Jungle is a mesh of high-tempo sub-genres littered with complex bass and drum patterns. The first Jungle music can even trace its origins all the way back to Chicago House and Detroit Techno in the 80’s. Make no mistake though, Jungle, or Drum n Bass, is a beast of its own.
The adjacent connection to the first Jungle music is Oldskool Rave Hardcore. For its time, of course, they just called it Rave, or Hardcore. Before Hardcore adopted the pounding, high-speed punches of Gabber music, it was really more like an early Breaks genre with Hip-Hop inspirations.
Not too long after the start of Rave music, several subgenres began to branch off into new influences. Jungle music started with two different genres, one being Ragga Jungle.
Ragga Jungle
Early 90’s to present
It’s highly likely that Dubstep thinks that it’s as cool as Ragga Jungle, but it definitely isn’t. Both have a reggae/dub-influenced sound, but Dubstep is considerably more Americanized today. This is the “first” Jungle/Drum n Bass genre, and it might still be one of the best. Even though the formula for Ragga Jungle is incredibly simple, the genre really gets your blood pumping and arms flailing.
Ragga Jungle is categorized by the use of the Amen break, and a Reggae/Drum n Bass MC for vocals. The Jamaican/reggae style of Jungle is evidence of its origin in UK-based Jamaican communities, rather than some kind of paint job, so to speak. On the other hand, what exactly is the Amen Break?
A chart of the Amen, Brother drum break designed by Ethan Hein
The Amen Break is a drum loop so catchy it literally inspired the rest of the Drum n Bass design yet to come. Funnily enough, it’s a 52-year-old breakbeat at the time of writing this, originally created by The Winstons on their track Amen, Brother (1969). You can hear the beat, which DJs everywhere today furiously loop for many of their songs, at around the 1:26 mark.
Jumpup soon came around after DJs realized there was more than one drum pattern at their disposal. Jumpup is like Jungle with a two-step kick pattern instead, which we will get into later.
Darkside – aka Jungle Techno, Darkcore
Early 90’s to 2000
On the other end of the Oldskool shoot-off is Darkside, sometimes just called Jungle. Despite that labeling, the main difference between Darkside Jungle and Ragga Jungle is the absence of exactly that: Ragga. We still got chopped up amen breaks here, but there’s some new focuses too.
Darkside was gaining its community in the UK around the same time as Happy Hardcore, which is basically just giddy Gabber. The two couldn’t be much different, and there’s nothing unintentional about it either. People who couldn’t stand the joy and glitter of Rave and “happy” genres found great enjoyment in the edgy techno vibes of Darkside.
Darkside is likely responsible for the start of the “Junglist” community. We see a bigger genre arching over these early categories as creators split off from Jungle Ragga and Techno.
Atmospheric Jungle, Jazzstep, and Liquid Funk
Early 90’s, mid-90’s and late 90’s respectively
For the sake of summarization, these three genres are grouped. After all, Jazzstep is basically just an upgrade of Atmospheric Jungle, and Liquid Funk does the same after people got sick of Jazzstep. That said, you can still easily distinguish the three. The mantra is the same though: amen breaks and variations throughout.
Atmospheric Jungle, or Ambient Drum n Bass, was the first indication that you can make high-speed breakbeats and bass into a mellow, introspective sound. It does sound a little silly on paper to be fair, but it’s true. Artists like Sewerslvt still create music like this, categorized by spacey, ambient synthesizers with legato attack and decay, and psychedelic aspects.
Jazzstep was the anticipated next step, and it’s a subgenre home to some pretty clever musicians. For example, Roni Size, Reprazent is a Jazzstep band that doesn’t use any electronic bass or drums. It’s incredible considering the music theory of this genre, which is, naturally, very jazzy. The formlessness of DnB combines with creative melodies and progressions in Jazzstep that are simply delectable.
And after Jazzstep, there was Liquid Funk; basically just the new label for the genre but with more crossover influences. Liquid Funk takes Soul, Deep House, Disco, and R&B into the fold, simply furthering theoretical liberties. It’s a clean slate, but also the culmination of a three-stage approach to calmer, thought-provoking Jungle music.
Techstep, Neurofunk, Pendulum, and Darkstep
Mid 90’s to present
While Atmospheric Jungle became a bridge to calmer styles, the punks from Darkside only got edgier with age. Techstep was the culmination of Darkside’s techno influences, and Neurofunk, Darkstep, and Drumstep are the succeeding legacy. It’s pretty hard to distinguish these four, and it really comes back to drum patterns and mood to do so.
Techstep is supposedly the first genre actually called Drum n Bass. Following in the footsteps of Jumpup, it also adopted more drum loops. One that eventually became a staple of Drumstep as well is the two-step kick, which you can hear in the song above.
Basically this is all that makes Techstep: emotionally objective machine sounds and breakbeats. Nowadays tons more songs fit into these next few categories than Techstep as these aspects developed into darker, negative emotions.
And sure enough, that next step on the spectrum is called Darkstep. A synergy of Darkside basslines with Techstep percussion turned the mechanical core of Drum n Bass into a Terminator of sound. Junglists who dance to this genre exhibit footwork that will put 90% of all House dance squads to shame.
If Techstep was Star Trek, Neurofunk would be the Alien movies. There’s a lot more to the genre, but it’s another gloomy, otherworldly form of Jungle with even darker tonality. Everything that makes Neurofunk is either the aesthetic or the sampling, which is gothic and industrial. Steampunk nerds, cyberpunk lovers, rivetheads and gaspunk dystopia junkies makeup Neurofunk’s existentially dreadful fanbase, and their music is some of the best out there in my opinion.
The Mainstream conclusion: Pendulum
There’s one final common ground between Liquid Funk types and aggressive Darkstep heads though. Most mainstream Drum n Bass falls into this genre, commonly referred to as Nuskool/Nu Jumpup or Pendulum. The main aspects of the sound are the energy and fury of Darkstep, the two-step kick of Jumpup, and a focus on a club or rave setting. MUZZ (formerly Muzzy) is one example of an artist who creates Pendulum music.
There’s other nameless and simply unlisted genres not on this guide, two being Mircostep and Drumstep. The latter is basically a bacon cheeseburger where the patty is Pendulum and the rest is Dubstep. All of the Jungle genres however do appear on our EDM Fresh Drops playlist. Every week we pick out new music, so be on the lookout for any of these styles as they get pushed out by the newest and hottest DJs.
