Rave Culture began at the juncture of several political social movements.
i) Jamaican Dub Soundsystem Culture of the 70s/80s
ii) UK Traveller Culture (ex-hippies); Punks; New Agers; also a centuries old tradition of Carnival on the Common Lands
iii) Austin, Texas, 1986: the impact of Ecstasy
iv) Continuation of Chicago Disco into house music; the rise of gay culture and the Funk Movement
v) Detroit: the artistic-social backlash to the failed modernist city-project resulted in Detroit techno and rap.
vi) The late 80s in the UK saw the rise of Acid House music (Chicago house with a 303 overtop, the combining of Chicago dance culture with UK rebellion), which took on new social importance due to its context: “dj’ed,” on turntables, mixed by djs with pitch controls (this is a new thing!), in illegal spaces: occupations of warehouses, farmlands, public and private spaces.
Dirty Harry drops some history on us, via the KingBeatSound website. He talks about how he got into soundsystem culture, how Steve Bedlam and Negusa Negast brought the reggae/dancehall/jungle ting to the London party scene and how he established KingBeatSoundsystem in ’99 and found his niche alongside raging teknivals….
DIRTY HISTORY…
KINGBEATSOUNDSYSTEM’s owner/ production manager DirtyHarry caught the soundsystem bug at thirteen watching sounds like Jah Shaka, Youth Sounds, and Jah Trinity play the Dub Club at the Dome Tufnell Park in 1993. Harry became a “box boy” for UK reggae outfit RDK HI-FI Soundsystem at sixteen years old, touring Europe, selecting tunes and engineering as part of the sound’s crew by the age of eighteen.
Harry launched KingBeat in 1999 as a roots and culture sound playing dates at Aba-Shanti’s resident club the House of Roots and the RootsGarden in Brighton, but clubs were closing their doors to the soundsystems. Touring soundsystems don’t suit club owners needs; staff have to be paid to come early and stay late, the speaker boxes and flight cases scratch walls and chip the paint on the way through, and any good soundsystem would make their crapy noise restricted in-house P.A look bad. Possibly more importantly as our goverment fought “antisocial behaviour” on multiple fronts club owners who exceeded strict council noise limits lost their licences. This meant only the biggest sound men could get dates, as club owners simply wouldn’t risk it for some little youth who may not get a crowd. “Dirty” Harry had been a squatter since 1998 and regularly attended squat parties and outdoor raves. This was where Kingbeat found its audience for the next few years.
The way reggae and dancehall has blown up on the London party scene is something to be very proud of. Harry, Bashment Bish (Negusa Negast), Steve Bedlam (Spiral Tribe/Bedlam Sound), and a very few others pioneered that sound playing to 20-30 people while hundreds raved to tekno somewhere else in the building. With such small numbers early on when Negusa Negast and KingBeat were both out they would either link up or Harry would host hip-hop, jungle, drum’n'bass and breakbeat DJs.That’s where KingBeat found it’s current blueprint playing reggae, reggae infused, and reggae inspired music, week in week out (2000-04) at one of the London parties, Southern outdoor raves or European Teknovals blowing up the reggae dancehall sound.
Bristol has long been a multicultural city. In the 1950s and 1960s there were waves of immigration that made Bristol one of the most racially diverse cities in the UK. This mix included greater access to new strands of music such as reggae. “In 1980, following a police raid on the popular Black and White Café, the St Pauls riots erupted, the first of the decade’s civil disturbances.”
“Around this time, the Bristol underground scene was steeped in punk and reggae influences, and soon embraced hip-hop – and with it the colourful New York-style lettering at the most creative end of the graffiti art spectrum.”[6]
The 1990s was when the scene began to create work of international significance. 1991 saw the releasse of Massive Attack’s Blue Lines, an album which has met international critical acclaim. Blue Lines was named the 21st greatest album of all time in a ‘Music of the Millennium’ poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. Stuart Bailie of BBC Northern Ireland stated that “It was soul music. But it had bold, symphonic arrangements. It featured samples of the Mahavishnu Orchestra … It had funky breaks and an emotional power that was hard to figure. It sounded anxious and lost. But there was a grandeur in the music also. People who came across the record became obsessed, spinning it endlessly.” The release in 2006 of “Live With Me” is proof that the trip hop scene is still capable of producing great work.
Darkness
The Bristol underground scene was characterised by a sparseness and darkness. Bands like Portishead and Massive Attack used sparse sounds – a simple bass line, a vocal and a few other effects, and usually very melancholy lyrics. Banksy also tends to use very few colours, concentrating on blacks and whites and sharp outlines, and often looking at controversial topics such as war.
Separately to this, some writers have talked of an undercurrent of darkness within the City due to its history.[7]
Racial tensions within the City
An article in 2008 in The Telegraph stated that: “Racial matters have always carried a historical resonance in Bristol, a city made affluent on the profits of tobacco and slave-trading. Street names such as Blackboy Hill and Whiteladies Road remain as reminders.”
“It’s a past that we feel equivocal about”, says Steve Wright. “It’s a double-edged thing. There are the beautiful Georgian terraces that we love, but they were built on the profits of slavery. It’s our shady past, and Bristolians are a bit self-effacing, a bit ashamed of it and are quite keen to layer new associations on top of it. There’s always been a defiant, subversive streak in Bristol, and Banksy’s work is very much in that tradition.”[8]
There has often been a slight undercurrent of tension both in the politics and creatively with artists and musicians in the merger of black and white culture. During the 1950s the Bristol evening post carried what many today would consider openly racist articles, warning of the dangers of black bus drivers.
Creative tensions within bands
Some of this tension spilled over into some of the artists creative work. Massive Attack for example were wrought with creative tensions over their 1998 album Mezzanine, which resulted in one of the three core members leaving. Robert Del Naja has described the dark atmosphere within the group: “There was always this tension between control and collaboration. Always… We were just trying to get the job finished… Everything became thinner and smaller. All that warmth being spun into a tiny little thread, then that thread just being cut.”[9]
I & I music is to praise Haile Selassie I Jah Rastafari making a joyful noise unto the Lord, for it is Jah who has made I & I. Jah Rastafari sends his children a positive vibration that manifests through drumming (Nyahbingi) and chanting (Singing). The drum patterns of Nyahbingi have their origins in Abyssinia, the original name for Africa (Africa – Babylon word meaning ‘divided’). Thousands of years ago through a special lineage, the drumming is here today with many variations, and the one I ‘stant is the bass and drum.
The bass represents the thunder and the drum, the lightning. This way of praising Jah was originated by King David through divine inspiration. I & I are in the house of King David unto this very day as written in the Holy Bible.
Nyahbingi drum patterns are the root of all modern style drumming.
Jungle is a way of life. Concrete Jungle is all InI see all day in Babylon. Jungle Music represents the Ghetto, a voice for the youth. A platform for talented artistes to speak to the world (without Babylon intervention) FREE of them. So I n I can a talk one to one million.
InI grow up the same as Ghetto youth all over the world brought to Babylon by slave-ships. Nuff hardship suffering, so InI search and don’t stop searching for Jah who is Truth until InI see Jah in all things.
Jungle music brings a message of peace, love and unity because of these positive vibrations you see the fight InI music gets in Babylon. Till they tried to kill jungle music, I don’t need to say anymore it’s already known to all true Junglists. keep the jungle fire burning….JAH LIVE.
when people say they love jungle some really do but then they start dj ing or mc ing and then forget about jungle and start trying to elevate themselves.many forget where jungle is coming from and why it is here.be humble and let jungle lead, Jungle is bigger than flesh.producers djs mcs record labels promoters distributors magazines- jungle is bigger than that .jungle is timeless jungle is priceless – jungle is bless.
the jungle revolution
BIG UP ALL JUNGLIST
NO ONE IS TAKING JUNGLE ANYWHERE JUNGLE IS TAKING I AND I ON A JOURNEY
LOVE THE JUNGLE DONT TRY TO TO CONTROL THE POWER ITS TOO GREAT.
ASK THE YOUTHS ABOUT COOL HERC OR LEE SCRATCH PERRY THEY MIGHT KNOW THE NAMES BUT THE MAJORITY ARE REALLY INTRESTED IN THE CURRENT ARTISTES AND THE POWER HAS SHIFTED TO A WHOLE NEW GENERATION OF ARTISTES, SO HIP HOP AND REGGAE MUSIC KEEP GROWING AS PRODUCERS COME AND GO.JUNGLE HAS ALREADY OUTGROWN MANY PRODUCERS AND MC .JUNGLE HAS MOVED TO THE NEXT LEVEL .THIS IS JUNGLE MUSIC .
IF A TREE HAS NO ROOTS HOW CAN IT GROW
DONT FORGET THE ROOTS OF HIP HOP
HIP HOP AND REGGAE GIVE THE YOUTHS HOPE IN THIS HELL CITY
Jungle is a way of life…..from the life you get the music …the music from the streets is the only real music right now…..once those babylon get there hands on the street vibe they try to control it and switch it round into there pop bloodclaat ….i n i see through the smoke screen of hype , fake record sales – fake charts and playlists ……
Bob Marley and peter tosh proved that real music doesnt need goliath because real music is david……..jungle is like samson with the donkey jaw bone slewing the demons of this time with word sound and power… i n i dont come to fight flesh and blood but spiritual wickedness in high and low places….. ….bass and treble-the sling and pebble..
The Month In Reggae/Dancehall as published monthly on Pitchfork. The latest installment discusses Ragga Twins and The Bug in a way that complements my research today. Thus, here are excerpts for future reference:
Wed: 06-18-08
The Month In: Reggae / Dancehall
The Month In by Dave Stelfox
To this end, respected reissue and archive label Soul Jazz has recently pulled together a collection of tracks by a duo that perfectly illustrates British street music’s inextricable links with soundsystem culture. Starting out as deejays for North London’s Unity Sound, Flinty Badman (Trevor Destouche) and Deman Rocker (David Destouche) split off to form the Ragga Twins. Jacknifing deep-rooted Jamaican vocal sensibilities together with tearing rhythms, predominantly provided by producers Shut Up & Dance, these brothers blended dancehall with both hip-hop and rave, in the process providing many of the movement’s most explosive moments. Soon to be anthologized on Ragga Twins Step Out– out in a few weeks– songs including “Hooligan 69″, “Spliffhead”, and “Ragga Trip” may sound somewhat dated by today’s standards. However, this is far from a sticking point, bringing about rushes of fond nostalgia and providing a valuable document of a pivotal period.
Moving forward to the present day, Kevin Martin’s work as the Bug has come on leaps and bounds over the past couple of years, first blurring the lines between dancehall and experimental/industrial electronica (always a pretty porous border if you take an open-ended view of such matters) and now grime and dubstep. Following his 2004 album Aktion Pak (Rephlex/CD/UK), the soon-to-be-released London Zoo (Ninja Tune/CD/U.S.) keeps this producer’s corroded, futuristic vision of dancehall intact but also shows a friendlier face. Also, there’s a strong sense of reggae’s past at play. Accordingly, contemporary badman tunes such as “Skeng” (featuring Killa P & Flowdan) and Jah War (feat Flowdan) rub comfortably against Punany-era King Jammy-influenced tracks including “Angry” featuring veteran UK MC Tippa Irie and “Insane”, voiced by long-time collaborator Warrior Queen. Overall, it’s cohesive and infectious homage to the versatility and resilence of Jamaican music.
Meanwhile, back in Kingston, Donovan “Don Corleon” Bennett is back after a reasonably quiet patch with two fresh riddims: one sweet one-drop number and another aimed squarely at the dancehall. Secrets (7″/Don Corleon/JA) hosts Jah Cure singing his heart out on the gorgeous “Miles Away” and perennial Month In favourites TOK dropping a delightful version entitled “So Cold”. The pick of the bunch, however, comes from Buju Banton with “Sleepless Nights”, a cut that sees the veteran deejay eschewing guttural toasting in favour of heartfelt melody. It’s a prime example of one of Jamaica’s best performers at the top of his game. Double Joint (7″/Don Corleon/JA), on the other hand, is a curious affair, harking nack to the structures of late-80s digital but using contemporary garage-influenced sounds. Stripped back to the bone, the beats offer a minimalist backdrop for a host of artists, including Alaine, Vybz Kartel, and Pressure, but the top turns come from Bounty Killer with the typically uncompromising “What U Think” and the criminally underrated Bling Dawg with the storming “Grudge”.
One of a growing number of rising AutoTune-enhanced stars, Demarco has reputedly signed a $1,000,000 deal with Koch Records, but that hasn’t stopped hit turning out music on domestic shores. Beautiful Lady (7″/JA), the latest of his home-market singles comes courtesy of super-producer Christopher Birch’s Birchill Records continues an apparent unstoppable run of releases and isn’t light on the quality, either. Glossy almost almost robotic, it’s a strangely robotic and inhuman gal tune, but absolutely contemporary given that the T-Pain effect has almost entirely engulfed Jamaica at this point.
Japanese label Bacchanal sticks to the classic approach, updating the classic Tempo riddim with two new voicings from potty-mouthed female deejay Spice and long-serving stalwart Pinchers. Despite not reinventing the wheel in any way, they’re both great, the revitalised Bad Tempo instrumental giving the original a welcome shot in the arm in the shape of thumping percussion and steely key stabs. In the frts instance, “Bedroom Bully” finds Spice in an especially demanding mood, brandishing her prowess between the sheets like a weapon. “Names & Faces”, however, shows Pinchers at his best, that inimitable flow skipping over the beats like a wet pebble. After the fallow period of recent months and the resulting closure of record shops all around the world– the latest in a long line being the Ladbroke Grove branch of London’s famous Dub Vendor operation– new music like this, available on a variety of hard-copy formats, offers plenty of reasons to be cheerful. Until July, it’s over and out. Happy listening.
Okay that’s actually most of the article except the intro; something i rarely do, but hey: my printer is broke so i gotta make do with online options…. The full Month In… was originally published here:
In the early 1990s, MCs who were predominately Black and from the ragga scene, began to add their flavor to techno beats from the white dominated rave scene. This eclectic marriage of styles, roots and electronic music, laid the foundation for modern jungle. Jungle began as the integration of musical forms which came from a variety of cultural perspectives. The socio-economic mix of the London underground community fostered an environment which encouraged the intermingling of cultures and one love between all people. The natural evolution of this, musically, is jungle. The pioneers of UK jungle were Rebel MC, Ragga Twins, Shut Up and Dance and Two Bad Mice (Rob Playford). In July, 1991 underground white labels’ records from these groups started showing up on the NYC dance scene. Fortunately, I happened to be in the right time at the right place and realized my responsibility to start playing and producing jungle. I first spun jungle at the infamous NYC dance club, the Limelight, at the major techno event called Future Shock. The Future Shock promoters didn’t get jungle and shut me down. A year later, I helped to found NASA (a new, different kind of underground party) with db, Scotto, Jason Jinx and On-E. This became the first successful breakbeat party in America and launched the US jungle scene. The next major turning point for US jungle was a party called Jungle Warriors. This was the first big jungle event in Manhattan that brought together top junglists and live drummers (including Marque Gilmore). Here we learned and taught each other and changed the course of US jungle forever. Today in NYC, Koncrete Jungle (props to Mac and Kathy) and Egg (Liquid Sky posse) have maintained the tradition of NYC underground parties and are the weekly family gathering places for the NYC underground.
The Jamaican diaspora refers to Jamaicans who are forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands, the dispersal of such Jamaicans, and the ensuing developments in their culture.
The Jamaican diaspora exists in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and other Caribbean islands, but Jamaicans can be found in even the far corners of the world.
Over the past several decades, close to a million[citation needed] Jamaicans have emigrated, especially to the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. This emigration appears to have been tapering off somewhat in recent years, however the great number of Jamaicans living abroad has become known as the “Jamaican diaspora”. Due to Commonwealth law and Jamaica’s history with Great Britain, most Jamaican emigrants have followed a path first to the UK, and then if they do not remain in the UK, on to other Commonwealth countries such as Canada. Today that trend has changed with more Jamaican emigrants going directly to the United States, Canada, other Caribbean nations, Central & South America (mainly in Brazil), and even Africa (most notably Egypt and Ethiopia) without having to pass through the UK first. There has also been emigration of Jamaicans to Cuba and Nicaragua where they represent 9% of the population. [1]
Concentrations of expatriate Jamaicans are large in a number of cities in the United States, including New York City, Buffalo, the Miami metro area, Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa, Washington, D.C, Philadelphia, Hartford, Managua, Nicaragua and Los Angeles. In Canada, the Jamaican population is centred in Toronto, and there are smaller communities in cities such as Montreal and Ottawa. In the United Kingdom, Jamaican communities exist in most large cities where they make up the larger part of the British-Caribbean community.
The United Kingdom has a much higher percentage of Jamaicans than Canada and the United States, however population wise, the UK and USA are pretty much equal.[citation needed] An overwhelming amount of Jamaican Americans reside in New York City, whilst Jamaican Britons are much more widespread across the UK.[citation needed]
New York City is home to a large Jamaican diaspora community, with communities along Flatbush, Nostrand and Utica Avenues in Brooklyn—centred around the neighbourhoods of Prospect Heights, Lefferts Gardens, Flatbush, East Flatbush, Crown Heights, Canarsie, and Flatlands. The Bronx, neighbourhoods such as Wakefield, Eastchester, Baychester, Queens, Westchester County and nearby Stamford, Connecticut also have significant Jamaican ex-pat communities. Flatbush, Nostrand, and Utica Avenues feature miles of Jamaican cuisine, food markets & other businesses, nightlife and residential enclaves.
In Toronto, the Jamaican community is also large. Caribbean areas of the city are located in parts of Rexdale, Scarborough, Jane and Finch, Lawrence Heights, Weston, sections of Downtown Toronto and York, which also includes a Little Jamaica neighbourhood that is identifiable along Eglinton Avenue West. Though in recent times most Jamaicans have been moving out to suburbs such as Mississauga and Brampton(Brampton alone has over 10% of the Jamaican-Canadian population). The Jamaican community has had an influence on Toronto’s culture. Caribana (the celebration of Caribbean culture) is an annual event in the city. Jamaica Day is in July and the Jesus in the City Parade attracts many Jamaican Christians. This festival is held downtown every September, shutting down Yonge Street – the busiest main street in Downtown Toronto. Reggae and dancehall are popular among Toronto’s youth.
London has a strong Jamaican diaspora. An estimated 7% of Londoners are of Jamaican heritage. Many are now at least second-, if not third- or fourth-generation Black British Caribbeans. Also a further 2% of people in London are of mixed Jamaican and British origin, the largest mixed-race group of the country and the fastest-growing.
One of the largest and most famous Jamaican expatriate communities is in Brixton, South London. More large Jamaican communities in London are Tottenham and Hackney in North London, Harlesden in North-West London, and Lewisham in South-East London. The highest concentration of Jamaicans are in the Inner-city South London boroughs.
On the last bank holiday of the year during late August the Annual Notting Hill Carnival takes place in West London which is the second biggest street party in the world after Rio Carnival. It spans areas of West London such as Shepherd’s Bush, Ladbroke Grove, White City and of course Notting Hill. Many other Caribbean nations have large communities in this part of London such as Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Antigua. The Caribbean community including many Jamaicans are involved in the Carnival which starts on Saturday and finishes late on Monday. Jamaicans have many food stalls, soundsystems and floats involved in the procession. Well over a million londoners come to Notting Hill on the Monday. There is also a much smaller carnival called the Tottenham Carnival which takes place in Tottenham during June, approximately 40,000 people attend.
Other Jamaican communities include the areas of St Pauls in Bristol, Chapeltown in Leeds, Moss Side, Longsight and Hulme in Manchester, Toxteth in Liverpool,Burngreave in Sheffield, Handsworth, Lozells, and Aston in Birmingham, and St Ann’s, Nottingham. More recently many resort and wild-life management skilled Jamaicans have been trending emigration toward such far-flung nations as Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia. The nation continues to have a severe problem with barrel children–those left on their own by parents seeking a better life abroad.
Further information: Caribbean music in the United Kingdom
The period of large-scale immigration brought many new musical styles to the United Kingdom. These styles gained popularity amongst Britons of all cultural origins, and aided Caribbean music in gaining international recognition. The earliest of these exponents was the calypso artist Lord Kitchener, who arrived in Britain on the Windrush in 1948 accompanied by fellow musician Lord Beginner.[71] Already a star in his native Trinidad, Lord Kitchener got an immediate booking at the only West Indian club in London. Six months later, he was appearing in three clubs nightly, and his popularity extended beyond the West Indian and African nightclub audiences, to include music hall and variety show audiences.[71] Kitchener’s recording “London is the place for me” exemplified the experience of the Windrush generation.[72] Other calypso musicians began to collaborate with African Kwela musicians and British jazz players in London clubs.[72]
Jamaican music styles reached Britain in the 1960s, becoming the staple music for young British African-Caribbeans. Tours by ska artists such as Prince Buster and the Skatalites fed the growing British-Caribbean music scene, and the success of Jamaican artists Millie Small, Desmond Dekker and Bob and Marcia propelled Caribbean music and people into mainstream cultural life. British African-Caribbeans followed the changing styles of Jamaican music and began to produce homegrown music appealing to both Black and White communities. In 1969, the British African-Caribbean ska band Symarip recorded “Skinhead Moonstomp” which had a huge effect on the British ska scene. The ska sound and rude boy imagery inspired a generation of white working-class youths (especially mods and skinheads), and later helped spawn Britain’s multi-cultural 2 Tone movement in the late 1970s.[73]
As Jamaican ska gave way to the slower styles of rocksteady and the more politicised reggae, British African-Caribbeans followed suit. Sound systems to rival those in Jamaica sprung up throughout communities, and ‘Blues parties’ – parties in private houses, where one paid at the door – became an institution. The arrival of Bob Marley to London in 1971 helped spawn a Black British music industry based on reggae. His association with the Rastafarian movement influenced waves of young people, reared in Britain, to discover their Caribbean roots. British Barbadian Dennis Bovell became Britain’s prominent reggae band leader and producer, working with many international reggae stars, and introducing a reggae flavour to the British pop charts with non-reggae acts such as Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Bananarama. Bovell also worked extensively with London-based dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson.[74]
Successful DJ and musician Goldie, born to Scottish and Jamaican parents, as was Bob Marley
Successful DJ and musician Goldie, born to Scottish and Jamaican parents, as was Bob Marley[75]
British music with reggae roots prospered in the 1980s and early 1990s. British African-Caribbean artists Musical Youth, Aswad, Maxi Priest and Eddy Grant had major commercial successes, and the multicultural band UB40 helped promote reggae to an international audience. Birmingham-based Steel Pulse became one of the world’s foremost exponents of roots reggae and accompanying black consciousness, their debut 1978 album Handsworth Revolution becoming a seminal release.[76]
British African-Caribbean music had been generally synonymous with Caribbean styles until the 1990s, although some artists had been drawing on British and American musical forms for several decades. In the 1970s and 1980s, British African-Caribbean artists such as Hot Chocolate and Imagination became leaders of the British disco, soul and R&B scenes.[77] By the mid-1980s British African-Caribbeans were also incorporating American hip hop and House styles, becoming leading figures in Britain’s developing dance music culture. This led to an explosion of musical forms. British artists created musical hybrids combining many elements including European techno, Jamaican dancehall, dub, breakbeats and contemporary American R’n'B. These unique blends began to gain international acclaim through the success of Soul II Soul and the multi-racial Massive Attack.[78]
British African-Caribbeans were at the leading edge of the jungle and drum and bass movements of the 1990s. Although the fast-tempo drums and loud intricate bass lines sounded fresh, Caribbean roots could still be detected.[79] Two successful exponents of these new styles were DJs Goldie and Roni Size, both of Jamaican heritage.[75][80] Later, British African-Caribbean musicians and DJs were at the forefront of the UK garage and Grime scenes.[81]
