blog to the oldskool

This month the EP posts have been pretty sparse on this site, so I’m enforcing the long-standing “slack on posting tunes for a while => make up for it by posting some rare slammers” rule. Hence, this track: “Hunt and Seek” by by R.A.W. (the uk one not the LA jungle DJ) on the Awesome Records sub-label Assassin. This tune uses a hook from the Mad Cobra tune “Find and Kill”, which was also used on the B side of the Red Light – Selekta EP I’ve posted previously. There’s not quite as much going on in this version as in the Red Light one, but it might just be a bit heavier (though that’s easily contestable)…. at the very least, it’s a bit more stripped down sequencing and sample-wise: steady ragga vox, chopped amens and big bass which alternates between more subby hits and dread bass. Definitely a track I could see going down just as well now as when it was released 18 years ago!

2Gs (PX1) – Hunt and Seek

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For people deep in the UK rave scene as it was going down, Nick Power was probably best known as the guy who ran Music Power record shop. Aside from that though, he did quite a few EPs under various guises,
a number of which are in demand / classic tracks. Less die-hard collectors might not recognize some of the artist names or titles, but if you were going to raves or listen to lots of oldskool mixtapes, you definitely know the tunes.

A few of the more well known ones:

“Mus Get Dark”- the “zoot zoo wa zoot zootadoo” female vocal tune with super catchy pitch shifted breaks

“Call Da Cops”- the jungle remix of the COPS theme song

“Chapel of Dub” – the hardcore tune that was actually written for and played at a massive rave when the promoter got married live at the party

Eat Life “Bach to Basics” – that classic tune with the bells (which isn’t “bell tune”)

Fools Rushin – the jungle remix of UB40 “falling in love”

… and on and on. He also did this totally ridiculous tune I still love even if nobody else does!
Here though we have one of his lesser known singles, a more jungle sounding tune from 93 according to discogs (sounds much more like 94 to me though… maybe it was made later in 93?). I have to admit, I don’t know this from any mixes and took a chance on it when I found it for cheap. Great tune though – big subby bass, catchy reggea vocals, etc.
By the way, Nick Power is still going strong DJ’ing… check his site for loads of newer mixes of house stuf, top 10 charts, etc.

Nick Power – Born to Jam

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It’s been a while since I posted some ragga jungle, here’s a pretty cool and obscure track from a ragga jungle comp by a label in Jamaica… I think it fits nicely with the comment a few days ago regarding those Mazaruni / King Tubby related Jungle records, where someone was mentioning real jungle artists being involved with forrays into jungle by dub/dancehall artists. In contrast, I’m pretty sure this is a record where all people involved were actually from the reggae/dancehall scene.

I picked this comp up not too long ago since I was curious who these remixes were by and what they sounded like. It turns out a lot of these tracks aren’t that great, and in fact quite a few sound like regular dancehall tracks with jungle beats layered on top after the fact. This wouldn’t be so bad in of itself, but the original tracks often have drums which clash (sometimes somewhat brutally) with the jungle breakbeats. However, some of the tracks still sound good, and this tune in particular sounds much more “built from the ground up” than a lot of the others. It’s not too crazy or choppy, but featuring nice rolling breaks over a strong vocal, plus good basic additional elements (synth, etc).

Reagrdless, it’s interesting to hear this in contrast to all the jet star and jungle fashion EPs where Jamaican tracks would get remixed by a jungle artist actually in the UK. If anyone knows that this isn’t the case and there was in fact a ghost producer, feel free to correct me, but I don’t see anyone listed on the release who looks connected to jungle.

Frankie Paul – Round & Round

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I just took the week off due to being burned out from that NY NASA party as well as the Mark Archer show I did in Boston… back with a vengeance this week though, starting with this absolutely killer pretty in-demand jungle track. Pretty much all the components of this track are nice/well chosen and constucted (breaks, nice sub, ragga vocs), but really the thing it’s known for best are those great vocals, taken from from the “Above the Rim” (90′s basketball movie starring Tupac) soundtrack. The artist behind this EP didn’t do anything else under this alias but is the same guy behind all those great GOOD 2 BAD & HUGLY releases, Jimmy Ryan. This might just be his biggest tune as I know it was on some comps and pretty much anyone I talk to about old tunes has nothing but good things to say about this one! Pure badness.

Chuck E – Smokin A Blunt

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Here’s the first record on the ragga jungle label Slam! records. It’s no secret that as pricey as some oldskool jungle is, if you chuck some some toasting samples on top and make sure the track has amens in it, a bunch of north american kidds in camo pants will materialize out of nowhere and just start throwing money at you. This one isn’t easy to find but is actually one of the less rare releaseson the label, where the rarest stuff seems to be the Dread and the Bald Head releases which I see regularly posted around (but rarely for sale). I actually posted one of their tunes here, albeit in shortened form on some ragga jungle comp I got for a couple euros in Scotland. Regardless, I really like this tune – frantic breaks, solid toasting, and a sick synth breakdown swiped from Wax doctor & Jack Smooth – Unfriendly. Not too many elements, but more than enough for a good 94 track. The artist behind it, Andy Tully, also did some nice records in I Spy and Groove AS You Move…. still looking for the second and third I Spy records if anyone has doubles!

Tuff to the Bone – Dancehall Junglist

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After jungle first started blowing up in 94/95, lots of jungle remixes began popping up on more mainstream hiphop and rnb releases. Already featured heavily on UK pressed dancehall releases by labels like Jet Star and Fashion, these new remixes were a bit more dodgey since they were a mixture of original/legit heads and opportunistic johnny-come-lately’s. Thankfully, it doesn’t get more legit than the guys who did this remix. New Blood has got to be one of the best ragga jungle producers of all time, with just a full few records to their name but where each one is an absolute scorcher – “Worries in the Dance” is one of the top few ragga jungle tracks ever, featured on countless jungle comps back in the day as well as still popping up on oldskool throwback comps. “My Sound” is a serious ragga jungle tune which I now HEAVILY regret not picking up 5-10 years ago when I used to see it in the 15-20 pound range (figuring It’d eventually go down in price)… now it seems to be fetching upwards of $100 :O Even if those tracks are a bit pricey/hard to find, New Blood did a few excellent remixes on labels like Jet star, Greensleeves, Street Tuff and even Island Recordings. This is probably one of the less well known ones, on Nervous Sublabel “Weeded Records” (hehe). Serious choppy jungle beats combined with solid enough ragga and r+b vocals, also quite easy to find and cheap to nab.. nice solid track here!

Skeeta Ranks – I Like (Jungle Mix)

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