The Straight Dope: What's Up with Jungle Music?

If you had told DJ Snuggles six years ago that he'd be looking at drum 'n' bass in the last year of the millennium as stalemate, he might have laughed in your face. At a time when jungle's rolling bassline and eardrum pound were deemed undancable within the U.S. rave circle, a time when all things not four-on-the-floor were restricted to the hallways and closets of warehouse parties, Snuggles and JJ Jellybean were savagely pushing for breakbeat legitimacy with their fanzine, Chicago Hardcore Authority (CHA).

But the spirit of those days is long gone and some of Chicago's original junglists like DJ Casper are operating on a different frequency. "I think there is a general sentiment in the drum 'n' bass community that things are stagnant because everyone is copying the same formula and using the same sounds," says Casper, the Windy City's famed atmospheric drum 'n' bass agitator.

He believes lethargy has cut into the bone of the Chicago club kid. "Compared to a few years back, it seems like the people now are more apathetic," observes Casper. "I feel like the scene has lost something in the past two years."

As the tunes coming from the U.K. become progressively more dance-friendly and jungle slowly morphs into a more acceptable form of music, the innovative British sounds that dosed Chicago with jungle fever have seemingly been replaced with a more lackluster selection of tunes.

"The way it has been going is boring and redundant," comments Snuggles of the dry spell at hand. "I'd like to see people from other music styles try their hands [at jungle], because they might be able to lend something new and refreshing as opposed to having the same Optical-made track over and over again."

This is coming from one of jungle's first ambassadors to the Midwest, the man who in 1995 launched Chicago's Strictly Jungle Show -- the first and most widely respected weekly drum 'n' bass radio show in the nation. Its esteemed guests have included Goldie, Dexterous, Marvelous Cain and Zinc.

Back in the early '90s, Chicago set the standard for the rest of America in terms of jungle parties. The first ones, like Destiny in May 1994 and Fuse in July of the same year, drew more than 2,000 kids-packed houses unheard of at the time in the U.S. The first all-jungle parties in town were thrown by Ripe Production and Jungle Ting.

This isn't to say that Chicago's early jungle assassins have deserted fort. Local heroes like Phantom 45, 3D, Danny the Wildchild, Snuggles, and Casper continue playing out at jungle weeklies and grace flyers all over the country.

But these days many of Chi-towns jungle DJs are also heading for the recording studio. Ry-n, a relatively fresh face within Chicago's jungle community, who has already made a name for himself in the past two years opening up for the likes of Photek, LTJ Bukem, and Roni Size, is now taking up production work with his new label Sequence. He is joining the ranks of DJ-turned-producers like Snuggles (Ghetto Safari, Stepwise, Kultbox, and Forte Recordings) and 3D (Canvas Recordings -- Bad Boy Bill's jungle label).

Known as Cascade, Casper and engineer extraodinaire Chris J., have been making a name for themselves in the intelligent drum 'n' bass camp. They will be releasing two tracks on Seba's forthcoming compilation CD "Case Two" on the Secret Operations label, the new drum 'n' bass sublabel of his Swedish house label, Svek. In addition, their tracks have been played out by Blame, with talk of being released on his 720 label. LTJ Bukem has even expressed interest in the duo and is considering them for release on the next Progression Sessions CD or a later Good Looking Records album.

And Snuggles, who yearns to put out something refreshingly new and "transcendent," is currently working on an "undercover" project with another Chicago jungle DJ. "I want to create something lasting," states Snuggles. "Maybe I've already created something transient for 16-year-old ravers, but I want to create something completely mind-blowing, something permanent, rather than a track that will be forgotten in three weeks."

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