Anyone around when the Jungle was massive in the UK?

Hi folks, and paging @psg1ben - the Source Direct mix is ready.

Firstly, a bit of background on Source Direct generally if anyone wants to know more.
Source Direct is James (Jim) Baker and Phil Aslett. Mentored by Photek and championed by Goldie, they’re widely regarded as some of the most advanced, progressive and innovative drum and bass artists. Wrongly pigeon-holed as ‘darkside’ producers, which they obviously are and are probably THE very best at it, their more jazz-influenced stuff seems to be overlooked, when again the could be considered the best at that style, too. They released tracks under several different aliases between 1994 and 1999, when they split up. More on that later, but some breakdown on the aliases and releases/collaborations…

Source Direct aliases:

• Oblivion, on Basement sublabel ‘Street Beats’ in 95/96. A couple of 12” that are more on the deep/intelligent side. Think my favourite track here is ‘Night Windows’.

• Intensity/X-Files, on Basement, 95/96. Again, a couple of 12” although these are more of the classic configuration for Source Direct – one side dark and hard, the other deep and lush. Of the four tracks, ‘Intensity’ is probably the standout.

• Hokusai, on Source Direct’s eponymous label, Source Direct Recordings in 96/97. Four 12” releases, all of which following the tried and tested config – one side hard, the other deep. ‘Sculptures Hide’ is the pick from me.

• Source Direct, chronologically on Odysee, Metalheadz, Source Direct, Virgin/Science between 1994-1999. Same typical format where you’d find contrasting styles and sounds per 12”, although some would be both on both sides. Picking a favourite track is impossible and changes all the time, and across all these aliases. If there was a gun to my head, though, and I’m allowed to pick one hard, one deep, I’d recommend ‘The Crane’ and ‘Complexities’.

Jim Baker collaborative aliases: – these are often attributed to Source Direct, but as far as I’m aware, are Jim Baker working with others and don’t involve Phil:

• Sounds of Life, on Certificate 18 in 94/95. A collaboration with Rupert Parkes (aka Photek). Three 12” which are more on the deep side. Astounding releases which are two masters of the craft doing what they do best. ‘Hidden Rooms’ is the track here, although they are all just as good to be honest.

• Mirage, on Odysee in 1995. A collaboration with Tilla Kemal (Odysee label owner). Three 12” which are of the contrasting hard/deep set up. ‘Personal’ my percy – I’m a sucker for the Kid ‘N Play Think break sample.

The short story with Source Direct, depending on the version of events that is out there, is that it is all Jim Baker and Phil was a hanger-oner – it says as much in here:

“I will never work with him again. There’s no point as his contribution to the music was negligible and simply more of a mate (from school days) who ended up helping to buy a few items for the studio with his family support so it was more of a extra pair of hands to help do the mundane things.

“All music creation, programming, mixing, production, engineering and mastering has solely been myself from day one. He used to make a good cup of tea to be fair.”

I’ve never been able to find much of Phil’s perspective, and certainly nothing that directly addresses the sort of claims above. Interestingly, he does seem to lay some claim to involvement with Sounds of Life here and, as I said, there is plenty of attribution to both of them out there, but I’m going off what Discogs says in terms of the aliases above.

Where it all completely fell apart for Source Direct was around the production of ‘Exorcise the Demons’. They, along with Photek and plenty of other artists at that time, had been approached by the A&R men of big labels – in this case EMI with a bespoke sub-label, Science – to capitalise on the underground cool sounds. Of course, that never works and never translates directly and so becomes something else, or in this case, the typical rules of a mainstream label album just forced them to go all-in on the darkside sound they’d become so well known for – which was never going to work with the masses anyway. I have to wonder whether if Exorcise was a more blended affair, things might have been different. I dispute this line in a Fact piece, that it is ‘widely accepted that this album didn’t reach the heights of their single releases’. I’m not sure what measure is being used here and, while I’d agree that the sublime level of a 12” like Complexities/Secret Liaisons is not something Exorcise competes with, that’s more for the reasons I mention above. Besides, ask any DJ’s that play this sort of stuff and they’ll all tell you Exorcise is right up there in terms of output. This Quietus piece (again Jim only) goes into detail on the specific circumstances, but it seems as though the terms of the deal didn’t seem fair to him for some of the contribution aspects mentioned above, and to top it off Phil reneged on tour commitments and that was that. Both carried on for a bit on separate things, but that was the end of it really.

Before the mix, I’d encourage some other background watching.

First this excellent little documentary with them both from the time – a real window into that era’s vibe. I remember well the bomber jackets, Air Max, Armani Jeans, YSL shirts – and plenty of other fashion items that were my aspiration at the time, along with the 3 Series – although I was far too young, a friend’s sister’s boyfriend had a 3 Series convertible and I still remember a few Saturday’s going out in it, even to Wax City in Croydon once!

https://youtu.be/tVnm5cdNcus?si=xTB0TTAOV82zmnJy

Secondly, this ‘Samples of’ series on SD tracks, but you might wanna check that after – no spoilers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIF5HNs5bu8

Onto the mix, this is almost entirely on the dark/hard side. I’ve recently done two other mixes that feature a bunch of the Jazzy releases – Part 1 and Part 2 – so made sense to stick with just the hard stuff to put together a full mix, also got to concentrate heavily on their own label’s output. I picked up all the Hokusai stuff in the past couple of weeks as I realised I actually had none of it, along with the Mirage as that is by far my favoutire of those. I had to start with the epic Concealed Identity intro and, perhaps to my mind, the darkest and most sinister of their tracks, Enemy Lines, for the outro.

One final word – I am not the first to do this – Law (who is also the author of the DrumTrip interviews linked above) has an excellent series of all the above/below and more – fully comp!

Theorie - Sinister, man. [vinyl] – All Source Direct Mix [2024]

Source Direct – Concealed Identity – Science
Hokusai – Sculptures Hide – Source Direct
Source Direct – The Crane – Source Direct
Hokusai – Jade – Source Direct
Source Direct – Snake Style – Source Direct
Hokusai – Red Lights – Source Direct
Hokusai – Divine – Source Direct
Hokusai – 12 til 4 – Source Direct
Mirage – Personal – Odysee
Hokusai – Cold – Source Direct
Hokusai – Black Rose – Source Direct
Source Direct – Capital D – Science
Mirage – Feel My Dreams – Odysee
Source Direct – Enemy Lines – Science