@EDJBLOG~ Everyday #Junglist - Tim Reaper's #Jungle Book // Chaper Fifty Three - #DNB

For anyone who remembers listening to the LTJ Bukem & MC Conrad mix on Promised Land Volume One, this tune may ring a bell, as it’s the first tune of the mix. For it to be a first tune for LTJ Bukem means that it had to have had a spectacular intro, much more so than the rest and it had to signal what was to come in the set. This track has no trouble doing that, striking a sense of euphoria in all who listen, with those airy & uplifting pads & strings on the intro, starting off the journey to be. But no, that’s not enough, because as the intro goes on, it builds and it builds, with more musical elements coming in, keeping the rush going up until the drums come in, rolling it out nicely, setting up for the bassline to sneak in well and the tune strips down to a simple but effective combination of hotpants/soul pride and 808. But a bit of background information on Fokus, it was a guy named Paul Stokes, who had the legendary Voyager on engineering duties on all of his tracks, forming a producer/engineer duo (similar in way to how Goldie does it with Rufige Kru) who had a long run of solid releases, before like many others, disappearing from the scene entirely. But at least the memory lives on still, with his/their tunes still getting played & appreciated by enthusiasts like you & me.


Keeping up the chilled mood of this week’s edition, I chose this track by one of the top atmospheric jungle producers of the time, Nookie, of Good Looking fame. As well as being Ray Keith’s engineer for his darker jungle, more suited for the dancefloor, Nookie had his own thing going outside that, which was a much more musical & melodic type of jungle/drum & bass. From his earlier tunes like Gonna Be Alright (under his Cloud 9 alias) to tunes like Celebrate Life, The Italian Job, Only You and A Drum, A Bass & A Piano, he’s always been a man to try and inject some musicality into his beats. So, onto this tune, you may recognise it from one of the One In The Jungle shows on Radio 1, particularly the episode with Mowgli, Peshay & LTJ Bukem, playing some of the deepest beats of the time and of course, this one had to make an appearance. It starts off with some very oddly filtered pianos, later accompanied with some quite fast paced soul pride & think breaks, but as the pianos filter out and the pads come in with the bass, it begins to make more sense as a tune, rolling out nicely. The icing on the cake is this tune is that oh so soulful male vocal though, that I’ve been desperately trying to ID but to no avail. It works so well on top of the drums running it out with that pounding bass and floating pads, this tune is just groin grabbingly (Ed: lol) good (ttkk).