Early jungle evolved from acid house productions that sampled breakbeats. Key acid house tunes during the evolution period from 1989-1992 were 808 State's "Cubik" and Stakker's "Humanoid." Also during the same time Frankie Bones released "Bones Breaks" which was one of the first "breakbeat" productions.
In the early 90's hardcore music was perceived to have become too commercial. Producers like DJ Hype, Mickey Finn, Grooverider & Fabio began stripping down the elements of hardcore, removing the happy elements and replacing them with half-time basslines and multiple break structures. Many productions in this era were also taking samples from horror movies with screaming, yelling and crying sounds. The genre really began to break around the time of 1992. It was still considered hardcore at the time - in fact the term "darkcore" was designated to this style.
Examples of Darkcore are Goldie's "Terminator" (1992) and Top Buzz's "Living In The Darkness" (1992). These tracks took some of their cue from from the darker sounds of Belgium techno - tracks like 4 Hero's "Mr. Kirk's Nightmare" (1990) and The Psychopath's "Nightmare" (1991).
The dark sound appealed to many people in dancehall & reggae communities. The Jamaican "sound system" culture influenced the emerging sound with remixing techniques from dub & reggae. Darkcore & dancehall were being mixed together at parties until soon dancehall reggae was incorporated into the sound of darkcore. As the yet-unnamed genre evolved, the use of sampled breakbeats became more complex. The most notable sample is the Amen Break which was taken from a funk song by The Winston Brothers called "Amen, Brother."
In 1993 the confusion surrounding this style finally broke. Jungle had finally gained it's own identity with dedicated UK club venues such as Roast, Roller Express, and Telepathy. Andy C produced the classic jungle hit "Valley of the Shadows" while Ed Rush formed the darkcore party "Bloodclot Attack."
The origin of the term "jungle" is absolutely debatable. However the emergence of the term can very roughly be traced to Jamaican/Caribbean MC's where they often made references to "the jungle" or "junglists." A junglist was a reference to anyone living in Kingston, Trenchtown - the area that was known as "The Concrete Jungle."
Across the Atlantic, Toronto's hardcore scene began to split as well, creating the largest jungle scene in North America. In London, jungle was a very Black, non-rave sound. The only difference in Toronto was that there was very little Black interest in jungle and the majority stayed away from it. In the United States, Black interest was still primarily focused on the house music scenes of New York & Chicago.
The winter period linking 1992 to 1993 was considered a very "dark" time, especialy for the Toronto rave scene. The overall quality of ecstacy that was being sold was deteriorating, the use of speed was on the rise, and crack was becoming increasingly popular. Overdose cases were becoming far too common in the rave scene while criminality & scamming had also rooted itself in the hardcore arena.
Running parallel to what was happening in the winter of 1992 was Darkcore. In response to darkness that was coming from the UK, other producers of hardcore began moving in the opposite direction. The "happy" elements of hardcore were soon being embellished, creating what has ever since been the arch-nemesis for the jungle community - happy hardcore.
This podcast features some of my early jungle collection with tracks from 1991-1993. For me early jungle was defined by Roni Size & LTJ Bukem. Both of which remained a huge inspiration for me throughout the 1990's which you will see as we near the millenium.
Tracklist:
Rufige Kru - Fabio's Ghost
Q Bass feat. Skeng Gee - Gun Connection
Dubplate Remixes - Simply Rolling
Brainkillers & Lewi Cifer - Hurt Me
Roni Size - Fresh
Ravers Choice - Side B
Roni Size - The Refresher
LTJ Bukem - Bookworm
LTJ Bukem - Logical Progression
David Bryce - Logical Reprise
Bodysnatch - Euphony
Brainkillers & Lewi Cifer - On A Different Mission
Xenophobia - The Phoenix
