jungle 12 inch reviews/ "Stone Free" column
Melody Maker, 1994

by Simon Reynolds


A GUY CALLED GERALD--- "Darker Than I Should/Gloc" (Juice Box),"Nazinji-Zaka/Hot Foot" (Juice Box)

Mr 'Voodoo Ray' is now at the forefront of 'intelligent hardcore'---hence these two 12 inches of densely textured ambient jungle. "Darker" and "Nazinji" offer ethno-pagan cyber-jazz that picks up where 808 State's 'State Ritual' left off; "Gloc" is so sensuously disorientating it could be from My Bloody Valentine's forthcoming jungle-influenced LP.

F.B.D. PROJECT---"Classified Listening" (Bangra Tunes)
F.B.D is intelligent hardcore whizzkid Neil Trix; "Classified' is a lush and limpid rainforest of polyrhythms, tremulous with detail.

DJ TANGO/HYPER ON EXPERIENCE---"Two On One, Issue 4" (Moving Shadow)
Tango's "Think Twice" is a dancefloor desolator, all demonic bass-surges and hideously clammy samples. Isolationist jungle? Sounds like a good idea to me.

BOOGIE TIMES TRIBE---"My Soul" (Suburban Base)
Go straight for the Roni Size & Krust remix, which laces the dark drum-&-bass groove with mysterious sound-vapours, heady strings and wafts of psychedelic eeriness.

NOODLES & WONDER---"Drum Soup" EP (Kickin')
Serene wind-chimes and gamelan-tinkling bells float over a turbo-charged battery of beats. Magical, despite a strange interlude of swingbeat mid-track.


RENEGADE featuring RAY KEITH---"Terrorist" (Moving Shadow)
Shlocky sentimental piano fades into a warrior-charge of radioactive bass and crisp drums. Then another B-line and another tier of drums.... Propulsive and compulsive.

DJ CRYSTL---"Meditation (Remix)/Warpdrive (Remix)" (Dee Jay)
Crystl's revamp of the monstrously foreboding "Warpdrive" plays up the poison-gas synth-drones but tampers with the avalanche effect of the breakbeat. The untouchable original can still be found on Breakdown's 'Drum & Bass' compilation.

THE K.G.B.--- "I Feel The Magic" (Juice Box)
More lush and languid enchantment from 'Executive Producer' A Guy Called Gerald's Juice Box label. Jazz-funk for the 21st Century.

LICK BACK ORGANISATION---"Ruff'n'Rugged/Manic Musik" (Suburban Base)
"Manic" starts with a sample of Grace Slick's "morning maniac music" drivel from Woodstock, then oscillates between jagged drum-&-bass and aromatic atmospherics.


SPLASH---"Hypnotizing" (Splash)
Ruff-rider breaks, gusts of ethereal girl-vox---a solid slice of ambient ardkore