Written by El Meditating Bear. By way of Kool Herc.
Through out the years I have seen the US and the rest of the world pay homage and give credit to the UK and Europe for starting so many trends, sub-cultures and movement. While the UK has acted as a spring board for many of these subjects, I do feel that the true history should be reported and facts be facts. Americans are to quick to give credit to Europe (mostly the UK) for such great movements,subjects and iconic heroes…
Subjects include
Jimi Hendrix
Many Fashion trends
Techno Music
Rave Culture
Rock/ Blues Fusion
Drumm N Bass Music and Jungle
plus more…….
US Vs UK influential History ( fashion,music and cultures…) by MeditatingBear-
Todays Subject The roots of Drumm & Bass or Jungle Music
While I have nothing but Love for My Drumm & Bass Brothers in the UK and world wide. It must be noted, that it was a disrespect for UK Hip-hop by US producers and elite that sparked the Uk Drumm & Bass/ Scenes —the beats of US hip-hop and break beats were made faster and samples were pulled from the U.S. based music as well as reggae and more… Below are some facts–I will be blogging this at Myspace.com/MeditatingBear and these post will be more complete and
Direct influence of Drumm & Bass , Jungle and many sounds around it–
In mentioning drum and bass influences, special mention needs to be given to a few scenes and individuals.
The first is the US breakbeat scene which emerged in the 1980s, the most famous artist being NYC’s Frankie Bones whose infamous ‘Bones Breaks’ series from the late ’80s onwards helped push the house-tempoed breakbeat sound (especially in the UK) and can be said to be a direct precursor to the UK breakbeat/hardcore scene.
The second is Kevin Saunderson, who released a series of bass-heavy, minimal techno cuts as Reese/The Reese Project in the late ’80s which were hugely influential in drum and bass terms. One of his more infamous basslines was indeed sampled on Renegade’s Terrorist and countless others since, being known simply as the ‘Reese’ bassline. He followed these up with equally influential (and bassline-heavy) tracks in the UK hardcore style as Tronik House in 1991/1992. Another Detroit artist who was important for the scene is Carl Craig. The sampled-up jazz break on Carl Craig’s Bug in the Bassbin was also influential on the newly emerging sound, DJs at the Rage club used to play it pitched up (increased speed) as far as their Technics record decks would go.[12]
The third precursor worth mentioning here is the Miami, USA Booty Bass/Miami Bass scene (Afrika Bammbatta’s the architect), first popularised by 2 Live Crew in the mid to late ’80s. There are clear sonic parallels with drum and bass here in the use of uptempo synths and drum machines in producing bass-heavy party music.
Both the New York breakbeat and the Miami Trout scenes were strongly influenced by the ‘freestyle’ sound of New York, Chicago and Miami in the 1980s which incorporated electro, disco and Latin flavours, and which was in turn a key influence on the UK’s acid house/hardcore/rave scene.
Music sample:
2 track illustration of sampling and mixing of drum and bass tracks
“Bad Ass” by Aphrodite & Mickey Finn (1996) sampling the film “South Central” and Sound of the Future’s “Lighter” (1995) which samples the piano theme from the film “Love Story”. The clip also illustrates mixing techniques from Dj Hype on the cd compilation “Jungle Massive”. Both tracks are treated as classic drum and bass tracks.
Drum and bass tracks often contain many direct samples from other tracks, some examples are listed below:
* Afrika Bambaataa’s eponymous “Planet Rock” – the beat is sampled in Hypnotist’s “Pioneers Of The Warped Groove” (Rising High)
* A-Ha’s pop megahit “Take On Me” – the synths are sampled in Yolk’s “Bish Bosh” (Ruffbeat)
* Beastie Boys’s highly influential “The New Style” – the word “drop” is sampled in Lemon D’s “Break It Down” (Reinforced)
* Cypress Hill’s searing “I Wanna Get High” – the horn loop beat is sampled in Shy FX Feat. UK Apachi’s “Original Nuttah” (Sound Of Underground Recordings)
* De La Soul’s “The Game Show” – the vocal “now, here’s what we’ll do” is sampled in DJ Krust’s “Guess” (V)
* Rankin Joe’s “Step it Pon da Rastaman Scene” (taken from the Easy Star All-Stars’ Dub Side of the Moon) – the vocal line is sampled in the DJ Fresh and Pendulum collaboration “Babylon Rising” (Breakbeat Kaos)
* Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen” is heavily sampled in High Contrast’s “Days Go By” (The Contrast)
* Michael Jackson’s “I Can’t Help It” is sampled in Shy FX’s “Plastic Soul” (BINGO)
Note –this is just a quick post so please forgive any mistakes or spelling mistakes…
This is not to star a war of words –just a true history of facts
more to come ASAP
Namaste , Love and Blessings
W EL MeditatingBear
Send all comments to Myspace.com/MeditatingBear
