The American Jungle - Documentary Part 1 of 3

The American Jungle is a project of passion that documents the North American Drum and Bass scene. This is the story of Drum and Bass told through the mouths of artists that helped build the scene. This documentary covers history and evolution of electronic music from analog to digital times. 23 cities were visited. Over 100 artists were interviewed.

[@Havokmega]

It's not just the story of American Jungle, it's a documentary that illustrates how this genre based on low end frequencies created a global family. Everywhere you go in the world, you'll find junglists. Once the drop hits and the bass bins make the walls shake, you know you're home. It's a story that has no end because Undaground Drumz Will Never Die. Big ups to the stateside squad and all our friends across the pond.

[@chriswftdj]

I'm from the UK and I Couldn't agree more... I love seeing how guys from the USA talk about this and how this get this.

[@jamiegrieve5875]

Very nice and thank you guys for doing it. Good to hear from the jungle massive family in America and the jungle is a world family i will love to hear from anyone who can tell me about anything else to watch about the history of jungle in America and how you first came to hear the jungle.. blessings to you all across the pond.

[@CtrlAltPhreak]

I was first introduced to jungle back in '95 when I lived in LA. I went to my first underground rave. It was all jungle and it changed me forever, lol. That music became my life. Shortly after, I got my first set of tables. A couple Numark 1700s (the cheap-ass purple ones, LOL) and learned to play records. I started learning to produce using the old tracker programs and just kept learning and growing. Now, I'm 43 and I have a nice little home studio. I'm way too busy to do it full time anymore, but I still like to play a good ol' rave on occasion.

[@TakeMeBackPirateRadio]

Big up all the Junglists and DNB head Stateside! Massive respect from across the Atlantic!!

[@DJPHENETIC]

Yessir! Can't wait to play the clubs again!

[@TimyTims]

'23 and still bangin.

[@TakeMeBackPirateRadio]

Big up@@TimyTims

[@imfdred1]

Yay a shot of me and the homies set made it in this movie so stoked!

[@michaellacy1916]

This was a magical time in my life. I'm so proud to have seen and ben a part of this amazing time in musical history.

[@TakeMeBackPirateRadio]

Big up!!

[@Darkside-sk3nj]

Same here ! With all this covid stuff going on right now is making me appreciate the whole era and every thing thats gone on in the London and u.k dnb scene over the last 25 years for me personally and even longer than that for a lucky few. Such a vibe travelling to a rave, standing in the que with other ravers and making plans with them to meet for a drink inside then actually walking in to a main arena with Randall, Hype, Blackmarket, Brockie, grooveryder laying down a filthy set on a bass heavy sound system is just unbeatable. So many raves and so many world class Artists to listen to every single week ! Have been totally spoilt for choice for decade's now. Pure class

[@TakeMeBackPirateRadio]

@@Darkside-sk3nj Indeed!! This scene set the foundations for all the others to follow not just within the DNB movement but other underground movements. We were spoilt for choice with the amount of pirate radio stations we used to have on London's FM and all the raves going on. Not to mention the scenes in Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester. Truly a golden era!! It wasn't just about making money people actually paid money to buy tracks, cut dub plates, pay for studio time and pay subs to be on a pirate radio station and that was all before they may have got their cab fair for playing at a rave. Pretty like pro fighters selling their tickets to get a crowd to their fights DJs were doing the equivalent to get people to come to raves they playing at. It was bloody hard graft!!

[@MG-zz8yz]

The TOP, Lower Haight SF, Tuesday night DnB, my church, only 3 blocks from my place...so lucky...miss it.

[@djb903]

American disco, house and techno went across the pond and mixed with Jamaican immigrant dub, dancehall, and reggae in the uk while simultaneously hip hop and electro were blending together in the US and ecstacy was becoming popular worldwide: the perfect storm!

[@mrglasses8953]

Not quite right. Jungle grew from the UK hardcore scene which was a fusion of acid house, spread up hip-hop, jazz and funk breaks, Belgian new beat, EBM, industrial and even classical strings and piano lines. The hardcore scene fused with reggae/dub around 92 which created an offshoot called 'jungle techno'. Jungle and D&B developed from that.

[@djb903]

@@mrglasses8953 American House and techno went across the pond and that's how hardcore came to be, then when hardcore mixed with dub and dancehall it became jungle techno which is proto jungle...

[@kylemcwilliams1591]

This was awesome! Cant wait for part 2 BOH BOH!

[@kevinbirmingham3833]

This is awesome, Thank you for putting this together.... From the late 90's to mid 00's I use to go into NYC on monday nights at the Koncrete Jungle.

[@chriswftdj]

Big up to the USA for embracing the sound. I love seeing and hearing the American take on it.

[@DJPHENETIC]

Thanks for watching in! Big up yourself!

[@torwynd3131]

I explained DnB to someone once by saying, "Imagine a computer from the future is yelling at you".

[@DJPHENETIC]

lmao

[@hyperfocus4866]

God gave us Jungle ... AMEN 🙏❤️

[@illomendnb]

Nice one! Congratulations on releasing this.

[@soulfire-808]

Dude this is awesome! Made my day! Looking forward to the rest!

[@TheAmericanJungle]

Thank you for watching! Let em know!

[@TJ-be6ox]

DOPE! Can't wait for the next parts!

[@fLiP64209]

Feels like we've been waiting so long for this. What a time for it to be released. Thank you for that and well done!

[@TheAmericanJungle]

Def wish we could have gotten it out a while ago!

[@TheAmericanJungle]

Thanks for watching and the compliment!

[@octusdnb5934]

big upz all my usdnb heads and junglists!!!

[@VALIS538]

Gregory c Coleman, never knew what he would single handedly create, a whole culture that will live on long after we have gone, man deserves more credit

[@TheAmericanJungle]

10000000 %

[@djlowtek]

Thank you. Been waiting so long for this. If you end up pressing physical copies I'll pick one up!

[@DJPHENETIC]

Thank you! Yeah it was long time in the works! Feeling the love! There might be a batch printed up. We'll let you know!

[@jamiegrieve5875]

For me I had been involved with the acid house scene in Blackburn and Manchester and my friends were DJs and we went to all the best parties! However I have always been a bboy and loved the early hip hop and electros and the real deep Chicago house the real acid house was brilliant but the scene was going commercial and just piano house and I was fed up with it so at the time the hardcore music was center stage and then they started to isolate the break beats and hip hop flavour breaks and speeding them up and then the hardcore went out of it and jungle was born jungle techno was what they were calling it at first and the first jungle techno night i went to was in July 91 in Birmingham and it was like a breakers revenge for me and I then started going to all the best jungle parties in London and Birmingham every weekend! The roast quest! Jungle fever!.. And loads of them!.. in 94 which i think was the golden era and the peak of the jungle it started going a bit dark and gangsta and commercial and then drum and bass was coined and the scene was good but you had to go to the right one because there was some that were not really good!..i am now 49 and I was 19 or 20 when it began here and 24 when I was going to the best jungle parties and they had got it down to a fine art with the killer sound systems!.I would love to hear about what happened in America

[@ironfistandpowerman]

I moved to New York from Denver December of 1993 in the fall of 94 I Cassien aka Cassien of Legend became the catalyst to and first resident dj for Konkrete Jungle, 97-2002 I was resident dj for Rumble Sessions/Direct Drive. I was the Jungle drum and bass buyer and seller at Throb records 95-97 then from 97-2000 seller at Breakbeat Science then Jungle drum and bass buyer and seller for Liquid Sky/Final Home 2000-2002 I left New York in 2007 moved to LA worked at Amoeba records in their dance electronic music section. I moved back to Denver in 2014 and in this November of 2021 I will be launching Konkrete Jungle Mile High at the Black Box.

[@BekkaPoo]

I probably bought records from you at at that time. I started djing in 97-98 til about 2007 in NY (bedroom mostly and a few house parties) but jungle was always my first love. I shopped at Satellite and Throb, and partied all over Manhattan during this golden age. Thanks for still keeping jungle alive today!

[@Decoy303]

Now that's Love

[@wigsdanger]

‘’People that dont get Drum & Bass just aren’t smart enough’’ 😆

[@AQT187]

That's some bullshit because I've seen some complete morons who are into it.

[@DJPHENETIC]

One of my favorite quotes lol

[@no_slaw]

I concur

[@kaden67420]

Timeless.

[@DJPHENETIC]

Priceless

[@TheAmericanJungle]

When we hit 1k subscribers there will be complete interviews, content from parties, content taken in different cities etc... All that, will start being released

[@jamiegrieve5875]

It was good to hear that guy who said that he was a bboy and the breaks made him like the jungle!. I would be interested to hear how the jungle came to America and how they first heard about it and what they knew about the UK scene..

[@TheAmericanJungle]

you will be hearing more! Stay tuned in!

[@stevemcdonald2191]

I hope 360BPM crew from Seattle get recognized!!!

[@SS-kw8hf]

So Dope!

[@JrWagner916]

Lighter in the air for all junglist fam! ☣🔥🔥🔥☣

[@TakeMeBackPirateRadio]

Big up!!

[@DJPHENETIC]

Hell yeah!

[@rachelbaker5991]

It's all about the bass 🎵🎵🎵& not too much treble ☺️✌️😍 Big up Birmingham UK

[@Nektauk]

Great to see its got a following over there

[@JSTNtheWZRD]

Bull, we did the techno, UK turned breakbeat to drum n bass in 91' and brought it to djs in chicago exclusively and we made our own thing and at some point stopped importing, made our own beats and it went completely underground with what once were hip hop and house and techno djs transformed breakbeat dnb into American jungle and it spread out from Chicago early. And when in the Uk they had venues and all ages places early on, we never had a place - so we became nomadic and it became a social thing with parties mostly illegal in barnes to squat condemned buildings, to fields, houses, storage facilities etc. like pop up rainbow gatherings. And it died out in about 00' when it went mainstream, but we kept and keep it alive. We only had a few main venues in the whole US, the rest were all raves and a culture this created within the electronic music community that already existed, and there were literally few of us and few djs and alot of tape trading. It created a spiritual culture here, while in the UK it evolved because it had the popularity - we never saw that - at all. When the jungle book came out in chicago it blew up and we could see others like us after that until the UK stuff hit in 2000 and after. We didn't like the UK stuff because it was too commercial. We had scratching records, the UK had the expensive equipment, we were analog, they were digital. We were spiritual about it and the UK was more into the future of it. Then they started stealing our old techno beats to create new forms of d n b like London funky etc. They just took our old techno records and tweaked them. It went US UK then back to US in the nineties to the UK again this time we got nothing back but commercial well organized polished tracks. Alright editing, I wrote this a year back and quickly, sloppily, but I don't want to change anything because it's somewhat what happened. Perhaps one day I'll attach a better picture

[@jdlc903]

Interesting

[@darkstranjahjunglebunny3667]

Yh right cool Story

[@JSTNtheWZRD]

@@darkstranjahjunglebunny3667 Thanks, I just read it again - seems like I was in some kind of groove when I wrote it - I was passionate because the world doesn't need an old school wizard like me anymore 😎

[@darkstranjahjunglebunny3667]

@@JSTNtheWZRD Bro looping breaks for b boys isn't the same as uk cutting up and doing trickery with breaks it doesn't even come close

[@JSTNtheWZRD]

@@darkstranjahjunglebunny3667 wha?

[@awolproductions]

this is dope!

[@p0etic1]

Loving it #DnB4Life

[@denononohardcore2]

Nice~

[@georgeespley9177]

Never knew that there was a jungle scene over there

[@chriswftdj]

So many artists from the USA

[@gemmawilliams6825]

I didn't either love that danny the wildchild was bigging up dj hype and his enthusiasm talking about being a true junglist

[@paulwheeler6888]

Respect!!! Junglist Massive!!!

[@cenabitednbfpv587]

Love this, and without the crowds and promoters ect...This also would have changed everything so MAD LOVE TO ALL OGs who gave YOUR LOCAL JINGLISTS A PLACE TO DEVELOP THEIR UNDYING LOVE for DNB and or JUNGLE... lickshot!

[@TheClearMediaContent]

tight, subscribed

[@oscillatoraxe3262]

"People who don't get drum & bass, are just not smart enough." I LIKE IT.

[@witch.in.hawaii]

Who's the American Jungle song by??? I need that song in my life right now!!

[@B82-z7c]

how long were you guys working on this documentary?

[@davidagcole]

Americans explaining Jungle drum n bass 😂 you ain't wrong tho and I love you all the more for it. Junglists worldwide ❤️

[@chriskarriker2798]

Any tentative release dates for parts 2 and 3?

[@DJPHENETIC]

Im posting up a short clip just to make sure people soon! But yeah 4/20 part 2, 4/30 part 3.

[@jaesindnb6197]

It’s been said many times before and I’ll say it again, it’s a lifestyle, once you get a taste of it, you will live and die with it. PENN BASS!

[@TheJaywalk3r]

Anyone have a tracklist?

[@evilsock420]

End of the credits.

[@seantaylor7521]

J_SMOOTH LEGAND!!!!

[@mco230]

Big up all Junglists worldwide 👊👊

[@djr3solve]

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

[@thoesdielen4703]

whats the name of the american jungle tune in the begining?

[@TheAmericanJungle]

The American Jungle - Mason D. Star feat Armanni Reign

[@thoesdielen4703]

The American Jungle thanks

[@bobbygoestoabyss6624]

I like the thought of every dnb and jungle producer having a record of the winstons but only listen to the amen break, when put on. 😅

[@dillinguuur79]

BOH BITCHES. Big ups for putting this out, much respect!!!!

[@DJPHENETIC]

Thanks for watching in and Big Up yourself!!

[@TheAmericanJungle]

Catch Part 2 on 4/20, Part 3 on 4/30! Please subscribe so you don't miss!

[@chriswftdj]

America forsure has its own sound within DNB. Hard-hitting, unignoreable and uncompromising.

[@no_slaw]

Where da tracklist

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

Bro @18:42, what it’s all about right there 🖤🍭🫶

[@wigsdanger]

Anyone know the tune that drops at 24:36 ?

[@DJPHENETIC]

Matty G - 50,000 watts (6BLOCC Jungle remix)

[@wigsdanger]

@@DJPHENETIC Nice one

[@stevemcdonald2191]

EZ now my slekta'

[@jcoverpass]

If I don’t hear mention of Dieselboy within the first 10 minutes then your Doc isn’t real.

[@jcoverpass]

You Did it!! @6:08 Dieselboy!!!!!!!!!!

[@DJPHENETIC]

@@jcoverpass hahaha for real

[@JuliaPlanetDisco]

1.8.7 taught him to spin :P

[@jcoverpass]

@@JuliaPlanetDisco was he the guy to blame for that House mix that DSL did? If so... fk that guy!

[@JuliaPlanetDisco]

@@jcoverpass nah not a guy and is an original Junglist 🤷

[@indamixup2189]

Its uk sound tribal d and b, back to nature

[@norflondonboi81theraver33]

Jungle was something hardcore producers invented by accident because hardcore became so popular in 91-92 they wanted to make it darker so it was unpalatable for pop music and top of the pops so jungle was just a joke word used for darker sounds of hardcore but by 94 the darker sounds and more piano and bleepie hardcore split

[@darkstranjahjunglebunny3667]

Americans always trying to claim jungle took hip hop and flipped it. Erm no it's based off reggae dub. breaks wasn't from hip hop it's from funk which it's roots go way back to AFRICANS beating drums on some tribal ting. JUNGLE.

[@darkerarts]

Exactly! Hardly any hip hop breaks were used in the early 90's.

[@OPENWIDEtv]

The music is amazing but as a scene? It’s quite shite.

[@pete3039]

The scene is the music, I've played d+b / jungle in dank air raid shelters, airfields,dun matter its the music

[@goldgiverbeatz7433]

full of shit , jungle came from breaks mixed with Jamaican dub music , its a uk black music , show some respect

[@DJPHENETIC]

Are you sure you watched this before you commented? LOL I think you are the one being disrespectful. Your partially right, and that is covered in this Doc, but there is more to the story and thats why there is documentaries made.... to help everyone understand it all.

[@goldgiverbeatz7433]

@@DJPHENETIC na your not making no doc culture culturing us Jamaican uk born people along other carribean people who created this genre , for you to say , you've created it from techno , piss take , Elvis part 3

[@DJPHENETIC]

There is literally a whole section covering the Jamaican sound clash, and the roots coming from there, but ok...

[@goldgiverbeatz7433]

@@DJPHENETIC anddddd jungle was uk hood music in 90s, talk the truth if your gonna make documentaries . even the jungle beat was created by a black producer , by speeding up that classic old school hip hop drum loop

[@DJPHENETIC]

..enjoy being upset and rude, I'm not trying to stop you.. just pointing out that your right and its covered

[@u_dun_kno2220]

I don’t want to sound like a complete knob, but this documentary is kind of laughable. Seems every producer overseas doesn’t understand the fundamental roots of the music and where it comes from. I’ve been raving since early 92 here in the UK, sound system culture from Jamaica, the early inception of acid house, breakbeat tekno and the melting pot of race colours and creeds created the sound. It’s almost as if the centre piece as drum n bass is presented as a fad rather than Americans integration into what is a dominantly English scene. Not to mention the UK soundtrack you have playing in the background. Speaking outside of the UK, Toronto Canada has a way more authentic scene because of their cultural make up which is very similar to that of London