From Jungle to Jump-Up: A History of Drum and Bass 

My earliest exposure to breakbeat was the Powerpuff Girls intro theme song

I happen to produce DnB, and I'd just like to point out that you've got your timeline mixed up a bit. Late 80s - Acid House utilised oldschool Drum Breaks from 70s funk records (the Lyn Collins "think" break and the Bobby Byrd "Hot Pants" break being just 2 of the mainstays). Early 1990s - Acid house turns into hardcore (e.g. the prodigy) after it made it's way over here to the UK. From there people started speeding up the hardcore records as you mentioned. However, where the discrepancy happens is the Reggae influence. Some of the British-Caribbean community take a shine to hardcore, and decide to mix the breaks of hardcore with Reggae samples. One of the most famous examples is SL2 - On a Ragga Tip which sampled multiple breaks along with Jah Screechy's "walk and skank" (released the same year). Again, this new fusion would be sped up, until this Reggae infused Hardcore became Jungle with tunes such as Rude Bwoy Monty's "Out in da streets" and Miami's flip of Buju Banton's "Champion" emerged over the next 2 years. To the end of 1994, there was an influx of gangsters infiltrating the jungle scene (family members of mine have told me stories about proper gangsters entering clubs and blowing Cr*ck smoke in people's faces), to the point that the samples became more Dancehall based rather than the more innocent Reggae tracks (singing sweet - when I see you smile is an example which can be heard in "Out in da streets" mentioned earlier. From there, Jungle started to become darker (think Renegade/Ray Keith - Terrorist) until artists like Goldie (under the alias Rufige Kru), Shy FX, DJ Monk and Remarc began to use less melodic samples, more chaotic beats, deeper and darker bass and experimental sound design. From 1994 onwards, Jungle morphed into what is now known as Techstep, which still utilised breaks, but had a much heavier emphasis on Sound design and processing, with artists such as Ed Rush and Optical, Andy C, and John B spearheading the movement. From here, Neurofunk emerged, using less breaks and samples etc. However, as DnB became darker and more technologically-focused, legends Fabio and Grooverider created a genre that took the soulful aspect of Jungle and further developed it, creating what we know as liquid DnB. Also please don't say that Dancehall MCs would make references to "the jungle" because it's actually related to a ghetto in Jamaica. See, Jamaica is split into different areas, much like Burroughs in New York. You have Spanish Town, Kingston, Riverton, May pen etc. Junglist referred to an area of Kingston known as Jungle. People used to use lyrics containing the word "Junglist" (which is the slang term used to refer to people from Jungle in Kingston) because it fit the name of the genre, which is said to have derived from the racial slur "jungle bunny" (referring to people of Afro-Caribbean heritage), as black music was referred to as (the aforementioned slur) music, which early jungle DJs and producers shortened to "Jungle", although the source for this may not be credible. As a person of mixed Caribbean heritage myself, I feel obliged to bring this to light, as the content is somewhat classed as misinformation. Sorry for the long comment. Apart from these bits of info, this is a pretty good video.

Interesting Vid, As a Hardcore Jungle producer being there from the beginning, I never would of guessed that there would be so many people talking about the history. Big up

I feel like you could teach a college course on electronic music if you wanted to, this is fantastic. Your enthusiasm and love for the topic is clear, which makes all us fanatics feel seen.

Thanks, Jeremy! "Drum & Bass: The Movement - A D&B Documentary" is a good watch on RU-vid. Lots of interviews with the producers and DJs, tastes of different genres, discussion about how things evolved, etc.

Loved this. I was hoping to get a mention 😂. I used to be part of EZ Rollers, we had the 1st D&B hit in the UK with Walk This Land. Thanks to Lock stock and two smoking barrels. I will check out your new record 👏

I think it’s also important to note that drum and bass is engineered from the ground up to sound and feel good when heard on a big, loud sound system. Its not pop music (although it has found mainstream success at times) and can sound very sparse or even boring if played on a phone or laptop speaker. But when the the drums and sub bass are literally pummelling your chest and the rhythm takes over your body it becomes more than just music, it can be hypnotic and tribalistic.

Woah Jeremy! That was fab and on point. I was around in the scene in the early 90s and concur with your timeline and observations. Your guide to the genres was a thing of wonderment and insight and I’m totally grateful for that!

I'm late to the party but this style of video from you is absolutely incredible! I'd love to see more long form genre history videos like this, maybe on IDM and Chicago House Music as two good contenders. Great work Jeremy!

10:40 I love the whole video but this section is GOLD, i love how it has pretty much a tutorial underneath it and you're showing the theory at the same time and AAA. Good work man

The PS1 got me into d'n'b, the WipeOut 2097 soundtrack absolutely rearranged my head

This video has strong Dunkey vibes and I’m here for it.

Great vid. I was heavy into the rave scene in the 90's here in Toronto, and to this day I still produce raggajungle, DnB, halftime, now fusing it with moderns stuff that is not even a genre yet. Still have a briefcase cassette library with all the tapes I collected back then, man this was nostalgic af thanks again.

Growing up in London drum and bass, jungle and two step garage is a rite of passage. I think you covered the different aspects of the genre really well and particularly enjoyed the humour. Cheers Jeremy.

For me it was Photek, Scorn, Meat Beat Manifesto, and other early/mid 90's releases that I've long since forgotten about.

Cheers, Jeremy! I was a London teenager in the early 90s, so this was a nice trip down memory lane! For some more good breakbeat/hardcore stuff check out ACEN'S early stuff (Trip To The Moon, Close Your Eyes, etc.) and for some GREAT ragga-jungle, I love love love Soundmurderer's mix "Wired For Sound."

Have not watched yet but my Jungle/DnB knowledge is mostly 1994-2003 so I'm looking forward to understanding what the kids call 'liquid' now.

A couple of YT recommendations from someone who is pretty new to Jungle / Drum & Bass history and production, but has recently been learning a lot very quickly: - Breakbeat Deconstruction: From hip hop to drum & bass and beyond - a talk by Dr. Jason Hockman at the 2016 Loop summit on Ableton's channel - A Beginner's Guide to Jungle Breakbeats - Tim Cant's channel, where he actually demonstrates slicing up breakbeats in Ableton - Goldie's April the 1st set on HÖR's channel. D&B has never been a genre I've focused on, but I ran across that at random, and knowing Goldie is a /huge/ name in UK D&B, decided to step outside my comfort zone and see if I liked it, then listened entranced for the whole set. I'm guessing that's why the others showed up in my feed (of course this showed up in my feed because I'm subscribed, because Jeremy is absolutely bloody lovely).

The roots of this music is so important, and something people underappreciate because the brilliance of Jungle and Drum and Bass was it's ability to take the musical melting pot of the UK and turn it into a product, that was most of the time, greater than then sum of it's parts, which were already pretty amazing. Where I grew in London dance, hardcore, darkcore, jungle, and drum and bass were king. I lived between the record label Reinforced Records in one direction, The Production House studio in another, Chanel One Sound System in Notting Hill, Metalheads/Synthetic towards Camden, and they were all mixing together the tastes and influences of diverse groups of people that lived in those places. That is why it is almost impossible to pin down genres, and turning points. There was almost too much diversity, and change to make sense of it all. It's also why I feel dance music is so bad these days. There is a lot of regurgitation rather than adaptation going on. People learn the name of a genre, and recreate a fixed formula people have imagined for it. Which is weird because at the time they weren't producing to formulas that were fixed, but continuously evolving the sounds of music. Music now shouldn't aim to recreate imagined versions of past music, but should really be trying to build upon them, and adapt them. The real lesson to be learned from the evolution of Jungle to Jump-Up would be not to narrow the scope of your music, or limit it to simplified characteristics, but to do what was originally done, and add to the complexity, and diversity of music. As for terminology, I can say for certain as someone who lived through that era, spoke that dialect of English, and who still has the records and media like flyers and magazines lying around that most words used in this video are synonyms. I have records that literally reference the same track as Darkcore, Jungle Techno, and Drum and Bass. The distinctions at the time were mostly drawn on who you were talking to, which words were more common at the time, or what was written on the marketing. No one really paid attention to those labels until the very late 90s when the music had basically died creatively. So, I disagree when people say a jungle track has to have this, and a drum and bass track has to have that. Those terms were not talked about really at all until much later. I think the issue comes from the fact that word that may be common at a certain time becomes associated with tracks popular at that time. You get breaks on tracks referred to as drum and bass, synthesized drums on Jungle. Plus, a lot of things that don't follow any set definition that I hear now. I challenge you to put a label on a track like A Guy Called Gerald - Forever Changing. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gSVb9OeoN8Q.html

Thanks for releasing the bundles! Even if most of it is samples, it's a joy to dissect your arrangements.

Fell in love with drum and bass in 95-96, then started spinning it shortly after. Also got involved In-depth with the scene in SoCAL through family and friend connections and it became my life. I’ve collected every record you could think of and still have em all, and I have never stopped. I’m so stoked that it has finally got the recognition it deserved and I could never figure out why it took so long to catch on. And also being a serious dancer, I always found the most skilled and best dancers/breakers were always in the D&B rooms. It wasn’t the same scene as the other electronic genres and didn’t really attract the kiddies/idiots who went for the drugs and weren’t really into the music like we were, hence that’s why we called them E-Tards or the CandE KIDS. I noticed that the D&B crowd was more into the music and dancing rather than being one of the sweaty morons with Vicks smeared all over their face. JUNGLIST FOREVER!!!!! Big ups to Tonz of Drumz, GhettoLife Recordings, APX-1, RAW, CRS? And many more, Much Respect to the UK for creating the heartbeat of it all! ❤❤❤

I'm so drooling over the M8. Tim has been on the scene for so long (always loved his Trash80 tracks posted to tracker community sites back in the day when I was messing around in Buzz a lot) and I'm super impressed that he put this thing out. Really cool to hear what you're doing with the M8, Jeremy.

This video is really high quality despite the limited views.

It’s probably worth mentioning Frankie Bones and Mr C were pivotal key figures on the origins of “Hardcore”. Mr C introduced Frankie and the NYC breakbeat sounds to the rave culture during the late 80s, fusing acid house with Frankie’s breakbeat sampling signature sounds and Mr C’s eclectic DJing style

This is awesome, Jeremy! I've been messing with break beats a lot lately and this is much appreciated!

My body wasn’t ready for rhino jump up

Great video. Here's how I remember it as a 52 year old first generation raver. The term Jungle was coined in reference to the percussive nature of the music as opposed to traditional House music which was just four to the floor. It was the addition of breakbeats to house that was responsible for the jungle tag. The crossover track was Reel 2 Reel's 'We Are I.E' which came out in 1991 and is considered by many as the first ever Jungle track. The term jungle was also popular in the beginning because it put a positive spin on a word that used to have racist connotations here in the UK back in the 70's and 80's when black people's music was often referred to as 'jungle bunny' music. When Jungle Techno came along it turned the term on its head and it became a positive term but it wasn't all roses for long. By late 92 early 93 the scene would begin to attract a lot of gangsters due in part to the violent nature of some of the samples used in some Jungle tracks. Sounds of gunfire and references to murder were not uncommon in hardcore jungle tracks. It got to a point when venues refused to host any events with Jungle in the title because it often attracted a moody crowd. The term Drum n Bass was coined to try and disassociate the scene from the hardcore ragga influenced stuff that was attracting the wrong crowd and giving the scene a bad reputation. The music also moved away from the ragga influences and became more melodic as demonstrated in the video.

This was amazing! I’d love more of these genre walkthroughs! I laughed, I cried, I learned something, and I have a dozen new artists to check out

Such a nice overview. I remember my friend DJ Soji (RIP, he taught me how to beat match on vinyl) handing me a silver cassette and saying something like "hey, check out this new music" I'm racking my brain as to whether he said jungle or drum and bass, but it was the very early days.

feels like you gotta mention that back then we only had like, twenty pixels for our pictures, total, and sometimes we had to share them uphill both ways in the snow.

Thanks for making these videos. I was revisiting some albums recently and came to the thought that I have no idea where a lot of the musical elements came from, and searching didn't really give me anything conclusive. This fills in the gaps so much, and gives me a deeper appreciation than just "it sounds good". Also, the video overlay that lines up with the sound examples is an awesome thing I wish more videos did! Thoroughly enjoyed this one.

4:46 late 80’s back in time 😮UK Rave music in 1993 I was using a Emax emu plus to play drum beats samples faster than their normal bpm

Your last several videos have just been so good! Whatever is driving you on these days, keep at it 😍

This was absolutely insane overview to one of my favorite music! Thank you so much! More of this content please. It was very interesting to listen. And your album is great too!

As an English person, it fills me with joy that this music has made it so far around the world. This country sucks now and has sucked in the past for so so many reasons (I won’t go into it, I’m sure your’re all aware of that thing called the British empire 🤮) Anyway, immigration and the colliding of cultures is what makes this place amazing to me, and any other normal brained non bigoted Brit. And the perfect storm of all those cultures colliding and just dance music culture and innovation of dance music in general here over the years is one of the few things that always makes me feel some pride for this place. It’s fucking awesome that this genre it’s still going strong some 30 years after it’s creation and seeing you do a video like this fills me with joy. And all of it was spot on my guy! ❤

I Love Drum and Bass, I don't really know much about it but im going to make a documentary on the HISTORY of it. Im hooked

Thank you for the refresher of some fine sounds. Ishkar is an underrated resource - I appreciate the reminder to go there too.

Love this, Jeremy! So ready for more of these.

Omg ishkurs guide 😁 I remember that. Didnt really get into DnB until 2009, 2012/2013 is when it took over as my fav genre, coming from mainly Trance. The past few years, I have really gotten into (Intelligent) Jungle and such.

Hi Jeremy, I love the new format of your vids, you are always moving things forward, thank you. just bought your album from Bandcamp. awesome stuff.

Props for the Ishkur guide. Really cool project they made.

darkcore and hardcore is what got me into electronic music when i was in grade 9 (1992) after that gabba, trance, drum n bass, breaks, uk garage, dubstep, grime and still listen to it all today.

Great video Jeremy! As an old dude 😂 it’s amazing to see the resurgence of Jungle / D&B.

Album is an instant buy! Thanks so much for your research and continuing to educate us all.

The first jungle song i ever heard was on a compilation double cassette with Prodigy's Out Of Space. Blew my fucking tiny mind as a little nipper.

Absolutely love the concept of making one’s own rules for jungle V DNB. Agree much so.

Man I really enjoyed this kind of content! I’m an everyday listener of both dnb and jungle so it was awesome to better understand them! Really looking forward to other genres of electronic music! You rock my man

I happened to invent techno hardcore breakbeat jungle breakore in the early 60's , just letting people finally know !

Jeremy you are amazing and I did not expect this from you. Love everything you make. It doesn't matter what it is, your community just likes you.

Loved this video! This audiotorial deep dive of the genres helps me learn so much more about the music i love and one day want to create! Cant wait till your next one 😊

Thank you! I love Ishkur's but I can only stare at it and the opinions therein for so long. I look forward to more of this kind of video because this was great!

love this format and topic of videos. Thank you for making it.

Haha, the sine wav empty sample sound on my Akai X7000 was awesome, I forgot about that!

The name change was mainly because local authorities in the mid 90s in London didn't want jungle nights being held anymore, saying they were trouble. So the name drum n bass was pushed forward more to keep the scene alive . Same djs same mcs same crowd , different name.

Just listened on Apple Music -- everything you touch turns into musical gold, thanks Jeremy

It makes me so happy to see you add Kill Sound, Before Sound Kills You to the thumbnail. Such a wild bed of chaos lol especially “total recovery is possible”

How do you always put out the the perfect videos right as I’m getting into new genres!!!

17:44 If you know, you know. (Hint, its the barn) Also, Fantastic Video Red

Wonderful walk down memory lane. Awesome, Jeremy!

"Any new jungle in, guy?" "Check out this Bandcamp. I am telling you it could turn a Creator into a Badboy.

What a great work you did here. So fun and interesting to watch. Thanks ❤

Excellent video. Deep dives into genres like this are really inspiring to me. Studying the history of music production can furnish you with so many skills, techniques, and points of reference, and really revitalize how you go about making music.

Oh man seeing that FastTracker screen brings back so many memories of skipping class to download MP3s that take 15 hours, then rip them to into tiny pieces so I can pretend to know what I was doing with Hex. A D(rum) anD B(ass)

If you're rediscovering Jungle you have to look up RAW. He's an absolute Legendary L.A. D&B DJ.

I just learned a TON. Thank you for putting this together for us!

This is AMAZING!!!! So excited to download after work!!!!!

Sometimes I can't believe music this good exists!!! Thanks for a sweet overview of the genre!

Love this content and the format. Great video!

Also my favorite genre, for 25 years! Awesome video Jeremy 🥹

I love this video!!! Very excited for more videos exploring genres or other aspects of musical history in this style :D

Got a lot into jungle, breakcore, glitchcore, etc. a few months ago because of video game nostalgia from when I was a kid. Breakbeats, but mostly the amem break, always gives this such cool nostalgic feeling. Thank you for the video, loved every single bit of history you shared with us 🙏

This is was a really educational video. Please keep making more of them.

I love hearing people talking about their obsession and how deep they can get into their interests. Awesome work!

This is cool as hell, man. I've been a huge Jungle/DNB head for 25 years and never knew some of these things. Thanks for all your work on this!

The trouble with distinguishing between drum and bass and jungle is they’re were in fact interchangeable, but through the 90s the sound definitely changed to favour the stripped back sound that Alex Reece did with Pulp Fiction in 1995, for me personally this is when there became a distinction in the later sound of DnB but before then you had intelligent drum and bass from Bukem and co which featured Amen and full breaks… so even that didn’t fit the newer term of DnB, being used for the that, but I can see why people see Ragga Jungle as a separate thing. It certainly was the more aggy part of the scene with Shy Fx’s Gangsta Kid, and reflected the problems especially in London with Jamaican gangs etc but as someone who started buying this music in 92 it’s almost the experience of following it change that you know what every part of its growth is about, but really difficult to explain in words as it was changing month by month, personally I liked some happy hardcore, especially around 93 when DJs like slipmatt would play both types of music in his sets, but I wasn’t into the bouncy four to the floor, and to me that’s when those scenes split, great video though, it’s good to see people back into jungle and drum and bass as it was in those years, more than it sounded in the early 00s when it went a bit shite to be fair

Super informative and highly entertaining, thank you so much Jeremy! Can't wait to dive into some of the subgenres now that I understand them more. Before I do that, I'm gonna jam to your new album while I drive.

When you said Happy Hardcore you unlocked a deep memory lol I don't know much about electronic music, really only mostly from your videos. But I have really been inspired by your stuff and dipping my toe in! Getting familiar with VCV rack and how modular works, and now I really want to make a 90s inspired ambient jungle track using your recipe. Hope you make more videos like this!

Amazing video. I hope you make more of this type of content!

For those of you wondering, the track in the intro is called "Dirtphonics - Run"

I really enjoyed this a lot. keep making more of these.

Nin the perfect drug remix album lead me to dieselboy in middle school. So thankful.

Thank you so much for this video! It's so cool to finally learn about the history of a genre I love so much!

Thank you for introducing me to Ishkur's guide, I have not laughed this hard at a site in a while!

That’s cool format, more like that plz, keep going Jeremy 🎉

fantastic video my man, id love to see more of this content absolutely 100%, keep it up!

This little insight to you makes sense why I like your music so much. I have always been drawn to D&B music. I just really like the sound and various styles. I do kind of call it all Drum and Bass. Enjoying the new album, but I absolutely love Yourself. Really I am enjoying most of the singles and little EPs you have been putting out. Thanks!

I love the old 90’s style. Seems impossible to find it in searches tho

I found your album yesterday while researching the m8 and I really like it.

I’m loving this educational content RMR!!

I don't think you can talk about jump-up without mentioning Aphrodite, Micky Finn and/or Urban Takeover. For some hip-hop fans of the 90s like me, their music was the fuel that drove the transition to drum n bass. Cheesy? Hell yes! But I still rock their remixes (Luniz, Rincing Quince, No Diggity, Fugees, etc.). I accidentally downloaded The Takeover Bid CD while looking for unreleased hip hop albums in the days before Napster and never looked back. Tech-step quickly took it's place in my mind but there is no denying that jump-up and Urban Takeover had a big influence on drum n bass.

What a great dive. Definitely going to go through the website to see all the subgenres in depth. Have been on the whole PS1/PS2 videogame (wipeout in particular too) train lately and its been such a fun time, with a lot of new niche producers popping up. Gonna explore the album on my M8 and can't wait for more videos like this

Fantastic video. Thank you for making this.

I rediscovered dnb recently, and started trying to make it on my modular, it's tricky! Thanks for this Jeremy.

On point, just searched for this a couple days ago on YT, and here you are.

Now that's what I call a proper Patreon pitch

Thank you for this, Jeremy. This was great! It brought back so many good memories of hanging out in "the jungle room" at raves I went to in the late 90's/early 00's. Rave on, my friend! #PLUR

Every few months I look up “history of” vids of dubstep, D&B, house to see if anyone’s got any fresh insights. Thanks for posting this dawg it was good!

Bro! I've only ever seen your tech breakdowns. This is a very cool format!

two minutes into this video and I just gotta say love your editing style and humor

The history of trap could probably be a good 60sec TikTok but I see it only growing in popularity thanks to isoxo and Jules.