Jungle

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Jungle is a style of electronic music that is characterized by fast broken rhythms, so-called breakbeats .

The style emerged under strong influences from the tradition of raggamuffin and dancehall from British hardcore . Jungle is regarded as the forerunner of the drum and bass music style, which is strongly influenced by synthetic timbres , techno influences and rhythms (breakbeat) . The jungle terror genre emerged in the 2010s, but jungle has no direct influence on it.

designation

In the Tivoli Gardens district of Kingston / Jamaica , also called Jungle by the locals , the junglists (also called TGs ) were the dominant gang and Kingston-wide feared. In the live recordings of sound system tapes from Jamaica from the 1980s, you can hear how the deejays and MCs cheer the local gangs between songs, such as “Maximum respect to all the junglists!” Or “Big up all junglists” ! ". These tapes were also circulating in England in the early 1990s, the big-ups were sampled and used in their own productions. Since the term jungle sounds good regardless of the actual origin, the name stuck.

In England the term jungle is still used synonymously with drum and bass . This is primarily due to the great success of the Jungle at the time. In addition, drum and bass, which quickly emancipated itself into its own genre, was initially considered a pure sub-style of the jungle. The original jungle of producers of Caribbean origin is therefore often referred to as the ragga jungle to distinguish it.

stylistics

Jungle consists of electronically accelerated, pitched and / or chopped up beats. Above all, the breaks from old funk pieces were used. The so-called amen break is particularly popular . Another popular break is that of the track " Apache " by Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band . As a contrast to the fast, syncopated beats, a bassline that is half as fast, i.e. played in half time , is used. Compared to today's drum and bass, the breakbeats had a metallic clattering, apparently overturning sound.

Jungletracks are generally kept at a tempo of around 170 BPM . This speed is chosen in such a way that the human ear is already very tempted to hear the heavy beats at half the speed. This contrast is further emphasized by the fast drums and the slow bassline and makes up a large part of the appeal of this style. The same effect also comes into play in drum and bass, which, however, adapted to the constant acceleration of modern dance music, is played a lot faster. Most of the jungle tracks created in the first half of the 1990s were accompanied by a toasting MC. The links to Jamaica's Raggamuffin were also very strong in the lyrics.

development

Bob Marley introduced elements of the later jungle and drum-and-bass styles on his concert tours (particularly in 1979); For example, the instrumental middle parts of the songs "The Heathen" (e.g. in Toronto 1979) and " Exodus " (e.g. in Oakland 1979) contained continuously recorded electronic sound distortions, while Aston Barrett supplied the wobbling bass line and Carlton Barrett to the Played Rockers-style drums with breakbeat-like improvisations.

Jungle was developed and produced in England by musicians of Caribbean origin in the first half of the 1990s . There he achieved such popularity that at times several jungle tracks were simultaneously represented in the British charts. Many of the first Jungletunes were produced with the most primitive means, for example Some Justice by Aphrodite and Micky Finn , which was produced on two Amiga 500s with the help of a tracker .

Simultaneously with the success of the original jungle, producers had already developed the jungle stylistically. The music became more minimalist, especially the ragga elements almost completely disappeared. Darkside , a subgenre of the jungle, for example, relied on a very dark atmosphere. In 1993 Goldie produced the track Terminator . It is regarded as the blueprint of a new style that was to replace jungle in the mid-1990s: drum and bass.

Typical tracks

  • M Beat feat. General Levy - Incredible
  • UK Apache & Shy FX - Original Nuttah
  • Aphrodite & Mickey Finn - Some Justice
  • Marvelous Cain - The Hitman
  • Deep Blue - The Helicopter Tune
  • DJ Zinc - Super Sharp Shooter
  • Renegade - terrorist
  • Ascend & Ultravibe - Dread Bass
  • LTJ Bukem - Demon's Theme
  • Q Project - Champion Sound
  • Johnny Jungle - Johnny
  • Reputed Kru - Dark Rider
  • Prizna feat Demolition Man - Fire
  • Firefox & Fourtree - Warning
  • The Dream Team - Stamina
  • DJ Nut Nut feat. Topcat & Frankie Paul - Special Dedication
  • Uncle 22 - 6 Million Ways To Die
  • Stevie Hyper D - Junglist Soldier
  • Sub Focus - Last Jungle

Important representatives

DJs:

Important labels

Web links