Absolutely unbelievable record.
First heard UFO at the Paradiso in Amsterdam in 97 (i think) . It was a a club night during an “Aliens are Real” conference. A very mindbending few days in many ways but I had to get that record and it is forever linked to those heady days. Both sides are superb.
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Jungle is in quite a good place again right now, the 92/93/94 sounds are all popular again with young djs and producers. Not a bad time to jump back in as a dj if you like the sound.
I personally like the way Sherelle mixes up classic jungle and jungle techno with the juke sounds, but there are more trad jungle revivalists as well.
That’s a really nice read and must have been an incredible time and place for the regulars. Think i went to see some of those DJ’s here later on but can’t really remember what it sounded like.
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All the Randall tapes on Yaman are incredible and free of MC’s messing up the flow.
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That is a very good one as is pretty much anything recorded by the regular djs at AWOL. The guest spots by Fabio and Hype are great too. These mixes have aged far better than any House ones from the time… Have to mention DJ Ron as well, Easter Roast one is immense. Hopefully his b2b with Randall at AWOL will surface
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That’s a very good point about these mixes ageing better than house mixes from the same time, the mixing is always so tight and the music still sounds fresh and exciting
Marky’s LK would cause pandemonium at one thing i used to go to. Can’t say i’ve heard much new dnb tho in last 20 years thiugh. I’m good pals with Nucleus if anyone knows him. Very underrated disco/funk dj too
Just found this review/story on Discogs.
From Karl Richards.
Another two Speed classics from back in the day… Both of which just blew us away, though it was particularly ‘Rings Of Saturn’ that hooked us into it. I remember thinking to myself while a group of us were down at SPEED listening to this track for the first time, “How the hell does one dance to this stuff… ?” We just couldn’t help but say to each other “Totally Sci-Fi, man… Totally Sci-Fi.” nodding our heads away in rhythmic acknowledgement about how good this was. This was another one of those classic tracks that totally managed to break Drum & Bass out of the confined amen break mould that many artists had consigned themselves to repeat ad-infinitum.
The B side, called ‘Rings Of Saturn’, was the first of these two that we heard being played out. If I remember rightly, it got a double rewind that evening at SPEED under Bukem’s hand. I still recall just how enamoured I was with that sound. I had to push my way through the crowd over to the decks to ask some tall chap standing there, behind Bukem while he was spinning, what this was called. He looked over at the acetate revolving around and just shrugged back at me. In many ways it didn’t matter what it was called… That sound of the rain falling down, pitter-patter, with wind chimes gentle knocking together as though a light breeze had blown through them, sent shivers up my spine… One just didn’t have tunes like this anywhere else… Then those congos that echoed out a sort of sparse rhythmic pattern, left you guessing where it could go next. A bar or so latter, it was all accompanied by a lush, tremolo’ed metallic Rhodes sound (which is the sample taken from Pharoah Sander’s track called “Astral Travelling”), who’s two notes seemed to be tangled with bird-song. Then came in that punchy double bass, layered for effect with some subtle guitar licks to give a totally funked “way-out there” feeling… Eventually some electronic strings layer over the top of the mix for a minute or two, letting the listener soak up this astral vibe, until some extra punchy hits dart out of the mix, driving it way, way off the usual Drum & Bass mode. As it progressed, this concoction of melody and abstract rhythm marched my imagination away, off into the outer reaches of space. Subtle changes let it develop gradually, eventually leading the whole track into just a drum and bass work out… A work out that was so far-out, you’d never heard anything anywhere like it before.
Later that evening, while up at the bar buying a couple bottles of water, I noticed the guy who I had spoken to behind the decks earlier. He nodded to me and said that the sample was off a Pharoah Sanders track and that the tune itself was called ‘Saturn’ by ‘Codes of Practice’ (one of Photek’s aliases). We know that’s not the case now, but that was the vagueness with which a lot of these acetates came around with. Most hadn’t even got names when they were handed over on DAT to the DJs to cut up at Music House and then play out the very next weekend. Still, being a boy who had grown up with images of Saturn on my bedroom walls, most which had been gathered from the Voyager 1 mission, I totally got the feeling as to why it was named so.
The Pharoah Sander’s track, which ‘Rings Of Saturn’ samples, is called ‘Astral Travelling’ and can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsiQ8YNhEnQ&feature=kp
Certainly the A side was played out a fair bit too… Though it was darker and more minimal than a lot of the other tunes being played down at SPEED at the time. Saying that, some of the guys I went down there with were huge X-Files fans, which I remember everyone was into at the time on TV, so it kind of suited the era. Still, it was the minimal beat work that got me grooving to this… As when it was played on the dance floor, it just opened it up to a shuffle step, rude-bwoy style. Listening to it at the time before knoew what it was (and thinking of ‘Swing Time’ and ‘The Wedge’ on Metalheadz), I originally thought that it was probably a Hidden Agenda number… However, after recognizing a brief out lay of hashed up ‘Natural Born Killa EP’ style break-editing layered in between some them beats, it dawned on me that it was probably a Rupert Parks special.
For most people, I think it was (and still is) ‘Rings Of Saturn’ that takes the trophy… One can still play it out today, whether in ambient sets, Drum & Bass sets, etc… Thus it’s timeless… Not to mention that its versatility was a direct result of one of Drum & Basses geniuses that dared to see how far the sound could be pushed beyond the rest. Easily 5/5!
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Yes, it’s great I have read that before but it was lovely to read again.
I always think it sounds like a literal Jungle - it’s that drum programming. Wonderful.
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Metalheadz and Speed were both amazing, loved that feeling of a completely new sound & culture being built. I remember watching someone at Metalheadz trying to roll a joint on one of the speakerboxes and failing because it was vibrating so hard. And being pushed over by Goldie at Speed (to be fair I was dressed like a shorter fatter Jarvis Cocker)
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Here is a classic mix of oldschool jungle done by todd osborn in the early 2000s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu5rvhXpIOs&ab_channel=puppet
I’m currently listening to this formless podcast by Response of classic jungle tracks
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Ok. I feel this is a thread I can contribute to.
What sort of thing are you after, or is it just a general explore?
I recently found this pfm mix of older stuff. It’s brilliant and ‘drift to the centre’ in the middle is till timeless - https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/ujo9THKKT7LDAiin8
I guess this would be considered more jungle. Used to listen to this loads - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JF9jHCMvqnw
One of the sets that got me hooked was bukem’s second essential mix - https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/bWPhCYEPrLvVrTo76
Sadly the recording on this is terrible, but the start of this full cycle set is great - Mixcloud
Last for now. As an underrated ‘jungle’ record that came out later, this dkay tune was the business -
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Don’t know what i’m after specifically was just trying to find a couple of decent classic jungle mixes from when it was happening. Think i found quite a few so far, been listening to 4 or 5 posted earlier, all good. Will give these a run too though i have a few lined up. And yeah nice tune!
One of the original Jungle tunes, if not the original apparently.
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Bristol killing it in the late 90s with the Full Cycle crew, this one is so simple but effective, when that bass comes in on a big system…
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