Well CHris herein lies the problem of trying to decipher between what is
'Jungle' and what is 'Drumnbass': there are several artists who have an
affinity for both, who kind of have their foot in both doorways...
Luke Vibert aka Plug is one of these people. His take on (I will now
simply use the term 'uptempo brekbeat') is truly unique. IMHO Plug is the
least 'drillnbass' of the practioners of that subgenre (ie AFX,
Squareepusher, Tpower, etc), though arguably the first. Plug 1,2 are hard
to find, but do yourself a huge favor and pick up Plug's Drum n Bass for
Papa. A perfect blend of breaks and samples that soothe the mind as well
as tease those dancing feet. I consider this album to be a must have
staple breakbeat record. Plus, they recenlty re-issued it with the Plug 3
EP as a bonus CD.
Regarding your last post, I think it is problematic to group what you call
the boring stuff into 'jungle' and the weirdo left of center breakbeat
madness into 'drumnbass', even though I suggested their sort of is a
difference. You see you have to look at the phenomenon of breakbeat
culture and club culture as a whole before you can make statements like "
not-so-intelli-sounding". IMHO opinion a certain vibe, or procedure for
making music, like the original junglists who tend not to sway away from
the proven formula, does not constitute non-intelligence. Quite the
contrary. Even though you or I may regard jungle as primitive or boring
compared to recent Tom J. breakbeat endeavors, it does not diminish the
fact that Jungle was a creative and noteworthy departure from techno at
that point (early-mid 90's). I mean, if jungle is so boring and over
rated, then why on earth is *everyone* nowadays experimenting with
brekbeats? I think it is a totally legitimate style, although no style is
without flaws. To clarify I'll give you 2 examples:
1. I would consider Run DMC's earliest records to be hip hop classics,
though if you were to play them today, they would surely sound dated (and
perhaps boring). It's all about contexts my friend. you have to stop
trying to equate and compare what Someone like Tom J. is doing with
someone like Goldie. Actually recently I've found myself going back to my
Shy FX type records. Too much Squarepusher gives me a headache!:)
Seriously there is a certain niave raw flavor to Jungle which I dig.
2. Like I said earlier, there are several people who kind of fall into
both categories: Mark and Dego, aka 4Hero, aka Tek 9, aka Jacob's optical
Stairway is another example. Their early Tek 9 stuff is classic rough,
obnoxious jungle, they set the standard. Then you have their Jacob's
Optical Stairway album, which is one of the most beautiful jazz
fusion/Detroit strings/tweaked breaks albums I have ever heard. I still
play this album like every other week. Definitley more of a chill out
listening album. and of course a Guy Called Gerald, the king of
intelli-jungle (wait, isn't that an oxymoron? No!)
Just keep listening to all sorts of brekbeat records, some you'll hate,
some you'll love, but most will not fall nicely into those nifty dnb and
jungle categories.
Buy PLug!
Nate
On Thu, 21 Aug 1997, chris r graves wrote:
quoted 9 lines what can someone tell me about vibert's "plug" identity?> what can someone tell me about vibert's "plug" identity?
> i understand that it's more d&b'ish.. so is it intelligent?
> similar to squarepusher, recent mu-ziq, etc?
> i ask because i've seen it listed on some not-so-intelli-sounding
> compilations like 'state of the nu art' etc.
>
> ....
> grav
>
Nate Harrison
Digital Magician Inc.
www.digimagician.com
nate@digimagician.com
313.994.7316