tangents tangents tangents...the lifeblood of the imagination...mmm...as am all about dance music and visual art and healthy community building overlaps
I was really into jungle/dnb from '94 to '97. Not a huge techstep fan, though I kind of enjoyed Torque. Not as much as my Photek/Source Direct 12-inches though. Dillinja is up there with them too. That T Power tune though. Knew the original, but not the remix. Looking fwd to Part 2.
Also, funny coincidence - spent one summer during peak French touch in Paris. Good times!
Dilinja is really the master, the massive crispness of those drum sounds has always drawn me in whatever period of his catalogue! There was something about the sparseness of that era of dnb (which mutated into something really dark quite quickly) that really appeals to me. You can still hear its roots in hardcore but gone are the happy frivolities of old school jungle, its pure sci fi music that sounds futuristic to me even now.
I was at a heavy metal fest a few weeks back talking to a label owner I know and we got on about our love of jungle / drum n bass—and how so many metalheads are secret junglists. I think he's putting together a little guest playlist for my substack, to be determined. But it got me in a state for sure, and thumbing through my old white labels...
I had a love/ hate relationship with techstep and when the Pendulum™ swung, I bowed out, went into my crates, and reaching to my Houston roots, started trying to make chopped & screwed (more like just majorly slowed down since I didn't own doubles of any of them) mixes...which those techstep records were perfect for. I think you're right though, when sprinkled throughout a mix, they're a great contrapposto to the wild drum programming of jungle. I think just got bored with mixes that were straight techstep, which felt like the standard by the early 2000s. At the same time, I think like with metal, trying to keep track of all the subgenres was exhausting.
(also so stoked just by that 20 second Stereolab tease as well)
thanks Jason! A quick blast of Dillinja always does you well.
WoohoooOOooooo another awesome article! thank you! And as a related tangent...as keep thinking about the fab flim Blade Runner and 90s dance music
Here is:
"Rufige Kru - Manslaughter (Part One - Runners Edge) 1993"
inspired in part by the 1982 Blade Runner film
Marc Mac of 4hero engineered and co-produced this track in the 90s with Goldie
https://youtu.be/cVUolAbX_Bs?si=Ddbo5zKi7McY67oO
P.s. Reinforced Records was included in this recent article, "14 of the best record label logos" by Jim McCauley
https://www.creativebloq.com/design/record-label-designs-1131818
tangents tangents tangents...the lifeblood of the imagination...mmm...as am all about dance music and visual art and healthy community building overlaps
Blade Runner is such a fabulous part of 90s dance music. And thanks for the wonderful image!
Yes! so cool to put it all together. My pleasure!
Great article - so many happy memories of being blasted by Torque and Dillinja repeatedly back in the day
I was really into jungle/dnb from '94 to '97. Not a huge techstep fan, though I kind of enjoyed Torque. Not as much as my Photek/Source Direct 12-inches though. Dillinja is up there with them too. That T Power tune though. Knew the original, but not the remix. Looking fwd to Part 2.
Also, funny coincidence - spent one summer during peak French touch in Paris. Good times!
Dilinja is really the master, the massive crispness of those drum sounds has always drawn me in whatever period of his catalogue! There was something about the sparseness of that era of dnb (which mutated into something really dark quite quickly) that really appeals to me. You can still hear its roots in hardcore but gone are the happy frivolities of old school jungle, its pure sci fi music that sounds futuristic to me even now.
I was at a heavy metal fest a few weeks back talking to a label owner I know and we got on about our love of jungle / drum n bass—and how so many metalheads are secret junglists. I think he's putting together a little guest playlist for my substack, to be determined. But it got me in a state for sure, and thumbing through my old white labels...
I had a love/ hate relationship with techstep and when the Pendulum™ swung, I bowed out, went into my crates, and reaching to my Houston roots, started trying to make chopped & screwed (more like just majorly slowed down since I didn't own doubles of any of them) mixes...which those techstep records were perfect for. I think you're right though, when sprinkled throughout a mix, they're a great contrapposto to the wild drum programming of jungle. I think just got bored with mixes that were straight techstep, which felt like the standard by the early 2000s. At the same time, I think like with metal, trying to keep track of all the subgenres was exhausting.
(also so stoked just by that 20 second Stereolab tease as well)
Looking forward to Pt. II of this list.