Re: Mixing jazzy jungle

Tim Kemp
Thu, 12 Mar 1998 14:08:30 +0000

At 13:03 11/03/98 GMT, Colin Millar wrote:
>I don't agree with this at all. From my experience the reason that it
>doesn't get played in clubs is purely because of lazy djs.
I don't think its laziness, just a lack of willingness to
experiment, and pressures of the crowd, I'll try and make that clear in a
minute (maybe... ;-)>
>the fact that they see jazzy or intelligent tunes as a less pure form
>of the music or watered down in some way and don't want to play it in
>case they lose the street cred that they seem to think they have. As
Or because their mates are all MCs and can't MC over jazz-d&b. :-)
I can't understand how people could think like that, though. The
whole spirit of jazz (and drum & bass) is about screwing convention and
doing whatever you want. I can't stand that sort of snobbery in music,
especially with the sort of music we are discussing here.

>Sure some of this stuff isn't suited to dancing but the majority of tunes
have deep
>sub-bass that can't be heard very well on home systems but transforms
>the track when played over a loud system.
Sure some of it is, too, just depends on the track. D&b is such a
wide genre that there's going to be something for everyone, but most clubs
are there to make money, and they do that by attracting the most people, by
playing the tunes that they want to dance to. There are different,
experimental nights out there, with a more dedicated crowd, just finding
them isn't that easy.
Whatever the sub bass is like it doesn't alter the fact that the
beats aren't as prominent as in, say, hardstep. Also, jazzy d&b tends to be
quite musically complex as well. There's always many layers to these tunes,
something which other forms of d&b don't have.
Take house clubs, for example, the tunes that go down best there
have clear, repetitive beats, and a very simple structure and few layers,
maybe a vocal hook and simple chords.
I don't necessarily agree with this personally, but the majority of
clubbers (in general, whatever sort of music) just want to dance, and the
sort of drum & bass that gets played at these clubs suits that very well.

>I defy anyone to sit down
>(if you can) and listen to the Flytronix mix of Courtney Pine's 'the
>37th Chamber' from his new remix LP and tell me that they wouldn't
>dance to it in a club.
Same with Full Cycle's output, there are people making jazzy drum &
bass 'for the dancefloor', but its different to what gets played in my room.
I was out recently at a small club in Liverpool, there was a second room
playing classic d&b (like Mickey Finn, Tru Playaz stuff etc.) and the DJ
just chucked down a load of Roni Size half way through, and some more jazzy
tunes, but the beats were very similar to what was playing before. Guess you
have to wait for the remix... ;-)

>My word to all djs is if you like jazzy d'n'b then play it out and
>start making d'n'b clubs less boring and one-dimensional than the ones
>I've been to recently.
I wholehartedly agree, Colin, but I don't know how many clubbers
would... :-)
Tim Kemp.

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