All of these tracks can be found on YouTube, often with record label links should you wish to purchase hi resolution copies. Do the right thing. Support independent record labels and their artists!
Crikey. 1994. The year that ‘jungle’ as a musical style in its purest form came to exist. That is, no hardcore elements, no pianos, little or no influence from any where else in the world except the UK and Jamaica, highly edited drum patterns, bass that turned your head inside out, a foundation of two complex yet simple elements (drum and bass) and a very distinct separation from the emerging happy hardcore scene that came to be known forever more as ‘the split’.
The beautiful thing about 1994 was that it waved a flag at producers and DJs that kind of said ‘come on then, if you think your ‘ard enough’. It presented a challenge to throw down the hardest of beats and the tuffest of basslines that goaded the next person to do it better and harder and deeper in a way that mirrored dancehall culture of the 60s. And they did just that. DJs cut one off acetate dubplates straight from DAT tapes, passed on by fellow DJs and producers, in a bid to outdo rival DJs stepping up into the booth.
The Amen break (see The Winstons – Amen Brother in our Breakbeat Origins section) break among others came to symbolise the sound of the entire movement, and the first seeds of ‘choppage‘ were sown this year, that is, the intense manipulation of the breakbeat in as shorter space as possible, in order to make a piece of music within a piece of music from drums alone. Track 4 is the perfect introduction to this. Pop back into 1989 after this section and see how far it had come in 5 short years!
As ever, we are presenting some stone cold classics, some lesser known beauties and some tracks that no self respecting website would ever consider missing out. We’ve decided to open up a separate section for the emerging intelligent drum and bass sound, as for us, this is where drum and bass a musical entity started to exist. It was when the breaks dropped out of jungle that it too became drum and bass, and then intelligent drum and bass became liquid. Confusing, eh? Just our take on it. You might feel differently. Also as ever, this is a springboard into deeper territory and NOT a best of or best sellers run down. You want more? It’s all out there. You just have to find it.
