This blog is dedicated to the sounds of Future Jungle ,J-Tek,140 Jungle,Jungle Breaks,Hardcore Breaks,Dubstep,Breakstep,Nu Jungle,Jungle Tekno and Nu-Rave
This 3rd and final instalment of the 'Rumblisms' series on Kut Off really goes in full throttle, ever wondered what tearout bass/breaks sounds like at 150BPM? Check out the pounding amen break laced epicness of 'Hold Fire' then catch your breath just long enough to take in 'Give Me A Break' another breaks monster which ain't messin round bruv!!!! Out on all good download stores 15/06/15
The Rumblist makes his debut on Bad Habit Muzik with a couple of beefy offerings, to utilise the vernacular of my school days 'its well 'ard mate, it'd 'ave your Dad in a fight!!!' Narcissist Beats runs at a house tempo but bangs like a bass filled beast while Take Control is a tough tearout number, the L.A legend Curious remixes both tracks in dope Future Jungle fashion, you better get an ice pack for your old mans shiner, bosh!!!
Quality dubwise Future Jungle from L.A don, DJ Curious builds up the fire round a looped Lindy Layton vocal with bouncing breaks and ragga style pads while The Rumblist gives his own unique tough tearout style refix on the flipside, bigness!!!!
It's freeby time! This month's tune is called He Is Fat and is a rolling melodic breaks blast from the past! Hard chunky rhythms meet chuggin guitar like synths and sparkly melodies!
TDDR035 - The Rumblist : Brokded / Limit - Top Drawer
Digital
After having tracks on our last 2 Future Jungle Expeditions
Albums we're glad to have The Rumblist step out on his own to represent Top
Drawer Digital.
Brokded is a massive piece of low frequency abuse , cleverly
crafted Bass Music destined to crossover between many different Genres and work
subwoofers to their limits.
Limit lulls you into a false sense of security with warm
pads and keys in the intro before descending into dark ripping Future Jungle
attack with The Rumblist's usual interesting break edits and detailed
progression. Get them fron Track It Down :
Top Drawer Digital : Future Jungle Expeditions Volume 3
To celebrate the full release of their latest album The Future Jungle Blog have got an exclusive Future Jungle Expeditions mix for you to download , free tracks ,a full review and Interviews with some of the artists involved .
Future Jungle Expeditions Volume 3 - Future Jungle Blog Set by Top Drawer Digital
This, the 3rd instalment of Top Drawer Digital's compilation series 'Future Jungle Expeditions' showcase the versatility of 140-150bpm Future Jungle, continuing in the spirit of its 90's precursor, an array of styles are here for your listening pleasure.
We start thing's off with Lucas' remix of E Lab Rat-Rat Hustle which has strong techno and hip hop leanings as per Lucas' inimitable style, a great half tempo drop with beat boxing samples leads into this continually building atmospheric roller.
Next up is a TDD favourite, Netherlands original Junglist, Bojcot Selectah with ' Winston Tribute ', neatly chopped up breaks with a heavy, hypnotic bassline and intricate pads. A track that will apeal to dubstep and breaks fans alike.
Schoco's 'Sunrise' is ethereal trance like future jungle that will send shivers down your spine and give you goosebumps, a slow burning, driving tune that builds up to an immense finale
RadioKillaZ 'Leatherface' takes a few samples from a well-known horror cult classic and marries it to a bassline reminiscent of seminal DnB anthem 'The Nine' for a dancefloor smasher par excellence, good tongue in cheek fun never sounded so good.
The Rumblist ' Forever Sleep ' is a musical masterpiece, intricate tearout breaks with so many subtle elements that make it a brilliant tune, constant key changes throughout keep this fresh and the basslines are huge, watch your bassbins!!
Perennial favourite of all discerning DJs and fans of future jungle alike, Electrux offers up ' Tau Ceti ', a wonderful combo of bleepy pads and a grimey bassline with skippy amen breaks, more of his consistent greatness.
Lucas & Strange Rollers''100% Pure(Digitally Mashed)' kicks off with a classic speaker rumbling reese bassline before a Irvine Welsh sample kicks in extolling the virtues of the raver's choice of mood enhancement, this track is full of vibes and extremely infectious, it seems that as the track title suggests, tireless veteran DJ of the scene, Digitally Mashed has had a hand in this great tune!!!
Ben Venom makes a welcome TDD return with 'Destroyer', a punchy hardcore breaks/future jungle slammer with gnarly bass and electro/tearout influenced pads, this is seriously heavy!!!!
Eddie Voyager's'Let It Roll' is perhaps the raviest tune on the album, with hip hop vox and a 90's rave style melody running throughout over some super tight and funky drum programing, if this doesn't get you moving, check your pulse!!!
Sanxion's 'Ain't Nothing' takes modern bass music and puts it through a 140 breaks filter with a huge uplifting drop 40 seconds in before introducing some sweet pianos just before the 2 minute mark, what happens next is signature Sanxion twisted bassline madness that is simply irresistible
Final Conflict's'We R Who We R' takes us back to the mid 00's with a modern ravey take on the Nu Skool breaks sound, lovely organ pads and ragga vocals on this bad boy!!!
Vinyl Junkie concludes proceedings with 'SubTropical' which certainly has subs and is indeed very tropical!!!! again, there's just so much going on here and it sounds stunning, trippy bleepy pads, tropical jungle samples, bongos, eerie building melodies and a beastly bassline make for a banger of a tune to put the icing on the cake for Future Jungle Expeditions, an album equally suited as a selection for the clubs and raves as much as a great home listening compilation or indeed, one for your car stereo. Whatever your pleasure, if you've even heard one or two future jungle tracks and you are eager to find out more, make this your first point of call.
Lucas Interview Since the early days
of TDD up to now, what would you say have been the focal points of the label
growing and the sound of future jungle in general?
I think the progression of Top Drawer Digital so far has
been mainly down to the fact that me and Digitally Mashed make a great team.
We do things our own way, not following the pack or worrying
about conforming to what’s expected. We just want to write/play/release forward thinking bass
music within the 140-150 Bpm area unconstricted by rules. As far as Future Jungle goes, yes I’m one of the people who have
pushed to make the tag stick which it seems to have but it means different
things to different people which on a positive note should keep it diverse.
I’m not a Jungle purist myself and am happy with how things
are progressing. It’s a bastardised genre in my opinion with its roots firmly
set in the Old Skool but with no real allegiances to any particular part of it
, 140-150 Bpm Bass and Break Driven music for the current producers to do something
new with.
Personally I’m not
fussed if the term stays , we will just keep progressing and let people call it
what they like.
When putting together
this new compilation, the 3rd in a highly popular series, was there a certain
criteria you looked for?
I do love putting these albums together , My main aim is to
get a good cross section of all the styles I think sit under the Future Jungle
Umbrella within the Top Drawer Digital sound then work them into a track list
so that the album flows as a complete listen rather than just a collection of
tunes.
I’m really happy with how Volume 3 has turned out.
One of the tracks on
the album by Strange Rollers and yourself is entitled '100 Pure (Digitally
Mashed)', listening to it makes me think there must be an interesting anecdote
about how this came together?
I’d been planning a trip to the Strange Rollers Studio for a
while we’ve been involved in many projects together but never actually got
together in the studio to do something. It’s the first time I’ve ever directly
produced a track with anyone , generally I find the production process a very
personal thing. When we eventually locked down the date it turned out that DM
was DJing just down the road the night before so joined up with us for the day.
It was great to catch up properly and the 100% Pure track
came out of it too. DM definitely had some input on it so we wanted to give him
a mention in the title in someway.
Not wanting to put
you on the spot but of the more under the radar producers in this scene, who do
you see as potentially having a big impact in the near future?
I’m good at evading these sort of questions as a rule due to
the pure mass of new talent coming through all the time but if I have to name
one person I see potential in it would be Gav Ley , He has the ability to
become huge in my opinion in whatever style he chooses.
His productions are innovative, clean and powerful and he is
my big tip for the coming year.
And also, EDM is
evolving faster than ever right now, is it still possible to stick to your guns
with a sound or do you see the current 140-150bpm jungle sound also inevitably
evolving?
EDM has always evolved at speed, it’s the nature of the
beast , Do I see the current scene evolving ? it fucking better had ;) Evolve
or Die I say!
I don’t feel the sudden mass worldwide interest in
commercial EDM will really effect the likes of us , were about as underground
as it comes but the spread of The Future Jungle sound internationally does bear
well ,fingers crossed hey !
DM’s doing a tour of the USA , has had mix’s played on FM
station C89.5 in the USA and has a forthcoming mix airing on Kiss FM Australia
so things are looking good.
Lastly, what
direction would you like TDD to go in the future?
Top Drawer Digital will just go with the flow, we’re on a
journey that we have no idea where it’s going and are quite happy to just enjoy
the ride and see what happens.
Here's a full free mix from the host and DJ of The Top Drawer Digital Show, each Tuesday 7-9pm on http://nsbradio.co.uk showcasing tracks from the full Future Jungle Expeditions Series
Digitally Mashed Presents Future Jungle Expeditions Volumes 1-3 by Top Drawer Digital
Final Conflict Interview You've been involved in the breaks scene since 2003, tell
us a little bit about that journey...
Hailing from the Manchester area I was raised on good
music, I originally started out playing Trance but I discovered Nu-Skool breaks
through the seminal night 'Tangled' and never looked back. I promoted for a
night called 'Military Breaks' and played a host of venues including 'The
Pheonix', 'Zumbar' and 'North'. With a move to Leeds in 2004 I was involved
with events at 'Stinkeys Peephouse', 'The Fav' and 'Oceans Eleven'. I then took
a bit of a hiatus to pursue other business ideas but with a move to London in
2008 I was drawn back to the scene (should never have stayed away)
Playing at various venues across the capital I secured my
first residency playing hip hop, breakbeat, garage and dnb, a relatively commercial venue but this, combined with a move into production led to playing
regularly at Londons leading bass music night 'Supatronix' which led to playing
various events with the likes of Rennie Pilgrem, Elite Force, The Freestylers,
Jay Cunning, Pyramid, Jurassik...and even a set at Stanton Sessions with The
Stanton Warriors earlier this year.
Can you share a few thoughts on the current future jungle
sound?
I love it! I've always been a fan of clever percussion,
deep basslines and intelligent riddims and this genre has it all. I love the
diversity you get with Future Jungle, there is something for everybody in there
and means you can take the crowd on a journey through the various guises from
mellow reggae vibes to full on tear-out assaults.
You also run the Ruffneck nights which heavily promote
the 140 sound, what can we expect at a typical event?
Everything from the Future Jungle!, with a bit of Old
Skool thrown in for good measure. It was set up with 'Rennie Pilgrem', who has
always been ahead of the game with all things breakbeat, 'Jay Cunning' of Sub
Slayers who are in my eyes the leading bass music label at the moment and are
banging out some top class 140 non stop and Supatronix boss Jurassik who is one
of Londons biggest breakbeat promoters.
The whole ethos is just to have a good party, to push the
Future Jungle vibe and to showcase up and coming talent in the genre and
basically just go nuts for a few hours, we've created quite a buzz over the
past year or so and have been able to attract the likes of The Freestylers,
Pyramid and Schema to headline and have King Yoof coming up on May the 18th.
Whats the reaction been to 140 Jungle at your events?
Its a great vibe, with its infectious rhythms and deep
basslines it always makes the crowd bounce and it fits with so many genres
(Breakbeat, Dubstep) but has that fresh forward thinking sound and variation,
we've been very lucky in one sense that the Ruffneck events have always been
packed which shows that this is a genre that's going places. Even at the more
commercial venues i play at i drop some Future Jungle and the place goes nuts.
Who inspired you to get involved in breaks and who
inspires you today?
This is a difficult one to answer, I'm a massive Hybrid
fan, back in the day their DJ sets were more Nu-Skool breaks than the
orchestral immense soundscapes they do today, also I'd have to say The Stanton
Warriors and The Plump DJs brought me a lot closer to breakbeat. Nowadays I'd
say im inspired by the likes of Pyramid with there full on tear-outs, 'Toronto
Is Broken' (he's making big waves at just 20 years old) and Resin, love his Old
Skool vibe. But I'm still inspired by the likes of The Prodigy, The Freestylers
and Hybrid and think this comes out in my productions.
Tell us your favourite tune on Future Jungle Expeditions
3
The whole album is a great representation of all things
Future Jungle, they all have their place but if I was to pick one It has to be
Schoco - Sunrise. I love music that involves you and takes you on a journey and
this does just that, i think it sums up the album Future Jungle Expeditions.
Finally, whats coming up production and DJ'ing wise from
yourself and where can we hear more of your sounds?
Production wise expect some more high octane Nu-Jungle
bangers, there's a few in the pipeline im really excited about people hearing,
more to come on Top Draw Digital and Bad Habit Musik and even working with a
singer at the moment to explore the more vocal side so watch this space.
Dj wise there are many more Ruffnecks planned for the
rest of the year, more Supatronix events but what i'm most excited about is the
Bad Habit USA Tour where i'll be playing 'I Love LA' at The Airliner in Los
Angeles on the 21st April, 'Concrete Jungle' in Las Vegas on the 23rd and 'The
Kava Lounge' in San Diago on the 29th with a few radio appearances along the
way on KPFK RADIO Fm and deeprootedradio.com. Future Jungle Worldwide!
Schoco Interview
Hi Dan, tell us a
little about yourself for the uninitiated
Hi, I'm a producer from Fellbach near Stuttgart, South
Germany. I mainly produce future jungle at the moment, but also other styles of
breakbeat music and sometimes Techno.
My tunes and remixes have been released on Quantum
Progression Audio, Boomsha Recordings, Top Drawer Digital, Digital Acetate,
Brainfunktrax and Junglist Manifesto.
And there will shortly be more releases from me on
Boomsha Recordings and Digital Acetate, and some others are in the pipeline…
As a producer, you
have a very unique take on the future jungle sound, very minimal and euphoric,
often you produce between 130-150bpm and many of your tunes are quite techno
influenced, when making tunes, what do you aim to convey to the listener?
That’s very simple: music creates emotions, positive or
negative. If I can touch the listener with my sound and my music creates
positive emotions, I’m happy!
Music has always been very important to me, and I always
wanted to create music on my own. I personally hear a wide range of different
music. And as a producer you are always influenced by your personal taste, but
that is often a more subconscious effect in my opinion. When I start producing
I often have an idea what kind of tune I want to do, but the result is almost
always very different to my plans. Often it’s more like what the sounds make
with me, not what I make with the sounds... and I always keep my productions
very open till the end. Sometimes I change nearly everything on an almost
finished tune, when I’m not 100% happy with it. Another important thing in my
productions is that I always try to give every single sound enough room to
breathe, that’s why they often sound more minimalistic.
As you're
appearing for the 2nd time on TDD for Future Jungle Expeditions 3, whats your
favourite track on the album?
The whole Album is superb! But I Think I have to choose 2
tracks that stand out a bit in my opinion:
The first is RadioKillaz’ Leatherface. It totally sounds
like slow-downed version of Alien Girl from Ed Rush, Optical & Fierce, and
I like that, big tune!
And Forever Sleep from The Rumblist. This is such a huge
sounding and euphoric tune, perfect for the wee hours!
Lets imagine for a
second that I am an alien who's never heard of future jungle, how would you
describe it to me?
It’s very difficult and almost impossible to describe
future jungle without describing the roots of fj, plus there are so many
influences and fj has such a variety of sounds and the boundaries to other genres
are fluid… and I’m not a big fan of classifications to be honest.
But if had to make a definition, I would say it’s a
breakbeat based and bass driven sound between 130 and 150 bpm with a lot of
drums, main influences are all kind of other breakbeat music, and it’s open for
all kind of other influences.
In my opinion, this openness for different influences is
very important to develop fj further and to keep it alive! We shouldn’t start
one of those ‘true’ or ‘real’ debates again...
Lastly, where can
we hear more of your sounds and any last words and shout outs?
Massive shouts and thanx to Dan (Bright Lights), Generic
Bass, Kano (Bay B Kane), Chase (Sound Shifter), Daz Breakz, Lucas, Digitally
Mashed, Dave (Rich Tones), Ali (Visible Sound), Dave (Breakz), Jules (Time
Travel), George (Sir Charge), Ryan (RyKennon), Gav Ley, Ruined Jon, John (Vinyl
Junkie), Ritchie (Strange Rollers), Dennean, David (D-audi), Aitch, Laurence
(DJ L.A.B.), Simon Harris, Otter and everyone I forgot in this list, all others involved
in the future jungle movement and everyone who listens, plays and supports my
sounds! BIG UPZ!!!
If you want to be up to date with my latest tunes,
releases, free downloads etc. you should follow me on
We're happy to welcome The Rumblist to the blog, to ask
him a few questions. First up, thanks for taking some time out to tell us a bit
about yourself....
It's fair to say that you have a unique take on the
breaks sound. How would you describe your style, approach to writing music and
who's inspired you?
I like to think that my music kind of 'crosses over'
between dance music and listening music. This probably comes from spending many
years mainly writing IDM/electronica tunes, which were inspired by the 90's
sounds of Aphex Twin, Autechre, Muziq, Squarepusher, etc. I stumbled into
breaks music more by accident than anything! My friend VJ Air hit me up with
some remix work for his label Definition:breaks, and that was that, I was
hooked!
I don't DJ at the moment (currently working on that) or
get to as many gigs as I'd like, so my tunes probably don't have that
dance-floor edge that I hear a lot in other breaks tunes. I'm very much a
traditional musician, who got into electronic music because I was fascinated
with sampling and synthesis from an early age. I credit my dad with getting me
into sampling, as he bought me a Casio SK-1 when I was a kid! (Thanks Pa!)
Which releases have been your favourite personal
productions to date?
Flex Up is definitely one of my faves for sure! It's got
that melodic, epic feel to it that I enjoy. I'm also really proud of the Livid
EP (Definition:breaks) - big, nasty sounds!
Little Man (Unstable Label) and Felt So (Digital
Sensation UK) were also special releases for me, kinda personal.
And who are you digging in the world of broken beats, EDM
& music in general at the moment?
Originality and not giving a fuck rates high on my music
radar, so Die Antwoord are right up there for me - rap/rave/techno mentalness!
They're not everyone's cup of tea, but they inspire and terrify me in equal
measure! I was lucky enough to see them play live a couple of years back and
their energy was infectious, even though I felt I'd been musically violated!!
Breaks-wise, I love Hoffman & Savannah's tunes - they
just nail it everytime with huge clean productions, with Fraction being one of
my fave tunes! I also love the Spanish tearout sounds of Javi R, Vazteria X and
A2C.
Outside of breaks, I have been enjoying Autechre's new
album 'Exai', which takes a few listens to get into! Good, but not as good as
their older stuff like Garbage and Anvil Vapre!
Can you tell us more about your upcoming release on a
brand new label, Kut Off Records?
Yeah, I'm excited about this one! I've been wanting to
get Flex Up out for a while now - it's got that melodic epic stomp going on and
it's great to have the Stewart Lee samples in there, about the good old days of
records! Spazt is a chugging little breaks tune, with stabby basses and
guitar-like synths rolling along to the beat. Take It is a much more recent
tune, with real heavy bass sounds and aggressive beats. Really chuffed to be
the first release on Kut Off Records as well. Exciting times!
So how can we stay updated with the latest info on The
Rumblist
Loads of love for Ian and Sarah at Unstable Label, Arran
and John at Definition:breaks, Lucas at Top Drawer Digital, Mike Perks at Free
Breaks Blog, and of course your good self for all your help and support!
There's loads more people in the breaks scene that also need thanking, everyone
seems really sound and all trying to push in the same direction, so massive
respect to anyone I've forgotten!
The Rumblist's new EP is out now on Kut Off Recs , get it here:
One of our favourite producers at the FJ blog has a new E.P out on Definition Breaks, The 'Livid' E.P. 3 tracks of bass heavy tearout breaks/future jungle goodness that come highly recommended from us. The Rumblist lays down complex and intricate bass melodys, dancefloor friendly and made for big speakers wether in the DJ booth or booming out of your sub woofers in the car!!!! Make sure you get a copy, available from trackitdown and all good download stores.
The Rumblist - Pokey Bit (FREE DOWNLOAD!!!)
Another free DL from those lovely people at Unstable Label, producer of the moment, The Rumblist absolutely tears it up on this one, essential listening.
UNS031A - The Rumblist - Pokey Bit (FREE DOWNLOAD!!!) by The Rumblist
DJ Fuzzbuzz-Streets Of Rage
92' Jungle Tekno style vibes, sampling my favourite video game of all time, grab this fantastic free DL while stocks last to avoid disapointment!!!!!
Streets of Rage Megadrive Memories by digital-beats
Congo Natty - Marcus Garvey (DJ Madd remix)
Dubstep with a notable difference, deep, heavy subs alongside the Congo Natty dub reggea sound, this up for a free DL and its a must have.
Congo Natty - Marcus Garvey (DJ Madd remix) by Mixmag
Unstable label have made their newest release available for download and it features this great remix by The Rumblist which gets my personal endorsement, whether you like breaks, future jungle or just plain good music, then you will most assuredly like this, big ups to those lovely people at http://soundcloud.com/unstablelabel
