The Best Drum and Bass Tracks of the '90s
Jungle became drum and bass partway through the '90s and nobody wrote the date down, so rank the tracks that got it there. Getting in is the hard part. Tiers are coarse. A qualifier came out 1990 to 1999, sits in the jungle and drum and bass lineage, not breakbeat hardcore, rave or drill'n'bass, and is one recording, not a mix cut or suite. A record that could be called either runs its bass at half the drums' rate, not on the kick. More records die on the link than anywhere else: the id sits on a '90s release, not a later compilation, remaster or best of. It loses Terminator, Renegade Snares, Shadow Boxing, Bukem's Music. One track per artist, aliases included. Printed years are original, not Spotify's. Naming comes off four lists from three mastheads: Time Out's twenty, Dummy's eleven, and Mixmag's two, scoped to 1994-1996 and 1997-1999. The periods do not overlap, so nothing reaches all four; each entry prints its denominator. One naming puts a record in the upper group; those admitted with none make the second.
Dillinja — The Angels Fell (1995) is #1 on “The Best Drum and Bass Tracks of the '90s”.
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Dillinja — The Angels Fell (1995)
Two of the three a 1995 record could reach name 'The Angels Fell', and no other track is named twice anywhere across the four. Dillinja's Metalheadz twelve inch from 1995 is a held string chord, a bassline dropping an octave underneath it, breaks chopped until they sound like gravel. Spotify spells the artist Dilinja on the track page and Dillinja on the release.
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Shy FX & UK Apache — Original Nuttah (1994)
Time Out's twenty carries 'Original Nuttah'. Three lists were open to 1994 and the other two passed. UK Apache toasts across the whole record while the break behind him keeps rearranging itself. Two traps wait on Spotify: a cover credited as originally performed by Shy Fx and Uk Apache, and a 2019 rework. The link resolves to the 1994 single.
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Origin Unknown — Valley of the Shadows (1993)
Origin Unknown cut 'Valley of the Shadows' for RAM in 1993, breaks around 170 with the bassline moving at half that rate, and the sampled line about a long dark tunnel is why people call it 31 Seconds. Both Mixmag features are shut to 1993, so the denominator is two, and Time Out supplies the one. Spotify stamps the RAM single 1996.
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Deep Blue — The Helicopter Tune (1993)
Named on Time Out and nowhere else, 'The Helicopter Tune' is the one where the break does a rotor impression, a stuttered edit with the bass moving at half the drum rate. Neither Mixmag list reaches back to 1993, so one from two. Moving Shadow issued it in 1993; Spotify's copy is the label's 1994 twelve inch with remixes from Rufige Kru and 2 Bad Mice.
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Peshay — Psychosis (1994)
Mixmag's mid-90s twelve picked 'Psychosis', one hit from a possible three. Peshay's single runs eight minutes forty two, Rhodes chords and soft pads on top, breaks left dry underneath them. This is the atmospheric wing of the music, chords first and drums second. One track on the release, no version suffix on the id.
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Roni Size & Reprazent — Brown Paper Bag (1997)
Roni Size wrote 'Brown Paper Bag' around an upright bass figure, with a drum part that keeps moving the accent so the loop never settles. It appears on Mixmag's late-90s twelve and on neither of the other two a 1997 record could have had, so one from three. New Forms took the 1997 Mercury Prize. Spotify's New Forms is a thirteen track edition.
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Goldie — Inner City Life (1994)
Nothing for 'Inner City Life' from the three that could have had it; Time Out picked Goldie's 'Terminator' instead. Diane Charlemagne sings over timestretched breaks and a string arrangement that keeps refusing to resolve. London Records, 1994. The id points at the seven minute version, not the radio edit, and both are live on Spotify.
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Photek — Modus Operandi (1997)
Photek is named on three of these lists under three different titles, and 'Modus Operandi' is not among them, which is zero from three. Rupert Parkes programs percussion the way a draughtsman works, tiny hits placed against silence. The title track of the 1997 debut album is where that method is clearest. Virgin pressed ten tracks and the id comes off that pressing.
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Alex Reece — Pulp Fiction (1995)
Mixmag went for Alex Reece's earlier 'Kudos', made with DJ Pulse, so 'Pulp Fiction' takes nothing from three. The 1995 single is where the snare stops being a chopped break and turns into a two step figure with the kick left out of the middle. Six minutes twelve, and the link avoids the 2015 remaster and the Lynx edit.
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DJ Zinc — Super Sharp Shooter (1995)
Zinc's 1995 record is jump up doing what jump up does: a hook you can shout back and a bassline like a car alarm. 'Super Sharp Shooter' is missing from all three lists that could have taken a 1995 record. Spotify dates the single 1996, a year late, and the release holds one track.
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Ed Rush & Optical — Wormhole (1998)
Bacteria is the Ed Rush and Optical track Mixmag chose, which leaves 'Wormhole' on zero from three. The album arrived on Virus Recordings in November 1998, and the bass on the title track is a distorted synth rather than a sampled one. That is the techstep move. The Spotify album runs eleven tracks; the CD release added a second disc.
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Adam F — Metropolis (1997)
Three lists could have had a 1997 record and none picked 'Metropolis', so zero from three. Adam F built Colours around live drums doubled by programmed ones, and this one bolts a jazz record's harmony onto a jungle rhythm section. Positiva released the album on 3 November 1997. 'Circles' is the better known single, but every Spotify id for it carries a version suffix.
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M-Beat feat. General Levy — Incredible (1994)
Wikipedia records that after General Levy said he was "runnin' jungle", an ad hoc "Committee" of DJs and others influential in the jungle community launched a campaign against the song. Renk released the single in 1994, and all three lists a 1994 record could reach skip it. Spotify's copy sits on the 1996 album Knowledge, which carries a 2009 phonogram line. The gate has no clause that keeps 'Incredible' out, and inventing one now is not the job.
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