I always get a delightful surprise listening to Blue Orchids for some reason...it's probably something to do with the fact they are really forgotten and hardly even a cult band. Other neo-psych groups of the era with whom they have a spiritual affinity like Meat Puppets or even a band Blue Orchids influenced like The Chills have their place in the history of 80s rock with fanbases to match. The debut Blue Orchids LP The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain) from 1982 despite being a big independent hit has never been reissued on vinyl and only ever got released on cd once, back in 2003. It's hard to believe a group made up of ex members of TheFall who made an idiosyncratic masterstroke of acid fried anti-establishment Pagan post-punk neo-psych are not celebrated by the underground. Perhaps they are just too unique and will only appeal to those with a penchant for the esoteric.
Sun Connection is the opening song off The Greatest Hit. Once again Martin Bramah is in druid mystic mode. A very LSD vibe where his drug addled mind is trying to square away paradoxical notions such as the purity of a spiritual utopia and the encroaching reality of the necessity of money to survive. These existential dilemmas are delivered via that vocal trick of all of a sudden metamorphosing tunelessness into melodic elation and back again. All the while a mesmeric web of guitars and keys organically shift from tense passages to pastoral flourishes which has an added alchemical frisson as Bramah and organist Una Baines were romantically involved.
Forgotten post-punk neo-psychedelic greatness from 1982. Hypnotic organ, a glistening fried guitar, a dark bass line and a rhythmic guitar all swirl in unison as mystic recalcitrant Martin Bramah philosophises blissfully over the the top, mesmerising.
Were Fire Engines the best band of 1981? Anyway this is where fellow Scots Meat Whiplash got their name from: The b-side to Fire Engines 1981 single Candyskin which was released on the Pop Aural label. While it's a nervy post-punk gem it fits in with these recently posted tunes because there's a weird phazed psych guitar bit amongst the noisey frenetic post-punk shenanigans.
While the entire 1985 LP Up On The Sun is a sun baked roadside cactus of serene funky psychedelic perfection, Two Rivers is where they go into the mystic with sublime results. Words are no justice for this splendour.
The greatest neo-psych jam ever. Perhaps the greatest OTT psych tune of all time too. I guess you can't really compare 60s psych to 90s neo-psych though because by the time of Mercury Rev there were so many more influences going into the music from prog, krautrock, space rock, punk, post-punk, goth, post-hardcore, noise-pop, shoegaze and whatever else I've forgotten. I was expecting this tune to have lost its lustre now it's over 30 years old but no it is still fucking astounding. Dave Baker era Rev is still the best. If you only know Mercury Rev due to 1998's Deserter's Songs chart success well let me tell ya...you're missing out. In 1991 the cult band released the outstanding sprawling kaleidoscopic masterpiece Yerself Is Steam and then followed it up in 1993 with the equally mind-bending hallucinogenic Boces. For these two LPs the mercurial presence of singer Dave Baker gave the band an unhinged quality that would disappear from the group after he left in 94.
If you know you know. 80s neo-psych classic from Sydney-siders The Moffs. I've heard this a million times and it still casts the same spell on me as it did the first time I heard it on Rage in the 80s. A tone like no other in a song like no other. As a teenager I assumed there would be or had already been more tunes like this but really this is a singular vision that was never repeated.
A primo slice of neo-psych from the Paisley Underground in 1983. Now if I recall correctly the singer and the guitarist from True West had both been in a band with Kendra Smith and Steve Wynn prior to the formation of Dream Syndicate. These guys coulda been contenders as they had some ace tuneage but it was the 80s and groups like this seemed to just fizzle out into inconsequence.
I've been listening to a lot of 80s/early 90s neo psych, noise pop and shoegaze that I have in my collection from back in the day, much of which has been pretty unspectacular. This tune however is surprisingly tops. I remember Radial Spangle were somehow connected to Mercury Rev...I think. Did maybe someone in the band also die? Anyway the energy, insistent beat, hyped up swirly guitar riff and multi-tracked vocals make this pretty infectious.
This is called Winona but I really couldn't say what it's actually about but it's an enjoyable slice of American shoegaze from back in the day. It was from the debut Drop Nineteens LP from 92 which I recall was half a top record. It's incredible to think that our Winona has been a pop culture icon five decades now. Sure I dunno what she did from 1994 to 2016 except for shoplifting...maybe she learned to act. Anyway there is no shortage of love out there for her, as I'd say she's the most sung about figure in pop culture ever....probably.
One classic single on Creation in 1985 and they were done. A forgotten gem that was a hit on the British independent music charts in 1985. I didn't hear this until a few years later though, on a Creation compilation. Apparently Meat Whiplash were from the same new town as The Jesus & Mary Chain. What they used to call noise-pop and a glorious encapsulation of that it is.
Very enjoyable racket from pioneering Japanese noise performance artist Maso Yamazaki aka Masonna: The rock star of noise. He's been doing Controlled Death now for 5 or so years. This is drone-y lo-fi psychedelic dark ambient goodness. It's got church-y organs and malignant synths that infect the already sinister tones for added infernal resonance. Music For The Death Cult Church was released exclusively on cassette in February in a limited edition of 99 with no digital download option. It's now sold out and copies go for 80 Aussie dollars on discogs so I'm very grateful to the youtube channel Rites Of Pestilence for uploading this. It's quite possibly the best work under Yamazki's Controlled Death moniker.
One of the best tunes of the 60s. It's got the lot: Drama so much drama and that crackling electricity in each drum hit and the exhilarating quiet loud dynamics and the crunchy guitars and the strange whistle break and the exciting violence and the complex weird melodic vocal harmonies with some funny creepy lyrics. The words are so evocative, it's like a mod movie in just four and a half minutes.
As it said on the compilation this is "choice psychotic freakbeat" How Rumble On Mersey Square South is not on everyone's best tunes of the 60s list is beyond me but then again I only discovered it 15 years ago with the re-issue of Bam-Caruso's 1984 compilation The Psychedelic Snarl. All I know is Liverpool's Wimple Winch released just three 7"s on Fontana and none of them were hits.
I just noticed House Of Love ripped off that opening guitar line for one of their tunes maybe Shine On?
Not many tunes are about buying shoes for the one you love. This is fucking weird and a little creepy. Sonically so raw and in your face. Did they expect this to get on the radio back in the day? This single was released by Columbia in 1965. Miller had previously been in the British instrumental group Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers who'd had some top 10 action with Joe Meek productions. Anyway those brash guitars eventually take over this ditty after 2 and half minutes. A very noisey racket-ness. Did a bunch of future bands base their entire careers on the last 40 seconds of this song?
Well this is as unhinged as any great freakbeat tune from the Britain. The Selfkick were Dutch and this was Nederbeat. A classic noise-y racket from 1966.
Is there anything cooler than a group who recorded just one single?....well yeah if their one and only 7" was released on Parlaphone in 1966 and was this actual song! Plus this classic is the B-side. This is Freakbeat gold.
Never heard this tune until yesterday. I know next to nothing about The Sorrows except they were from Coventry. This tune is a ripper. That bassline! Those drums. A bit of menacing British beat if not quite unhinged freakbeat. In the original definition of the term freakbeat Phil Smee, who coined the term, said it had to be "touched by the hand of mayhem" so it's not quite chaotic enough but ya know whatever i suppose...it's still freakbeat innit. That term has come to encompass British Beat, RnB, Mod, Psych etc.
The Sorrows - Take A Heart (1965)
This is the one song by The Sorrows I previously knew because it was on a compilation from 21 years ago Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire & Beyond.
Since I last wrote about Su some dude reckons he saw her on twitter. This claim appears to be absolute bullshit because I think the internet would have actually gone mental if any activity from Su had actually been detected.
Everybody's favourite enigmatic new wave pop singer Su Tissue wears top outfit and does stares almost as good as Johnny Rotten.
The Slab is the original recorded version of the below tune The Order Of Death. Keith Levene stole these 1982/83 demos that Lydon was disappointed with and released the bootleg called Commercial Zone. Many of these tracks would be re-recorded without Levene for PIL's 1984 LP This Is What You Want...This Is What You Get.
PIL - ORDER OF DEATH
Welcome to your dystopia where everything is now flipped. The authoritarianism is now emanating from the extreme but mainstream left.
"Stay in your houses. You must comply with what we say. We have decided you can no longer think for yourselves so we have revoked your privileges and liberties. You don't want autonomy anyway we have decided. We will not tolerate dissent, you will be in trouble from MIS, DIS & MAL. We have decided you cannot see your family until further notice. There will be no fraternising with others either. We will be monitoring your online conversations to make sure you are conforming to what we have decided is correct thinking. Not calling certain men women will result in hate crime charges. Your freedom depends upon how willing you are to acquiesce to our demands."
TIME ZONE - WORLD DESTRUCTION
PIL - THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG
This is another Commercial Zone version. I assume that's Pete Jones on bass.
*** I've gotta say John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten seems like a diamond geezer. The fact that he adopted Ari Up's kids, still recognises his working class roots (unlike the British labour party), is not on board with the bullshit new Sex Pistols tv show, likes common sense and spends most of his time looking after his wife of 41 years who has Alzheimer's is all pretty endearing.
Recently, lame middle class leftie elitists, stuck in their illiberal bubble, have tried to smear him as a deplorable but John gets what has transpired politically (over the last 40 years) and is still getting the goat of the people who deserve it. He will not blindly toe an orthodox party line.
I know I've skipped ahead chronologically in the career of Drexciya but I was in a Neptune's Lair kinda mood. So we've gone from 1993 in the last post to the sound of Drexciya in 1999. I think we all thought they'd broken up at this point as they hadn't released any records for a coupla years but as if to say we're gonna really make a fucking indelible stamp on 90s music now they issued this surprise epic masterpiece in the nick of time during November of 1999, just before we were all gonna die from Y2K. I've said it before, this was the last great LP of the 90s. It's also the strangest, most enigmatic and ambitious music of Drexciya's esteemed 10 year saga.
When I first heard this album I thought it was some kind of secret mystic missive from a hidden sacred zone. It sounded like nothing else at the time and still holds a mesmerising hold of my brain when the needle hits the record/lazer hits the reflective metallic plastic today.
They basically eschewed the harsher elements of their music to concentrate on the sweeter side of Drexciya, that was always a part of their dna but never quite at the forefront. The thing is this wasn't just the lovely side of the duo, it was an entire leap into unprecedented sumptuous sonic waters. The charm of Neptune's Lair resides in its refined attention to peculiar but splendid melodic detail. Epic opulent washes of sound, rippling low frequencies, sub-aquatic funk, fizzy kaleidoscopic jams, waterlogged bass lines and bubbling atmospheric waves conjuring weird underwater activity is what it's all about. We still get electro bangers where the funky robot sound of the gritty futuristic metropolis is relocated to the bottom of the ocean.
You can't really write about Drexciya without mentioning the fantastical mythology that surrounds the duo's music and its themes. On early records the artwork, song titles and aural textures hinted at this underwater-world known as Drexciya. By the time of their mammoth 2cd career spanning compilation The Quest in 1997 the mythology became overt with text and maps etc. It's hard to know if this mythos of an Afro-futurist utopia was originally just vague abstract ideas later retro engineered into something more coherent or was thought through from the start or was somebody else's poetic interpretation of the hints they'd been given.
Anyway Drexciya is a mythic world that is inhabited by underwater sea-breathing, hastily evolved humanoids known as Drexciyans descended from pregnant mothers thrown off slave ships in the 17th century. Depending on your point of view this can either enhance ("wow man deep") or hinder ("nerds!") your enjoyment of Neptune's Lair. It all kinda puts me in mind of the top 70s Frog-proggers Magma who had a fictional planet Kobaïa and even invented a language Kobaïan.
To me this record belongs thematically at least in the tradition of deep sea/aquatic/underwater records that were recorded in the 70s & 80s and released on library record labels. Records such as Fabio Fabor's Aquarium, Walt Rockman's Underwater, Armanda Sciascia's Sea Fantasy and Egisto Machi's Fauna Marina. Since discovering this delightful sub genre of music in the early 00s I have always wondered if James Stinson or Gerald Donald were across these LPs. I have to think they had probably come across one or two whilst digging in the crates if not being aficionados of these much coveted artefacts.
DREXCIYA - Deep Sea Dweller (1992) [Shockwave Records]
An incredibly consummate debut EP from the mysterious and much mythologised Drexciya. However the Detroit duo of James Stinson and Gerald Donald had released an EP on Hardwax Balance Of Terror in 1992 under the alias L.A.M.
The four tracks here are..... is it futile to talk about Drexciya? I mean a lot of previously written words..., what's the point? Top tunes: Yep: Innovation: Yep: Nerdy prog-rock mythos type vibes: Yep: Absurdly influential for 30 years now: Yep. Deep Sea Dweller is an All killer/No filler EP of the highest regard: An auspicious beginning: Yep. Start of a ten year reign as master maestros of Detroit electro-techno of the sublime and idiosyncratic variety: Yep. Still tops: Yep.
It's funny how much Mouse On Mars were influenced by Drexciya. I didn't realise it at the time. You think it's all contemporaneous whilst you are in the moment but when you look back you can hear the truth plus Drexciya were releasing records a couple of years prior to their existence. Throughout the Drexciya catalogue you can hear future blueprints for the likes of Boards Of Canada, Rustie etc. as well helping shape future sound of genres like electroclash, maybe some dubstep and even hauntology.
Sometimes talking about what a musical entity influenced is dumb and quite lazy. It definitely isn't necessarily a compliment but it wasn't Drexciya's fault a bunch of electroclash knob heads ripped them off in a superficial manner. Nobody could recreate their strange mystic aura though. I assume they influenced a whole lot more of the 21st century's club music and its adjacent scenes but hey I'm blissfully unaware of most of that music. It's also easy to forget there was a hell of a lot of techno in their music too.
DREXCIYA - MOLECULAR ENCHANTMENT (1993) [Rephlex]
They continued their odyssey with their twisted variant on electro and tekno Detroit stylee on Drexciya III - Molecular Enchantment. This seems a bit harder than previous releases and was released on the Aphex Twin owned Rephlex imprint no-less. I mean this has got the terrific Hydro Cubes on it, that is a landmark 90s electro tune innit. You gotta love intense noise couched in exquisite lovely-ness.
Round Two are Mark Emestus and Moritz Von Oswald who were also the legendary Basic Channel as well as Cyrus, Quadrant, Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound. While I have records and cds by all of those aforementioned groups I'm not really au fait with this moniker. I'm glad I looked into it today.
Round Three - Acting Crazy (Instrumental) 1995
Unmistakable Basic Channel-y sounds.
Round Four - Found A Way 1998
Pure dub-tech gold! How do they do this trick? It almost dissipates into nothing right before your very ears and yet it still holds a rhythm albeit a rather mirage-like one.
Round Five - Na Fe Throw Version 1999
Thick vibe man. I just noticed people arguing in the comments whether this should be played at 33 or 45. So I'm guessing all these side Bs are like all Basic Channel 12"ers which you can play at either speed depending on your mood.
3MB Featuring Eddie Fowlkes - Illuminism Range 1-5 (1992)
3MB are Thomas Fehlmann (Palais Schaumburg) and Moritz Von Oswald (Basic Channel). This track is featuring Eddie Fowlkes the Detroit techno dude. There was like a 5 minute edit of this on a early 90s Tresor cd I had but this is the full 20 minutes of glorious Berlin-Detroit techno goodness.
You gotta love a group that consisted of a teacher and three of his year 12 students from Mornington High (60 Km south of Melbourne cbd) who used to rehearse & drink beer on a farm in Moorooduc.
The Chosen Few played Aussie style brutal yob punk rock inspired by the likes of Radio Birdman but I guess they were a lot more neanderthal.
The Chosen Few used to support Nick Cave’s Boys Next Door at The Tiger Lounge in Swan Street Richmond. They also played The Crystal Ballroom in St Kilda & had a residency at The Champion Hotel in Fitzroy. However they were outsiders because they weren’t inner city trendies, didn’t conform to punk’s orthodoxy and actively hated everyone else on the scene.
They only released one EP while they were together. THE JOKE’S ON US! from 1978 was a six song 7” issued on A FEW PRODUCTION. The original pressing of the single is now going for 1500 Aussie dollars on discogs.
The Chosen Few have become a little bit legendary over the years since their breakup in 1979. Iain the singer walked in front of a train & died in 1995. Cal the drummer played with The Olympic Sideburns, Spencer P Jones, The Saints, The Clip Clop Club etc.
Bored featuring Bohdan X & Eddy Current Suppression Ring have both recorded a cover of The Chosen Few’s THERE’S A LOT OF IT GOING AROUND ensuring them immortality as a seminal influence amongst the underground Australian rock scene.
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.
