Mega City 2 had at least three tunes I can think of with DARK in the title. This is probably the best. It's swathed in Hellraiser samples and horror soundtrack atmosphere amongst the frantic beats, urgent technoid elements and a peculiar sinister bass hook.
RUFIGE KRU - DARKRIDER (1992)
Classic piano led 'ardcore with fabulous synth/string stabs then darkness descends with sinister movie dialogue, mentasms and unmistakably massive Reinforced rave riffage, all put through a dub echo chamber.
BAY B KANE - HELLO DARKNESS (1992)
Pitch-shifted Simon & Garfunkel sample begins this low key yet insidiously uncanny tune which is one of a kind in darkside jungle. Absolute!
TANGO & RATTY - TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE (1993)
One of the most iconic basslines in hardcore kicks this off at 0.12. Then Rakim gets the chipmunk treatment along with massive rave riffage, dubwize soundz and general frenzy.
DJ SOLO - DARKAGE (1993)
An Amen belter. Often in an Amen sampled jungle tune you'll get the Think break too. Chipmunks take over along with a trippy reggae trumpet sample making this a unique specimen of hardcore rave.
BOOGIE TIMES TRIBE - THE DARK STRANGER (ORIGIN UNKNOWN REMIX) (1993)
Each time I kept adding a choon here I thought "This is the best ever!" so that makes this an All Killer No Filler post and The Dark Stranger must be the best of the lot. More horror soundtrack vibes and deep voiced thespian dialogue snatches from Sir Anthony Hopkins & Gazza Oldman, we get a soul diva, Origin Unknown's mysteriously psychedelic touches, a weird step-y drumbeat for the hook and more.
Pinging pinball bass, scattershot 52 pick up snare spillage and an intense creepy time stretched vocal sample all add to the anarchic bliss of Nemesis. Peak disorientating jungle goodness. Mind-bending.
BLAME & JUSTICE - ESSENCE (THE JAZZ TESTAMENT) (1994)
Ambient-Jungle with some dissonant saxamophone. Apparently it was Goldie's favourite tune from 1994.
BLAME & JUSTICE - ANTHEMIA (HEAVEN) (1994)
Lovely kaleidoscopic ambient-jungle weirdness.
BLAME & JUSTICE - NOCTURNAL (1994)
Disembodied diva vocals set free into a floating hallucinatory dubby vortex with random drummage. Totally artcore!
BLAME & JUSTICE - NIGHTVISION (1994)
Splattering snares, a dubbed out diva, ambient lulls, bleeps in the echo chamber, melodic octopus drummage with menacing minimal bass. Night-visionary!
BLAME & JUSTICE - SECRET PARADISE (1994)
Bleeps amongst the choppage and dubbed out waves of sound. Loop-y psychedelic jungle.
First things first Emotions With Intellect is a fucking awful and totally unappealing title so it's no wonder that many jungalists avoided this record upon release back in the 90s.
Icons are Anthony Bowes and Conrad Shafie aka Blame & Justice who had two big 12"s on Moving Shadow in 1994 (See future post and coincidentally Simon's post here). Anyway the Icons LP didn't come out until 96 despite apparently being recorded in 94/95 (?). It's not like there is an absurd wealth of information on jungle/dnb on the interweb, like there is with rock music, so I haven't been able to confirm as to why this album stayed on the shelf for a couple of years. Like many punters I missed this record at the time and really only became aware of it seven or eight years ago when it was included as FACT's 17th best album of the 90s, beating out Omni Trio, Goldie, 4Hero & Photek to come in as Jungle/dnb's runner up LP behind A Guy Called Gerald's Black Secret Technology which came in at number four.
ICONS - SALSA FLAVOUR
This does what it says on the tin ie. it's dnb with a salsa flava. It rolls along nicely with its percussive bliss, jungle soundz and humid atmosphere. Choice.
R.E.E.L. return with a good fun follow up to their debut tape from 2020. All sorts of sprawling haunted & cosmic sonic shenanigans. An array of fringe cultural detritus is assembled for your listening pleasure. Cosmic synths, occult electronics, knackered acid house, sinister ambience, esoteric found sounds, dialogue from shonky charlatans and naff beat poets. It's all here to evoke a damp lost psychedelia with glimmers of past euphoria and haunting reminders of failed utopian experiments. In their bandcamp screed R.E.E.L. give us many nudge nudge wink winks to the world in which this recording is ensconced: Half hearted acid house, cosmic foolishness, acid communism, psychic alchemy, Coil, Tangerine Dream, Albert Camus, Sun Ra, Francis Bacon, snail slime, forensic angels, brown acid, Somerset, crackles, special K hole etc. etc.
R.E.E.L. are Farmer Glitch (Hacker Farm, pHarmerz), Matt Saunders (The Assembled Minds) and Saxon Roach (IX Tab).
Great Australian Albums: The Saints - (I'm) Stranded.
TV episode originally aired 18/8/07 SBS TV Australia.
This tells you more about the people in The Saints in the first three minutes than the entirety of that schmozzle of a documentary from 2015. Features Aussie rock icons Rob Younger (Radio Birdman), Nick Cave, Robert Forster (The GoBetweens), Brad Shepherd (Hoodoo Gurus), Damien Lovelock (Celibate Rifles), Mark Callaghan (GANGgajang) and probably a few I've forgotten. This documentary is really about the three albums by the Bailey/Kuepper line-up which is good because I think a majority of fans would agree that the second LP Eternally Yours is their greatest but then again (I'm) Stranded and Prehistoric Sounds are of historical and artistic significance and have their fans too. It's definitely the ultimate Australian three album run beginning with a debut and among just a handful worldwide ie. giving The Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath and Wire a run for their money.
The Saints - (I'm) Stranded (1976)
"Stranded - I'm so far from home
Stranded - yeah I'm on my own
Stranded - you got to leave me alone
'Cause I'm stranded on my own
Stranded"
How could they not appeal to my desolate teenage heart that was stuck in the cultural wastelands of a semi arid Australian country town. I mean they were a bunch of stroppy scumbags from the sweltering sub-tropical outer suburbs of Brisbane. The song was written in 1974 on the train home from the city back to the outskirts of town where the city met the country literally. Spitting in the face of the abyss with gleeful nihilistic abandon. Ed Kuepper has stated "Stranded wasn't a negative song... it was affirming."
Sounds 16/10/76
Juke 25/9/76
Sniffin' Glue 10/76
The Saints - Wild About You (1977)
Here's nod to one of their lineages of influences 60s garage Australian stylee. This set of Antipodean influences sets them apart from The Sex Pistols & Ramones and obviously embeds the Strayan characteristics of this music even further. Wild About You was originally recorded by Sydney band The Missing Links in 1965. Other Australian influences include The Purple Hearts, The Easybeats, Masters Apprentices, Coloured Balls and probably a stack more. First hearing The Saints, in all their sardonic alienated splendour, as a teenager in the mid 80s they just sounded so Australian to me. It was like the'd tapped in to our DNA.
The Saints - Messin' With The Kid (1977)
The Saints - Nights In Venice (1977)
The Saints - This Perfect Day (1977)
Record Mirror 16/7/77
The Saints - Know Your Product (1978)
"Let's shoot the professor! Alright!"
The Saints - Memories Are Made Of This (1978)
The Saints - No, Your Product (1978)
The Saints - Swing For The Crime (1978)
"And we hope that you had a good time"
The Saints - Brisbane (Security City) (1978)
The most haunting and evocative tune by the original Saints (1973-1978).
Stranded: The Saints (Documentary 2015)
Originally aired ABC TV 15/9/15
Directed by Serge Ou
Rock docs are pretty lame these days and this one's all over the shop. Why do I bother watching them? This is the rock doc nadir. Why is Bob Geldof talking about The Boomtown Rats? We don't care mate. We love The Saints! We're here for The Saints. Then it just wants to be about 70s Queensland politics and for a good while you kinda forget this is about the best band to ever come out of Australia. Then they go on and on about other Brisbane bands many of whom I admire but... This really should have been called something like Punk, Post Punk and The Police State in Brisbane.
The four writers show a distinct lack of understanding about what The Saints were about. Sure the political climate was a part of the band but they weren't exactly a band rallying the collective scenester activists. No they were pretty anti-social and misanthropic. They'd only had one encounter as a band with Brisbane's finest under the tyranny of Sir Joh. They wrote songs about not wanting to be part of any kind of conformity. Anyone who knows even just a tiny bit about Chris Bailey knows that he was a contrarian of the highest order. I wonder if he hated this documentary? I'd say so. Anyway I came away knowing more about Jello Biafra than Chris Bailey so that's a fucking fail mate. Fuck off Serge!
Distills the hardcore elements into jungle perfection: Darkness, Mentasm stabs, Amens and movie dialogue.
Dead Dred - Dred Bass (1994)
Total atmosphere until that devastating beat and bass drop at 0.56. Continues with that iconic bass, soul diva, skidding Amen choppage and a maximal time-stretched Dr Alimantado vocal. Doesn't get better than this.
Renegade - Terrorist (1994)
In your face Amen belter. Two basslines for the price of one in this "well 'ard" dubwize jungle tune. The best.
Hyper On Experience - Disturbance (Tango Remix) (1993)
Stadium size rave riffage, eerie scrapes, jittery rhythms, spooky keys and sinister voices all add to this disturbance.
*One thing I've only just noticed recently (by reading youtube comments) is that lots of old school jungle and drum & bass was/is used in video games. I had absolutely no idea jungle was being dispersed into households that normally wouldn't have followed such a music scene. So a lot of game creators were obviously hardcore fans. This has led to Jungle/DnB having longevity and popularity beyond its generation, era and original geographic spaces. The above 4 tunes from the Moving Shadow label were used in one of the versions Grand Theft Auto.
A real jungle oditty is this with its tripped out oriental bamboo flute, Shabba Ranks dancehall sample, environmental sounds of the forest and breakbeat science. I doubt this ever got played out but its good egghead jungle from Pro-Ton-Isospace a Hyper on Experience alias.
Parallel World - Contagious (1994)
This is quite lovely. In ambient jungle what more do you need? That ambient synth sound is mysterious. To me it's neither dark nor idyllic but a liminal feel not easily categorisable. I guess you can project whatever vibe you like onto it. Noice.
Parallel World - Tear Into It (1994)
So Parallel World were a one off alias for JMJ & Richie and their entire output was the above two tunes issued on a 12 inch by Good Looking Records.
E-Z Rollers - Rolled Into One (1994)
I only realised recently the duo E-Z Rollers contained Alex Banks who was one of the fellas from Hyper On Experience of Lord Of Null Lines fame. The other bloke is Jay Hurren aka JMJ from the aforementioned Parallel World and JMJ & Richie. An impeccable rather minimal anthem that still sounds so fresh in 2022. Peak 90s music right here folks!
E-Z Rollers - Believe (1994)
An undeniable milestone of jungle into drum & bass with a lovely rolling beat, conga joy, the diva refrain of "Believe" then that delectable and game-changing library music/tv theme type synth break at 5.43. Drum & Bass perfected at a pretty early stage.
E-Z Rollers - Dimensions Of Sound (1996)
By the time Alex & Jay released this album I was finished with drum & bass so I never checked it out until last year. Yeah I know but hey at least in 2022 I've got some fresh drum & bass to listen to without having to resort to listening to the inferior current crop of liquid drum & bass. Sure this ain't peak jungle as the insane choppage, time-stretching, mentasms and overall sonic delirium are out and fuck me Talking Jazz is an ill advised monstrosity, as it's basically commercial acid jazz of the most horrific variety, but most of the rest of these tracks roll along in a pleasant manner. E-Z.
In 2020 you didn't realise you needed a band from Kenya doing grindcore crossed with hardcore techno crossed with noise until you did. All the elements that those genres entail are included thrash/brutal death/black metal, hardcore/crust punk, industrial, breakbeat, hardcore rave, gabber, doom/gloom/terror-core and more. Where the two hardcores inadvertently meet.
I was looking for the live in France video that Duma just posted on their instagram moments ago but this will have to suffice. As the hashtags said "Heavy metal gabber techno punk rock and roll" Wait for the change up - take it down moment at 1.36 where the metal-noise onslaught dissipates and the breaks are revealed.
Creepy doom-y shit too.
And only this 7 inch in 2021. The Horror.
Listen to their intensely chaotic noise and gloomified feral mayhem of the debut album from 2020 right here while we wait to see if their new tape will fulfil their promise. I sense that Duma will go more into gabber zones perhaps losing some of the grindcore elements but I'd love it if they embraced doom/gloomcore. They seem to identify mostly as a metal band though so who knows?
Giant hardcore riffage amongst the smashed rhythms, wailing diva and twilight interludes.
Scott & Keith - Derranged (Bonus Drums) (1993)
Sublime minimal darkness from the great Doc Scott with the mysterious Keith Suckling who seems to have only existed in the music world for a couple of tunes and that's it.
Rotating Heads - Dark Secrets (Nicky Allen Remix) (1993)
You gotta love a label that released just two 12"s in 1993 and then they were done. This gets dementedly hardcore from the get get go. Classic hardcore rave riffage, soul divas, vigorous choppage, some kinda ratty psycho ragga rap and mentastic stabs all add to this supreme intensity. Rotating Heads were speeding into an insane and scary future.
Chaos & Julia Set - Atmosphere (1993)
A good tenebrous atmosphere is created here on this Euro vibed toe tapper that gradually gets trance-y and anthemic.
Essence Of Aura - Can I Dream (1993)
Amen smasher with a deep dark pummelling bass drone that becomes a devastating deep dark pummelling bass drone-y rave riff, add dialogue sample from Aliens and voila: Perfect. Peak darkness!
Essence Of Aura - Intruder (1993)
Dark mechanical sounds and noise-y mentasms are followed by a cataclysmic plunge into the darkest abyss at 2.15 then the iconic Blade Runner dialogue sample is delivered by Rutger Hauer "Time...to die" and more. Stunning. They really capture the essence of the darkside of rave.
To me Dj Crystl is one of the great sound designers of the jungle era. Perhaps Pete Parsons aka Voyager, his engineer and right hand man deserves some credit here too. The tunes below display a producer at the peak of his powers going from strength to strength like Omni Trio, Foul Play, 4Hero and Goldie all were at roughly the same time. While Dj Crystl's 1993 was brilliant choon-wize and his 1994 was also pretty good, it was the following year things just did not blow up for him how they were supposed to as jungle ballooned into Drum & Bass. Crystl somehow missed the momentum and it felt like his potential was never fully realised. Like is there several albums worth of material that never got released? What happened? While that's probably an interesting story (that I don't actually know) I just want to point out here what a stellar set of releases DJ Crystl issued in 1993 on Dee Jay Recordings.
Dj Crystl's three 12"s on Dee Jay Recordings and one 12" on Force Ten Records in 1993 make up one of Jungle's most sublime winning runs. If Crystlize, Deep Space, Meditation, Warp Drive, Sweet Dreamz, Your Destiny, The Dark Crystl and Inna Year 3000 were all put on one cd it would have been one of the top jungle albums of all time along with The Deepest Cut, Parallel Universe etc. Actually I can't believe somebody didn't have the foresight or hindsight to compile that (?).
I suppose Dj Crystl was one of the original ambient jungle producers. I always think he's got a vague shoegaze vibe too with his walls of synth sound, drones and ethereal vocal science scattered amongst the jungle elements. I wonder if Kevin Shields or Seefeel were fans? or vice versa? Anyway his sides are a lot crisper than you might imagine or remember. They are immaculately put together with all sorts of microscopic detail. I imagine Dj Crystl spent a lot of time meticulously crafting each second of his tuneage while never losing sight of the big picture. The sound while fastidious however never appears to be too fussy, often quite the opposite and that balancing act is where his potency lies. Like Omni Trio there is an aura of splendid excitement, elegance and generosity in Dj Crystl's jungle.
DJ Crystl - Crystlize
Swirls of synths, shapeshifting walls of sound, time-stretched drum opulence, alluring dark tunnels, ethereal vocal science and an uncanny rattling clang accompany the endlessly chopped snares into the Crystlized echo chamber.
DJ Crystl - Deep Space
Frantic intricate choppage that is somehow mellifluous. Those melodic snares are cushioned perfectly amongst the atmospheres of enchanting darkness.
DJ Crystl - Meditation
Oceanic pools of sound and waves of delicate vocal science eventually make room for exquisite rhythm-ology. At 5.10 a dramatic halt to proceedings occurs to allow sonic waves back in before the beat momentum effortlessly picks up again. In the remaining couple of minutes it moves into mesmerising sparkling ambient snares. Peak ambient jungle.
DJ Crystl - Warpdrive
Dj Crystl's most in yer face moment in 1993. This is a deluge of chopped and stretched breaks that go euphorically haywire amongst ominous drones. Don't forget that gloriously dark synth at 3.12. while the breaks continue go more and more insane. The Best.
DJ Crystl - Sweet Dreamz
Idyllic sounds of the seaside with heaven bound synths, a woman's soothing meditative voice and a beat much less frantic than most jungle. Sweet Dreamz is all space age tropical vibes of calm tinged with disorientation and darkness. Pretty psychedelic.
DJ Crystl - Your Destiny
Waves of miniature ambient delirium and disorienting backwards abstractions where the spirit of MBV circa Glider lurks. The rhythm stop starts until 2.53 when it gets fully rolling as the darkness encroaches with a spectral presence coming in and out of focus. Choice dubby bleeps add to the subtle elusive charms of Your Destiny.
