State of Bass: The Origins of Jungle/Drum & Bass

236 Pages·2020·1.512 MB·English

by  Martin James

STATE OF BASS

STATE OF BASS
THE ORIGINS OF JUNGLE/DRUM & BASS
MARTIN JAMES
First published by Velocity Press 2020
velocitypress.uk

Copyright © Martin James 2020

Cover design:
Designment
designment.studio
Typesetting:
Paul Baillie-Lane
pblpublishing.co.uk
Photography:
Cleveland Aaron, Andy Cotterill, Courtney Hamilton, Tristan O’Neill
Martin James has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, in any
form or by any means, without permission from the publisher

While the publishers have made every reasonable effort to trace the copyright
owners for some of the photographs in this book, there may be omissions of
credits, for which we apologise.

ISBN: 9781913231026
Contents
Foreword
by a guy called gerald ix
Introduction
Here Comes the Drumz 1
1. All’a The Junglists
Naming The Sound, Locating The Scene 15
2. Shut Up And Dance
From Sleng Teng To Bleep: Creating The Space For Jungle 25
3. Valley Of The Shadows
The Media Blackout And The Rise Of Dark 45
4. Armed And Dangerous
Ragga Jungle Takes Control 67
5. Above The Law
The Business, The Committee and The Technology Of Total Control 89
6. Shadow Boxing
The Jungle/Drum & Bass Split 99
7. Intelligent Minds Of Jungle
The Rise Of Ambient Drum & Bass and the jazz discovery 121
8. Feel The Sunshine
Taking On The Mainstream 137
9. Mutant Revisited
Return To The Darkside 159
10. The World Is A Ghetto
Celebrity, The International Growth Of Drum & Bass and
The Jump-Up Reaction 173
11. Reprazent To Saturnz Return
Awards, Plaudits And The Album Dilemma 197
12. Brand Nu Funk
The Breakbeat Continuum 215
sources 219
To my family for their unending support and continued inspiration.
Lisa, Ruby Blue, Felix Drum and Bella Pearl, love you all the world x
To Vini and Kemistry for their generous, passionate and committed
support for this book. Never forgotten. RIP.

we have reached what could be
the final stage in musical change this century
but it is still in its early days
this music takes on many forms
breaks through many boundaries
I hear it in everything
but what does this mean to the rest of the
all seeing non listening world
fuck all
but even this has a positive role to play
for the mass ignorance of joe public
reflects the brainwashing society
we have come to call modern life
in fact
if an individual seeks enlightenment
he or she is often classed as a
nutter
space baby
freak
weirdo
by the mass body of brainless sheep
these patterns echo through the behaviour
of all of our so-called civil societies
put all this aside
there’s one way of communicating
of breaking through prejudice
… MUSIC
GCG
(A Guy Called Gerald)