#jungalist

Jungle’s dead? f*** that Jungle is massive and Jungle Jam are very much at the forefront of the revival. Returning to Leeds after a 2 month absence that was sorely felt by anyone with a good taste in music this was a veritable orgy of heavy bass-lines and just general audio filth. Once again the Jungle Jam organizers absolutely smashed it with the line-up, I mean seriously Hazard, Annix, Kenny Ken and Mc Navigator, Brockie and Det, Nicky Blackmarket, Marvellous Cain and Run Tingz Crew all on the same billing? Errr yes please. From start to finish this night absolutely murked it, room 1 was so Ludacris it would turn its back on a career in hip hop to record a song with Justin Bieber where it would rhyme the words star struck and Starbucks. Basically if you imagine something as face slappingly brilliant as Justin Bieber is awful then your approaching the level of bad-assery that this night entailed. The ridiculous line up was greeted properly by a crowd of no nonsense jungalist ravers. Check the photo below this paragraph and house music take note, this is how you react to good music: Screwfaces, dub fingers, general screaming and just uncontrollable skank hands. I mean seriously is that guy in the LA flat cap ok? Jungle Jam captioned it perfectly “Here's a photo to sum up Friday night and to be honest every Jungle Jam that there has ever been!” That photo sums up everything Jungle Jam is about better than this review ever could.

Dj Hazard headlined room 1 with an exclusive playaz knockout set. Translation: he dropped the sort of set that came so hard it could kill a bear with its bear hands. Just so were clear there I mean that in the sense that the set was so heavy it would have already killed a bear previously and whilst wearing the hands of aforementioned deceased bear as gloves it would kill another bear with those bear hands. I have a huge amount of respect for Hazard, he’s been about so long and has so many ridiculous bangers in his back catalogue that he could easily get away with dropping essentially an ipod playlist of his biggest tracks with minimal mixing. Does he though? Hell no! The man looks like a Jungalist Vishnu on decks as he slices and dices through more samples than Erick Pickles at an all you can eat buffet. He’s also a big fan of goading the crowd into recognizing one of his more famous tunes and just before it drops switching it to another track. The dun dun de de of ‘Mr Happy’ got dropped a couple of times before something like the Sub Zero remix of ‘We Came To Entertain’ would kick in and cause mayhem on the dance floor. Annix (Decimal Bass and Konichi) carried on where Hazard finished with some heavy tearing sub lines. They worked well off each other and managed to keep a slick unity to their set which is always difficult when dealing with more than one DJ’s input. They brought some darker slow reverb heavy basslines to the night whilst maintaining a sliced up amen break drumline to keep the jungle vibe going. A moment of filth that I think sums up their set perfectly was a heavy remix of Brockie and Ed Solo’s ‘sleeping giant’ that morphed into ‘Ghetto Blaster.’