quoted 5 lines An excellent starter jungle/trip/hednoddin' trip through some of the> An excellent starter jungle/trip/hednoddin' trip through some of the
> Metalheadz back catalog. [...]
>
> The rest are great starters for those still not hip to the Jungle
> stylings of Goldie's Metalheadz label, or even LTJ's Good Looking label!
Harumph.
I've listened to this tape a couple of times through, and my basic impression
is that some tracks contain some really nice backing tracks, ruined by that
ever-present please-why-won't-it-ever-stop Jane-stop-this-crazy-thing...-Jane!
breakbeat snare.
I like some Jazz-tinged things (Carl Craig, c'mon down!) but I've never liked
anything that's predominantly Jazz, and I suspect I never will. The same is
pretty much true for Jungle - I can deal with it in small dosages, but as
long as the rapid-fire snare-dominated breakbeat is a central motif in the
genre, I can never take it to heart. If this means I'm "still not hip", then
tough titties for me I guess ...
Just to throw this out to the Bigger Picture, though:
Lots of this kind of music that's the nuevo hipster's 3L!T3 kinda-new kinda-now
kinda-WOW thang - progressive Jungle, "Throbbing Pouch" & the Plugs, etc.
(I will not type "tr*p h*p" .. I will not type "tr*p h*p" ... ) - is very
much moving more on the organic tip. i.e., even if it's sampled, the
musical elements are "organic"; i.e. drums, bass, organ/piano, even a guitar
or 3 ... this is an interesting phenomenon. Mostly because I am really into
Techno and related musics for the INorganic feel, i.e. being primarily
electronics-based, which is no doubt due in no small part to having been
pummeled by "organic" music for the past 25 years and being sick to death of
it. Somehow there's this itch that I can't scratch which feels like that
no matter what, "organic"-based music just doesn't feel "forward" or "new"
or "1996" or whatever, which is what I've always felt with recent electronic
music (even if it was made on old synths (-: ). I dunno ...
I'm beginning to wonder if it's time to pay heed to the old words of the
then already elder-statesman Pete Townshend, speaking about Punk: "It's not
up to us to *understand* it, we just have to get the hell out of the way ... "
- Greg