In Miami, promoters such as Jezebel have embraced the jungle revival, inviting star DJs such as Sherelle and Tim Reaper. This Friday, August 18, the local party starters are teaming up with Saturnsarii's Breakcore, an exploration of breakbeats in drum 'n' bass, hip-hop, and club music, for a rager at Paraiso Estereo, with UK drum 'n' bass master Sully headlining.
So how did we get here? Jungle didn't just appear out of the blue sometime after lockdown. The prevalence of breaks is the result of over a decade of underground work by an entire movement of fans and DJs, focused in the UK and spreading out through northern Europe into even the historically jungle-phobic U.S. Below, New Times has charted a brief history of the jungle revival in nine tracks.
Part I: Foundation
Equinox, "Babylon" (2009)
Let's begin with more of a transitional track. Equinox, a presence in the original jungle scene of the 1990s and caretaker of the Scientific Wax label, wanted to try something different after years of domination from neurofunk, jump-up, and other more straightforward, techno-influenced styles within the drum 'n' bass scene. He and Nebula began their Scientific Wax Retro series with a blast from the breakbeat past. Incorporating a sample of dub reggae genius Jah Shaka from the 1980 movie drama of the same name, paying tribute to jungle's origins in Black British sound system culture, "Babylon" uses breakbeat science to build a wall of sound like a supermassive black hole, chopping the Amen Break into a weapon of bass destruction. The limited-edition single, featuring Nebula's "Destiny" on the B-side, made its way into the collections of influential DJs like Tim Reaper and demonstrated that there was still plenty of creative ground to cover within the jungle style. While it can be hard, potentially even inadvisable, to determine if there is a true ground zero for the drum 'n' bass revival, one track that set off the wave, this is as good a starting point as any.DJ Rashad, "Let It Go" (2013)
Let's be clear: this is not a jungle track. Not in the slightest. In 2013, however, this was as close as many music fans would get to hearing anything close to breakbeat-driven drum and bass. Two records from that year, DJ Rashad's epochal Chicago footwork LP Double Cup and Machinedrum's Vapor City, turned an entire generation onto high-tempo dance music, from '90s jungle and drum 'n' bass to the fresh, house-informed sounds filtering out of the Windy City. Sherelle, one of the most influential DJs of the revival movement, considers "Let it Go" particularly formative thanks to its fusion of house-derived drum machine beats and the rhythmic structure of a breakbeat jungle track. "Rashad made it all make sense," she told the authors of Renegade Snares back in 2021. "I was on Reprezent Radio at the time, being like, 'No one plays footwork and jungle, maybe that could be my niche?' Mixing two genres together at the same BPM."Kid Lib and Percussive P, "Da Skillz" (2013)
While it would explode in popularity in the underground later in the decade, in the early 2010s, jungle revival was still a niche interest. Much of the scene was international, organized on internet platforms like Jungletrain and in Facebook groups. In London, where the genre was initially cultivated, only one party, Rupture, hosted by Double O and Mantra at Corsica Studios, served as a physical gathering place for the scene. While Rupture would eventually set up a label and join other outfits such as Repertoire, interested producers found ways of getting together and releasing tracks themselves, primarily through limited-run, vinyl-only releases that were never intended to travel far. Green Bay Wax, founded by future stars of the scene like Tim Reaper, Kid Lib, Percussive P, Dwarde, Mr. Sensi, Fauzia, Champa B, and Phineas II, was one of the earliest outfits putting out new jungle tracks, such as this cut from its first release in 2013. With provocative, humorous sampling and bouncing bass combined with classic amen choppage, it's a blueprint for the next decade of tracks to come.Part II: Jungle Mania
Dead Man's Chest, "Darkness at Dawn" (2017)
After 2016, things really started to kick into high gear for the jungle revival. More labels, more nights, and more tracks would turn it into a proper movement, with veterans from the old scene returning to reissue classic tunes for a new audience. While labels such as Kemet, Deep Jungle, Infrared, and even Moving Shadow would return to reissue their catalogues, many new school DJs would also start imprints. Tim Reaper founded Future Retro London, Sully set up Uncertain Hour, and Bristol's Dead Man's Chest founded Western Lore with an eye for blending the returning sound with UK rave and hardcore influences. "Darkness at Dawn" exemplifies its approach, with tropical samples straight out of an 808 State track accompanying a mysterious instrumental with distinctively metallic, filtered drums. It's an approach that would be used in slightly zanier, even more sampladelic fashion by DJ Sofa on her dub siren effect-filled goofball banger "Jungle Valley," which has been played by the likes of Tim Reaper and Coco Bryce.Coco Bryce, "One Time Road" (2019)
Choosing one Coco Bryce track to rule them all is like leaving the candy store with only one treat: You're going to leave with something good, but you'll also be thinking about all the other sweets you left behind. Such is the impact of Bryce, AKA Yoël Bego, whose Myor label, based in his hometown of Breda, Netherlands, has been fundamental to the scene, especially outside of the UK. The Dutch producer's distinctive style — minimal, focused on basic breaks and sparse, well-executed samples — has generated countless stellar tracks, from the soulful and melodic "Kissed It Up" to the incredible "Side B" of Ill Behavior 007. But it's "One Time Road," the closing track from Bryce's 2019 LP, Night On Earth, that feels like something genuinely transcendent, a heavenly slice of ambient jungle that's better suited for the comedown than peak time.Special Request, "Pull Up (Tim Reaper Remix)" (2021)
Sherelle may be one of the most sought-after DJs from the new generation of junglists, but she also deserves credit for co-running Hooversound Recordings, one of the best contemporary labels in the scene, along with fellow Londoner Naina. Along with releases by Ravetrx and Thugwidow, the label is also responsible for putting out one of the pound-for-pound best jungle releases in recent memory, a barnstorming, blockbusting 2021 EP featuring Tim Reaper, the scene's preeminent source for purist jungle, remixing Special Request, famed for time-stretching experiments and blending jungle elements with techno on Vortex. Reaper's remix of "Pull Up" is the crown jewel of the bunch, transforming the original, more spartan track into an R&B-flecked odyssey. Opening with a sparkling sample from "Touch Me Tease Me" by Case, it's supplemented with a delicate, romantic synth melody that shimmers like falling stars. Soon, however, the switch-up commences, with breakbeat devastation and a dangerous Reese bassline, accompanied by vicious time-stretched vocal samples.Sully, "5ives" (2021)
Norwich native Jack Stevens, AKA Sully, emerged from the post-dubstep period of the early 2010s with a bold take on jungle informed by the UK dance music of the aughts. His 2014 record Blue is full of flourishes indebted to grime and dubstep, and he's continued to build on this sound on tracks like 2018's "Digitalis." But he's arguably at his best when making drum 'n' bass bangers. "Soundboy Don't Push Your Luck" is all amens and Reese bass, while "Werk" from his seminal 2020 EP Swandive, with its punchy six-note pre-drop melody, tears up every rave it's played at. But 2021's "5ives" should be considered his greatest achievement. Released by Over/Shadow, a successor label to iconic jungle imprint Moving Shadow run by scene veterans 2 Bad Mice, the track distills decades of UK dance music into just over four minutes of high drama, from the Clipse-inspired drum crunch to the dubstep wobble bassline after the drop and the Middle Eastern-inspired strings and time-stretched guitar melody. Already venerated among jungle fans, the track was promoted to legendary status when Northern Irish DJ duo Bicep used it to close Printworks, the massive London megaclub that doubled for the Penguin's warehouse club/lair in 2022's The Batman.Part III: New Forms
AceMoMA, "Legend of the African Samurai II" (2021)
In the same interview conducted for Renegade Snares, Sherelle spoke about the inherent Blackness of the music she plays. "Jungle, the way it came up and was created, was mostly via young Black males and females. It was their experience from their parents." In the U.S. especially, there's been a reckoning with the erasure of Black people from dance music, especially techno, which, despite its origins among black musicians in Detroit, retains an image as a white European-dominant genre thanks to its wider popularity in countries like Germany. Today, a new wave of Black DJs and producers are trying to flip the script. Collectives like Juke Bounce Werk are attempting to popularize jungle, footwork, and other high-tempo genres without erasing their Black origins or combining them into a commercially friendly catchall term such as "160." Producers are also finding ways to fuse Black-originated dance genres together, such as AceMoMA, the duo of Brooklyn's AceMo and MoMA Ready. "Legend of the African Samurai II," a fascinating track off the duo's LP A Future, sees them spread breakbeats and minimal bass hits across the surface of a glowering, moody techno track that recalls Photek's studies in drum 'n' bass sparseness from the late '90s.Nia Archives, "Forbidden Feelingz" (2022)
Something funny has happened in the last couple of years: TikTok is bonkers for breakbeats, and artists like PinkPantheress and Piri & Tommy have become stars for jumping on a post-pandemic wave of nostalgic pop drum 'n' bass. While a lot of this music is hard to take seriously for longtime fans of the genre (PinkPantheress has already moved on to Jersey Club collabs with Ice Spice), Nia Archives is an example of someone from this new wave whose music feels just a little more authentic, creative, and still no less accessible. "Forbidden Feelingz" is a perfect example of her approach, blending the Manchester-based producer's neo-soul vocals with a jungle instrumental that sounds like it's been plucked straight out of Notting Hill Carnival '95, with hardcore samples, buzzing bass, and all the fixings. Jungle as a style has existed for nearly 30 years, and rather than cashing in on nostalgia cycles, Nia's singer-songwriter take on the genre is keeping it fresh, and she's not stopping to rest on her laurels.Jezebel x Breakcore Present Sully. With Marie Qrie, Mauricio the Invisible, SaturnSarii, and Shinobi. 11 p.m. Friday, August 18, at Paraiso Estereo, 1306 N. Miami Ave., Miami. Tickets cost $20 via shotgun.live.
