Gen Z junglizm

blissblogger

Well-known member
there's all these bedroom kids making jungle and dreamy D&B tunes (my own kid put me onto this stuff)

seems to have no relation to any kind of real-life scene - i suspect they've never heard jungle or D&B played out through a big system - it's something they've alighted on in their wanderings across the internet

doesn't seem to have any connection either to all that retro-jungle Tim Reaper Phineas et al scene as far as i can tell - the Gen Z tunes are not being issued vinyl only as expensive slabs - they just exist as digital vapor

 

linebaugh

Well-known member
as an american who only recently started saying 'knob' and 'uni,' jungle as dance music was completely alien to me when I first started listeing to it. And even still when playing dance music around friends Ill never play a jungle tune because I assume it wont connect. 4 on the floor is the only thing that translates over here
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
it's interesting to think about what this music means - if anything - to these kids - have they read about the music and the culture? or just stumbled on it and thought 'cool beats'? or seen some videos on YouTube

i just did a class on the Jamaican-UK thing and it is a bit disorienting to realise how little of the context is known to even pretty hip and widely listened 20-year-olds. For instance I had to explain what a 12-inch single was and how it differed from a 7-inch single - in order to get to why using 7-inches made the Jamaican approach to deejaying so different.

similarly, how would the concept of pirate radio signify to a generation that quite literally never listens to radio (well, unless their parents have it on in the car)
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
Although this stuff is basically unplayable in the rave or in dj mixes, I much prefer it to the likes of Bored Lorde, who to me are trying too hard to ape the UK for their raves in Oakland or wherever, so the tunes sound like cliche upon cliche stacked atop each another (which I know sounds fucking good when i phrase it like that) but it really isn't.

There's a detached originality to this stuff - well, not so much originality but a weird parallel with the drumfunk that Equinox, Paradox, Macc etc were producing in the 00s albeit nowhere near as optimised for the rave sound system,. of course.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I like some of those Tim Reaper tunes e.g. the Special Request remix (I know they're not what you're talking about) but at the same time I do wonder if it's just a case of retreading the same old classic sounds – so the idea of people making jungle who don't really know what jungle was is interesting to me.
 

snav

Well-known member
it's interesting to think about what this music means - if anything - to these kids - have they read about the music and the culture? or just stumbled on it and thought 'cool beats'? or seen some videos on YouTube

i just did a class on the Jamaican-UK thing and it is a bit disorienting to realise how little of the context is known to even pretty hip and widely listened 20-year-olds. For instance I had to explain what a 12-inch single was and how it differed from a 7-inch single - in order to get to why using 7-inches made the Jamaican approach to deejaying so different.

similarly, how would the concept of pirate radio signify to a generation that quite literally never listens to radio (well, unless their parents have it on in the car)

I like some of those Tim Reaper tunes e.g. the Special Request remix (I know they're not what you're talking about) but at the same time I do wonder if it's just a case of retreading the same old classic sounds – so the idea of people making jungle who don't really know what jungle was is interesting to me.

I was sort of early on this one, discovered jungle (and honestly, my first love, happy hardcore) in 2008, as an American suburban 14 year old, thru Ishkur's guide to electronic music and Newgrounds audio forum (I think jungle was popular there because of video game music... think Bomberman for N64. One of the biggest producers there was ParagonX9, who was making little drum n bass tracks for people's flash videos), then I picked up FL Studio to try producing some.

My relationship to the music had an element of sadness at having missed the awesome scene (which I realize now that I wouldn't have liked anyway as an introverted teenager). I would listen to Bonkers mixes on my headphones while... riding the bus, or LTJ Bukem and Omni Trio (both good headphone music). I would download everything I could find, and DJ little jungle sets on an online radio/torrent forum, hanging out in IRC with a bunch of 30-something Eastern European ravers. Eventually started buying vinyl but can't really find the British stuff in the states.

I remember going to a drum n bass party when I was 18 at a little shack near the airport, and I didn't really know what to do. I liked the music but the party hadn't picked up yet, I was too young to drink, didn't have drugs... Hung out for a bit then left. These days in NYC it's still more techno than jungle, but some early 90s oldskool hardcore sound is starting to appear again, from back when the tempos were 130-140 rather than 160-170.
 

snav

Well-known member
I wonder how many younger Americans were exposed to Omni Trio by GTA.
Haunted Science was my favorite album but I probably found it because Renegade Snares was on Ishkur's guide. Hadn't played GTA back then, but wouldn't surprise me if it did expose ppl to new stuff.
 

version

Well-known member
There was a whole station on GTA III which was just Moving Shadow tunes, but that was well before some of Gen Z were even born; Source Direct and Photek on the Wipeout soundtrack too.
 
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