Side B, 1996I know, I’ve posted an uneven preponderance of DJs from Chicago here in the Honeypot, but it’s not my fault that so many of the world’s best spinners happen to hail from the Windy City; and no, it hasn’t anything to do with hometown pride either, because I’ve never lived in Chicago, just went to a grip of parties there. To a large degree, the old guard of Chi-town junglists had to teach themselves what to do, yet they somehow managed to foster a scene that wound up rivaling those of NYC and San Fran. You can’t really have a discussion about the North American jungle scene without making ample mention of Danny ‘the Wildchild’ Garcia; I can say that, for me personally, his technique behind the decks, drawn mainly from his beginnings as a hip-hop DJ, is definitive of the American jungle sound: a healthy mix of both jump-up & dark step, creative use of hip-hop samples, tasteful scratching & an all-around more sinister vibe as compared to British jungle sets of the same time period. Danny continues to light up dancefloors from coast to coast, enjoying more notoriety than perhaps any other junglist from the Chicago scene, and listening to this tape you’ll see why---that is, “…if ya’ll really like to rock the funky beats…”
