Drukqs tracks 54 Cymru beats as a nod towards certain early hardcore/jungle

[Bubba69]

I've been getting into 90s jungle a l lot lately and I feel like I'm noticing a lot more influences on what inspired richard's take on jungle. Obviously drukqs is jungle inspired in a lot of ways and I find tons of drum programming things that are reminding me of bits and pieces of other 

 

One tune I feel really embodies this, especially the sound of 54 cymru beats is the 1993 hit tune by hyper on experience,  "lord of the null lines" (and the foul play remix).

 

Original has even more meandering/tapestop/random and layers fading in. Like a bunch of cool sounding samples being thrown together at a jungle tempo w/ breaks.

 

Original:

 

 

foul play remix:

 

 

 

I am curious if anyone has any interesting parallels between some of richard's drum n bass on drukqs and similar tropes/sounds found in earlier tunes. I could go on and on about slight similarities I have found but I've never, for example, found anything that sounds quite like vordhosbn.

[Bubba69]

I also feel like 3:42 in lord of the null lines sounds like 1:08 in korg 1b

 

https://youtu.be/t49o9khMr8g?t=68

[GetSquirrely]

i think drukqs was afx's attempt at a go plastic style approach to dnb, specifically because of this quote from his 2001 groove.de interview when asked about gabber: 

 

"I’m well into the aggression kind of thing. But I usually don’t like it when it’s all distorted. I like controlled aggression. I think it’s much more effective. If someone is just turning the gain right up on the mixer it’s not really that scary. But things like the new stuff from Squarepusher I find them more disturbing because it’s just so fucking off his head. But it’s not even distorted at all, it’s totally crisp. But the intensity is much bigger. You feel their mind, their motivation behind it and that’s so much morre brutal. That’s the difference between a mad man who’s just gone mad in a shopping centre using his knife and a serial killer who is really cold and calculating. The serial killer is loads more scary."

 

that was right around they started the MEN sublabel so they had to have been bouncing a lot of ideas and tracks back and forth. plus now with afx opening up lately about his admiration for squarepusher's work ethic and programming back in the day, i think it was more go plastic inspired than pure jungle.

 

ni ten ichi ryu immediately came to mind when i read your post though. classic photek moody off-kilter rhythms & top notch samples

 

[Bubba69]

This is slightly off topic but I was listening to a song by Intense and thinking how similar it is to RDJ/CTD era aphex. (listen to 1:30) But it's POST HAB (1995) and these kinds of snare-rush rolls were already being made before HAB so anyways.... just listen:

 

 

Then I realized this earlier song used the same wonka WATMM sample that aphex used

-

 

To make everything come full circle again, one of the original members of Intense is Beau Thomas who is also known for mastering and has mastered a few recent aphex records.

i think drukqs was afx's attempt at a go plastic style approach to dnb, specifically because of this quote from his 2001 groove.de interview when asked about gabber: 

 

"I’m well into the aggression kind of thing. But I usually don’t like it when it’s all distorted. I like controlled aggression. I think it’s much more effective. If someone is just turning the gain right up on the mixer it’s not really that scary. But things like the new stuff from Squarepusher I find them more disturbing because it’s just so fucking off his head. But it’s not even distorted at all, it’s totally crisp. But the intensity is much bigger. You feel their mind, their motivation behind it and that’s so much morre brutal. That’s the difference between a mad man who’s just gone mad in a shopping centre using his knife and a serial killer who is really cold and calculating. The serial killer is loads more scary."

 

that was right around they started the MEN sublabel so they had to have been bouncing a lot of ideas and tracks back and forth. plus now with afx opening up lately about his admiration for squarepusher's work ethic and programming back in the day, i think it was more go plastic inspired than pure jungle.

 

ni ten ichi ryu immediately came to mind when i read your post though. classic photek moody off-kilter rhythms & top notch samples

 

 

 

Spot on. I had heard some photek but not that particular one. Definitely similar to some drukqs tracks in terms of samples used.

[GetSquirrely]

a couple more tracks:

 

crazy breaks for '95

 

he's played this one in his sets before

 

and this absolutely bonkers 1997 track from bubble-b, a japanese artist. a friend of mine sent me a slightly different version of this track a few years ago, completely blew my mind. squarepusher/vsnares level programming totally out of nowhere. can only find it on his bandcamp. kinda doubt afx heard this back then, but who knows

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=857531725 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=285892130]

[Hugh Mughnus]

 

 

and this absolutely bonkers 1997 track from bubble-b, a japanese artist. a friend of mine sent me a slightly different version of this track a few years ago, completely blew my mind. squarepusher/vsnares level programming totally out of nowhere. can only find it on his bandcamp. kinda doubt afx heard this back then, but who knows

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=857531725 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=285892130]

 

That sounds suspiciously familiar. To a Mike P track... 

 

The beginning reminds me of silk ties but there's more I'm recognizing from somewhere else. And it's not just the sample where the guy says "DJ", that's off another well known track that Mike P sampled. Edit: also Mike P has used that vocal sample in a few tracks as well as Luke Vibert, I'm not sure the source?

 

Wish I had a better memory.

 

edit edit: that "dj" sample is also in squarepusher's tequila fish.

 

3x edit why does that BB song sound so damn familiar to me? =/

[GetSquirrely]

it's very big loada-esque for sure. that version sounds oddly unfinished compared to the one i have though... not major, probably just because i've listened to it so much, but some small details that really made the track for me are missing. it really is one of the few tracks that scratches the drukqs/go plastic itch oustide of the usual suspects

[Hugh Mughnus]

it's very big loada-esque for sure. that version sounds oddly unfinished compared to the one i have though... not major, probably just because i've listened to it so much, but some small details that really made the track for me are missing. it really is one of the few tracks that scratches the drukqs/go plastic itch oustide of the usual suspects

 

Oh most definitely. I'm just trying to work out in my own (swiss cheese) brain why it sounds like such a pastiche. I promise you 1yr from now it will all randomly click for me. Great track, great find btw.

[Salvatorin]

Not to be crass but at what point was it not clear that RDJ always had a symbiotic relationship with hardcore/jungle?

[JUVITH SITH]

Just to add my usual pointless... Drukqs whether it be jungle or even bungle is top notch, been getting drunk to this for the past two weeks and it kind of feels like a jungle in mine kopf... Never forget the day i got the cd for £3 from WHsmith all those years ago...

By the way me loves jungle...

[Dragon]

fun fact: in welsh, 54 Cymru Beats is pronounced 'pimp dayg pedwar kimroo beats'

[KovalainenFanBoy]

dunno about the aphex connection but these tracks are all great

[Bubba69]

Not to be crass but at what point was it not clear that RDJ always had a symbiotic relationship with hardcore/jungle?

 

I know what you're saying. I guess my point, as a jungle noob trying to explore older hardcore/jungle/dnb, is to discover those influential tropes/styles/etc. and the tunes that established them that can be reflected traced back to R's style. I had sort of a generic idea for some time about how jungle sounded but I never found any that really clicked with me until now. Some stuff I had no idea even existed until I stumbled upon them on youtube, certain drum programming styles, etc. I had even heard of big names like dillinja, roni size, goldie, etc. Never realized how amazing their music was back in the day and thought it was sort of my generic vision of what shitty 90s rave dnb was like.  My understanding of what RDJ/squarepusher did was largely formed by conversations I have had on watmm over the past 13 years. I remember hearing " Luke Vibert aka Plug invented drill n' bass and that's where richard got it" and shit like that which I now realize is bullshit and so many other artists innovated over that time period. A guy called gerald, foul play, ant miles, adam F, photek, roni size, dj krust, paradox, doc scott.

 

TLDR; I've known the relationship for some time, but I'm just trying to learn my musical history here.

[logboy]

don't know if this is relevant, but ... i can remember having a conversation with a guy in 'sister ray' circa 95/96, as i was mentioning 'hangable auto bulb' (very recent at the time) and he said it was the point he completely dropped his interest in RDJ - you could clearly sense following a trend (even if minor within electronica, or the wider one of d'n'b as as style) rather than simply going his own way or being influenced and doing his take on something much harder to identify, access, label.

[Raktorn]

The connection with jungle seems to be a big of a stretch, honestly. Not that I'm saying these are bad tracks by any means, but if anything, they have more of an erratic "gabber" feel to them than anything oldskool related.
 
 
 

although if aphex just exclusively became just another jungle producer i wouldn't be complaining

 

[Kennylogg Bubblebath]

fun fact: in welsh, 54 Cymru Beats is pronounced 'pimp dayg pedwar kimroo beats'

 

almost there. it's "kum-ree" not "kimroo"

[ganus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qJKxaWb0_A

I had never heard this before, but oh man, this sounds kinda like Sumurai Math Beats! Also, related, I always figured some of the spazziness of druqks was inspired by bogdan. Samurai Math Beats was 1999, and on Rephlex...

 

https://youtu.be/hJ5H8qKwHF4

[drukqs]

Killer tracks in this thread, thanks for the exposure to it. 

[tokn]

Yeah want to second that, the Foul Play, Intense and Photek stuff is amazing.

[killabyte11]

Drum & Bass was a genre I followed pretty fanatically from around 94 to 2005. I know pretty much every half way decent record that came out in roughly that time period. I only like a handful of Photek tracks. but my favorites are...

Another group/duo that's essential if you're into the older style jungle/D&B...