Continued....(Page 2).
BREAKBEAT Glory
BreakBeat meets Drum n Bass -What's The Story? Is there a year zero with clearly mapped co-ordinates for the beginning of jungle? When did we first fall in love with subsonic bass, breakbeats and digital creation? You can trace the raw concepts back to Meat Beat Manifesto's 'Radio Babylon' or DJ Kool Herc's pre-hip hop invention of breakbeats. Perhaps you prefer to root the whole thing in 'Amen Brother' by The Winstons or 'Think' by Lyn Collins - the two tracks that spawned drum n' basses favourite drum breaks.
You can wait until after acid house then travel through the drug/technology interface into acid, rave and the well documented waves of hardcore, artcore, Bukem, techstep and darkcore again. Beyond this there is no clear history, just endless rogue production units swapping names, sounds and identities like militia working black ops both in and out of ever-evolving micro-genres.
Fabio and Grooverider:
Fabio and Grooverider are the story of drum n' bass yet current darkstar Ed Rush was turned onto the scene after checking Spiral Tribe play hardcore while the derided ragga-units worked inside a loop of producers cutting tunes for the pirates where new sound spread across the airwaves. At the moment ideas move simultaneously underground and overground, fresh sonics coming off leading DJs' dubplates, baby label headz signing to majors, new crews appearing all over Europe and US or the efforts of Bowie and Everything But The Girl to communicate/emasculate drum n' bass for the global mainstream.
Drum n' bass is control versus chaos: hi-fi-sci-fi beat programmes that expand and contract, roll and squeeze, rinse out and explode to generate physical abandon on the floors. Some people reckon Fabio , Groove , Doc Scott and Goldie (Cleveland Watkiss introduced him with "the Goldicus has landed" on the mic at a recent Metalheadz) control drum n' bass but no one posse can hold onto the sound for long. Teddy Riley's started cutting breaks, James Lavelle and Coldcut's Ninja Tune reintegrate the sound into old skool/nu skool breakz culture while everyone from the acid jazz, ambient and gabber crews is claiming and making a version of drum n' bass for themselves.
Is drum n' bass the music of the aftermath or just the music of now? Years after rave's chemical countdown pushed new sounds into being drum n' bass functions both in the comedown for older soldiers while all over the planet fresh kids take it as their sound of choice. Drum n' bass is old and new, drugged and clean, veteran and fresh, black and white, pop and underground, ambient and hardcore, ever-expanding, changing, mutating, rolling and moving. Destination unknown. - author unknown
History of Jungle / Drum & Bass:
Breakbeat was an underground music which had originally come in from the USA in the late 1970s. Frankie Bones , at his early DJ-ing stage had created breakbeat irregular music, whereby he had overlapped two same records on turn-table decks at slightly different speeds and slightly delayed. This would create asynchronous beat, which would drive the crowd crazy. His track named "Bones Breaks" was a pioneer if not discovererof breakbeat which has remained strictly underground since. In the late 80s, house scene erupted in UK, especially in London. As house scene had progressed, the ecstasy rave culture had emerged from the youth, suppressing the football hooliganism. House from one side and breakbeat from the other side had created a combination, which later led to production of what was called jungle and what is now called drum & bass.
It was around 1990 , when jungle started emerging from the general dance scene. Kickin'and Shut up & Dance record labels started fusing breakbeat, house, hip-hop, reggae, techno and most importantly dub to produce what they called Jungle. In fact the name originates from one of the experimental clubs in London, called "Jungle" where the first fusion experiments were played. The term "jungle", though, had remained in the underground until 1993.
DJ Hype creates breakbeat feeling by mixing house and hip hop at 45 rpm on Phantasy FM. Later co-produces some of the first jungle tracks under the name The Scientist, with the tracks like "Excorcist" and "The Bee". Telepathy - one of the first hardcore jungle clubs kick starts in November. Mickey Finn creates the track Bionic Man, which uses the same idea as the Excorcist. 1992 was the year when the hardcore music was peaking.
Jungle was often confused with hardcore, which was quite similar at the time, but was directed more towards 4/4 base beat, rather than looped asynchronous rhythm. Jungle had just made its way to a larger audience, while hardcore was a total novice to the dance scene. Both jungle and hardcore were played at the same raves and sometimes the artists didn't even know whether the track they made was jungle or hardcore. Both of the styles were co-existing under one roof and so there was no separate jungle scene.
Johnny Jungle (today known as Pascal) had released a hit called "Johnny" which was a beginning of the new era. Johnny L created "Hurt You So" on XL recordgins, which highlighted the breaks out of the hardcore formula. 4Hero, LTJ Bukem ,Grooverider, DJ Hype and other future jungle producers started heading in the new breaks direction. The true jungle was ahead.
1993 was the end of confusion . Hardcore and the twin brother happy hardcore moved towards a more progressive rhythm, while Jungle remained on the breakbeat side. Though still reminiscent of 1992, artists such as Wax Doctor , headed the darker bassline sounds. At that point, jungle had finally gained its own identity - dedicated club venues such as Roast, Roller Express, Telepathy and Desire start operating on a weekly basis. Andy C comes up with the "Valley Of The Shadows" - the timeless jungle hit. Ed Rush throws the darkcore "Bloodclot Attack" while LTJ Bukem rolls out the ambient "Music". It was, not to understate, Moving Shadow 's year. Artists such as Omni Trio stormed the jungle scene with the "Renegade Snares" and Foul Play
1994 was the peak of Jungle . The clubs such as AWOL (A Way Of Life), Jungle Rush, Jungle Fever, Thunder And Joy, Roast and Thrust were spinning jungle on full. This year, jungle was most influenced by ragga basslines and rasta vocals. This was a revitalised year of jungle rave madness. Dream Team ( Bizzy B. and DJ Pugwash ) came up with the track "Yeah Man" which remained on the pirate stations for another 4 months. DJ Hypealong with DJ Zinc and Pascal created an label called Ganja , which later became one of the major labels on the scene.
The number of jungle pirate stations had enormously increased. Kool FM pirate station was the main source of jungle refreshment to the crowd. Although raided more than 5 times, it still kept going strong. Jungle managed to conserve what rave had lost two years before. Krome and Mr. Time had made a classic, legendary track called "The Licence" with the sample of Papa-Levi & Saxon Sound - a track which made the crowd go hyper.
The jungle atmosphere remained fresh and happy. The phenomenon was purely London based and had no equivalent anywhere. Labels like Tearin Vinyl, Rugged Vinyl, Ganja Kru, Joker, Reinforced , Certificate 18, Photek Recordings, Prototype, Liftin Spirit and Ram were a refreshing source of jungle music. DJ Rap at her label, Proper Talent had created a symbolic ragga influenced track "Intelligent Woman" with vocals by Candy. DJ Hype rolls out "Tiger Style", while Dillinja brings a mellow track named "Sovereign Melody".
By that time, even Fantazia and Telstar had realised, that jungle was very popular, which led to production of the compilations called "Fantazia takes you into the Jungle" and "Jungle Mania" by Telstar. A mad junglistic rave named "Telepathy" provided the unforgettable experience for many. World Dance's main arena now becomes jungle oriented. At the end of the year, a daughter style started developing. Under the name "Drum & Bass" - representative of the Jungle's content, the style was directed at the new school technique to approach the same concept of music.
