late 90s tech-step

craner

craner

Beast of Burden
Well that Boymerang track is fantastic, always was, nobody had any argument with it. Dynamic as fuck, unlike Wormhole. Which still perplexes me.
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
Has anyone ever done a forthright racial critique of the degradation of jungle? Ragga backlash, the committee, the rise of techstep, simplified rhythms, removal of funk. bi-racial production scene going almost exclusively white, student popularity, bass disappearing in favour of mid-range riffs... culminating in the ultimate exemplar of whiteness, the heavy metal/rock crossover...
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I dunno if I can recommend this cos IC3 (the MC) gets on my nerves but it's a good mix of some of those late 90s tech choons


Friction live 96-02 Classics set @ Renegade Hardware

01. Dillinja - All Aboard
>> Ed Rush and Optical - Watermelon
02. Souljah - Fade 2 Black
>> Ed Rush - Subway
03. Dom & Optical - Quadrant 6
04. Trace - Sonar
05. Mampi Swift - Hi-Tek
06. Moving Fusion - Turbulence
>> Digital & Spirit - Phantom Force
07. Dom & Roland - Thunder
08. Future Forces - Dead By Dawn
09. Dillinja - Acid Trak
>> Jonny L - See Red
10. Adam F - Metropolis
11. Dillinja - Deep Deadly Subs
12. Dillinja - The Angels Fell
13. Boymerang - Still
14. Bad Company - Four Days
15. Kraken - Side Effects
16. Stakka & Skynet feat. Kemal & Rob Data - Biosfear
17. Moving Fusion - The Beginning
18. Jonny L - Piper
19. Optical - To Shape The Future
20. Stakka & Skynet feat. DJ Friction - Altitude
21. Bad Company - Planet Dust
22. Ed Rush & Optical - Medicine (Matrix Remix)
23. Konflict - Messiah
 
firefinga

firefinga

Well-known member
droid said:
Has anyone ever done a forthright racial critique of the degradation of jungle? Ragga backlash, the committee, the rise of techstep, simplified rhythms, removal of funk. bi-racial production scene going almost exclusively white, student popularity, bass disappearing in favour of mid-range riffs... culminating in the ultimate exemplar of whiteness, the heavy metal/rock crossover...
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Reynolds was beating that drum a bit IIRC. Main "Thesis": a lot of the black producers left around '97 for SpeedGarage.

However some of the main "neurofunk offenders" were black like Grooverider or Mampi Swift. And wasn't the mid-range riff thing being popularized by Bad Company in the early 2000's (which DBridge, a "mixed-race" guy was a main member)? Meaning the late 90s Neurofunk didn'T have that mid-range riffage featured that prominently.

A sidenote, possibly triggered by personal dislike for the man, but isn't Grooverider the most overrated man in the history of Jungle/DnB? So yeah, as a producer he did some somewhat decent stuff on early Reinforced. As a label boss, he released some really great records on Prototype, however all by other producers than himself.

His album was pretty much engineered/produced completely by Optical. And his radio show on BBC possibly helped immensly to kill off (mainstream)DnB as a creative force. And he was mainly responsible for depleting the music pool by being one of the worst members of the "Dubplate-Gentry"
 
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john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
firefinga said:
I hated Warhead back in the day, and I still do. In late 1997 I heard this EVERY night, at least the first few seconds. It is one of those "toilet tracks" meaning the DJ dropping it ususally sent me to the toilets immediately.

Funny bc I consider Krust to be a top producer - aside from the horrible Warhead. I have quite a collection of his work still on my shelves.
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It was definitely overplayed at the time. Sounds great again after a 20 year gap to me though.

I think in retrospect some of the late 90s tech step stuff has more in common with the breakcore/Ambush/Praxis stuff than jungle.

It would be interesting to compare jungle -> tech step to the rise of UK Dub/steppers also. I think appealing to larger, international audiences is part of it.

I think the last d 'n' b night I went to was in Eindhoven in 2001 with a guest appearance by that lot that did "Tarantula". It was peculiarly stiff. There was a white MC going on about "how we do things in London" which was just laughable.
 
firefinga

firefinga

Well-known member
john eden said:
I think in retrospect some of the late 90s tech step stuff has more in common with the breakcore/Ambush/Praxis stuff than jungle.

It would be interesting to compare jungle -> tech step to the rise of UK Dub/steppers also. I think appealing to larger, international audiences is part of it.

I think the last d 'n' b night I went to was in Eindhoven in 2001 with a guest appearance by that lot that did "Tarantula". It was peculiarly stiff. There was a white MC going on about "how we do things in London" which was just laughable.
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Spot on on both accounts. I remember some playlists in my music mags from the late 90's that had Praxis DJs' favourites in them, and they contained NoUTurn, Tech Itch and Position Chrome releases. There were also some really harsh sounding TechStep bits coming out on the Praxis label as well.

And by 1996/97 JungleDnB had already gained international recognition, there were rumors/gossip abut those major label LP deals of many people. DJs were already entering the "DJ JetSet" at that time and you'd have the first wave of productions from outside the UK like Germany or the US.

Regarding DubStep - I am by no means an expert on Dubstep, I kinda followed it via listening to a mix here and there or an album. But even from my position as a distant observer there seem to be striking similarities: that mid-range-blasting "BroStep" did emerge when Dubstep reached international status (mainly in the US) right? Also, a couple years back you had dubstep-sounds in advertising. Just like in 1996/7/8 you'd have JungleDnB like jingles in TV intros and Ads.
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
firefinga said:
Reynolds was beating that drum a bit IIRC. Main "Thesis": a lot of the black producers left around '97 for SpeedGarage.

However some of the main "neurofunk offenders" were black like Grooverider or Mampi Swift. And wasn't the mid-range riff thing being popularized by Bad Company in the early 2000's (which DBridge, a "mixed-race" guy was a main member)? Meaning the late 90s Neurofunk didn'T have that mid-range riffage featured that prominently.
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Pretty sure if you take a look at techstep you'll find 90% white producers. Lemon D & Dillinja would be the main exceptions, but they were fairly quiet between 96-98.

I think this is the birth of the mid range D+B riff

 
droid

droid

Well-known member
firefinga said:
Regarding DubStep - I am by no means an expert on Dubstep, I kinda followed it via listening to a mix here and there or an album. But even from my position as a distant observer there seem to be striking similarities: that mid-range-blasting "BroStep" did emerge when Dubstep reached international status (mainly in the US) right? Also, a couple years back you had dubstep-sounds in advertising. Just like in 1996/7/8 you'd have JungleDnB like jingles in TV intros and Ads.
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The starting point was less radical, but yeah. The blackness was sucked out of it by select producers, that style became dominant and the scene started to spread internationally and then awful mid range riffage and aggression bleached it beyond recognition.
 
C

continuum

smugpolice

0 mins: Deadbeat b2b JG
57 mins: Phatworld b2b Thorpey
1hr 41 mins: DJ Chef
2hr 9 mins: Jamie Duggan
2hr 38 mins: Darkzy
3hr 9 mins: Skepsis
3hr 40 mins: DJ Q

On the idea of different music scenes having their 'tech-step moment' I randomly found this video of Bassfest streamed live from about four months ago and thought it useful as a guide to what could be happening in Bassline atm. The early warm up DJs and audience seem quite nerdy and internetty but once Chef and Jamie Duggan get on they drop some serious bangers and a more varied audience appears. What surprised me was the DJ after Jamie Duggan called Darkzy who I hadn't heard of before. I may be wrong but his sound is different to what went before both that night and in general in the Bassline scene, definitely a tech step vibe to it.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
droid said:
The starting point was less radical, but yeah. The blackness was sucked out of it by select producers, that style became dominant and the scene started to spread internationally and then awful mid range riffage and aggression bleached it beyond recognition.
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Reynolds' "zone of fruitless intensification" is relevant here.
 
droid

droid

Well-known member
Yeah, I think he's covered it in detail and its been gone over in depth by numerous commentators... white people fucking everything up is pretty much the story of 20th century music - though the similarities are particularly striking in this case.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
droid said:
Yeah, I think he's covered it in detail and its been gone over in depth by numerous commentators... white people fucking everything up is pretty much the story of 20th century music - though the similarities are particularly striking in this case.
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All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.
 
firefinga

firefinga

Well-known member
luka said:
you lot are mad. jump-up killed this music long before tech-step got invented. jump-up was easily as bad, almost worse.
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I recently was re-listening a lot of '96 jump up, and sad to say it had all the ingredients that later around 2002,3 would mutate into "Clown Step", especially the wobbly basslines.

As for Ed Rush - Bludclot Artattack was great, but his finest hour was this:

 
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