Through a discrete alleyway in central Bristol UK lies a time portal. Walking through the door takes you back 29 years to a time before smart phones, TikTok edits and artists getting 0.00001 pence for a lifetimes work being momentarily streamed before the listener skips distractedly away to another commercially targeted algorithmic trap. This time and place is mid-nineties Bristol England.
This is Jungle/D&B, primarily a photo exhibition that is running for just one week at the Centre Space Gallery is an exhibition into the roots of Jungle Drum and Bass. This “is” the music many of us who habituate this blog love and this exhibition captures the “Big Bang Moment” of energy when the music was something more than just “new”. At this point of time no one knew that we would be enjoying DnB in 30 year’s time, debating the musicality of foghorns or the virtues of an overdriven Mackie desk. Music at this time accelerated away so so fast into the future before we could really appreciate it, thankfully in recent years we’ve seen the resurgence of jungle take a firm grip on modern music and though many of the key players of this time are still working today we can now reflect back on how good it was in 94,5 & 6.
The exhibition has been beautifully curated by three brothers, well known to those that know, Dj Krust, DJ Flynnites and co-author of the Art and Sound Of The Bristol Underground book Gary Thompson. I got to speak to Gary at the gallery a day after listening to his brother Flynn deliver a classy set at Cosie’s that could/should of soundtracked this exhibition but this was about the images not the sound, the clue is in the term gallery. We quickly teleported our conversation back to those early days when positivity and kindness in the club was where it was at. I learnt that this exhibition, put together by Gary through his i46 media company, do check out his insta, is hopefully the first version with something bigger in the future. Gary with a well-regarded career in film making is well placed to helm this project, we can only imagine his exposure to his brothers’ adventures in sound over the years.
Primarily a photo exhibition and it's very much that the photos are the star of the show. Conspicuously there is no music playing which might initially be seen as strange considering it’s focus but you don’t need the music to hear these photos, the hubbub of the streets of Bristol and the sub bass breakbeat punctuation of the tunes rise off the gallery exhibits. A kind of melancholic euphoria covers these walls, moments of joy forever gone but still here thankfully in the archives of black wax, paper and celluloid. Captured , forever young and oh so sharply dressed are the names of those we know well, Roni Size, Krust and Die amongst those that we should perhaps revisit more often Smith and Mighty , More Rockers , Flynn & Flora.
Central to its focus are the influences of Full Cycle Records, Independent Dealers, More Rockers, and the RuffNeck Ting crew, key players who shaped the genre's trajectory. My personal favorite Dope Dragon gets a brief look in too, a wonderful but perhaps overlooked label from this time. An always Bristol centric lens, this is Lakota, Trinity Centre, Blue Mountain, Thekla, not the oft reported Blue Note or Speed, of London. don’t expect anything to escape outside the gravitational pull of the BS1 postcode apart from the photos of the Reprazent crew in New York, but more of that later.
Touchstones of the time are evident throughout the exhibition. The Knowledge magazine front covers, an old rack mount Roland S series sampler, a DAT machine and dusty floppy discs holding unknown treasures. I’m compelled to tell my son, who was half bribed into accompanying me, that this is how you had to do it before Ableton was a glint in Robert Henke’s eye. He nods, a little pityingly ,but I think he kind of gets it that all of this is something very special to his old man.
A picture of a young DJ Dazzee is on one wall amongst a montage of stickers, backstage passes , several flyers mention Ruffneck Ting. An interview I did with Borai on my radio show, one of Bristol’s latest torch carriers of the bass infused bristolian breakbeat sound , paid homage to the importance of Ruffneck Ting and their shop on Park Street. It's importance doubly cemented by it inclusion in this exhibition.
As I was just about to walk out the door I was struck by the holiday snap style photos of the Bristol crew on what must have been a big record label funded trip to the bright lights of America , gazing up at the neon of New York , cigars in mouths and drinks in hand , celebrating life there and then. No way of knowing that 29 years later we’d be looking back at them all with such high regard. Fortunately for us no cigars or flights to New York are needed to celebrate the sound of 95 (ish) jungle drum n bass, just a short walk up an alleyway in Bristol…
John Bass Scoops, July 2024.
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