Windows, Volume Five
As I mentioned last month, drum and bass took a turn to the dark side somewhere in the mid-90s, which proved deleterious to the genre and its surrounding culture. At first, dark jungle was morose in a sophisticated way, invoking a sense of dread or suspense and borrowing scores and dialog from horror films. Labels like Moving Shadow helped to cultivate a sound that wasn’t simply dark, but noir, incorporating the kind of augmented and diminished chords that invoke the hard-boiled crime dramas of the mid-20th century.
This all began to change in the mid-90s. Tracks were becoming sparser, with more violent themes and little harmony. Producers were moving from subtle eeriness to harsh noise and splashy reverb.
Chicago ravers all seemed to be gravitating to this new sound. They were also getting into really hard, atonal techno music. I think crystal meth had a lot to do with this shift. Ecstacy had been cut with “glass” for years and ravers developed such a taste for it that meth started to dominate the dancefloor, with skeletal ravers withering under their oversized clothing. This was a disaster for the rave scene and its music, and contributed heavily to the downfall of both.
This month’s mix is in appreciation of a time when drum and bass was dark, but not too dark. Think of this as a noircore jungle mix.
Track List
