Our favourite stateside Jungle label PPJ Recordings are back doing what they do best, releasing modern classic Jungle Drum and Bass, tweaking the original 90s formula with a few contemporary updates. Their latest release is from Australian Akai Disciple, 12 Bit Jungle Out There, a contemporary Junglist intent on using vintage hardware to make new Jungle that appeases the old gods. You can get it on vinyl or digital through PPJ’s Bandcamp. Here’s the All Crews take on each track..
Roots Vibration (Mash Up Da Place)
As its name suggests Roots Vibration leans the most heavily on classic 93-95 era Jungle elements. While it opens with soul-opening spacey pads and zippy Think breaks the track soon descends into a bruising Amen workout. Mashed-up time-stretched breaks and clipped rootsy ragga vocal samples compete to run the track and carry it forward. The tone shift in the B-line at around 2:30 gives a sense of the dance descending to new depths of intensity. One to elevate the dance for sure.
Find A Way (In Da Jungle)
Like its namesake, find a way is a modern Jungle track that weaves its way through all the hallmarks of the sound to create a steady, eerie roller: calm but ready to tear-out at any point. Waves of chilling, soaring, glassy synths are punched through with samples of an MC’s call to the dance, while Think break layers and a hefty, yet not too distorted bassline slide in as the track reaches its peak. Some jazzy piano breaks see the track off and cement its status as a slow burner ideal for gradually building some mysterious, ethereal tension in a set.
What we do
The most tear-out tune across both of PPJ’s latest releases, What We Do is a master class in peak-time break choppage. Abandoning a steady, building intro for a speedy deep-dive into stabby pads and blown-up breaks from the off, What We Do is a monstrous hectic tune ideal for the rowdiest section of a set. Shot through with rave horns, Dub sirens and air raid claxons and a sizzling overdriven B-line even the stoniest of dancefloors, and the heftiest of sets, could be buried with this one.
Love so good (drop the bass)
Opening with the crunchiest break of any release on the record, love so good brings the early Hardcore flavour to PPJ02. Chipmunk vocals, piano breaks and 4/4 kickdrum slugs collide with the rolling jungle b-lines that we know and love, making for a euphoric track reminiscent of tracks from the evolution era when Hardcore was becoming Jungle. An era when the chirpy Hardcore hallmarks were still there but the bass frequencies ventured ever lower, breaks got more twisted and the sound crept into the darkside.
