Thrive in '95 - Jungle's zenith

UFO over easy

online mahjong
Yes mate I always like it when alumni come back but as I keep saying I have a structural role as the only person on here that had the classic kool FM education and that means it is incumbent on me to uphold a
Particular set of values albeit I am old and less doctrinaire now And I can enjoy droid type of tunes for what they are.

this is probably one reason im enjoying this thread so much. cosy nostalgia
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
i think there's something exciting about the extremity of the swings from joyful to joyless. the speed at which that change occurs. energising! the shift from one to another, that movement in a particular direction, must have felt incredible. legacy betrayal sounds quite exciting too, great phrase. could hardcore be characterised as a betrayal of techno's legacy?

first wave detroit yes. but then 93 was a betrayal of first wave hardcore. the first betrayals are always the best.
 

luka

Well-known member
Jungle is still the glue that binds. Doesn't matter if you're 62 like Simon, 43 like droid and Craner, or still young in your 30s like me, or even in your twenties like third and Barty
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
oi i can't help it my mates like future garage. I've tryed to convince them for 10 years to just ... ignore resident advisor. but they incessantly just drag razor blades across my face with knuckles. I'm kind of glad record stores are on the way out. one of my mates in leeds in 2015 has become a proper shmoozer social climbing and its so blatant for everyone to see with no irony. just embarrassing.
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
Got a strange claim to something-or-other with Klute in so far as I interviewed Tom Withers(twice in fact) when he was about 16-17 and in this band The Stupids - doing a completely different kind of hardcore - punk. This is back in 86-87. Went out to Ipswich the first time, and another time did them in Portsmouth, when they were on tour.

They were really good actually, the Stupids - jesters, but serious about the music

And Tom was the drummer - and a sort of manic Animal from the Muppets type drummer, with a mop of hair too. And he sang as well which is always an impressive trick when you're playing the sticks at the same time.

I was stunned when he popped up again, a grown but still young man, as this touted d&b producer. Never interviewed him as Klute though i don't think.

Klute is a good name in so far as it captures the paranoiaic, technical-itchy production style of the post-Photek sound, via all those Alan Pakula films about surveillance and bugging and so forth.
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
like that idea of a creative betrayal - of things advancing through betrayal, rather through fidelity - cutting the apron strings / patricide / treason as the avant fwd>>>> move, always

also reminds me of a particular John Le Carre novel (blanking on the name) which goes on and on about betrayal, with several rather speechified passages about the nature of betrayal, about how burning your bridges is a strange icy thrill etc etc.

and finally reminds me of this great Jah Wobble tune


i'm surprised nobody during the dubstep era repurposed Jah Wobble as a track title
 

firefinga

Well-known member
95 was a good year for Reinforced

Reinforced had a decent output in 95. However, the plates almost never made it on the DJs Technics. "Experimental" style, but hardly a DJ was brave enough to play 'em.

Here is a Reinforced goodie from 95:

 

firefinga

Well-known member
Massive smasher in winter 95/96


Funny thing, as a teenager I certainly preferred "Drumz", today, I like the flipside more:

 
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Corpsey

bandz ahoy
like that idea of a creative betrayal - of things advancing through betrayal, rather through fidelity - cutting the apron strings / patricide / treason as the avant fwd>>>> move, always

Yeah this is a fertile concept

Immediately I think of the emergence of wobble/'brostep' from dubstep, which was actually taking its cues from dubstep 'proper' (esp. coki, i think) - but that transition from spacious, stripped down, 'meditative' dubstep to chainsaw synths, silly cockney samples, etc. I recall being very much felt as a betrayal by the fans of the former style. Something almost sacreligious.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Brings to mind Harold Bloom's 'anxiety of influence' theory re: the literary canon. Unconscious patri/matricide.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
Yeah this is a fertile concept

Immediately I think of the emergence of wobble/'brostep' from dubstep, which was actually taking its cues from dubstep 'proper' (esp. coki, i think) - but that transition from spacious, stripped down, 'meditative' dubstep to chainsaw synths, silly cockney samples, etc. I recall being very much felt as a betrayal by the fans of the former style. Something almost sacreligious.

this to this day is still my (mild) beef with blackdown and his followers on the internet. he really tried to push that almost 'I'm a scholar of the hardcore continuum this is a perversion of the original ethos of dubstep' but it wasn't was it? this is why i still maintain to this day that if you are not into 91-93 hardcore including the horrorcore bits and even the good happy chipmunky stuff, there is absolutely no point about talking about the nuum. garage was already for the most part a limitation of possibilities. garage is amazingly produced to this day, that's exactly why it's so club ready and not intended to be played on shit clipping sound systems in a field.

I'm north london, and being north london and not Woking I can be into cerebral detroit techno and Urban Shakedown simultaneously.
 

droid

Well-known member
The Basic Influence - Rainforest

The second appearance of Dillinja, this time on a deep forest Crystl tip on 'serious' tech step label Hardleaders. This one just rolls along, the complexity of the drum programming belied by the softness of the production. Some lovely imitation birdsong jazz flute action and reversed edits and a beautiful sweet dreamz style breakdown. Jazz but not jazzy. Runnin' - but in low gravity, beats tripping over themselves in endless dialogue with each other.

Gorgeous.

 

droid

Well-known member
Foul Play - Ignorance

Foul Play had more or less closed up shop by 95. Gurley had left in '94 and Morrow and Bradshaw went on to release this album with Bradshaw tragically passing away around a year later. 'Suspected' is a collection of VIP's of older tunes, unreleased stuff and exclusives. This tune is a consummate roller that sounds like it comes from the 'Total control' and 'Stepper' era and as the tune unfurls you're left with the impression that they are in effortless control of their medium. Beautifully produced slightly distorted bouncy 808 bass, an atmospheric whistle sample and then just... the breaks, expertly deployed, layered and edited breaks. Masters at work.

 
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