In Kingston in the 1980s, the word »Junglist« could inspire real fear, referring as it did to members of one of the city’s dominant gangs. Deejays and MCs on the soundsystem circuit nonetheless kept the term alive, repurposing it as a shout of respect – »Big up all junglists!«. It sounded good enough for British producers to start sampling these calls, gradually severing them from their original context. Today, »jungle« is far more likely to evoke club music from England than gang violence in Jamaica.
One of jungle’s defining features remains the »Amen Break« – a short, high-pitched drum break taken from »Amen, Brother« by the American soul band The Winstons. At the same time, the music’s deep ties to Jamaica are clearly audible on Junglist!. Alongside early jungle tracks by producers such as M-Beat, Krome & Time or DJ Vern & DJ Ash, the compilation also includes jungle mixes of songs by well-known dancehall stars like Beenie Man and Cutty Ranks.
As a precursor to drum’n’bass, jungle was always the rougher, more blunt-force version of this hardcore strand of British dance music. And clubs were never shaken by bass violence quite as intensely as they were in the mid-1990s. This is the proof.
