My definition of Jungle

["Tim Fitzsimons" <fitzsimonst@knoxy.agvic.gov.au>]

This is my first post to the list. I joined out of curiosity because 
the name loopers delight intrigued me. I originally thought more of 
you would be into sampler style looping (ASR-10 is my machine) 
rather than the whole guitar/delay/fx setup (I've done my own share 
of this back in the days before I could afford a $ampler..)
Anyways, hi folks!

Now onto my main interest (at least sonically), Jungle/Drum and Bass
I'll give a history lesson from what I've learnt surfing the net and 
listening to the music - if it might bore you HIT DELETE
In 1988 a new sound called Acid House took England by storm - by 
1990/91 an new subgenre called hardcore evolved in which the driving 
4/4 808 bass drum was complemented by sampled breakbeats from old 
jazz/funk/soul records. At the same time tempos were increasing from 
120-130 bpm up to 145-160 bpm. These records were often distinguished 
by 'chipmunk' style vocal samples (timestretch wasn't invented yet) 
as well as a pot pourie (?) of twisted acidic drones. This was the 
genesis of Jungle (as well as many other styles spawned). By 1993 a 
distinctive darkcore movement had formed which was definitive 
proto-jungle. At about this time a new movement formed call Junglists 
and the main new ingredient was ragga samples and dub bass lines.
At a tempo of 160 (the speed of the pitched up breakbeats) this music 
was perfectly complimented by a half tempo bassline of 80 bpm.
This music exploded in London in 1994/95 and became known as Ragga 
jungle gaining widespread underground acceptance, at least among the 
open minded underground dance community. This form relied on samples 
of three main breakbeats, the most famous and floor smashing being 
known as "Amen", sampled from "Amen brother" - by the Winstons.
This scene however became plagued by images of violence - the samples 
used reflected the very dark, violent nature of a life of poverty in 
Jamaica, as sung/chatted in ragga music. Incidences of violence 
occured after a certain gangsta/rudeboy element was attracted to the 
music. Consequently the scene suffered. Spurred by this and the very 
nature of exploration and evolution of sonic sculpture that defines 
jungle a new, separate movement evolved known, for want of a better 
term as 'intelligent'. This form was more concerned with atmospherics 
on a more subtle level with synth washes, ambient sounds and a 
general cool restaint - more programmed breakbeats, not the grungy 
old sampled loops (sarcastically referred to as Dolphin music by fans 
of the more hardcore sound).
Principally the names Intelligent and Drum and Bass were coined as a 
way of distancing the new pioneers from the old ragga style which 
fell into a rut. By 1996 people had moved on from the ragga sound and 
many new subgenres of Drum and Bass began to emerge - eg Techstep, 
Hardstep, Jump-up - Basically its all Jungle though!
As for breakbeats their origins are in 60's soul music - people such 
as James Brown would orchestrate a section in a song in which the 
rest of the band would break down leaving just the drums, 'giving the 
drummer some!'  - a miniature drum solo loaded with sycopation and 
funky groove. This is why these drum beats are so good to sample - 
because they are 'clean'. Incidentally the origins of hip hop date to 
the mid 70's when Kool Herc pioneered the oldschool break dancing 
movement (although people used to break to the old soul records) by 
taking two copies of the sampled break on two turntables and repeating 
these phrases, switching from turntable to turntable to form an 
extended break for people to move to. And of course the most famous 
breakbeat of all time - James Browns 'Funky Drummer'.
I think the reference to backbeat describes the programmed element of 
the beats in this style of music - a simple backing track over which 
to sampled breakbeat loops can be intermitently inserted.

Anyway, hope I was of some assistance and didn't bore ya too much!!!

Tim Fitzsimons
 
From:          "Lee Wordsman" <lwordsman@pirnie.com>

I'm totally unfamiliar with some of the styles of music that have been 
bandied
about on this list.  Anyone want to take a shot at defining jungle, d&b, 
and the
term breakbeat as opposed to backbeat.

I also deleted Andre La Fosse's post that had his web address.  Andre, I'd 
love to
stop by your sight and hear some of this music. Could you repost your URL. 
 TIA


Jason Secord wrote:

> Leo,
>      As far as I'm concerned, once you've mapped out your basic backbeat
> and layers of breakbeat and bass all that's left is the looping...  and
> it is too much fun... A friend and I made some really cool slow-funk
> groove a couple days ago by basically following this method, except w/o
> a computer...
>      I'd love to have access to software like Cubase and Soundforge but
> I'm too poor to care at the moment.  We do our best impersonation by
> composing a song on the drum machine, sampling the bits and pieces we
> like, playing with a multitap delay (4 continuity I suppose) and then
> actively mixing all these different "loops" at mixdown.  We've even been
> known to use the MidiSync capability on th Jam Man to insure that we
> don't go phase-crazy.
>      Hope this gives you a window on what we do...
> I'm totally hip to yer ideas leo and would love to hear em.
>
> ciao baby
>
> Leonardo Cavallo wrote:
> >
> > At 17.30 08/05/98 +0800, you wrote:
> > >Has anybody tried a drummachine software program called "Fruit 
>Loops"? It's
> > >kinda like "Hammerhead". BTW, when is the new version of Hammerhead 
>coming
> > >out anyway?
> > >
> > >C H R I S
> > >
> > >MP3 traders mailing lists at http://come.to/mp3-traders
> > >Reggae/Dancehall/Dub/Ska mailing list at http://come.to/reggae-list
> > >Erykah Badu mailing list http://come.to/badu
> > >
> > >
> >
> > Talking about drum loops and drum&bass, I've found that's possible to
> > recreate that rhythmic things without using a sampler. You can do all 
>the
> > breakbeats editing and arranging on an audio seq. with really good 
>results.
> > I'm using Cubase VST to build my drum loops and editing my Stick parts 
>and
> > looping.
> > The key for that Roni Size sound is not in sampling the single piece 
>of the
> > drum kit (as you normally do writing midi drum patterns)  but using 
>parts of
> > a whole sampled groove. You cut the bar in quarters or eights and then
> > reorder the fragments in a new way. Try this method.
> >
> > I find the mix of live looping and jungle really interesting. Who's 
>with me?
> > I'd like to mention the music samples of Andre La Fosse on his web 
>page as a
> > really good example to listen if you like this kind of music.
> >
> > ciao
> > leo