The exquisite bits in jungle are one of the portals to the infinite and so are the banging bits

The feeling of discovering a bug in a computer game that allows you to break through to an odd calming space where the physics don't work in the same way. Within the constraints and logic of a game, like the logic of a break beat, your sense of time and environment feels tightly controlled.. you're dealing with someone elses will and structure, and the release into something free form and artless can be all the more euphoric because of the strange accidental effects that bleed in. may not be the case, blanket statements, producers could have spent weeks on those 30 second breakdowns, but I quite like the idea of them being nearly afterthoughts with errors and oddity left there, a detour before we get back to the real stuff. that’s the impression I can get. again great jungle breakdowns are better ambient than any ambient
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I think that question of how much control there is over the samples is key to understanding why jungle after a certain point remained really good, potentially great, but lost some of its charm.

As you say in the earliest stuff there's a sense of working with uncontrollable materials. Accidents bleed in. The harmonics don't 'work'. (At this point I'd reach for the Aphex quote about jungle producers being better because they weren't professional musicians).

Compare that to the pristine mechanical precision of e.g. Photek.

And also as jungle 'progresses' the emotion becomes more tightly controlled, there's less of an interplay between different states, everything becomes more linear and focused, ala. techno/house.

There's no emotional variety or accidents in, say (cos Simon posted about it the other day) 'Alien Girl'.
 
I think that question of how much control there is over the samples is key to understanding why jungle after a certain point remained really good, potentially great, but lost some of its charm.

As you say in the earliest stuff there's a sense of working with uncontrollable materials. Accidents bleed in. The harmonics don't 'work'. (At this point I'd reach for the Aphex quote about jungle producers being better because they weren't professional musicians).

it’s partly about the sampling and time-fucking technology being a new mechanism, a prism for all those separate sounds to interact and refract through, so it’s eclecticism enabled *through* a new way of creating, listening, recording... which naturally encodes certain stylistic. elements that occur beyond artistic choice. in early stuff you almost hear the playful awe of cant believe I’m hearing and making at once
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Me @ photek

could-should.jpg
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
An irony in tech steppy music either praised or abused for being "robotic" when in fact it could be said to be the sound of a human obtaining rigorous control over technology... to sound more robotic.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Fair

I've never known exactly what the relationship was between stuff like ni whatever it is ryu and techstep. I'd assume there's a lineage connecting the two.
 

Pearsall

Prodigal Son

I absolutely love this one (from A-Sides under one of his millions of aliases), especially when the breakdown drops at 1:12 - it's reminiscent of a classic hardcore piano breakdown, but sadder and more melancholy.

Raving ages you in warp speed, so you go from bright-eyed newcomer to moody veteran in the space of only a few years - I started raving in 1996 so endured plenty of chillout room conversations with people only a few years older along the lines of "you don't know how much better it used to be!".

To me, this track captures that feeling perfectly, as it welds recognizable hardcore elements - pianos, strings, a soulful vocal, breaks, bass - into something else, something less euphoric but still spine-tingling
 
Because In my heart I feel they're cousins I've combined the best of luke's haunting hardcore thread, mainly contributions from him and @padraig (u.s.) with the tunes here to create what i can only describe as the best most moving exhibition of human endeavour the world has ever seen and the only thing you'll ever need to listen to until the day you die

HAUNTING & EXQUISITE JUNGLE & HARDCORE

 
Yes it's the perfect soundtrack for a wee blast into hyperspace but also preparing for a job interview, cleaning the house or indeed wooing a potential mate.
 

catalog

Well-known member
Nice one shiels I'm looking forward to getting into this, looks really good. About 50 YouTubes is also a manageable amount.
 
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