Jungle is one of the biggest and most popular sub-genres within the electronic music scene, and in recent years it’s seen something of a resurgence in popularity. Its relative obscurity as a sub genre within a genre makes it seem inaccessible but with this music gaining traction in the mainstream, it’s high time you got wise about Jungle.

Many electronic music fans don’t differentiate between the Drum and Bass and Jungle sub-genres of music and use the terms interchangeably, which is some indication of how similar they are. True aficionados believe that Drum and Bass forked off in the 1990s to become a distinct sound of its own.

Both Jungle (also known as Oldschool Jungle) and Drum and Bass are characterised by a fast tempo of up to 170bpm and a relatively relaxed and lyrical bassline that’s strongly influenced by reggae and ragga sounds.

Jungle music has what has been described as a ‘rolling’ quality that comes from the use of Caribbean and Reggae Dancehall production techniques. This is accentuated by slow, deep basslines and simple lyrics reminiscent of the Jamaican styles on which Jungle draws so heavily.

The origins of Jungle music

The Jungle scene first burst into existence in England in the 1990s, where the brutal politics of the Thatcher era had left many young people, particularly in urban areas, feeling very disenfranchised and disillusioned with the status quo.

While Jungle has never been an exclusive genre, initially it was made and enjoyed predominantly by black urban artists. It’s a style of music that is notably less euphoric and happy than much of the dance music dominating the electronic music scene in the early 1990s and was less a part of rave and drug culture than some other styles.

The name is thought to have stemmed from the nickname ‘junglists’ which referred to people hailing from a specific area of Kingston and was first coined by the artist Rebel MC who sampled the phrase, ‘all the junglists’ at a live performance.

A club night called Rage which ran in London was one of the early pioneers of the Jungle sound, which was more disruptive and irregular than the dominant Europop and Eurodisco, with an audience less reliant on chemical stimulants than some other contemporaneous genres of music.

Major players on the Jungle scene

There are too many DJs who have influenced the Jungle scene in a massive way to list them all, but some of the greatest Jungle producers of all time include Ray Keith, General Levy, Goldie, LTJ Bukem, Bay B Kane, Congo Natty, Dillinja, Dom & Roland, Remarc, Kenny Ken, Doc Scott and Slipmatt.

2001 saw a Ragga Jungle revival in North America, and lots of new talent sucg as Krinjah, RCola, and Chopstick Dubplate emerged to carry the torch for this genre of music, while putting their own spin on it. Some of these new artists approached older reggae artists to collaborate on ‘junglised’ versions of their original tracks, even going so far as to get the re-voicing done by original singers.

In the UK an underground Jungle and Drum and Bass scene continues to thrive, with some of the original 90s DJs still making regular appearances; though true devotees only consider music made before the turn of the century to be true Jungle and some DJs play strictly older material.

More mainstream artists including Rudimental and Example have used elements of Jungle and other retro rave styles in their recent material, while General Levy’s hit tune Incredible has become something of a cult classic of late, despite being more than 20 years old.

General Levy

General Levy is one of Jungle’s biggest names and has found success as both a studio artist on other artists’ tracks and in his own right with several successful albums and singles under his belt.

The most successful track that he produced and possibly Jungle’s biggest ever hit was the song Incredible, which he released with M-beat. It was featured on the smash hit film Ali G in da house and remains popular to this day.

The General Levy agent is MN2S, based in London, and he is a popular choice at the moment with the newfound popularity of his hit single and dance music more broadly.