The beginnings of the jungle / drum & bass

The English underground dance scene was both an entry point and a source for the almost endless expansion of American music styles such as disco, house, acid, techno, electro and rare groove. But England itself never had its own style of dance music - until Jungle came along.

Although Jungle's roots lie mainly in the technoid 'hardcore breakbeat' that hit English clubs in the late 80s and early 90s, the musical influences can also be traced back to reggae, ragga, hip-hop, jazz and dub. Other influences are social and economic, as are often found in British cities. Originating in the working-class milieu of East London's suburbs, Jungle / Drum'n'Bass spread from East England to the whole island and eventually to Europe and North America.

Jungle has evolved impressively from its inception into one of the most distinctive English music movements since rock was booming (1960's).

Like American hip-hop - to which Jungle is often compared - Jungle (or Drum'n'Bass, as a stylistic synonym describing the two essential components +of the music) is an evolution of breakbeats that extends into American funk, soul and jazz extends. And like hip-hop, where samplers are used to record segments of drum loops by James Brown, Meters, Jimmy Smith or Bob James records, Jungle uses the beat as a starting point to cut through and split, reassemble and recreate in almost endless possibilities to arrange.

And that's exactly what makes jungle or drum'n'bass so unique in the evolution of electronic music. Other sample-based dance music styles tend to be very straightforward in production. Not so with Jungle.

One of the most important prerequisites for the development of music was the availability and use of inexpensive and easy-to-use sample technologies and digital sequencers such as Cubase or Logic, which made incredible control and variety possible. In many respects, it was only technologies such as time stretching (changing the length of a sample without changing the pitch) or the cut'n'past function in digital audio that made this music possible.

As in most mythologies, there are various stories about the origin of the name 'Jungle'. There is said to have been a street gang in Kingston (Jamaica) called 'Junglists'. Many agree that the term 'jungle' has a racist connotation that was also used by England's urban black population. (The population of English cities is made up of people of many nationalities and races; there are large class differences).

Either way, the term has been embraced by musicians and audiences and describes a classification of the various species of drum and bass. In a historical-aesthetic sense, Jungle's direct roots lie in the English underground rave scene from the early 90s, when the monotonous acid house and techno sounds were more and more replaced by hardcore breakbeat techno. Initially still very rave-heavy and oriented towards 'Hardcore' (so-called 'Happy Hardcore', which transferred many of the lost elements of acid house and dancefloor techno into the breakbeat context), then a more complex and 'tightened' form of the Music increasingly popular: 'Darkside'. It became the underground music of the urban centers of the big cities and the young working class.

Gradually the beat structures of the music became more complex and elements of reggae, ragga, dub, calypso and other non-western black music styles changed the style towards the very fast breakbeat of the first jungle wave. Artists of this period included: Rob Playford, 2 Bad Mice, SL2, Acen, Urban Shakedown).

Although ragga jungle was the sound of urban British underground, it quickly reached a larger audience. CD compilations that appeared on labels such as Suburban Bass, Kickin', Sound of the Underground or Moving Shadow helped spread the music (also in other countries). The sound-typical clichés of ragga ('booyaka') became a feature of the music.

The basic structures of the sound arrangements evolved, giving birth to 'Hardstep' and 'Darkside', where the intellectual and emotional expression of the music was more mature and the playful moment less important. The years that followed (and up to now) have seen a dizzying shift and fusion of styles, and Jungle has made its way into almost every stylistic context imaginable: from Lee Perry and the Wu-Tang Clan to Soul Coughing and Everything but the Girl.

As in early hip-hop and techno/house, drum'n'bass remained predominantly a culture of 12" (inch) records. Artists and musicians produced their tracks primarily for the dance floors - and of course for the DJ's. But just like in techno area, this situation changed with the greater popularity of 'intelligent' styles and large-scale CD production and distribution.

The rapid mixing and progression was also fueled by the wide distribution of white labels, dubplates and test pressings, allowing DJ's to test the popularity of their tracks before finalizing them afterwards. (Dubplates and test pressings are records coated with acetate or special plastic that can only be played a maximum of 40 times and are produced for testing purposes before a large-scale production run of the track is made).

The sets of the top DJ's consist of up to 50% (or more) dubplates. Producers who also work as DJs often cut their tunes months before the actual release date (if they are released at all) in order to attract the listeners' attention and increase their expectations of finally being able to buy the track themselves.

As already mentioned, jungle (like other experimental electronic music types) has been split into many subgenres and styles (ragga, hardstep, darkside, jump up, techstep, ambient) and makes it difficult to deal with the terminology easily. The most well-known subgenres are described in more detail below: