VA - Junglist! Old Skool Ragga, D&B, Jungle 1993-95 (2026) {CD-Rip}

No messing with this massive jungle retrospective revolving rare-as-chuff Bizzy B & TDK and stone cold classic cuts from Krome & Time to Top Cat, DJ Rap and Lemon D up in it

As it says on the tin, ‘JUNGLIST! Old Skool Ragga, D&B, Jungle’ leans to Soul Jazz’s deep reggae-dub-dancehall roots with a treasurable haul of ’93-’95 joints covering the rapid evolution from hardcore to jungle and the seeds of D&B to come. It spotlights a countrywide phenomena never to be repeated at such scale, pulling up artists who would become household names for a brief window of time.

It’s super strong on the old skool heroes, namely M-Beat’s strongback steppers ’Surrender’ and ‘Rumble’, the sizzling dark/light rushes of Krome & Time’s Ruffneck Scouts’, and Bizzy B with the baddest cuts of Amen breakage in a ‘Big Things’ that now trades from upwards of £250, 2nd hand, and his cantankerous ‘Dub Select’, plus the needlepoint step sequencing of Valve legend Lemon D on ‘Jah Love’.

The set’s other strength lies in its rude focus on the contemporaneous JA ragga ingredients that underlined and spurred the sound, as in Just Jungle’s jump-up job on Cutty Ranks’ ‘Original Ranks’, thru the half/double-timed lash of ‘Squeeze’ by DJ Vern & DJ Ash, and wicked ramps of Redrose’s ‘Tempo’, Dub Hustler’s G-force warping of Top Cat, and a huge New Blood Crew chop of Josey wales, Beenie Man, and Ini Kamoze’s burial tune ‘Build Me 3 Coffins’.