Cement Shoes

There have been a number of jungle tunes on my mind lately that I cannot seem to get out of my head. And as the title suggests, these are ’94 tunes typically sampling rare groove/ RnB records. But what is so indescribable about these tracks is that without doing too much to the original sample (it seems just by virtue of programming these samples through clanky 90s hardware) they manage to make the track something so entirely different, euphoric and ‘ardkore.

The first tune is Shy Fx’s ‘Cry’ off his Gangsta Kid EP (his first release I believe) and it samples Jodeci’s ‘I’ll cry’ from 1993. A rather unremarkable original source, Shy Fx opens the track with the sample, speeding the lover’s voices up to the max and then intersperses it with a hardcore ragga sample. Simple but effective. Noticeable is the sort of lo-fi quality of sampling in Shy’s tuuune. It sounds as if it’s been sampled about 3 times over already and he’s ripped it from that. But this adds an indescribable feeling to the tune and elevates it beyond another ‘94 jungle tune which might break out into a rare groove sample halfway through.

Next up is a tune from the absolutely don that is Potential Bad Boy. Personally my favourite producer, he too has a knack for making a great volume of disparate elements come together successfully and elevate the samples being used. Have no fear samples R.K*lly’s ‘Sex Me’. Pitched up and sped up, the sample is backed by an utterly ridiculous combo of breaks, bass and pads. When it breaks out into “I feel soooo free tonight” it takes the tune onto a higher plane. In a strange way, the fact that R.K*lly is such a horrible individual gives the tune a strange edge which makes it all the more ‘ardkore. The euphoria of the first half swiftly breaks into dark and cavernous stabs, blending perfectly that wonderful ‘93 into ‘94 sound. And again, like the Shy tune, there is a quality to this tune indescribable. It sounds as if it’s been ripped from a ‘90s RnB album and flown through 3 generations of sound, creating this lovely blend of nostalgia and futurism. ‘Ardkore Jungle Tekno at its bloody finest.