oldskool
Starting Member
Australia
-973 posts
Joined: Mar, 2001
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 Posted - 2001/04/23 : 23:43:52
Techno/Dance: Jungle/Drum 'n Bass
by Sean Cooper
While the U.K. underground dance scene has been both an important point of introduction and a source of almost limitless expansion of American dance music forms such as disco, house, acid, techno, electro, and rare groove, England, it's often been noted, has never really had a dance music of its own. Not, that is, until jungle. Although jungle's most direct roots lie in the hardcore breakbeat style of techno popular in clubs in the late '80s and early '90s, the music's mutation of elements from not only hardcore, but reggae, ragga, hip-hop, jazz, and dub, as well as its origins in social and economic factors such as racist and class-based oppression, is a distinctly British mix. Born largely in the working class suburbs of London's East End and the island's Eastern seaboard and now popular throughout England, as well as Europe and North America, jungle has coalesced since it's birth into one of the most exciting and distinctive British musical movements since the 1960s rock explosion.
Like American hip-hop (to which it is often compared), jungle (or drum'n'bass, a stylistic synonym used to describe the music's two main aesthetic components) is an extension of the larger breakbeat heritage which extends back to American funk, soul, and jazz. And like hip-hop, which uses samplers to capture drum break segments from old James Brown, Meters, Jimmy Smith, and Bob James records, jungle uses the beat as a jumping off point, starting with a four- or eight-bar break and cutting, splicing, rearranging, and recombining elements of the beat in almost endless variety. But it's this last element that gives jungle its unique place in the evolution of electronic music; where hip-hop and other sample-based forms of dance music work with beats in a more or less serial fashion (looping, combining, adding, subtracting, etc. rhythmic elements), jungle's approach is nonlinear and, increasingly, polyrhythmic, approaching beats, rhythms, and basslines as more or less malleable raw materials from which new musical ideas can be extracted.
One of the key developments in this approach has been the availability of cheap, relatively easy-to-use sampling technology and desktop digital sequencing tools such as Cubase and Vision, which allow for incredible control and variety. In many respects, these tools have made the music possible, as new techniques such as timestretching (extending a sample's length without altering its pitch) and the music's cut'n'paste approach to rhythm have only recently been made possible through the explosion and subsequent economic democratization of digital audio.
Although, like most origin mythologies, jungle is fraught with intriguing stories of its birth and etymology (even extending to a street gang in Kingston, Jamaica known as the Junglists), most agree that somewhere down the line "jungle" took on a racist connotation stemming from its popularity among England's inner-city black population (although, to a far larger extent than in America, England's inner-cities are of mixed race and are stratified more by class). True or not, the term has been widely embraced by musicians and audiences alike, and remains a genus-type classification for the dizzying array of species of drum'n'bass that have popped up in recent times (see below). In an historico-aesthetic sense, jungle's immediate roots lie, of course, in the English underground rave scene of the early '90s, when the repetitive banging of acid house and techno gave way to hardcore breakbeat techno. Although originally referring to a more rave-oriented strain of hardcore (so-called "happy hardcore," which translated many of the more escapist elements of acid-house and dancefloor techno into a breakbeat context), a more complex and abrasive strand of "darkside" hardcore soon began to grow in popularity, becoming the post-rave underground music of choice, particularly among urban inner-city and working class youth.
Drawing from the music's audience (and of course the musicians themselves), the music began incorporating more complex beat patterns and elements of reggae, ragga, dub, calypso, and other non-Western black musics, mutating (through artists such as Rob Playford/2 Bad Mice, SL2, Acen, and Urban Shakedown) into the high-speed breakbeat madness of jungle's first wave. Though still the soundtrack of the urban English underground, by the time ragga jungle hit, a wider audience began to form around the revolutionary new sound, particularly as labels such as Suburban Bass, Kickin', Sound of the Underground, and Moving Shadow began to move into CD-based compilation releases, which helped spread the music into new geographies at a rapid rate. Though the cliches of ragga dated quickly (the booyaka chants, the Scientist samples, etc.), the basic skeleton of the music was refined and elaborated (in a less-obvious fashion) in so-called hardstep and darkside, which aimed at preserving the intellectual and emotional impact of the music in a more mature, less gimmicky fashion. The following years would see a dizzying mutation and hybridization of styles, as jungle worked its way into every stylistic context immaginable (from Lee Perry and the Wu-Tang Clan to Soul Coughing and Everything but the Girl), with styles continuing to proliferate to the present day.
Like early hip-hop and, to a large extent, present day house and techno, drum'n'bass remains primarily a 12-inch culture, with the bulk of artists and musicians engaged in nuts'n'bolts music-making designed directly for DJs and dancefloors (although, like techno, the gap has begun to close a bit through wider popularity of ambient and "intelligent" styles and large-scale CD production and distribution). The rapid intermixing and evolution of styles is also fueled in part by widespread use of white labels, dubplates, and test pressings, which allow artists and DJs to gauge the popularity of a tune only hours after its been completed in the studio. (Dubplates and test pressings are wax and mylar versions of records — usually only playable ten to fifteen times — cut prior to mass production to insure proper manufacture.) A reasonably reputable DJ may spin anywhere from 10 to 50 percent dubplates in a set, with artists who also DJ often cutting their tunes months in advance of their release (if indeed they're ever released!) to build crowd excitement and anticipation.
As discussed above, like other recent directions in experimental electronic music, jungle has sectioned off into a dizzying array of subgenres and style classes (ragga, hardstep, darkside, jump-up, techstep, ambient) that can make getting a handle on it pretty frustrating. The following is a brief description of many of the most prominent:
Hardcore/Happy Hardcore
An urban working-class offshoot of techno, popular in the late-'80s/early-'90s, with looping, sped-up breakbeats and dense, angular basslines. A more mainstream, rave-oriented brand of "happy" hardcore remained even truer to the music's acid house roots, drawing wailing divas and upbeat piano and synth lines in close proximity to hardcore's brash rhythms. (Artists: Acen, 2 Bad Mice, SL2 )
Ragga
Ragga jungle was one of the earliest and most widely embraced forms of drum'n'bass not to rely overtly on the cliches of hardcore techno, and was a direct reflection of the rising embrace of drum'n'bass among the street-level urban population (of which a sizeable portion are of African and Caribbean descent). Ragga jungle is characterized primarily by fast, complex beat patterns, deep, tight bass, and the use of sound system-type MC chanting sampled from old reggae, ragga, and dancehall records. Ragga also makes jungle's connection to African and Caribbean traditional and popular musics most evident, with rhythms recognizably descendent from nyabinghi and calypso-style drumming. (Artists: 2 Bad Mice, Rude Bwoy Monty, Shy FX, Amazon II )
Hardstep/Jump-Up
A spare, limber refinement of hardcore and ragga, which retains the hardness and rhythmic complexity of both while subtracting much of the bonus fat (rude bwoy chatter, excessive samples, etc.). Hardstep also carries more of a sense of progression, varying drum patterns more musically and focusing on bass as a melodic element. Although slight variations obtain between hardstep and the more recently-applied jump-up (with the latter generally referring to a sprighter, more dynamic brand of hardstep), the two are for the most part used interchangeably. (Artists: Ray Keith, DJ SS, Dillinja,DJ Zinc )
Darkside
A somewhat historically rooted term, darkside refers to a sparer, more pessimistic style of hardcore seeking to differentiate itself from the more above-ground, mainstream appeal of rave that by the early '90s was producing only the most repetitive and uncreative of music. Darkside artists stripped the bright melodies and sped-up samples from hardcore and replaced them with gloomy basslines, and less obvious melodic passages more reminiscent of Detroit techno than happy hardcore. Darkside is also something of a bridge between early hardcore and the increasing sophistication of the hardstep and experimental drum'n'bass of DJ SS, Solo, Source Direct, and the Metalheadz artists.
Techstep
Techstep is similar to hardstep in its beat structures and attitude, but differs in the use of techno-type elements such as bleeps and synth squelches, as well as dense, heavily treated basslines. After the softening of drum'n'bass in the wake of jungle's first wave of widespread popularity (major label signings, international tours, etc.), darker techstep-type jungle has risen to the fore of the underground, proving one of the most active and interesting splinter styles in its experimentalism. Labels on the bleeding edge of this style include Emotif, No U-Turn, Penny Black, and S.O.U.R., and a good introduction exists in Emotif's label compilation, Techsteppin', as well as S.O.U.R.'s Nu Skool Update. (Artists: Ed Rush, Nico, Solo, Shapeshifter )
Ambient/Intelligent
First used to designate drum'n'bass styles drawing heavily on atmosphere and environment, the term has come to have something of a negative connotation among the hardcore, referring to loopy, relatively unchallenging rhythmic programming and a predominance of sugary, pop-oriented melodic textures. Most likely the backlash has as much to do with the fact that it was the softer, jazzier ambient style drum'n'bass that was the first to sever its roots with the underground, gaining popularity among a wide audience. (Artists: TPower, Omni Trio, Source Direct, Photek, 4Hero, Dave Wallace)
 I Can Never Face Another Day.....Yeah....If there ain't no raver's groove to let me play...."
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