Some kind soul on the interwebs has dug out an old BBC2 documentary about jungle (seriously.) from 1994. The sound quality isn't great but it's pretty good given how old it is. It features some pretty interesting footage of Shy FX and Gunsmoke recording 'Gangster'.It's also pretty interesting to see how jungle influenced drum & bass and then dubstep and now even UK funky. Basically, this is the golden age of jungle; although there was a revival a few years ago with people like RCola and Paulie Waulnuts. It really is a shame what happened to jungle and drum & bass after this documentary was made.
The documentary marks the period that jungle purists consider to be the point where jungle went bad; the beats got slower, the synths got dancier and eventually you got Dillinja. Before that, however, ragga jungle really kicked off in the UK with people like Tenor Fly, Shy FX and General Levy all doing incredibly well from the surge in interest.
If you're not sure how big this was, it was as big as dubstep is now and it went the same way dubstep will probably go. The documentary itself was clearly made to mark the ascension of jungle drum & bass, but unfortunately it ended up chronicling the end of the genre. Still, it's really funny to see people like Shy FX and Gunsmoke as little whipper snappers trying to explain jungle.
Part 1 ∙ Part 2 ∙ Part 3
And as a little yuletide treat, here's a classic jungle tune from that era:
Download: Tenor Fly - Don't Dis The Jungle
No comments:
Post a Comment