Label Showcases

R-Hawk Label Showcase #1

As I’ve gone along collecting records, whenever a new Jungle D&B label has started up I’ve often found that I enjoy the first 3 releases as a standard.  Not sure if labels curate their releases this way to make sure they kick the label off with quality, or if it is a coincidence, or if I just subconsciously will myself to enjoy it that way!  Anyway, I’ve been wanting to catalogue some of this aspect of my collection on social media somehow, but I didn’t know quite where to start, as I didn’t necessarily want to do it in a chronological or alphabetical order.   The other day I was reminded of a particular label when I was playing Trainspottle and that has determined where I am going to start.  (I will elaborate on that in a footnote to this post, as it is a bit of a tangent, but worthy of inclusion!)

So the first label release trio is on Piranha Records, a label belonging to Jonny L that he began in 1999.  Jonny L is one of my favourite producers, from very early on (1992 to be precise) but from the mid to late 90s, his output always struck a chord for me as it felt that he stood out from the crowd.  So I always got excited when I saw new material from him.  After his last 2 albums on XL Recordings, Sawtooth in 1997 and Magnetic in 1998 - both of which got critical acclaim and didn’t leave my record bag for months, it was hard to guess in which direction he would go next.  But when Piranha appeared, with The Bells and Raise I wasn’t disappointed.

I’m not great at describing music, unlike some of my peers who do an excellent job of music journalism, but I’ll do my best!  I think that he manages to stamp his own sound on anything he does, even when his sound takes a different direction and these tunes definitely felt different to Sawtooth and Magnetic. With the first 3 releases on Piranha, there is an other worldly feel to them, quite minimal in some respects, lots of strange chord structures, subtle electronic melodies, vocals and fx and moody atmospherics, but always with a hard edge to them; the breaks are hard stepping, nearly 2 step, but with a bit more swing.  These tunes are designed for the dance floor.  When I bought them, I would combine them with stuff on 31, Virus, V, Dread, Ram, Dropping Science, Higher Education, Metalheadz - the kind of Drum & Bass that was prevalent at the time; but even amongst all of those label titans they felt like they stood out from the crowd and still do.

I’ve done a little mini-mix of these 3 records, 6 tunes in total so that you can hear them in all their glory.  T/L Raise / Running / Change / The Bells / Selecta / Spike

So, as I said earlier, the tangential genesis of this label choice was Trainspottle. For those of you who are not familiar, it is like Heardle, but for Jungle D&B - every day there is a new tune to guess.  And pretty much, in my experience, you either guess it after 1 second, or not at all.  Frustratingly, the site seems to have glitched in recent times and it plays the same songs over and over again.  It has become a running joke in my family that at least once a week, the tune will be Billion Dollar Gravy by London Elektricity (incidentally I only know this tune from this stupid game…).  The other annoying glitch is that it will only let you select the tune from a list, that appears as you gradually type in the artist or track name; but quite often the tune that is playing is not one that appears so you cannot choose it and therefore you lose!  On this one occasion, after the first drum hit, I said “It’s Jonny L - Selecta” but the list only offered Piper, or Hurt You So.  Very frustrating, when you have to skip through to be told it is exactly what you have said it is from the first go.  So you don’t get the little computer generated message telling you how great you are for guessing after one second. It is like being cheated out of dopamine.  Anyway, that’s what made me think of choosing Piranha.

R-Hawk Label Showcase #1 - Piranha Records

R Hawk Label Showcase #2

This time, taking it back to one of the most bountiful years for jungle - 1994 - and one of the best producers in the genre - Dillinja - with his label Logic Productions.  This time, there are only 3 releases on the label, although there is a 4th track licenced from Logic Productions that appeared on Drum & Bass Selection, ‘Baby Your’ that unfortunately never got a standalone release.  

My attention for this label started off when I heard a (now infamous) DJ set by Randall at AWOL in May 1994 https://youtu.be/A2bckbM0SLA?si=gYNrl3Mhhzq5QVZe.  That was still in the days when I was hearing most new music from mixtapes or recordings from raves and one of our friends, who lived near London, had a copy of this Randall and MC GQ set.  We listened to it over and over again and in particular, I was taken by one mellower track, that had a “Deep, deep, love” female vocal sample in it.  When we were collecting records back then, there was no internet, if you weren’t near a big city - there was no pirate radio; and while there were DJ magazines, they didn’t really tell you where to go and when, in order to find what you wanted - and they certainly didn’t come with audio clips; so really, it was down to being in the right record shop at the right time and selecting records out of the racks to listen to.  I was in Replay Records in Bath, at some point in 1994 (wish I could remember exactly when) and I pulled out a load of stuff to listen to; imagine my excitement when one of them was Dillinja - Deep Love and straight away I knew it was the same track off the Randall mix tape.  I have played this record so many times in the last nearly 30 years and it never gets old.  I picked up the 3rd release later in 1994, also from Replay in Bath and the 2nd release from W Sounds in Warminster from a 2nd hand collection a couple of years later. 

These are all sophisticated jungle drum & bass tracks, they sounded very advanced for the time and definitely some of Dillinja’s finest work. I love how they are not all tear out tunes, but a mixture of styles. I had a couple of goes at this mini-mix, as I soon realised how tricky it was getting the different keys to work together in the mix and blend; but I think I got there in the end! Hope you enjoy…

Deep Love
Warrior
Moods
You Don’t Know Remix
You Don’t Know
Heavenly Bass

Label Showcases

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