We’re tracking Jungle Drum & Bass’s journey through Ireland and, luckily enough, some of the Emerald Isle’s finest Promoters, Producers and DJs were keen to chat to us about all things Irish Jungle Drum & Bass Culture!
Read on for part 2 of our interviews…
Mecca
Tunes-wise, who are some of your musical inspirations?
You’ve had releases on Skeleton Recordings, Pressin Hard, Subtle Audio, and AKO, choose a few of these releases and tell us the vibe you were going for in the studio…
Hard to describe with any tune, the vibe I was trying to go for, especially when starting a tune. It’s generally something that grows from messing around and what connects. I tend to work with dynamics and fx at an early stage as these can create a very different flavor with sounds, and an idea might grow and build from there. My Skeleton release, ‘The Gentle Man’, I think I have about 3 different versions of that tune in rough forms and listening back to them now I still like the elements that didn’t make the cut.
One thing is for sure my love for film comes into the mix; I always try to create a story with my music and I do love switching between the calm and emotive to dark and heavy in the same track. ‘Solar Ice’ on Subtle Audio was born from an older track years prior which had the same chords and synth, but with this track I wanted to go dark and figure out how to switch from the light to the dark, but finish back where we started.
I mostly aim for my music to be for the dance floor but would like to think they work in a personal space with headphones too.
What are some of your other passions outside of music?
As I mentioned earlier I am a lover of cinema and my passion is watching films and my work I guess, as that’s what takes up most of my time.
I work in Visual Effects for Film & TV and I have been working for a while now for a well known children’s animation studio based in Dublin. It can be technical work as well as artistic which I like. Other than that I do enjoy doing some photography, although I haven’t done much other than with my phone.
Eating & sleeping I’m pretty passionate about too.
Find Mecca on Instagram , Soundcloud & Mixcloud
Pav – Absys Records
Tell us about your label, Absys Records.
I started Absys Records in 2008. Our first release was a CD compilation with artists from Europe, Poland, Russia, US and the UK, Absys had some digital releases for a short time, I really wanted to have vinyl releases, so in 2010, I started to release vinyl. Since 2010, Absys has 24 vinyl releases, we have featured artists from Poland, Russia, UK., Netherlands Artists who have released on my label are Loxy, Mark System, Fre4knc, Hatti Vatti, Nuage,Arpxp, Mortem and many others. Since 2016, when I built my studio, Absys has operated as a record shop and a studio. We release 2 or 3 records a year, when Covid hit, the traffic in and out of the studio changed things a bit. In 2025, I will operate Absys Records as a label, record shop, and a studio for DJs and bands.
Debrief us on Jungle Movement Dublin.
The idea came from a livestream I did last year called Dublin’s Jungle Movement, which ran from 2004 untill 2024. I invited random DJs who wanted to join us on St. Patrick’s Day ’04. The idea received a great response, there was not a lot happening in Dublin, this year I organized my first Jungle Movement Dublin event at the venue I work at, it went really well. The next Jungle Movement Dublin is on May 4th, I’m trying to establish a regular event for the younger generation, we have local artists and artists from abroad from the likes of Sully and Tim Reaper. Jungle has always been a big highlighted style in Dublin, ever since the Bassbin crew in the 90’s, big love goes out to them. This was a spontaneous idea to put this together and it has done well.
As a label owner, what are you doing to push Jungle Drum and Bass forward?
Basically the big push for all the events I’m running is through my studio, which is an amazing filter for new artists who are trying to establish something. They come to my studio and record mixes and this helps me find new artists who are good djs and artists. I’m also working for Bodytonic Music for a big venue The Racket Space/Bernard Shaw booking artists and working as an event manager. I’m trying to establish a minimum of 1 event per month in Dublin. This allows me to be a bit more creative with my bookings and I am booking artists who cost a bit more money. Ongoing promotions throughout the years, record releases on Absys, artists coming to my studio, people coming and buying records at my shop, trying to put on as many events as I can and releasing as much music as possible.
Find Absys records on Instagram
Polska
Tell us all about your Jungletrain show, The Skeptic Tank.
I got offered a slot and got sick of doing just 2 hrs of DNB so I went Downtempo for a second hour, then I decided I’d like to feature guest mixes, so that turned into the show’s main showcase. I showcase unknown Dj’s/Producers, as well as well known Dj’s/Producers too. It’s been great the feedback I’ve had from it and I really appreciate the guest’s taking time out to do mixes for me , it’s very humbling, I don’t take it for granted. Big up to all the guest’s, much love.
How has your production evolved from when you started out, to now?
Oh that’s a Pandora’s Box right there, I’m using the same tracker I used 30 years ago , I guess my ears got better!!
I just use Renoise and an update of Fasttracker, so it’s always been that way, I have my cousin who does vocals now and is a drummer so it has evolved in some way but, fundamentally, it’s still on Renoise for programming.
Tell us about the other sounds you explore outside of Drum & Bass.
Oh yeah, years ago when I first started I was inspired by the likes of Alpha Omega, Paradox, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Sonar Circle, etc, who all did not stick to just DNB so that opened a whole new world, can’t be a DNB producer and pigeon hole yourself. I tend to make downtempo and ambient, when it works, I find that the hardest, but overall I think any producer that has the capability to branch out of one certain style should, I don’t listen to Dnb 24/7.
Find Polska on Instagram, Soundcloud
Rob Rua
Tell us about your labels Rua Sound/Foxy Jangle:
Cormac (DJ Welfare) and I started Rua Sound in 2015. We’ve done 28 releases so far, with 26 of them on vinyl. There wasn’t a massive amount of 90’s sounding jungle around then, but we’d both been big Sully fans from his dubstep output and he had been leaning into jungle around then, so we did a release with him. Rua leans into a fairly modern take on jungle, and we did quite a few half-time jungle records while that sound was popping off. Lately, we’ve been doing some techy sounding stuff with Early Grey, San and Russ Brooker, for example.
We’re both big old school jungle heads and after we launched Rua Sound, we were getting sent a lot of that style of music all of sudden as that scene really built up a head of steam. So in 2017, while we were at the Outlook Festival actually, we decided on the concept for Foxy Jangle, the first three artists we wanted to work with were Kid Lib, Sully and Tim Reaper, and that we’d get these cool old school graffiti covers made for each of them. So that was that.
A ‘madra rua’ is a fox in Irish, so that’s where that came from. I suggested the name Foxy Jungle, and then Cormac was like ‘nah called it Foxy Jangle’. We’ve done ten 12″ vinyls on that sub-label and it’s been loads of fun.
What are some elements do you look for in tracks to release on your labels?
Something new sounding! We get sent a lot of music which sounds great but it can be a bit derivative, which I totally get. But we’re really looking for producers to do something fresh and new, artists like Sun People, San, Arcane and Earl Grey come to mind in that regard.
Also production standards, the back catalogue sets a very high bar and some of the producers on there have some serious sound design chops! So yeah, maintaining that level is important. In terms of energy, or dancefloor readiness then I think we go through different phases with this in terms of how challenging we want the music to be. That tends to change every 5 releases or so. We talk about that internally a lot and try to plan the direction we’re going in so we can curate some coherence to the catalogue.
What are your 4 favourite Irish Jungle/DNB tracks?
1) Naphta – Soundclash
2) Ricky Force – Celestial
3) PLUS ONE – Sunshine Children
4) Lewis James – Your Love is a Power=
Find Rob Rua on Instagram, Bandcamp, Soundcloud
KvN
Tell usabout your label, Asterizm Records.
Hey, All Crews, Asterizm got going in 2021, towards the tail end of the epidemic, with a view to give newcomer producers a home alongside more established names among the scene. The sound is quite varied on the label but more focused on the drumfunk side of things with a healthy offering of retro sounds in there too. Among the names on the roster we have Polska, Opius, Krugah, Fox, Duburban, Galvatron , Paludal, Dacamera, Trainspotter, and local beat merchant from Limerick, K3Bee to name a few from the ever growing roster. We have a busy year this year with some vinyl releases lined up, fresh merch and our usual birthday bash get down in Limerick in summer !
What are 3 things you look for when signing tunes to Asterizm Records?
Soul, intensity and the ability to get you up and dancing!
Ireland has a rich history of great jungle/DNB artists, which artists and labels have influenced Asterizm?
Well, I have been fortunate to live in the same city as Subtle Audio is ace, Code has done wrote the book of how to do things and we’re just going through the chapters, a buy on sight label if you ask me, Manny who ran the Wardance nights in Limerick deserves a shout too, he brought over the creme de la creme of the scene over the years and gave us an education. I was a bit young for the Bassbin nights in Dublin when they were happening, but they have a legacy of beats from the label to listen back to. Ricky Force and Mecca are excellent producers, with loads of top tunes from them . FlavrJay is a wicked selector so check out his mixes if you get a chance too. Special mention to the Evolution crew in Cork and Crilli in Belfast for having wicked nights from time to time. Ireland has a wicked scene atm!!
Find Asterizm on: Bandcamp, Instagram, Soundcloud
