The explosion of the Aisid House in the UK in the late 1980s - early 1990s has awakened the appetite of the public for a wide variety of dance music. Based on melodies and grooves, Aceid House hits met the needs of thousands of clubbers who experienced weekly enlightenment, but there were also people who needed something more tempo.
However, all kinds of electronic music are connected with each other in one way or another. Therefore, although jungle and drum'n'bass differ markedly from Aceid House in terms of sound, nevertheless, they came from the same raves, where, among other things, the early version of the jungle, then called breakbeat and hardcore, sounded. It was there that the straightforward four-quarter rhythms of the house and techno were mutations for the first time, which eventually led to the appearance of the jungle.
In fact, the jungle was a peculiar combination of rave and reggae. From the latter it had deep pulsating bass, from the former it had high-speed beats, which, however, were intricately sliced into the manner of the so-called amen break (a fragment of a drumming part from The Winstons' "Amen, Brother" soul band, released in 1969 and then repeatedly sampled). In general, the sound is both energetic and dense, with a flowing pumping groove.
There were also more black musicians in the jungle than in his modern rave scene. Although the rave, with its universal passion for ecstasy, connected people with different backgrounds, it still remained a predominantly white musical phenomenon. Jungle, who had a strong connection to reggae and a culture of sound systems, was perceived as a space for self-fulfillment by dark-skinned young Britons disillusioned with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's conservative policies.
Among the names important for the formation of this scene are DJs Fabio and Grooverider. In 1992, at their Rage parties, they began to retreat from the standard elements of dance music (in particular, from the 4/4 bit). The usual pace - 120 beats per minute - was driven to 150, and the influence of reggae and danshall began to penetrate the sound. The result was a more powerful, high-speed and rigid kind of dance music.
Other key artists of this period are Rebel MC, Shy FX, Goldie and A Guy Called Gerald, a former pioneer of Aceid House. The foundation of a specific jungle sound - its fast beats and complex rhythmic patterns - is not only about musical innovation and the discovery of a new round of reggae sound, but also about technological progress. Akai samplers and sequencers played a major role in the formation of the genre's sound palette. And like reggae, the jungle quickly developed into something completely new.
It became the basis for music, which is denoted by the term drum-n-base (literally - "drum and bass"). One of the internal limitations of the jungle was its dependence on samples: fragments of reggae and dunshall tracks were cut from the old records and went into action. Over time, the use of unpaid (or, as musicians and producers say, "uncleaned") samples became a legal problem. At the same time, many participants of the stage started experimenting with new combinations of drums and basses.
That's how the drum'n'bass came about, and although he was about to live a glorious life in the underground (the Metalheadz label under the baton of Goldie has released many revolutionary recordings in this genre), he has grown into something much more. Fresh phenomenon of youth culture quickly became interested in large labels, in the drama and bass came a lot of money. In 1997 the band Reprazent under Roni Siza won the Mercury award with their album "New Forms", surpassing such competitors as Radiohead and Prodigy. It was a pretty powerful declaration.
Garyj (also known as UK Garage) appeared at the same time as the jungle, and when the main stage of the club had a jungle party, he was often the one in Hall Two. Initially it was house music with a clear influence of soul and rhythm and blues, but with the fashion set by the jungle the producers began to accelerate their tracks - the resulting sound was characterized by the term speed-garage. Due to the fact that as the vocals accelerated, they became quite bizarre and the lyrics became illegible, the preference was given to instrumental compositions. Accordingly, there was a place in the tracks for MC to impose their own voice. And so appeared what is now called UK Garage. Speed-garage already had many features of this style - for example, low-frequency basses or spinbacks (a DJ technique in which the record turns in the opposite direction) - but in the UK Garage added more funky vocals in the R&B-key and less straightforward rhythmic drawings.
Initially, American DJs, such as Todd Edwards, had a noticeable influence on the sound, but soon the genre acquired a specific British identity. By the end of the 1990s, Geridge and Toustep (a form of the same music, but departing from the typical 4/4 rhythms) appeared in the English charts and turned into a British phenomenon. Sweet Like Chocolate" by Shanks & Big became popular