Pearsall's Tunes

It's actually really good isn't it? Better than the Mike Jones, anyways.

Slim Thug ft. Pusha T - Click-Clack - Gangsta stuff, but nice crispy beat with weird anorexic siren sound, gun clicks, crispy percussion, and thumping bass. Niceness.

I'm going to try and update this blog more regularly, as I've fallen off a bit since I got the taste back for hammering out the material on Pearsall's Books. I guess I'll just up a few tunes or maybe a set every day. Sound good?

Here's some old jungle bizness:

DJ Crystl - The Dark Crystal - Darkside epic from 1994. Compared to the space age production clarity of the Slim Thug tune, this sounds positively medieval in comparison. Ah, the speed at which music technology advances. Brooding, melancholy strings (think of the ice cave on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back) over curly Amen breaks and deep sea sub bass and classic 'tempo has reached critical level' robo-chick vocal sample. A simple formula that has been used so many thousands of times, but so fantastic. From the period before junglists completely abandoned e, has that queasy "end of the dream" feel to it. What happened to DJ Crystl anyways? He made some of the all-time greatest 'artcore' tunes, and then he seemed to vanish. It'd be great to see a junglist 'where are they now' article written up by someone.

New Blood - Worries in the Dance - Inescapably classic '94 ragga jungle anthem. I can't even begin to fathom how many times I've heard this tune over the years. On London pirate radio in 1994 when I started to really listen to jungle, this tune was inescapable. Rolling breaks and a collage of ragga-centric samples. Music best heard with your head drilled into a bass cone, but still good through headphones in a Queens living room on a Saturday evening.

Skyscraper - The Difference - This is off a '96 compilation that SOUR put out called 'Nu Skool Flava', which was reasonably cool. I'm pretty sure this tune was by DJ Trace, it certainly sounds like a vintage '96 No U-Turn studios production. Concussive two-step break that switches up ever four bars, a rap sample that sounds like KRS-One saying "I'm the difference between indo and oregano", mid-range digital thrash metal bassline, an entire galaxy of echo, with the odd snatch of strings or strange mechanical sound thrown in to keep it simmering. Simon Reynolds blames this sort of stuff for ruining jungle, and yeah he's right, but God damn was it good while it lasted.