Re: Jungle as breakbeat

philipm@isd.canberra.edu.au
Wed, 28 Jan 1998 10:19:42 +1100 (EDT)


On Tue, 27 Jan 1998, DJ Sun wrote:

> Well, again lets look at "history". Jungle originated from the rave scene,
> a young dance-oriented setting. These kids did not go to these raves to
> hear complex musical structures, they wanted to move their collective
> butts.

ah well i dont know about that...when ppl like fabio used to play carl
craig's "bug in a bassbin" at 45 instead of 33 that was one of the
things that introduced jazz influenced rhythms and breakbeats to the club
scene - the djs who played a part in nurturing the early jungle scene
seemed pretty open minded and informed about lots of music including
things like detroit techno & jazz. kids? i dont think so. and as far
as "complexity" goes i for one am sick of hearing all those overly
fussy breakbeats that have absolutely nothing to do with music or
soul or communication. phew!

> Along comes Roni Size Reprazent which goes against the norm and makes
> something they imagined comes closer to "jazz"... (witness the use of live
> bass, and other live instrumentation, and even a track called "Jazz").
> However, Roni himself admits that he doesn't know or write music and that
> he is more in tune with what the underground jungle followers want to hear
> as the genre progresses (I'm paraphrasing here, but check out SNC and URB
> for quotes).

hmm well sorry again but jazz, like any music, is about a feeling, not
about the instruments you use.

> I personally find New Forms very interesting and I like it. From a purely
> musical standpoint (and I'm not a technical expert) its probably lacking a
> bit and somewhat repetitious, but the way I use the music is in creating
> new sounds anyway by mixing and cutting the tracks with others, does not
> require it to be overly complex. So in essence the music is more like
> "intelligent breakbeat" to me.

well i find it pretty uninspired throughout...like others on the
list..so i hope its not just my personal taste.

> To answer your question, though, the new 4 Hero EP Earth Pioneers to me
> qualifies as "quality jungle". The live bass on "Planeteria" and
> "Loveless" seems as though its actually played and improvised throughout
> the track rather than how the Roni Size "live" bass comes across: sampled
> and repetitious...

oh dear...i loved jacobs optical stairway's "fragment of a lost language"
but unfortunatley the rest of the cd is like reprazent...souless,
unfunky....!

you know its a bit like all the alex reese hype....he has been very quiet
recently hasnt he ;^)

PEACE & thanks for the thoughful reply!

P