The Radio 1 DJ Grooverider has been sentenced to a four-year prison term in Dubai after admitting to carrying cannabis into the country. Grooverider – whose real name is Raymond Bingham – told judges at previous court appearance: “The drugs were in my possession and I forgot I had them in my trousers.” The 40-year-old DJ, who co-hosts the weekly BBC Radio 1 drum-and bass programme Fabio and Grooverider, was arrested at Dubai airport on November 23, with 2.16 grams of cannabis in his pockets just hours before he was due to play a sold-out show at a popular nightclub.
Drugs are strictly banned in the United Arab Emirates, there have been several high-profile cases of foreigners being jailed for smuggling small amounts into the country. A Swiss national is serving a four-year jail term after three poppy seeds from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow airport were found on his clothes. A British tourist, Keith Brown, spent four years in jail for the possession of 0.003 grams of cannabis. ...0.003 gr ? can you smoke that ? No it was an old butt that he had picked up under his shoe ! Well i think all this is a good reminder when you see Dubai selling itself, it's an abhorrent and deeply racist place, and someday some state sponsored terrorist (are there any other ?) will likely nuke it. Meanwhile Grooverider won't be alone, last year 59 Britons were arrested in the UAE on 'drugs'-related charges.
In the summer of 1992, a Thursday night club in London called "Rage" was changing in response to the commercialization of the rave scene (see breakbeat hardcore). Resident DJs Fabio and Grooverider; amongst others, began to take the Hardcore sound to a new level. The speed of the music increased from 120bpm to 145bpm, whilst more ragga and dancehall elements were brought in and Techno, Disco and House influences were decreased. Eventually the music became too fast and difficult to be mixed with more traditional rave music, creating a division with the other popular electronic genres. When it lost the four-on-the-floor beat, and created percussive elements solely from raw, 'chopped up' breakbeats, the old-school ravers would complain that it had "gone all jungle-techno".
First time i heard this music in the early nineties i was struck by the raw energy of it, this was not yet the DnB as we know it today but the ragga-jungle, mad beats that enabled one to dance like david byrne on speed, it certainly did away with the rhythmically limited dancers on the floor, personnally i found it all rather extatic. Unfortunately this hi-energy came quickly associated with an aggresive atmosphere. Add to that lot's of d.i.y and mutual ripping off and the scene quickly lost the limelight though it's still there, if anything it bore Drum n Bass.
The speed of drum and bass is not however only characterised by that of the broken beat. Drum and bass has a bassline, which will typically play at half the speed of the drums, bringing its speed down to that of, for instance, a laid back hip-hop track. A listener or dancer can concentrate on this element rather than the faster drums. It should be noted that the speed of music is subjective. An aggressively produced track with a complicated beat and synthesizer sounds may 'sound faster' than one with a sampled double bass bassline, guitar riffs and simpler beat, however the second track may be in strict BPM terms faster.
Jungle music had also a large impact on a variety of other styles like IDM and Electronica. Notable artists who were influenced by jungle are Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and Venetian Snares. Jungle reached the peak of its popularity between 1994 and 1995. It was toward the end of this period that the genre diversified into drum and bass as most producers started to incorporate new sounds and rhythms into their music. The co-produced "Timeless" by Goldie and Rob Playford (Moving Shadow label owner) is the clearest example of a track from this time period which is not considered Jungle.
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Goldie - Timeless (95, 74min ^ 157mb)
Goldie was born to a Scottish-Jamaican couple and put up for adoption. He bounced around child-care homes and several sets of foster parents during his childhood years, and became fascinated with the rise of hip-hop, breakdancing, and graffiti art. By 1986, he was involved with breakdancing crews around his home of Wolverhampton; after making several trips to London for all-day breakdancing events (and to see hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa), Goldie appeared in the English documentary on graffiti art called Bombing. He also spent time in New York and Miami but returned to Walsall England by 1988. After moving to London he began hanging out with two fellow heads from the British hip-hop scene, Nellee Hooper and 3-D (later of Massive Attack), and by 1991 he'd been introduced to the breakbeat culture that birthed jungle; at the seminal club night Rage, DJs Grooverider and Fabio pitched ancient breakbeats up to 45 rpm, blending their creations with the popular rave music of the time. Goldie was hooked on the sound of raw breakbeat techno, and he gradually switched his allegiance to jungle from the British hip-hop scene that later generated trip-hop.
Through his girlfriend DJ Kemistry, Goldie hooked up with Dego and Mark Mac, two of the most influential figures in the emerging drum'n'bass scene. The duo's Reinforced Records and recordings as 4hero were fostering an increasingly artistic attitude to the music, and Goldie learned much about breakbeat production and engineering at their studios. He recorded his first single as Ajax Project, then debuted on Reinforced as Metalheadz with two 1992 singles, "Killermuffin" and "Menace." The 1993 single "Terminator" broke him into the jungle scene -- besides pioneering the crucial jungle concept of time-stretching (basically extending a sample without altering its pitch) the single evinced the growing separation between the uplifting rave scene and its emerging dark side, reliant on breakbeats and restless vibes. After spending several years working on his production skills at Reinforced Records he founded Metalheadz Records, which released seminal dark-yet-intelligent singles by Source Direct, Photek, J. Majik, Optical, Lemon D, Wax Doctor, and Peshay, among others.
In 1995, Goldie released Timeless, one of jungle's first and best full-length works of art. Goldie was joined in the studio by engineer/producer Rob Playford (aka Timecode), who did most of the programming and production (with Goldie generating the musical ideas, rhythms and arrangements). The album blended the complex, chopped and layered breakbeats and deep basslines of jungle and drum and bass with expansive, symphonic strings and atmospherics, and beautiful female vocals.The sweeping synths and lilting female vocals that form the intro to the title-track opener could be taken from any above-average house anthem, but once the beat kicks in, percussion rolls around and through the song while a muscular dub bassline pounds additional sonic territory. The beat fades in and out, appearing and re-appearing with all the stealth of a charging rhino. The seven other tracks are just as uncompromising.
Goldie resurfaced in 1998 with a high-profile follow-up, SaturnzReturn, an epic two-disc set including one track, "Mother," that broke the 60-minute barrier itself. The album tanked with critics and fans, leading to a return to the underground later that year with the Ring of Saturn EP. Goldie mixed a two-disc volume in the INCredible series of mix albums compiled by Ovum, as well as a number of Metalheadz-centric sets. Malice in Wonderland, a production album credited to Rufige Kru, was completed for a 2007 release.
Though he hardly developed the style, Goldie became one of the first personalities in British dance music, his gold teeth and b-boy attitude placing him leagues away from the faceless bedroom boffins that had become the norm in intelligent dance music. For the first time, England had a beat maestro and tough-guy head who could match the scores of larger-than-life hip-hop stars America had produced, and the high profile of drum'n'bass as the first indigenously British dance music made Goldie a figure of prime importance.
1 - Timeless (I. Inner City Life, II. Pressure, III. Jah) ( Voc.Diane Charlemagne , Goldie) (21:03)
2 - Saint Angel (Voc.Diane Charlemagne) (7:17)
3 - State Of Mind (Voc.Lorna Harris) (7:06)
4 - Sea Of Tears (Voc.Lorna Harris) (12:04)
5 - Angel (Voc.Diane Charlemagne) (4:58)
6 - Sensual (Voc.Goldie , Justina Curtis) (8:13)
7 - Kemistry (Voc.Diane Charlemagne) (6:50)
8 - You & Me (Voc.Lorna Harris)(7:02)
Goldie - Timeless (95, 74min * 99mb)
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Various - Jungle Heat (95, 76min ^ 171mb)
Ragga Jungle is credited with engaging the black community within the jungle scene, and contributed to the 'bad boy' or 'rude boy' subculture within the UK. Ragga jungle's popularity waned significantly since 1995 in the UK, in part because the more popular DJs have avoided giving the sound airtime. Ragga jungle is now a niche sound, with a small number of labels releasing music that can be categorised in this manner.
Recently, (2001-present) Canadian and American producers have been gaining popularity with their updated version of the sub-genre largely through online networks, sparking a small, yet international renaissance. This renaissance has sparked the return of many oldschool fans and producers alike; who faded from the scene or reinvented themselves when the raves thinned and the music shed its soundsystem roots. A veritable Dark Ages followed for ragga junglists when club djs opted to support the more technical and less vocal-oriented Drum and bass productions. Dubwise junglists have welcomed the return of the rub-a-dub sound, and ragga vocals have gradually regained favour, no doubt helped by the crossover of big brother Dancehall.
01 - General Levy - Wikkeda (4:53)
02 - Remarc - Sound Murderer (4:27)
03 - Sweetie Irie - Slim Body Girls (4:52)
04 - Juggler - Gangstar (4:14)
05 - General Pecos - Wickedest Thing Around (4:20)
06 - Praga Khan - Gun Buck (Voc.Jade 4U) (6:14)
07 - DJava & Big Smurf - Loose Control (3:54)
08 - Chuck E - Smokin' A Blunt (4:27)
09 - Strictly Dub - Press Up (5:30)
10 - Dead Dred - Dred Bass (5:01)
11 - Kemi & Juggler - You Don't Know (3:41)
12 - Urban Trees - Boom (4:33)
13 - J & J - We'll Come (4:54)
14 - DJ Dub Rush - Now You Know (5:57)
15 - Nation Of Dreads - I Like 2 Move It (4:05)
16 - Urban Gangsta - Bitch, I Got Something 4 You (4:37)
Various - Jungle Heat (95, 76min * 99mb)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
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