Would someone on the NT side of things be so kind as to point me to the essentials or even make a playlist?
Cos I liked Headz 2A and Mo’ Wax’s snooty trip-hop vibe doesn’t really bother me, although I guess I wasn’t “there.” They also put out the first Dr. Octagon records, and the DJ Assault LP scores them more points in my book, even if its seen as bandwagon behavior. Krush and Shadow are great obviously, most of the label’s output is sort of background music but usually really great for background music. I’m still unclear on La Funk Mob’s motives for dissing jungle (other than just being French hipsters), of course the Photek response is famous but then you’ve got the likes of fellow (Metahl)headz J Majik (who started really leaning into this sound, see the beautiful trip-hop cuts on his ‘97 LP Slow Motion) and Peshay featured on 2A. Urban Tribe with Carl Craig was kind of interesting. Have never listened to UNKLE.
This is one hell of an ambient jungle tune in my book, the producer’s only one it seems, again off 2A. Cards on the table, I got into jungle/dnb at the same time as discovering a lot of this stuff, all the cross-pollination and elasticity circa ‘96 was very intriguing, I couldn’t see the borders and competing sensibilities via immediate preceding development as well as I would soon come to, it was a romantic if ahistorical all-in-one introduction to cool beats