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The beast of
2003
By Vivian Host
I HAVE LOST and
found a lot of old cassette tapes in the past six months, mainly
because my car has been broken into four times. Every time my neighborhood
drug fiends jimmy open the door on my 1993 Honda Accord, they steal
boxes of address labels and votive candles from Pier 1 but seem
to have no interest in my dubbed and redubbed rave tapes. Thanks
to diligent thieves digging out the trash from underneath my car
seats, I once again drive at warp speed to DJ Vitamin D's 1992 head-fuck
breakbeat hardcore, the chunky bass lines of an MC-filled 1996 set
from now defunct British pirate radio station Pressure FM, and ragga
madness streamed live from mid-'90s London's most infamous jungle
club, AWOL, a name that stood for A Way of Life.
For years and years jungle
has been a way of life for me, and the scene has come full circle
this year. In 2003, producers from all genres tried to take drum
'n' bass back to the raw, rugged sound from which it was born. Belfast's
Calibre, with his bone-rattling dub influences, and Full Cycle DJs
Krust and Die, with their bouncy bass lines and straightforward
club tracks, probably did it best, although artists like Twisted
Individual, Hazard, and even left-field IDM types like S.K.-1 and
Knifehandchop put in a good show.
One of the things I'm
reminded of when I listen to drum 'n' bass – even now, in its
incredibly smoothed-out and sometimes overproduced incarnations
– is how it introduced me to so many other things. I may have
never liked 4/4 beats if not for tracing jungle's roots back to
the late '80s acid house that many of the game's top producers were
influenced by as young ravers. In 1996, jump-up jungle gave me a
new respect for Mobb Deep – possibly one of the most sampled
acts in the genre. Before that, ragga jungle immersed me deep in
the world of dancehall vocalists like Beenie Man and Bounty Killer,
whose gun talk was more rugged and raw than N.W.A.
Although ragga jungle
doesn't really get made much anymore, I'm still into dancehall.
Last night I went to see one of its top vocalists, Elephant Man,
who is on the verge of blowing up in the American urban market the
way Sean Paul did at the start of this year. Elephant Man is no
Sean Paul: he's way more left field and way more interesting and
way more Jamaican. I worry American audiences won't fall for Ele,
with his bright yellow and red hair and homophobic lyrics and habit
of referring to his penis as the Anaconda. They'll be missing out.
Elephant Man's live show
was arguably the most entertaining thing I've seen all year. It
had everything going against it: two horrible opening bands, a church
basement as a venue, overpriced Hypnotiq shots, and Elephant Man
going on nearly two hours late. But they don't call Elephant the
Energy God for nothing. The man was on fire. He played all his ruffneck
dancehall anthems – "Log On," "Bad Man a Bad
Man," "Shizzle My Nizzle" – while begging the
crowd to run around like crazy and tear up the place, punk rock
style. The highlight of the show was Elephant Man and his crew performing
their own signature dances, including Row Di Boat, Signal Di Plane,
the Shelly Belly, the On Line, the Get out My Face, and one that
involved a motion not unlike picking up a giant boulder and dropping
it on your own face. No, wait, here's the best part: his dance instructor
is a twentysomething Japanese girl named Keeva who beat out a gaggle
of Jamaican women to win the Dancehall Queen title in 2002.
Elephant Man reminds
me of what I liked about music in 2003. It didn't matter if it was
pop, mainstream, or somewhere in between – the CDs I wore out
belonged to artists with personality and a sense of humor, whether
that meant a rock band that listened to new jack swing on the tour
bus, a rapper who rejoiced in the crackling of his teenage voice,
or a crazy Jamaican who genuinely thought it would be cool to do
a dancehall cover of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger."
Top 10
1. Psychonauts,
Songs for Creatures (International Deejay Gigolos)
2. T. Raumschmiere
and Miss Kittin, "The Game Is Not Over" (Mute)
3. Krust, Die,
and MC Tali at Milk, Aug. 10
4. Lotek Hi-Fi,
"Percolator" (Big Dada)
5. Michael Mayer
and the Kompakt label
6. Anything by
Legowelt
7. Brown Dash,
"Puff 'N Pass" (Ghetto Ruff)
8. Dominoes at
Crucial, Wednesday nights at Nickie's BBQ
9. Junior Sanchez's
Cube Records label
10. Les Savy Fav
live, anywhere anytime
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last month's noise.
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