The Impact of Jungle Music in 90s Video Game Development

Some rough mixes here and there (especially the first one) because it was live from a NYE event. But it suits the style of music, that era was so raw and fresh, the future was being invented right there! Very happy days :)

1) DJ SS - Intro

2) Higher Sense - Cold Fresh Air

3) Deep Blue - The Helicopter Tune

4) Roni Size - Time Stretch (93 Mix)

5) DMS & The Boneman X - Sweet Vibrations

6) Engineers Without Fears - Spiritual Aura

7) Omni Trio - Soul Promenade

8) Codename John - Kindred

9) Brainkillers - Screwface

10) Dubtronix - Fantasy (Remix)

11) M-Beat - Incredible

12) DJ Rap - Your Mind (Gimp/Steve Mix)

13) Asend & Ultravibe - What Kind Of World

14) LTJ Bukem – Horizons

15) Bruck Wild - Silent Dub

[1] https://on.soundcloud.com/WjQVyJRfYMyQLP3f8

I've been told by several Gen-Z that they've never been to a "rave", and I feel sorry for them. In my town, we had quite the underground scene, but then times changed and it is so much smaller now. Now, "kids" just call it all EDM instead of the specific genre that we know and love.

There's a night in London called Cartulis (which is usually at Fold), when I go there it feels very much like the early rave scene to me (this is just one example, of course). I think there's a tendency when we get older to not be as exposed to the bubbling undercurrent of music, so it's easy to just say "it's not as good as it used to be", but that would be a mistake imho. It's there if you look for it.

Mixing and production are worlds better and musicianship has improved compared to where it was for genres where people care about musicianship, but the actual music is mostly either painfully derivative or actively worse because it's trying too hard to be "different."

Modern metal is amazing compared to the stuff from the 90s though.

Long gone are the days of "shoes in the dryer" mixes where guys were just slamming two DATs together with no pitch control. Sadly, I think we've gotten to the point of those tight mixes being less of the skill of the DJ and the result of software. With everything being done on laptops with cool software, I really wonder how many DJs are even mixing and just performing while a premixed file plays.

But as you say, the production quality has definitely improved. The music is just clean with no quality loss from layering/multi-tracking/bouncing. The concept of the space between notes has never been so distinguished.