a lot of the other classic labels.

Yo viborg, yeah I getcha and I'm not really that connected with "straight" d'n'b either - although over in Aus I don't perhaps get the same douchebaggery (but then I'm too old to go clubbing much either).
Definitely also enjoying the junglist stuff more these days, but I like to dip my toe in to see what's happening in (what I think of as) the more mainstream stuff I guess.

> (I could mostly say the same the same of techno at this point tbh.)
For sure.

Another great tune from Sully '5ives', not what I'd call straight d'n'b:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5eBw_HlzMM

I follow ‘straight’ drum & bass pretty closely and can highly recommend having a listen to what Imanu and Buunshin have been up to this year if you want to hear the current cutting edge.

Buunshin afaik is still studying sonology at the Royal Conservertoire in The Hague and has access to some pretty mental sound design kit as a result, and the two of them are young proteges of Noisia.

Probably not your cup of tea if you just want ‘authentic’ breaks chopped in an S1000, a tired pad sample and a sine wave sub though.

Re: the blanket statement of ‘attracting douchebags’ - the MC led nights where there are 3 DJs on the bill and 50 MC’s are far, far worse for this.

Symmetry / Headz / 1985 nights in somewhere like Trinity in Bristol are on the whole a pretty good crowd in comparison.