East Coast Science

Vol. 1, Side B, 1996



Perhaps no other American jungle DJ has received as much global acclaim and notoriety as has Damian ‘Dieselboy’ Higgins, and although that amount of visibility has certainly brought with it the standard chorus of haters, no one can argue that his ascendance to power was almost entirely the work of his own two hands, along with important early support from Nigel Richards, the granddaddy of Philly’s beats scene. If you were an up & coming DJ back in the 1990s, your reputation was often made on the weight of mixtapes, and few parts of those mixes were as important as the intro---in this case, the jungle breaks don’t even drop until over four minutes past the start. Dieselboy’s sound got considerably darker as the years progressed, but he came out of the gates ready to throw down, as this mix ably demonstrates. LOVE to Shampoo & the Philly massive!

Logical Progression Mix

Good Looking Records, 1996



The undisputed king of so-called “intelligent” drum-n-bass, which I still prefer to call deep jungle or jazz-step, Danny ‘LTJ Bukem’ Williamson largely created this approach to beats all by himself, incorporating the spacier elements of ‘70s jazz-funk crews like Return to Forever or Lonnie Liston’s Cosmic Echoes without coming off the tough-as-fuck breaks; his also runs the Good Looking and Looking Good record labels, in addition to DJing all over the world, no slacker here. The result is always hard for me to describe: it’s almost like you are floating above the clouds, contemplating human kind’s long association with music, the concept of beats being both the oldest & newest expression of our rhythmic desires… basically, the cover photo is a good start! As this was ripped from a mix CD, the tracks are zipped into one big file download. I kindly ask that you keep your seat-belts fastened at all times while cruising through this atmosphere, as it’s been known to leave listeners way the fuck out there, dig?

Way in My Brain (Remix)

from the 12” single, XL Recordings, 1992



This one was friggin’ HUGE people! Along with their smash “On A Ragga Tip”, this track by the Essex-reared duo of Slipmatt & Lime (a.k.a. SL2) proved to be an instrumental transition point at the genesis of breakbeat’s evolution into jungle. Producers were just beginning to experiment with different time signatures around this time, and after snagging a perfect loop from Wayne Smith’s “Under Me Sleng Teng”, SL2 constructed a groove which sounded ever-so slightly different from the standard breakbeat tracks going around at that time, a rhythm & vibe which would prove to be wholly prescient in the year or so after this release; it’s mind-blowing when one realizes the staggering amount of worldwide influence that music made on the tiny island of Jamaica has had over the years! Big ups to the old school jungle & breakbeat massive!!!

Jungle Book 2 Mix

Sole Unlimited Tapes, 1999



Was Dave ‘3D’ Sewell the hardest working junglist in the Midwest? It sure as hell seemed that way back in the mid - late ‘90s, running Forte Records with fellow Chi-town alum Mike ‘Snuggles’ Shum and playing up to 4 parties a week when things were at their peak around ’98/’99, many of them parties he helped to organize; however, while other jungle DJs of that time (like Dara, Dieselboy, AK1200, et al… most of whom were younger than Dave) were releasing major-label CD mixes and going on world tours, the Windy City All-Stars remained firmly entrenched in Chi. I’ve heard guys from the East coast say that when given the opportunity to partake of the growing success, Dave & others scoffed at the notion of leaving Chicago behind---well, as much as coming from a town like Chi or Detroit does engender a certain level of cocksure attitude in its DJs, it’s more likely that their fierce localism led to a dearth of offers rather than merely them shunning the mainstream. Whatever the truth is, I think it’s a fucking shame that Dave 3D won’t be remembered by most when thinking of the best American junglists, as he surely deserves mention in the same breath as the big-wigs listed above. These Jungle Book boxsets (vols. 1 -3) were the epitome of the Midwest’s jungle scene, and not surprisingly, he appeared on each volume; Dave is content living the quiet life these days, amidst the lakes of northern Illinois.

The Bizness Mixtape

Side A, 1996



Any raver that lived in or near Ohio during the mid – late ‘90s will be familiar with the Cincinnati Bomb Squad (CBS), a crew of generally young kids that managed to pull off some of the bigger parties in the Midwest (excepting for Chicago) during that time period; one of the factors that indisputably helped a great deal was the fact that their team of associated DJs were tight as fuck, garnering strong reputations in their own right far outside the Nati-bubble. Ria ‘Mowgli’ Matlib spun at virtually every CBS party I went to, often tag-teaming with his buddy Troll---the best CBS parties were the joints they threw at that grubby-ass warehouse downtown, and supposedly this Adam kid owned the building, or a couple floors inside it anyways, and the parties there were fucking NUTS yo, everything an “illegal” rave should be. At any rate, Mowgli and other junglists were getting sick of being stuck in tiny rooms with shitty systems, so (in his own words), “…this mix was made so that house-heads from the Midwest would get more in tune with jungle…the response I received from these house lovers was overwhelming…” Maybe that’s what it was about CBS parties that felt so good as compared to the joints we were throwing in Cleveland, a genuine belief in unity of purpose---albeit, with plenty of shade still, this was the Midwest folks. Mowgli didn’t need to convince me of anything, and his mixes continue to move my body & soul nearly 15 years on; you can’t FUCK with that Sade remix about 30 minutes in!

Links

from the 12” single, Good Looking Records, 1995

This track will never sound old or stale, I don’t care how far the world of jungle music has moved away from this ultra-clean, indispensable template; truly, there is just no improving upon perfection. The whole affair sounds something akin to an electronic waterfall, washing over the listener in ripples and waves (I think they actually did mic one of those old school rain sticks for that whooshing sound during the intro), and just before the aural serenity relaxes your muscles too much, BAM---there goes the breaks! The same minimal, unpretentious breakbeat runs through the entire rest of the track, lacing the groove with such an assertive vibe that you can’t help but move your body, and therein lies part of the true essence of jungle (which was increasingly lost until the Brazilian re-up in the early 2000s): transcendental undertones wrapped in volcanic beats. HUGE props for the phenomenological Ferris Bueller sample at the beginning & end, “…I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: life moves pretty fast…if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it…”!

Mixmag Mix

Live, 2001



Always looking very much like a hooligan instead of a DJ, the infamous Kevin ‘Hype’ Ford has remained among the elite of jungle’s royalty throughout the entire sub-bass-laden ride, and although he is primarily known as one of the most technically proficient DJs around (re: sickadelic scratch skills), he’s also managed to carry the success of his Ganja Records through it all as well, something many other producers can’t say. This dude goes way back, spinning on London pirate radio (Fantasy FM) in the late’80s when KISS FM was still illegal, DJing & spinning at some of the first major raves in the UK, and firmly establishing his reputation as an all-around badass. As this mix skillfully demonstrates, DJ Hype’s aptitude for turntablism is crazy supreme, always stressing quality over quantity, scratching in all the right places but never wearing out his welcome; admittedly, back in the day, I got tired of all Hype’s mixes being decimated by MCs (don’t get me started…), so virtually any tapes which came along that didn’t feature any cats being overly eager on the mic I tended to adore. He fucking brings it through the whole set here, surfing atop bass waves so thick I think I’d better go issue a tsunami warning to my neighbors…GUN SELECTA!!!

Le Fantôme

Dusted Fader Mixtape, Side B, 1997



Back in the day (how about that for a nice, overused aphorism), many a burgeoning raver’s first time wandering into a jungle room at a party proved to be exceptionally transformative; not only were the beats different from the standard 4/4 pulse of house and techno, the whole atmosphere was distinctive: murky, ghetto, tough…in general, a lot less hugging going on than in the main room---but not in a bad way. In fact, sometimes, that vibe gelled perfectly with the large clothes you were wearing and that large blunt you were sharing. The first time I consciously remember smelling Nag Champa incense (I’m sure I’d smelled it before, but it never stuck with me like it did this time) was at a rave in Atlanta, summer of 1994; I just remember rolling-strolling into the jungle area, then still in its nascent beginnings as a genre, smelling that incredible smell, hearing these hard beats…all I could do was smirk so hard my face hurt the next day and nod along. Phantom 45 hails from Chi-town and is part of the windy city’s second generation of DJ heroes; spinning records since the late ‘80s, things really started picking up for Phantom around 1991, getting in on the ground floor of a rave scene that would, later in the decade, blossom into a behemoth. Along with being a veteran, Phantom built up one of the bigger (and, in my opinion, better) collections of self-made mixtapes over the years, and his skills deafeningly graced the insides of many a car jam packed with ravers, driving ridiculous amounts of miles to get to that next party. Brian knew his audience well and walked something of a populist line, deftly straddling the jungle subgenres of darkstep and jump-up with seeming ease; he was one of the hardest working DJ’s out there, often spinning at 2 or 3 parties a week, so his popularity was earned with both skills and exertion. I fondly recall riding the bus to work in Cleveland, jamming this tape loud on my walkman, gazing at the approaching skyline with heavy eyelids, strangers bobbing to and fro as the bus did its shuck & jive, the city smells, the density, the concrete, the drunk at the back of the bus who just pissed himself… like a soundtrack to some lost epic about life in the post-apocalyptic metropolis.

Speed Mixtape

Side B, 1998



When I arrived in Cleveland during the winter of ’97, this guys name was on everyone’s tongues, he (along with Thieveland vet, Sleepy C) was the pride of the local rave scene--- still is to a large degree, to those that know anyways; a true renaissance man, KC has been involved with DJing, laying beats, and throwing parties since the mid ‘90s, mainly around the metro Cleveland area but he’s spun all throughout the greater Midwest. Although I’ve seen him spin virtually every kind of beats under the sun, KC was mainly known for throwing down some of the hardest, bangin’ist, straight up menacing jungle sets you’ve ever heard, often on more than 2 turntables; up around that area, the party scene was really hitting its peak around this time, with even the most meager of flyers guaranteeing you a minimum crowd of 500 kids, and Kev was out all the time. This tape is highly representative of the prevailing sound back then: DARK AS FUCK! When it sounds like an alarm is sounding to notify human beings of impending doom, at around 6:12 into this mix, you must feel that when this stuff was being played inside crumbling warehouses on the East (see: not white) side of Cleveland, this vibration was no mere warning (see: crackhead in the alley with a baseball bat). That was what truly mirrored the ‘60s about the rave scene, apart from the rampant drug use: it was our naïve sense of abandon, playing with fire, and rather than recoiling like any rational human being, we reveled in its searing flames. Mind you, this was in sharp contrast to the Florida scene I came up in, with its cartoon characters and big smiles; no, Cleveland was more like: camo, hoods, and hat brims pulled real fuckin’ low (I’m not kidding, I actually knew some party kids by their hats alone, never having truly seen any amount of face above their tightly grinning mouths). It was a wild horse we rode, and though over a decade beyond my ass is still chapped in places, I’m eternally grateful to have been there.

Peep the Technique Mixtape

Side B, 1996



I 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…”

Electriks

from the LP New Forms, Mercury Records, 1997



This was the album that changed everything for jungle music, taking it from the smoky second-stage at raves and turning it into the soundtrack for automobile commercials and shopping at Urban Outfitters, even landing a video on MTV (for the track “Brown Paper Bag”); yes, LTJ Bukem and Goldie came before, but no jungle record had ever blown the scene open like this one, and arguably, none has since. I’ve heard people talk shit about this having been a bit “bloated” or “overhyped”, obviously individuals not closely associated with beats, as nearly every major jungle producer since this time has ripped stuff off from these records. You know why? Because this bangs as hard today as it did when it dropped, and continues to feel so clean & crisp, like a fresh ruby-red grapefruit, that people still can’t leave it alone. The incredible thing is, even though jungle music has evolved, you can still play these tracks out today and no one will miss a beat!

Silk Cut II Mixtape

Side C, 1995



Back when the jungle scene was still in its relative infancy, it seemed like anything was possible as far as sub-genres were concerned, and this mix makes a really good case for the category known as “intelligent” or “jazz-step”; rather than the ragga-inspired party vibe inherent to many other jungle tunes from back then, this style put the focus on fluidity, super clean & crisp minimal breaks, and an overall trending towards sexiness rather than hardness. Snuggles & Slak were probably my all-time favorite DJ tag team, both hailing from Chicago and able to throw down any style of jungle beats; in fact, this tape was a double release (hence the “Side C”), with the first tape focusing on the heavier, “jump-up” stuff and this one keeping things more mellow and jazzy. Jungle continued to trend towards a harder and darker sound as time went along, but this approach was a nice detour along the way.