dissensus jungle poll - forgot / never knew, part 3

Continuing my comb-through for junglistic jems I never heard or didn't recognise on sight....  now it's the turn of Woebot's Top 40 picks

Well, I know nearly all of these 

In fact I think there are just five that didn't immediately ring a bell


Dillinja - "Untitled" from the Tough Toonz EP

Or is Tough Toonz actually the label? The mighty D's debut at any rate. 

I am going to assume Matt means the A1 tune



Never heard that. Rough, murky... good stuff. 

Tantalised though by the possibility he meant one of the other Untitleds on this EP, Like this - 



 - which is actually even more jungalistic, a skittering roil laced with droney smears of degraded sample-texture, then punctured by a stammering vocal riff like a Rasta spectre with a speech impediment  

Dillinja's formative years are dense

Postscript #1: Matt says the D'ja trak he has in mind is at 2:37:51 in this mix he did a while back


 
Yes that's good innit - has the edge on the previous tune - the way the breaks seem to whiplash out of dense whirl of murk - ditto those sharp stings of mentasmoid sound
Baby D, "Daydreaming"



This 1990 track is great - more bleep than jungle, though surely? Or did Matt mean a later rmx?



I guess there is something tribally coming through in this sound, a premonition of tangled rhythmic undergrowth

I recognise the vocal melody / performance but don't know either of the versions here

Now does Acen with his Acenhallucination rmx of '91 push it further toward junglizm?



It's getting there! Big and bashy. I would still file this under 'hardcore' though


DJ Hype, "Come Again"



Ah, never heard that, It's ace. Better than "The Trooper", its A-side - a somewhat underpar effort from Hype.  "Come Again" has great little dubwize bleeps and an unusual groove with a military-drill feel, impossibly crisp and precise.

This is the first so far I would add to my own 200 (although I think I've actually spilled well over that number at this point)

Actually, listening to "The Trooper" again, it's really pretty exciting. 




I think at the time for me it didn't match "A Shot In the Dark", "Weird Energy (Hells Bells Mix)", "I Can't Understand It (Scratch the Fuck Out of the Beginning Mix)" "The Chopper"... 



The Johnny Jungle rmx on The Joint is even better

Back to Matt's

DJ Solo and DJ Rossie - "Sure Shot"

Well they don't have that one on YouTube as far as I can tell - the title definitely rings a loud clangy bell but nothing in the way of sound-pictures fill the mindscreen

They got the flipside though, "Inna Strength" - which is really good. Classic bit of rusty bedsprings a-clanking 'n' a-creakin' away with those sproinnnngy processed breaks and a bassline that is fast but reggae-feel, pummelling away below like a fist swinging up beneath your ribcage.




Postscript #2: Matt says that "Sure Shot" is at 41:02 in this other mix of his


Ah, yes, that is really good -  Think + thunderbass choppage that gets all clattery and pots-and-pans-y
Adding to this one to the ever-growing canon!


Despite worshipping "Darkage" I have never really got a fix on Solo's other work

This one is good and definitely sets a few memory-tingles going



This is a minor classic 



And the last one from Matt's list I didn't recognise


Trinity, "Chapter 19"



Another good one - not as atmospheric OR as deadly honed in its beats 'n bass as Mighty D would get in a year's time (this tune apparently circulating from late '93 on dubplate) but nice churning pummel with some slashing smears of tekno-blare still hanging in there, a linger from hardcore days. Then it goes into terrific middle bit with a sort of I-lost-my-mind broken-doll-person feel about it. Yup a gem - and something I never heard before.    

I tend to think of D's aliases like Trinity as being equivalent to Tom & Jerry vis-a-vis 4 Hero - i.e the main name is the auteur name, the artcore name, while the alias(es) are the cater-to-the-massive, bread 'n' butter brand.  But "Chapter 19" makes me think I should check through the Trinity trackage thoroughly.


^^^^^^^^^^^^

I was thinking I would do Sadmanbarty's lot right away but I glanced at them and "lot" is the right word - list is ENORMOUS, and full of things I don't recognise. I'll have to gird my loins for that sort-through session. 

the other hardcore

cool Top Ten list + commentary on the other hardcore - the Euro 4-to-floor kind - done for LA Weekly by  JOEL “DJ DEADLY BUDA” BEVACQUA

No false modesty here - includes one of his own tracks!



And bigs up the Southern California scene whence he hails



Intriguing references to hardcore subgenres morph beats and rawstyle...

No surprises who gets the #1 spot - who else could it be? -  but plenty of surprises along the way

This dude Angerfist is apparently the hot name in hardcore techno right now



Bevacqua's magazine The Hard Data

Deadly Buda's soundcloud

"useless junglism"

"weird useless junglism" is how Jon Dale described this track

whole Joan Skyler album here

on the same label Reckno, Jon also recommends Teresa Winter

And finally directs me to the work of  K.Barley whose aliases are Bambooman and GroupHums

"we are in the throes of a hardcore rave renaissance"

says Ian McQuaid at Bandcamp, citing a bunch of labels reissuing the stuff including Stay On Target,  Underground Music, Force Mass Motion, and Jedi Recordings

"For most ravers, the hardcore scene was documented via tape packs; live recordings of an event from start to finish, divided over anything from four to 12 cassettes, and sold by the thousand in boxes covered with the garish rave scene packaging ... Particularly strong DJ sets were copied and passed from person to person. There were never any tracklists (and this is way before the days of seeking out IDs online); the best a fan could hope for was the names of the DJ, the MC, and the rave itself. The tape pack system meant that a 12” could be a self-released white label with a print run of 500, sold from a tiny specialist record shop, yet still go on to underground immortality if it was played by the right DJ on the right tape—as is the case with Alex Reece and Jack Smooth’s 20 Hertz EP, a militant darkside classic with a tiny press run. It will currently set you back nearly $200 for a copy."

200 quid for that? Praps the other two tunes on the EP are better.

Back to McQuaid's story

"Over a quarter-century later, there’s a huge thirst from both old school ravers and new fans to find those obscure recordings. A host of reissue labels have sprung up, searching out original DATs (the digital studio format tracks were recorded onto before being pressed to vinyl), and producing high quality vinyl and digital represses, making available ultra-rare records that would otherwise fetch ridiculous prices."

a renaissance, strictly speaking though, would be new people doing stuff informed by the old principles and parameters

who are out there of course - just not the subject of this piece


This looks to be a very useful collection of DJ Seduction's works - 39 tracks + 2 remixes for a tenner

dark side of the anthem

intriguing concept for mix over at Blog To the Old Skool (a few months ago, though) - Devnull mix comprising the other side of anthems, tracks eclipsed by their supremely known frontsides



tracklisting

Edge - Fl It [Edge] ("Compnded")
Top Buzz - Viola’s Delight (Instrumental) [Basement] ("Living in Darkness")
Neuromancer - An Unforgettable Feeling ("Pennywise")
Bukem - Enchanted [Good Looking] ("Music")
Pulse - Warning [Creative Wax] ("Stay Calm")
Johnny Jungle - I Like to Cry [Face] ("Johnny")
Krust - Resistor [Full Cycle] ("Music Box")
Cloud 9 - Call My Name [AAS Mix] ("You Got Me Burnin")
Metalheads - Knowledge [Synthetic] ("Terminator" or "Kemistry")
Jo - Imagine the Future [Awesome] ("R-Type")
4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse - We are the Future [Tone Def] ("Drowning in Her")
Mega City 2 - London to Essex [Extra Terrestrial] ("Darker Side of Evil")
Pure White - Jungle Rush [Lucky Spin] ("4 AM")
Original Unknown - The Touch [Ram] ("Valley of the Shadows")
Q Project - Night Moves (Alliance Remix) [Legend] ("Champion Sound Alliance Remix")
DJ Hype - Dreams [Suburban Base] ("Roll The Beats")
Pascal - Red Face [Face] ("Raw Basics Tango Remix")
Enforcer - Hellbound [Awesome] ("Dam Tuff")
Hyper-on Experience - Thunder Grip (KC Remix) [Moving Shadow] ("Lords of the Null Lines Foul Play Remix")
Tom & Jerry - Thriller [Tom + Jerry] ("Maxi(Mun) Style")
Bukem - Rain Fall [GLR] ("Horizons")
House Crew - Untitled [Production House] ("Superhero")
Engineers Without Fears - Rhythm [Production House] ("Spiritual Aura")
Deep Blue - Fantasy #3 [Moving Shadow] ("Helicopter Tune")
Skool of Hard Knocks - Don’t You Feel It [Grand Larceny] ("Kan U Feel It")
DJ Taktix - Deadly Pursuit [Back 2 Basics] ("The Way VIP")
DJ Gunshot - Black Magic [No U Turn] ("Wheel N Deal")
Remarc - Ice Cream & Syrup (Hard Mix) [Suburban Base] ("RIP")
DMS & Boneman X - Catch 22 [FX] ("Sweet Vibrations")
Cool Hand Flex - Rhythm Flow [In Touch] ("Melody Madness")
Krome + Time - Studio One Lik [Tearin Vinyl] ("Ganja Man")
DJ Hype + Ganja Max - Pum Pum Must Smoke Ganja [Ganga Recordings] ("Rinse out")
Subnation - Golden Hen [Mercyless] ("Scottie")
Capone - Soldier [Hardleaders] ("Massive")
Shimon - Within Reason [Liftin Spirits] ("Predator")
Renegade - Something I Feel [Moving Shadow] ("Terrorist")
Dillinja - Perfect Match [Deadly Vinyl] ("Deep Deadly Subs Remix")
DJ Nut Nut - Bloodclart Hour [Hard Step] ("Press Up")
Fallen Angels - Oh Yeah [IQ] ("Hello Lover")
Asylum - Desire [Metalheadz] ("Bass II Dark")
Krome + Time - Ruffneck Scouts [Tearin Vinyl] ("The License")
DJ Crystl - Paradise [Dee Jay] ("Let It Roll")
Urban Shakedown - Burning Passion [Urban Shakedown] ("Some Justice 95")
Babylon Timewarp - Changing [KVA / Mistermen] ("Durban Poison 95")

adrift on memorE bliss

(via Jon Dale)

not quite as dreamy, but also a studied recreation done for purposes unknown



(also via Jon Dale)


more

pre-hardcore mixes

tuff mixes from Imaginary Forces in his Basic Rhythm guise - that revisit 90-91 when we thought of the music - breaksy bleepsy bassy as it was -  as simply techno, or even just as house

the new chillout

this next one particularly woozadelic especially from about the 26 minutes mark onwards!




















(via FACT magazine)


this is quite funny - yet trippy - yet campy -  a cappella-delic voicescape cover of "One In A Million"



he also does beat-ier stuff



like this which is filed as 'jungle'

"bogan happy hardcore"

can see very faint echoes of the sharpies dance in these moves - the geometric foot work

Spiral through time

dissensus jungle poll - forgot / never knew, part 2

By special request, I peruse the choices of Oliver Craner. Viz -

Rufige Kru Terminator 2 Remix
Foul Play Finest Illusion (Legal Mix)
Origin Unknown Valley of the Shadows
DJ Crystl Warpdrive
A Guy Called Gerald Nazinji Zaka
Shimon Predator
E-Z Rollers Believe
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Drowning in Her
Tom & Jerry Maximum Style
Omni Trio Renegade Snares (Foul Play remix)

Hyper-on-Experience Lord of the Null Lines (Foul Play Remix)
DJ Hype Roll the Beats
4 Hero Journey from the Light
Foul Play Open Your Mind (Remix)
A Guy Called Gerald Too Fucked to Dance
Bodysnatch Euphony (Just 4 U London)
DJ Rap Spiritual Aura (Get Raw Remix)
Noise Factory Can You Feel the Rush
Dillinja Deeper Love (Remix)
Subnation Scottie

Deep Blue Helicopter Tune (Rufige Kru Remix)
Brain Killers Screw Face
Intense Journey to the Unknown
Studio Pressure Jump Mk II
Droppin Science Vol 1
DJ Dextrous Time to Move
Tom & Jerry Air Freshener
Roni Size Music Box
A Send & Ultravibe What Kind of World
Leviticus The Burial

Johnny Jungle Johnny (Origin Unknown Remix)
Beyond the Future Feel It
Higher Sense Cold Fresh Air
DJ Trax High Time (Nookie Remix)
DMS & The Boneman X Sweet Vibrations
DJ Rap Digable Bass (Heaven Remix)
Q-Bass Gun Connection
LTJ Bukem Horizons
DJ Crystl Dark Crystl
Manix Back to Burn

Chimera Deeper Life
Lick Back Organisation Maniac Music (Lick Back VIP Mix)
Run Tings Ruff Revival
Dillinja You Don’t Know (Remix)
Boogie Times Tribe Dark Stranger (Q-Bass Remix)
Roni Size Time Stretch
Skanna Until the Night is Morning
LTJ Bukem Atlantis
Tom & Jerry Dancer
Underground Software Music Maker Posse


Well I recognise nearly all of them - indeed I voted for most of them myself, I think.

There's only four that don't ring any kind of bell:



Ah, fuck me - LOVE this tune, and in fact it is a Mystery Track that I have on a pirate tape that I was going to present here as an audio clip in the hope someone would identify it.

Love that scorching Mentazmoid lick. The same "I'll be there" diva lick as the Omni Trio tune.

Skanna as a name I associate with this sort of techno-y flavour - cold, searing. Jungle techno as they used to call it.  Related to things like Nebula II maybe, and pointing to the techstep direction -  No U Turn things like "Squadron"




Never heard this! Again, with those cold-phuture techno vybes.  Really good this - wicked production touches, creepy sound-warps.

Always liked the title "The Quickening", on the same side of this 12-inch (with "Paradox" on the other).  The sound is good too - ear-itching electro-acoustic tingles.







Another one I never heard!  Good stuff - creepy-crispy sound, unnerving high-end sounds. Neurotic beats.  Produced by Peshay, under another name, with Bay-B-Kane engineering - that is pedigree.

Some of the elements used in the track I recognise - that ethereal-girl vocal - but I think because used elsewhere. Or maybe I once caught a portion of this track in the mix on some pirate tape.

(Could do a whole darkcore poll really.)



I had a feeling I would recognise this one as soon as it drops - and so it was. A good 'un -  unusual bleepy licks over a rattling more standard 94-jungle groove + raggamuffin vocal bits. Nice bass warpage.

A cut above - so many ideas run through in under 5 minutes.


Some of the other tunes I recognise the artist and track title but the audio-picture is hazy at best:

I remember liking this one at the time - as much for the title as the tune - but couldn't quite summon the memory



Until I put it on - and of course, of course, LOVED this back in the day. B-line like a trampoline. Bounceable bass more like.

Definitely should have had this in my list. Canonic,




The mighty Run Tings...  Couldn't recall this one at all. But of course as soon as I put it on...

Good stuff, all right moves made... doesn't really stand out for me though. Like those horns though.




Remember the original well, because I loved the fact that it starts with a Grace Slick sample from Woodstock - "you've seen the heavy groups, now you'll see some morning maniac music". Although the track itself seemed fairly par for the course

Don't recall this remix although it's on Drum & Bass Selection 2 which I have.

Interesting - bit like malfunctioning machinery at the start. Ah, then it gets rather wicked - tremolo bass in the Droppin' Science style.

A good oddity. Lower reaches of the canon maybe.



Well, the Intelligent Hoodlums EP completely bypassed me I got to admit. Like the title.

No recollection of this one at all. Standard Reinforced business.

Rest of EP getting a bit Luke-puke-worthy perhaps? "Jazz Bop" as a title sets off the alarm bells



But no, "True Mathematics' at least is still fairly rough and strange-angled.



"Jazz Bop" as feared strays into the "estate agent music" zone. The Jacob's Optical Stairway zone (love that album, I do - which is odd because normally I don't really like that kind of thing either)

Back to Oliver's picks



Have a few Underground Software things I think... But none terribly memorable, I feel. Reinforced stuff could get a little diffuse especially as 94 bleeds into 95/96.


Now here's one I thought knew - but didn't (although I own it). I guess it's so abstract it defies memory.



Mad, sick, psyche-slurry darkcore - incredible.  Gerald, what a wizard. Sonic sorcery.


Finally a couple where I know the primary tune but not the remix

Actually in this next case, I know and rate (supremely) the primary tune, but remember finding the remix disappointing



Yeah I don't think G-man rufiged this up enough really. It's mostly cos the original is so definitive and perfect, so that what's added / altered detracts.

I think this was the first thing by Goldie I felt was less than amazing. (It wouldn't be the last, of course).

(Although Internal Affairs from earlier is not all that - but I heard that one later on).



You know I have this, I think - but not with the amazing / gross pic sleeve!

Sub Base put out a slew of these "Johnny" remixes, didn't they? A flurry of four or something like that, on 10 inches as I recall.  Or were there even six? It felt unmanagable. I got them as promos - Sub Base had started to service me with them late in '93. So exciting to get stuff by them and Moving Shadow through the mail!  However I don't think any of the Johnny refixes grabbed me as much as the immaculate original.

But this Origin Unknown one  is good - faultless in its way.

There was a Droppin' Science one too



Good stuff.


BTW - "just so nah one tek it personal" - the point of this exercise was really for me to comb through and find the gems I missed the first time

We all have our specials that we cathected for whatever reason...  because of where it was situated in the mix of that incredible pirate tape whose every MC line is burned into your brain - or perhaps a comp someone made for you that had an oddity snuck away on a side full of incontrovertibly great tunes.

Or to do with vagaries of supply - in '93 for instance I was in NYC for about 9 months of the year where it was very hard to get the 12 inches, impossible to get tapes unless a London friend took pity / charity, and where three or four CD comps made it through to import shops in Greenwich Village. So the tapes I made off pirates during mysix weeks stints in the UK I would then have to make last for months and play over and over again - creating attachment to lesser tunes, I'm sure.  And I know from people in the UK who didn't live in London that they depended on the CD comps reaching them in the boondocks, and those comps could often be motley and variable in quality levels, but yeah, you get attached, when it's all you got.

dissensus jungle poll - the tracks i didn't know, or forgot about, part 1

in the individual ballots - and even a couple of times in the actual Top 30 - there were tunes I didn't know, amazingly - sometimes just by name (had heard the tune in the dance back in the day but never knew the title or artist) but sometimes simply never even heard!

here i go through the endorsed tracks methodically with a few thoughts

From the Poll itself



I know that one by sound, but never registered the name. Good tune. Would probably put this in the Top 200.  Can see why it's a connoisseur's "deep" choice. Those metallic-smeared drumscape sounds.




Again, heard this nuff times back in the day. Good solid ragga choppage, features the words "brock out" which is always neat ... but bit average really. Surprised this made the 30.




No recollection of this one at all - and it would surely have stuck in the head on account of that lick from "Armagideon Time".  Ah when the "alla me need... consciousness" bit comes in, it rings a faint bell. Seems very par for the course, though, this - a Roast set-filler type of tune. Kenny Ken, your flexible frien'.




Ah yes, remember this one well. Tough tune. Tearin' bit of stretched drummage in the middle there. Great sinister-glow bass too. Will have to add this to the list of my own ever-expanding canon.




Know "Limb by Limb" of course but I don't think I ever heard this SS mix. Bit austere in its       (g)ruff 'n 'rugged formalism. All the right moves made but nothing to really distinguish it.

Everything else in the Top 30 I know like my mother's face and would agree with it being there, perhaps some things lower and other things higher.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Now on to the individual lists...

These from Luka's



Yup, heard this scores of times. Great tune - generic but glorious.



Yeah, know this - although I don't recall it as one of those omnipresent  anthems. Niceness, though. All these tunes are the same vibe really - criss choppage + reggae samples + soul samples. Pure 94 bizniss.



David Bowie's favorites, the Kemet Crew!  I thought I didn't know this - until the vocal came in and I was like "aha!".  But wasn't this later rereleased with the chorus lick "I'm a junglist" added, and a different title ("Junglist"?). This is the prototype for that, I think.  I always liked the genre-patriotism / identity politics  ("I know myself when I hear you") aspect - the fact that the guy is serenading Jungle itself as if a person. But as a track it's pretty second-division really.  The down-swooping rockets-fall-from-sky sounds are good, though.



I know a different version of this - or is it a different tune altogether? - that uses the "can't stop thinking about" vocal lick.



Don't know this one at all. Although possibly have it on the flip of "Roll the Beats" remix. Those days tracks - classics - were coming thick and fast and it was easy to overlook stuff. But then again if I'd heard it I think it would have registered and stuck with me - cos it's ruff! Great doomy groans of vocal - death knell bass.



This one I knew by title but no sound-memories came to mind - but of course soon as I drop the virtual needle on the track it's instantly recognisable. A good 'un. Great gravelly-toned pummelling B-line. Junglizm in its purist, most essentialist form - breaks + bassige + samples. No keys, no musicality as such... and the bass is making moves that do not correspond to hand-played bass as in the electric bass or the double bass. Composed almost wholly out of earlier forms of music, but breaking with them drastically - that to me is the benchmark of unimpeachable remorseless modernism that jungle set  - and that everything since must measure against. Sorry, but that's just the way it is!

(Christ it's hard to stop going off onto detours - the YouTube side panel flashes up half a dozen remixes of Ganja Kru tunes that I'm not sure I've heard.)




Vaguely remember this - there was a train of Suburban Base tunes that were ruff but formulaic, and almost too stripped down to really engage the heart. But still, this is potent - and as per the above comments on essentialist-junglist perhaps more radical than the ambient jungle direction, in its severance from the past. What's interesting about this and the previous tune is how stealthy they sound - not at all frantic or hectic.

Now where is that synth-lick from - some early 80s synthpop act? Eurythmics? Tears For Fears? Depeche?



Don't remember this one at all. Got that sort of painfully sharp sound. Solid. Makes all the right moves. Loads of little sample licks - is that a shard of "If I Was A Rich Man" that flashes past?



Rings only the faintest of bells.

Not sure when this Teebone VIP remix is from  - fiercer






Don't think I ever heard this.  Pretty average stuff.



Know this one but not this version.  Good stuff.

This is the more familiar version, to me.





Another one where the title rings the bell but no sound-images filled my mind's ear. And it's fine moody stuff. Feel more could be done with the vocal sample.  Middle bit with odd chimes is good.




I know this one well. Unless memory betrays me, what's featured - in the intro - is one of those BBC Radiophonic Workshop cue from a Sounds Effects album, Out of This World.  Then the track goes into pretty standard '94 bizniz - rock-solid on those terms (although the cosmic tweety-bird Radiophonic lick does recur). Reminds me a bit of the later volumes of Drum and Bass Selection - that got less enticing and more straightforward.

Oh yus, got it in one



from this




Back to Luke's junglizm selekkktions



D'Cruze starting to get a bit intelligent - but still ferocious. This has some mad rattling beatz and clock-springs a-tumbling sounds - and a bass-2-dark lunge that puts me in mind of Dillinja. Superior.




Don't recall this. Tough but formulaic.

Now this next one not sure which mix Luke favors









All ruff in their different ways.  Vaguely remember this vocal interpolation / adapation of "Buffalo Soldier" but nothing else. Sceniotic pressure as its most formidable - yet interchangeable. Essentialist - but is it essential?

Here's another later song called "Junglist Soldier" that does the same trick with "Buffalo Soldier". By the Stevie Hyper D





Now at this point in L's choices I'm starting to flash on the slightly battered feeling I'd have at 3 AM at a place like Roast or Thunder & Joy where you kind of started to wish they'd vary it up a bit. The musical / ambient-y directions in jungle were not getting hardly any play on the ravefloor - you would hear Moving Shadow only if it was "Terrorist" or "Dead Dred", things in that vein. And that's why Speeed was such a refreshing development initially.

But again, supersolid tune - fautless in its way. Just nothing exceptional about it to my ears.



Never heard this, never heard of this. All right.



Recognised this in the first two seconds but could not have named it, I don't think.  Then comes the serpentile sax-lick either directly from - or in the style of - "Rumpshaker".  Then "send fi the new gun" - and the mad bed-spring sproingy drums. Standard bizniz ninety-four style. Firing - one for the canon for sure.



Know this one of course but overlooked it when doing either of my lists...  Yup, luvvit. Love the piano exercises (Beethoven?).. The drums sound like they are going into the redzone - borderline painful.



Good - and I remember it - but mostly for the vocal performance. Everything else is fairly standard, Think-y and bashy.



Nice.



Fatigue setting in. Getting that "shall we go to the cloakroom, head for the night bus" feeling.

I mean, "changing same", sure, I get... but can it be a bit less samey? A tad more changing?



And then with the right pilfered vocal licks, you could get your second-wind - "jah set it", "bang bang bang bang diddly bong diddly bong bong bong" - sheer refreshment like a cold breeze.  Heard this one dozens of times.

This version slightly different I think



More from the mighty X Project - not sure which of these "Unknown"'s Luka means





Neither seem anything special to me



This one I know, but didn't think to include. Ruff stuff -  sick Mentazms that really feel like they're been twisted, wrapped up in strange braids.  That Beltramoid/Belgianoid element perhaps making it feeling more hardcore than jungle maybe.




In all honesty I don't think I have ever reckoned much on a Lemon D tune. This is all right as far as it goes.



Rootsy 'n 'rinsing.



Rootsy 'n 'rinsing #2. (Good gassy sort of bass turbulence though).



What's that break called then? The one with the sort of top heavy cymbals that made the whole groove feel like it's slanted. Good this, but very spartan. I do not recall if I ever heard this.

This next one I remember the title but nothing springs to mind's ear



But as soon as i hear the "Arsonist" vocal licks, it floods back. Good this in that Aphrodite trampoline-bouncy sort of way -  rinse turning into jump-up



This one I do know of course - but omitted to select. To me perhaps too straightforward a junglization of the classic hardcore tune to really demand canonisation. Still an early sign of the continuumity syndrome that would really flower with all those UKG remakes of ardkore and jungle.



Another one I know - by the vocal lick really - and neglected to include although deserving of Top 200 placement definitely.  The vocal lick was used earlier in an Andy C that I actually am much fonder of - "Slip N' Slide".







A name I never come across at the time, ever - but much later on realised the likes of Mike Paradinas and Hellfish & Producer and various other ardkore scholars rate them in a quite cultic sort of way.  One of these days - months - years? - I will have to give their corpus a proper once-over. This seems good but not quite canonic.



Don't recall this at all from back in the day - excellent intelligence-streaked tune.



Don't recall it specifically although many of the elements are such jungle / UKG cliches (potent cliches, for sure) that it feels deja vu. Hang on a minute - the diva lick comes in and yes totally familiar. Bit of a minor classic.



There's another tune with the "as we enter" lick in it, right? Don't recall this one at all. It's... fine.



Pretty certain I've got this - but couldn't remember the tune at all. Yes it's another of those very solid Full Cycle  / V Recordings style tunes - nifty beats, bippety glow-bass  - but for all that a little bit.... dry?  Got a bunch of these but only a few of them really lodge in my heart.



Another in the same vein, a little more lovable on account of the more melodic elements. The drumz though are always superb - like a jazz drummer taking a solo, turned into a groove.



One of these days will have to methodically assemble and digest the Tom & Jerry vastness. Suffice to say this is one of theirs that does not ring a bell. (Did 4 Hero give themselves the alias as their get-out clause to do some full-bore pandering to the massive's needs?)



Conscious jump-up.... ringing only the faintest of bells.




Perfectly generic.



Remember the name and the title; think I might have it; wouldn't know from Adam if I just heard it blind. A disappointing follow-up to "The Dark Stranger", if it was the follow-up, which I think it was - but can't be bothered to look up.




Oh yes, the corny Hellraiser samples. Video-nasty junglizm was a thing - the lingering of darkside vibes.  Efficient in all other respects.



The name is familiar - it's unforgettable. The tune is unfamiliar. Bit of a minor classic - got a different, twisted sort of feel to it. At least at first, then it goes into more usual pattern - but fierce. Yes, one for the canon - lower reaches, though.

But what about all the other mixes?






Now this one is probably on the Planet Mu CD I did the sleevenotes for...



But I don't recall it from the era itself. It's full-rinse, supersolid grist for the mix-mill, but otherwise unremarkable.




Of course I remember this one...

The snares are really good in a fussy, irritatively infolded sort of way.

A bunch of mixes including
this Desire State one

and this 'Rollin' Mix' by trace


and one by Hype n all







The PE#1 noise weebling away. Barrington Levy beebling away. Yes, a classic in its way.



Heard the "Tempo" sound in jungle tunes - that creaky tingly echo-chamber noise at the start - , but never heard this literal translation of the entire 80s dancehall classic vocal into the jungle template.



If I forgot to include this in my list, a major omission. A woogly sampladelic-ooze vocal classic. I think I'm more familiar with a later remix of this, though.




aka Drum Pan Sound. Yes, a mighty classic, a staple - a major omission from my list.