mouth music (electrostutterdelic)

Nitro Deluxe-Mission (Say Your Love) (1987 House) from beantownboogiedown on Vimeo.

the demented "Say Your Love" mix of "On A Mission" by the mighty Nitro Deluxe

"where it's 1993 every day"

retro-darkcore from vinyl-only fundamentalists Demonic Possession Recordings




FX of Demonic Possession interviewed by Drumtrip's Law

"MP3 weren’t available in 1993, so for me to put the tracks into digital form would detract massively from their authenticity! .... it is no word of a lie then I say that I don’t even make digital masters of the releases for my own uses. I will get dubs cut to test out new tracks...  Demonic stuff is designed from the ground up to be enjoyed on wax, so if you don’t own the physical record you are kind of missing the point!"

"The dark sound is by far my favourite flavour in the rave scene and there was a period during late ’92 though to the ‘Dark Summer’ of ’93 where pretty much anything went musically, and people were really experimenting with what samplers and breakbeats could do....   I think there is still a lot of mileage left in experimenting with those sounds as the scene was progressing so quickly back then. Back then, the emphasis was always on finding something ‘new’ to push the musical barriers, and not necessarily exploiting all that a particular ‘current’ sound had to offer, so I do feel that this particular era ended prematurely." 



"I also listen to a lot of late 70’s punk stuff, as I really love the unstructured and chaotic DIY ethos of that whole scene. Once you scratch beneath the surface of the Sex Pistols / Clash / Buzzcocks etc, there is a whole world of music that is very similar in nature to the early jungle movement. In fact, i truly believe that if they had had access to samplers in 1976, then hardcore would have happened a lot earlier! The vibe is the same, its just the instruments that are different."






Demonic Possession have their own interviews with darkcore heroes of theirs on the website

including Chaos + Julia Set

and

Pete Parsons

clanktronic

oldie but goodie

paranoia techno and woodland electronics

A late breaking gem,  lost a little maybe (November 11 release, days after the Cataclysm) from RunningOnAir. On Patterned Air Recordings,  the label responsible for one of the year's best: Creaking Haze and Other RaveGhosts, by Assembled Minds.

Exquisitely packaged, as they all are...

Particularly like this tune



release rationale: 

‘Lingering Post-Cold War Paranoia Techno’ 

‘Running On Air’ the album, was written in the 1990s by Joe Evans in his cable-strewn midi-bunker (at various times located in Glasgow, Northampton and London) using glowing hardware audio devices and a Mac Classic to rouse and rally them. It was born during a period when the internet had become accessible and useful to many; information was being shared, picked-over and proliferated by the masses like never before. It was also a time when the music industry first got a glimpse of its demise amidst blazing creativity and genre-fracturing musical discourse on forums, online radio stations, pirate radio stations and clubs — and the killer, file sharing. 

This album is a unique document of the times and exists as an amalgamation of themes and situations, rather than of genre or musical language. Civil unrest, insidious state surveillance, the searing blaze of toddling microchip technology, lingering post-Cold War paranoia, the abandonment of the natural world, machines with ambition, humans honing their steel-cold egotism, beautiful relationships in a world championing the moody lone ranger — all these themes lie down together, forming the timeless strata of ‘Running On Air’.


Was this really written / recorded in the 1990s, or is it made to sound like it was? That's what I wondered when reading the blurb above...  It doesn't sound like something actually from that time, as much as it stays within the technical limitations and tropes of that decade.  But perhaps this is just me being paranoid...  Nowadays you can't trust anything you read.

Patterned Air also have another release out around this time too - Woodland Walk by CukoO
 - this didn't grasp me quite as tightly as the RunningOnAir and Assembled Minds, although it's excellent stuff.



release rationale:

Sensory woodland analogue electronics and traditional classroom instrumentation.’

“The album I wrote a few years ago which was commissioned by Portage in Newham, London, is soon to be released on Patterned Air. It is a collection of tunes based on a trip to the woods and was originally written with Severely and Profoundly Disabled Children in mind. I wanted to write music that both the child and adult would enjoy as most music for children is written by idiots with no taste in music. I have a background in electronic/space rock/Gamelan/Egyptian/techno so therefore the music I write is ok.” — Victoria Wilson

As CukoO, Victoria Wilson creates music as a means of sensory stimulation for children with special needs. In the classroom, each track is played to the children and is accompanied by a physical item relating to the aural ‘story' (in the case of this first album, a woodland walk). This item (feather, pine cone, brush etc.) is used to stimulate the child by feel, sound, weight and texture so allowing them to experience a whole other dimension to the story and the sounds, becoming more deeply immersed in it and in their activated senses.

These works are beautiful examples of analogue electronic sounds balanced with traditional classroom instrumentation. So, sitting happily alongside an EMS VCS3 analogue synth, a Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape machine and various oscillators, we find sopranino and treble recorders, glockenspiel, clarinet, saxophone, bongos, acoustic guitar and all manner of other typically 1970’s music-classroom paraphernalia. And to this 70’s child, the music is redolent of those sunny, dusty music rooms, and nature walks through dank woods, the smell of crumbling corridors and daring adventures in the garden tangle and unknown streets.

afropeckham

(via Luka at Dissensus)



in this vein, gorgeous




sequel / semi-remake to this





another Luka fave, but via Woebot  - this one less lyrical and undulant,  more strutting and boombastic



and it has an Africanized version of that crazed choked backing vocal whoops thing you get so much in the rap music nowadays

"autoethnography of the willfully trashy, uncool, and… fun"

one of the few things to intrigue me to check it out on that TMT list of the year's best

"Captagon was the Belgian gabber scene’s drug of choice. No wonder: amphetamines were a minimum requirement to keep up with that sort of rhythm. Then again, the pill was also used to treat children with attention disorders; it was bound to have unexpected side effects sooner or later. A couple of decades past the gabber heyday, DJ Coquelin and MC Cloarec popped a couple of tabs, laid a scattershot but unmistakably demented beat, and started flipping the dial. JE M’EN TAPE was the aural register of such a journey, much more than the sound of an evening spent shaking your head out of its socket. The rush of clarity that the psychostimulant provided them blasted the duo through makina snippets, chopped-n-screwed Zeuhl, German hip-hop sketches, EBM relics, Italian tecnopop, and acid mixes of American pop hits, mapping the outskirts of the European electronic scene that trendy mags usually overlook. The stuff you’d find in gas station discount bins near the once-porous borders that birthed legends like the Gypsy Kings, DJ Bobo, Baccara, Gigi D’Agostino, Laid Back, or Mano Negra. An autoethnography of the willfully trashy, uncool, and… fun in the shape of a cassette. –JRODRIGUEZ6"

Captagon? Specifically favored by the Belgians? Not heard that one before but it's delivered authoritatively. I looked it up and all the articles about captagon seem to be about how it's ISIS troops drug of choice. Shades of this book which is on my must-to-read list... 

Back to the TMT list -  they have Future's EVOL in there - absent in every other end-of-year list - so their planet of sound converges with mine in at least one place. (Although I prefer Purple Reign). (But EVOL does have "Low Life" - jam of the year, unmentioned anywhere  - on it).

Oooh, they also have Jeremih’s Late Nights in their list - another point of convergence

and this particular astonishing track got mentioned in the tracks of year list, i believe



Overall though all the conceptronica and agit-noise and postvaporwave (Yves Tumor, Elysia Crampton, Anonhi, Arca, Babyfather....)   seems most unenticing to me (reasons to be explored more in end-of-yr-list on the main blog ).

and some not-very-original (indeed rather tardy) retrojunglist nostalgiaKORE- from 2016, precisely

shit be played out, to put it mildly, conceptually

entertainingly executed though



also from the FACT Top 50 albums list is this, coming more from a Caretaker/Death of Rave angle



bandcamp commenters say variously:

Like hearing a 90s rave through a long dark tunnel. The music evokes massive nostalgia and a mixture of joy and sadness. Exquisitely done, the snatches of recognisable tunes only adds to the feeling of otherness and times gone by.Favorite track: The Voices of Time.

and

Brilliant follow-up to the classical electronics of Chrysalis, perfectly tapping into the recent welcome nostalgia for early-'90s rave and jungle, in a distinctly sui generis fashion.Favorite track: Genesis 92: The Awakening.






Do me a fucking favour - this is almost literally a replay of Caretaker's The Death of Rave. 



The Death of Rave, with added guff. Viz, the press release:

Bristol, England-based sound artist and producer Sophia Loizou...  builds on the framework of [2014's] Chrysalis for her most ambitious offering to date. Ghostly remnants of hardcore and early jungle percolate throughout while fragments of radio transmissions seep in and out through tape-based processes and spectral processing, leaving the listener in a hauntingly beautiful landscape filled with both solidity and disintegration. Bringing back the times of pirate radio, almost like lost transmissions from beyond the grave, this work provides a sense of intimacy and familiarity during the contemporary full-speed acceleration toward unknown futures. Exploring its audiences' anxieties surrounding technological utopias while retaining an emphasis on nurturing human value when facing inhuman forces, Singulacra engages with the potential loss of human essence amid technological progress toward artificial intelligence.

12 years after The Death of Rave!

And 18 since Jega's retro-ardkore!

credits

the original retrojunglist nostalgiaKORE - from 1997!

"i got trust issues"

like that tinkly-twinkly IDM loop in the background

another misty-with-tears  traptronica toon on the radio at the mo



this one takes to the limit that whole backing thing of whoops, chokes, squawks, trills, gasps and single-word explosions


to be honest i feel there's not enough Future imitators - so the more the merrier

spiral tribe

"Nuts!"

"peaches shaped like donuts, split and juicy, just right"

they could have been an English Avalanches

nothing else quite as magic as that in their slender discogs, but this one is a blast



on the flip




the only one of their label-mates who came close




stuff i wrote (for Spin, in 1998) about these dudes under the dubious rubric of "intelligent big beat" -

Even as Bolshi tracks adhere to Big Beat's party-hard line (the music's "got to

make you move and make you smile," says label founder Sarah Francis), the best

of the label's otuput glistens with an inventiveness and delightful quirkiness

that's scarce in this increasingly witless genre. Take Rasmus, a Sweden-born but

London-based sampling wizard skilled at meshings seemingly incompatible elements

into a funktional rhythm-engine. "Afro (Blowin' In the Wind")--the highlight of

Rasmus debut album Mass Hysteria-- rubs a slice of conscious rapper Spearhead's

basketball-in-the-park reminiscences and some scratchadelic frenzy [illegible].

This messthetic of incongruity is something Rasmus gleaned from 'ardkore

producers like Sonz of A Loop Da Loop Era and Jonny L.

Black sheep of the Bolshi roster, Beachcomas are even more into

mix-and-mismatch. The partnership of programmer Matt Austin and

sample-finder/"chaotic influence" Tony Freeman, Beachcomas first scored on the

Big Beat scene with their Bolshi debut "It's Eggyplectic", a glorious

squelch-funk surge of jazzy keyboard licks, burbling clavinets, and fierce acid

stabs. But the duo really started to live up to their scavenger name--inspired

by the surreal sight of a bed washed up on the mudbanks of the Thames--with

"Donuts," an off-kilter delight that became the title track of the first Bolshi

compilation (where you can also find "Eggyplectic"). Its unlikely constituents

include quaint, regionally-inflected English voices, taped from a TV gardening

program, talking about "peaches, split and juicy", "strawberries," and "nuts and

medleys"; the panting of their pet dog, who refused to bark as desired; and a

clipped guitar riff stolen from the B-side of the Mekons first single, "Never

Been In A Riot". This influence from an earlier phase of indie-dance

crossover--the punk-funk of Delta 5 and Gang of Four--carries through to the Pop

Group sample on Beachcomas' latest EP for Bolshi, the disappointingly ungainly

"Big Tuddy Session". Although I could swear it's "Where There's A Will There Has

Got To Be A Way" (the Pop Group track on the split-single with The Slits's "In

The Beginning There Was Rhythm") that gets sampled on "Waiting For The Beach"

(from the second Bolshi EP, Planet Thanet; also available on Donuts 2).

Beachcomas say it's actually a Diana Ross loop, combined with rooster noises

generated from rubbing Styrofoam together. Either way it's a killer tune, if too

rhythmically eccentric to do well on the Big Beat circuit. Right now the

Beachcomas are the group who could do most with the album format ("Donuts" was

one of the most oddly poignant tracks I heard last year, strangely reminding me

of A.R. Kane's second album) but the artist least likely to get the chance.


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

Jungle Techno

very interesting interview with Paul Ibiza  done by Alex Deadman at We Love Jungle

(via DJ Dara)

Paul Ibiza being the founder of Ibiza Records, the first label associated with the concept of  "Jungle Techno" - a term that dates back to '91 as a Noise Factory track title

Ibiza itself dates back to 1989

The reggae connection was ancestral for Paul:

"... I began asking questions as my dad had a sound called Billy The Clown alongside Fatman Sound in 62. " Also "I’m connected to the early sound system pioneers such as Fatman International, Fonso, Sir Bigs, Rocky Sound System back then, as my granddad had a garage round the back of our house (in the60s) and would rent the garage out to all soundmen.... All the soundmen would come there on the weekend and share each other’s boxes... I used to watch all this as a kid in the 70s. They would fix amps, paint boxes, etc…"

Around time of forming Ibiza: "I found JTS and Music House (mastering and dubplate studios). JTS is run by Keith who owns Jah Tubby’s World Sound System, a sound that started in 1971. Then you had Chris at Music House who had a band called Black Slate, he was doing dubs for all the reggae men. When I found Music House, it was easy, I told Chris, ‘this is the new thing coming, it’s called hardcore’, (the term jungle was not used at that time). When he first heard it, he said ‘this is mad music man’. I said ‘Chris, this is the future’. He found it a bit mad because he was used to cutting reggae and this new hardcore stuff was a bit noisy for him but over time he got use to how I wanted the cut it loud as I was breaking musical rules."

Yet ironically the initial musical trigger came in large part from Europe (and Brooklyn via Belgium) - even the idea of sampling dancehall came from Beltram!

"A label called R & S Records in Germany had a tune by Joey Beltram called ‘My Sound’, that was the first time I heard a ragga sample in hardcore." 

(Although Ragga Twins also germinal). 

Interesting tidbit on how the dancehall vocal samples became so prominent: 

"The sound tapes used to be recorded in split stereo, one side would be the music and one side the vocal. We’d isolate the vocals and bring them into our tracks. That’s why all these jungle tracks are full of vocals from sound clashes."

The core figure: "James (Noise Factory) was with Ibiza Records up to our 12th release and at that point he went off to form 3rd Party with Terry T and a guy called Kevin Mullqueen. James then later joined Kemet Records...  If it wasn’t for him, there would be no jungle now!

Origin of the word "jungle", according to Paul Ibiza, is not "junglist" by way of Arnette Gardens (the jungle) in Kingston, but James Brown

"Whilst we were working on our 8th release there was an LP on the floor, a James Brown release called ‘In theJungle Groove’, 1975. So I said, ‘it must be a sign’. We agreed the track we were working on ,‘sounds jungly’, and this was when ‘jungle techno’ was born."

Later on Paul starts the Jungle Splash rave at The Rocket, Holloway Road in '94 and works with reggae label Jet Star to do the Jungle Hits comps.  

The present: "We have this new thing called Jungle Dub...  We’ve gone back to the sound system. I bought a sound system and taking it back full circle to the sound system days." 

vidtronics

via I Hate This Film:

"A mix of 1970s/80s video art soundtracks derived from ¾-inch U-matic tapes.

1. Laurie Spiegel - VTR theme (1976)
2. Roger Luther - Sleeper (video, Ed Mellnik, 1980)
3. Roy Sablosky - Late for Trinity (video, Ed Cornell, 1981)
4. David Stout - Study no. 1 (video, Michael Scroggins, 1983)
5. Philip Freihofner, Neil Rolnick - Digressions (video, Willard Rosenquist, Tom Hutcheson, Margaret Dhaemers, 1973)
6. Louis Chretiennot, Gilles Brand, Philippe Le Goff - Surf control (video, Fabrizio Plessi, Margaret Fisher, 1982)
7. Robert Hughes - War nerves (video, Margaret Fisher, 1983)
8. Wayne Clifford, Vincent Gallo, Claudia Porcelli (Bohack) - Stilwend (Michael Holman, 1981)
9. Warner Jepson - The electric concert (video, Stephen Beck, 1972)
10. Maggi Payne - Hikari (from Shimmer, video by Ed Tannenbaum, 1985)"

jungle music

",,,one long composition filled with raw sounds from the jungle, natural objects and electronic treatment. The idea to evoke a deep journey in the Amazon rainforest has affected various musicians in the history of popular and experimental music, but comparing to other works this rare Amazonia 6891, released only on cassette in 1986, appears as totally original and extreme in his conception. Here,  the interest in ethnomusicology of the expert Walter Maioli (mind of Aktuala and Futuro Antico projects) is linked to a precise and comprehensive ecological, botanical, ethological and ethnographic perspective. In fact, starting from the sound recording of the ethnographer Pit Piccinelli's collection of natural objects, the collected material for this work is re-elaborate in different times by the anthropologist and electronic pioneer Fred Gales and by Maioli him-self. The result of this multi-disciplinary approach its 'a long concrete poem of plant organisms, fields recordings of verses and calls of tropical animals futuristically mixed with electronic sounds, as already happened for the great experimental trials of Futuro Antico and Ariel Kalma's Osmose. Listen this imaginative collage look like to entering in a precious cabinet of antiquities and curiosity whose wonders of multi-coloured cellular fragments are shaped in the synthesis of a single universal sound matter. The merger between the wild jungle, the mysterious voices of the Indians and the oscillation of the electronic waves creates a spasmodic tension between amazing and heavenly moments that leaked also obscure paths and alien sequences. So, Amazonia 6891 it's a magic trip into the unknown wild, into abyss of creation of kaleidoscopic floras and faunas, simply a proposal for a synesthetic experience and multi-sensory. AVAILABLE ON: blacksweatrecords.tictail.com"

(h.t Hum Blog)

reminded me of



and also

liquid concrete

love the titles

wagner canvas

http://www.phinery.net/gs-sultan-redundancy-suite/

on the radio (continued)

the plaintiveness of rap'n'B today

IDMR&B

production on that...








 trak of the yr

on the radio

"im just proud of my accomplishments"

and endlessly, the song of the year - at least in this city, there's no contest:



well, some contest maybe: "Lowlife" first equal with "One Dance"

what i love in so many of these tunes is that backing vocals backdrop thing - (see also "Antidote", "Panda" -  the strange little strangled cries and gasps and seal-barks and choked outbursts -  the histrionic whoops with a rolled 'r' / first consonant

who invented that then?

hardcoreween mix

Robin the Fog mix of 90s darkcore and scary soundFX made by BBC boffins - actually done several months ago

Robin sez (or sed) "last week I had the good fortune to come across two separate vinyl treasure troves: the first a collection of mint-condition Oldskool Hardcore 12″s and the second a trio of LPs from the BBC’s classic Sounds Of Death And Horror SFX series. And I figured what better way to salute such outrageous good fortune than to produce a half-hour radio programme where these two separate worlds were slammed together?! The result is a truly joyous escapade that pits classic tracks by Noise Factory, Nebula II and Egyptian Empire against assorted werewolves, baying lunatics, killer bees, some eye-gouging and a cameo from Pacman himself. And while you’d be forgiven for assuming such behaviour to be the revolutionary outpourings of some dangerous maverick, it’s a curious truth that the opposing worlds of hardcore and horror have proved surprisingly compatible bedfellows in the past. Producers such as Boogie Times Tribe, Shy FX and Urban Shakedown (to name a few) have all pilfered Auntie’s scary sounds to great effect, and this classic track by MC Lethal just might have sampled one of the ominously tolling bells on the second side of Even More Sounds Of Death and Horror, but the jury is still out on that one (the jury is me)."

2BM

feeling this new tune by 2 Bad Mice 

sort of matured and chilled old skool with a deeper vibe

shades of 'waremouse' but mellowed out 

love MC Flux's contributions 

this other track from the forthcoming Gone Too Soon EP - first release in over a decade - is more straightforwardly retro-rave 

ooh and there's this too which has me flashing on the dense murky choppage of the Underworld EP

LostFuture Sound of London

FSOL jumping a tad belatedly on the haunty bandwagon?

I mean this description off of Discogs is very Mordant Dead Air, don't you think?

Blackhill Transmitter

Real Name:

Brian Dougans & Gary Cobain

Profile:

The once active transmitter / receiver now lies silent albeit for the faint crackling and buzzing as if ghosts from the past still wish to be heard...

Then there's the analogue-is-over resonance of the name:

The Black Hill transmitting station is a facility for FM and TV broadcasting at Black Hill (grid reference NS828647), on Duntilland Road, Salsburgh, North Lanarkshire,Scotland which is near the town of Airdrie.... The present mast is the second to have been built at the site. The first, built in 1957 brought the Independent Television service to Central Scotland and opened for service on 31 August 1957.,,,,  In June 2011, Black Hill became the final transmitter in Scotland to switch off analogue television. 

Then there's the artwork

squat acid

back in the day, always liked the idea of liking this stuff, for its spirit



and for the title of the comp It's Not Intelligent... It's Not From Detroit... But It's Fuckin' Aving It!!!



the reality though...





it's a bit wearing





i wonder why i find it more wearing than gabba, which is faster and more punitive?



often the inspiration seems to extend as far as the artist name and the track title





okay i am highly amused by these

dissensus jungle poll - forgotten / never knew, part 4

And now for Sadmanbarty's list

Jee-ZUS, look at the length of it (this after I've removed the ones I already know!)

Kid J- Sound Boy
Dread & The Baldhead- Wicked Piece A Tune
The Junglites- Who De Bombo Clart
Aquarius- Aquatic
Higher Sense- Listen Up
Elementz of Noize- Hit The Deck
Aquarius & Tayla- Bringing Me Down
Trinity- Gangsta
The JB- Back To Life (the dedication)
T Power- Lip Sing Jam Ring
Loggi- Loggi’s Life
JMJ & Ritchie- Free La Funk (PFM Remix)
Dubtronix- Pass De Dub
Dubtronix- Dibi DJ
Chimeira- Deeper Life (Northern Connexion Remix)
John- Dreams of Heaven (Shorty’s Mix)
Anthony x Cursa- Mind Control
Psykis- Pretend
Codename John- Dreams of Heaven (Shorty’s Mix)
Remarc- Drum n Bass Wise (Remix)
Redlight- Wow Yeah
General Degree- Papa Lover
Prizna- Fire (Rogue Unit)
Dr Jay & DJ Rush Puppy- Respect
Red Light- - Wow Yeah
Red Light - Sensi
Red Light - Killer Sound Boy Nitty Gritty
DJ Trace- Final Chapta (Rollers Mix)
Splash - Babylon (DJ SS Remix)
Babylon (DJ Trace Mix pII)
Psykis- Pretend
XTC- The Way
General Degree- Papa Lover Jungle (Vocal Mix)
FOI- One More Stripe
Dr Jay & DJ Rush Puppy- [Morning Rush EP- Track 1]
General Levy- Wikkeda!!
Dubtronix featuring GE Real- Kill Some Sounds
Urban Tribe- [SAS Records Presents Urban Tribe side A]
Smokey Joe- Shaka
The New Crew featuring General Pecos- Run Come (Hardstep Mix)
D’Cruze- Big Up
Prizna featuring the Demolition Man- Fire (Original Mix)
A Zone- Safety Zone
Mark Caro- Sling Wilde
Aquarius & Tayla- Bringing Me Down
Roni Size- Phyzical (Vintage Remix)
Tek 9- Killing Time
Lemon D- Feel It
Urban Jungle- Back In The Days (Sexy Ladies Mix)
Fallen Angels- Oh Yeah
Anthony x Cursa- Mind Control

There's a few in there where I recognise the name / title but no bells do ring - or where I know the tune, but not that particular remix. But the vast bulk are just zero recognition cases.

No way I'm going to actively comment on all of these - so what I'll do is highlight a few of these unknowns that feel special to me.




This one qualifies - nice eerie glinky slow-mo hynpo sounds noises at the start - then launches into more standard full-rinse battery, in the Dread Bass mode.




Again, good eerie intro - and then into tearing criss-crossfire of breaks, with nice clanking mechanistic killing-machine sort of haywire juggernaut feel, Rather more ideas in this than the norm with dancefloor-targeted D&B by this point - perhaps too many to really succeed (which explains maybe why i never heard this on any ravefloor). But earns points for effort.



Photek, in disguise - flipside to the "Dolphin Tune" - and like that tune very much taking on the Good Looking vybe. But a bit more propulsive - and in fact, despite the title, not that aquafunk in atmosphere.  Nice, but slighty run of the mill. I've already broken my not commenting on anything but killa tunes rule. Actually when it strips down it gets quite exciting in a spring-heeled cheetah sort of way.




Good one - unusual hissy-rustly beats, with something of a drum-solo-ish feel, and nicely warped and origami-folded vox from Anonymous Diva. Yup this is bit of a minor classic.



This one struck me as faultless and ferocious - yet not especially loveable. All right moves made, though.



Mr Parkes again, in tandem with Tayla.  I have this on the Logical Progression CD, of course -  but it must have washed over me as I have no recollection of it at all. Good Looking really was a clone fest, a curious exercise in narcissism, endless aural-mirror images of Danny Boy.  As impersonation goes this is immaculately done, with similarly clicky drum textures and warm blurry bass-booms as on "Atlantis". Whale cries too.



I never rated T Power that much - "Mutant Jazz" was alright - horn lick fabulously plastic, the beats a bit thin and reedy - but it was surpassed by the famous remix by Trace. The Self-Evident Truth of An Intuitive Mind left little impression, felt part of the nauseous glut of intelligence.  Listening to this tune now, though, I must admit - it sounds really good - different. Clattery metallic textures, distraught diva effectively latticed, melodic glints and overall a nice vaguely Eastern atmosphere that carries with it a faint future-scent of sinogrime.  Yup, something for the ever-enlarging canon (but pretty low down the rankings).

I must go through the Soapbar tunes at some point.

This though has got to be one of the gross covers of an era which had more than its fair share!

This next one is someone I have never even heard of, ever. On SOUR though.



Actually really rather good - like brisk, hissing, rotator-break  - vocal a bit blah, and the keys a bit wet. Much improved when it cuts back down to drums and bass - mad scuttling skitters of percush

So far it's been high yield, there have not been many I've just passed by altogether.

Inclined to like a tune that's on EP called Murder Dem EP, and that's on a label called Sub Assertive Sounds or S.A.S. for short. And with "Who Dares Wins" on the label too!



And this one is an unusual beat-structure -  different enough to include here but i don't if I'd add it to the ever-enlargening Canon, if honest.


Now we had Chimeira "Deeper Life" before, but not this remix I don't think



Great intro with the wavery spasms of vocal...  And then absolute bedlam with the falling down the stairs breaks that flip to feel like falling up the stairs breaks

Yes this is something to add to the Great Ones List


Gonna take a pause for the cause here  as I'm less than half way through the Sadmanbarty list - have to resume at at a later date when things aren't quite so Shock and Awe-fully hectic

but as provisional closure, a few thoughts on what makes a track Essential and Canon Worthy

one of the things with a music like jungle is that as a cultural formation it was so new, different, bracing that on a certain level ALL of it sounded amazing - because the fundamental proposition of the music is challenging, head-disrupting, life-rearranging. Such that virtually any instantiation of those generic properties done reasonably well is exciting to a fan.   In such circumstances the difference between a Classic and a solidly executed tune is less clear; only the truly sub-par, not-up-to-snuff, verging on defective tune rules itself out of consideration and contention.

When time elapses, though, the newness factor fades, and the canon starts to settle into shape

Seems like there's two bases on which a candidacy of canon-worthiness can be mounted

1. EXEMPLARY-NESS
absolute conformity to what the genre is about - not just essential but essentialist. Consummate genre-icity that approaches the definitive, in the sense of defining what this music and how it works. Example - "Terrorist" by Renegade.

2/ DIFFERENCE
the tracks that stretch the format, bend the form, renew the music, strange-ify it, push it forward into new spaces, open up unexpected possibilities - or become odd one-offs, that are never followed by anyone else. The quirky, the bent, the unusual groove, the uncommonly atmospheric or abstract-leaning. Example - "Drowning In Her" by Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse aka Foul Play - a track for which there is no like in all of jungle.

Okay, back in a bit... ciao for now.

électronique féminine

(via Hum Blog)

tracklist

1. Glynis Jones : Magic Bird Song (1976)
2. Doris Norton : Norton Rythm Soft (1986)
3. Colette Magny : « Avec » Poème (1966)
4. Daphne Oram : Just For You (Excerpt 1)
5. Laurie Spiegel : Clockworks (1974)
6. Pauline Oliveiros : Bog Bog (1966)
7. Megan Roberts – I Could Sit Here All Day (1977)
8. Suzanne Ciani : Paris 1971
9. Laurie Anderson : Tape Bow Trio (Say Yes) (1981)
10. Glynis Jones : Schlum Rooli (1975)
11. Ruth White : Mists And Rains (1969)
12. Wendy Carlos : Spring (1972)
13. Ann McMillan : Syrinx (1978)
14. Delia Derbyshire : Restless Relays (1969)
15. Maggi Payne : Flights Of Fancy (1986)
16. Else Marie Pade : Syv Cirkler (1958)
17. Daniela Casa : Ricerca Della Materia (1975)
18. The Space Lady : Domine, Libra Nos (1990)
19. Johanna Beyer : Music Of The Spheres [1938]
20. Maddalena Fagandini : Interval Signal (1960)
21. Eliane Radigue : Chryptus I (1970)
22. Ruth White : Owls (1969)
23. Ursula Bogner : Speichen
24. Beatriz Ferreyra – Demeures Aquatiques (1967)
25. Doris Norton : War Mania Analysis (1983)
26. Tera De Marez Oyens : Safed
27. Daphne Oram : Rhythmic Variation II (1962)
28. Mireille Chamass-Kyrou : Etude 1 (1960)
29. Laurie Spiegel : Drums (1983)
30. Teresa Rampazzi : Stomaco 2
31. Teresa Rampazzi : Esofago 1
32. Suzanne Ciani : Fourth Voice: Sound Of Wetness (1970)
33. Ursula Bogner : Expansion (1979)
34. Alice Shields : Sacrifice (1993)
35. Megan Roberts and Raymond Ghirardo : ATVO II (1987)
36. Laurie Anderson : Drums (1981)
37. Doris Hays : Somersault Beat (1971)
38. Lily Greenham : Tillid (1973)
39. Ruth Anderson : Points (1973-74)
40. Pril Smiley : Kolyosa (1970)
41. Catherine Christer Hennix : The Electric Harpsichord (1976)
42. Joan La Barbara : Solo for Voice 45 (from Songbooks) (1977)
43. Slava Tsukerman, Brenda Hutchinson & Clive Smith : Night Club 1 (1983)
44. Monique Rollin : Motet (Etude Vocale)
45. Sofia Gubaidulina : Vivente – Non Vivente (1970)
46. Ruth White : Spleen (1967)
47. Doris Hays : Scared Trip (1971)
48. Daphne Oram : Pulse Persephone (Alternate Parts For Mixing)
49. Maggi Payne : Gamelan (1984)
50. Laurie Spiegel : The Unquestioned Answer (1980)
51. Ursula Bogner : Homöostat (1985)
52. Wendy Carlos : Summer (1972)
53. Suzanne Ciani : Princess With Orange Feet
54. Pauline Oliveiros : Poem Of Change (1993)
55. Suzanne Ciani : Thirteenth Voice: And All Dreams Are Not For Sale (1970)

taking (re) issue

Blog to the Old Skool with a follow-up / riposte to that "renaissance of hardcore"  piece, filling in the gaps  in Ian McQuaid's history of ardkore and junglizm reissue labels, and giving special love to . the Formation box set, the  reissue of Potential Bad Boy's "Everyday Child" out of which spawned two labels, Sublogic and 92 Retro (never heard of the latter!) along with more recent imprints like Seventh Storey Projects and Scientific Wax.

when i was a yout i use to bun collie weed in a rizla

and a mad remix



off this odd (and oddly spelled)  multi-artist EP on Boogie Beat - Techicians Flingdown Pt 1











scanning the Boogie Beat discography I realise that I have not sufficiently got to grips with their copious outflow


pirate radio sesh from the Boogie Beat cru



tribute mix

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.