Thrive in '95 - Jungle's zenith
- Thread starter droid
- Start date
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Used to love this tune, for the strings.
I think what appeals to me about the slightly artier less raw jungle like this is the romanticism of it - the romantic strings, either sublime or Sublime, euphoric or sinister.
droid
Well-known member
D'Cruze - Ruf Intelligence Revisited
95 was the year of the jungle LP. whilst the genre wasn't well suited to the format, it did offer an accessible and familiar inroad to those coming from other genres, and the hit rate was surprisingly high. Black Secret Technology, Timeless, Champion Jungle Sound, Itelligence, Self Evident Truth, Just an Example, Gun talk, Omni Trio Vol. 1... just a few of the brilliant LP's released that year - and then there's 'Control' by D'Cruze. There's a great picture of him on one of the early subbase releases, looking about 12 years old, but by '95 Jay D'Cruze was a veteran, with a very respectable discography and a bunch of big hardcore and proto jungle tunes to his name. Control was a kind of high water mark for the intelligent sound and along with the T-Power album represented the peak of a certain kind of experimentalism, that could at times bleed into the outer edges of the IDM sound being pushed around this time by Aphex with Hangable Autobulb.
This tune is a reversion of a track he out out own 'Ruf Intelligence' label. A few kinetic edits aside, the intro rolls along reasonably nicely until the sax drifts in around 1:10, a teasing intro for the luscious string pads that lead into the first breakdown and then... an 8 bar drum loop choppage attack followed by an all out bass frenzy accompanied by a some suitably strangled diva screams before all the elements come together at the end underpinned by a solid hot pants loop. One of 3 or 4 boundary pushing tunes on an excellent album.
95 was the year of the jungle LP. whilst the genre wasn't well suited to the format, it did offer an accessible and familiar inroad to those coming from other genres, and the hit rate was surprisingly high. Black Secret Technology, Timeless, Champion Jungle Sound, Itelligence, Self Evident Truth, Just an Example, Gun talk, Omni Trio Vol. 1... just a few of the brilliant LP's released that year - and then there's 'Control' by D'Cruze. There's a great picture of him on one of the early subbase releases, looking about 12 years old, but by '95 Jay D'Cruze was a veteran, with a very respectable discography and a bunch of big hardcore and proto jungle tunes to his name. Control was a kind of high water mark for the intelligent sound and along with the T-Power album represented the peak of a certain kind of experimentalism, that could at times bleed into the outer edges of the IDM sound being pushed around this time by Aphex with Hangable Autobulb.
This tune is a reversion of a track he out out own 'Ruf Intelligence' label. A few kinetic edits aside, the intro rolls along reasonably nicely until the sax drifts in around 1:10, a teasing intro for the luscious string pads that lead into the first breakdown and then... an 8 bar drum loop choppage attack followed by an all out bass frenzy accompanied by a some suitably strangled diva screams before all the elements come together at the end underpinned by a solid hot pants loop. One of 3 or 4 boundary pushing tunes on an excellent album.
sadmanbarty
Well-known member
everyone wanted rigidity by the late 90's. stiff and stifled
luka
Well-known member
Al the fluidity and suppleness had migrated to r&b and garage. But yeah who knows why these shifts occur. It calls for a grand theory.
sadmanbarty
Well-known member
timbaland very stiff. as was 2 step. angular and brittle.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
UK garage suggests this isn't entirely true, though.
Perhaps it's a technology thing. People became more and more attracted to making synthesised beats because those beats could sound more and more impressive.
People say timbaland ripped off jungle (Right?) but I'm thinking if you're hearing Timabaland records in 1997, those beats are going to make chopped up amens sound comparatively antiquated.
sadmanbarty
Well-known member
egon schiele but with drums
luka
Well-known member
Can't go along with this. I know what you mean though.
sadmanbarty
Well-known member
very true this. mid-90's rap sounds antiquated to me now in a way it wouldn't have done even a few years ago.
firefinga
Well-known member
Breakbeats got pushed aside in 97, 96 was still very breaks oriented, even within Techstep you'd have heavy breaks usually.
Thing is, even in 97, or later you'd have lots of breaks still in Junlge or DnB as it was called back then more and more, but only on relative fringe labes like Reinforced (TBH, Reinforced became "fringe" as early as 1994, meaning they were still releasing excellent stuff, but but got hardly played by DJs any more) or Partisan (which was a Moving Shadow offshoot)
Last edited:
sadmanbarty
Well-known member
ward 21 productions
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
When I was into drum n bass there was that choppage stuff people like paradox were making which was strictly for nerds. I saw paradox DJing in Nottingham and there were about 20 blokes watching him rant about the evils of jump up inbetween playing records (some of which were brilliant) that could have been - or were - released a decade ago.
sadmanbarty
Well-known member
the other 95
how man black men have you had anna?
how man black men have you had anna?