The Impact of Jungle Music in 90s Video Game Development

If anyone's interested and wants to hear more, I have a mix of 92/93 era Jungle [1]

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

> that era was so raw and fresh, the future was being invented right there! Very happy days

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 still plenty of fresh underground music and the 'kids' are doing just fine. Yeah there's loads of mainstream garbage out there, but there always was. The main difference is that this stuff was being invented, whereas most electronic music now is derived from those early 90s invented genres, but even saying that there's still plenty of creativity.

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.

I'm interested in a lot of subculture music, and it really isn't there like it was for the most part. Most families of music seem to have stagnated or regressed. The early 90s gangster rap is definitely superior to mumble rap/emo rap, the 90s IDM/jungle/trance is superior to modern EDM/house/trap and the pop mainstream now is just garbage compared to the the mainstream from the late 80s/90s.

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.

> Mixing and production are worlds better

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.

99.99999% of DJs have been performing a premade mix since iPods have become popular. The knob twiddling DJs are hilarious. Ukraine, oddly, seems to be pumping out tons of attractive women dancing off beat behind setups that aren’t even powered on half the time on YouTube. I enjoy the mixes in the background while working and occasionally watch some footage for the laughs. Shake it if you’ve got it.

Would love to hear the names of your unicorns…