Here come the drums

GFT here. This is a big post for me. Legend Records is my number one favourite jungle label of all time, so it is a somewhat daunting task to do justice to it. And so the mix has proven! It took me literally months of effort, chipping away at it week after week. Is this how GRRM feels slogging through new chapters of A Song of Ice and Fire? Call it the Legend Records Knot, or some such. Fuck me I’m nerdy…

Legend Records was founded in 1993 by the Oxfordshire trio of DJ Gwange, Spinback and Q Project, and continued to release until 1996. Legend is one of the defining labels of the so-called ‘intelligent jungle’ sound of the mid-90s, although I can’t be the only one who has always hated that term. In effect (lol), the bulk of the label’s output can be summarised as deep, rolling jungle tunes, predominantly featuring that classic and simple combination of big subs, hypnotising breaks, and spacey, ethereal pads and strings.

If LTJ Bukem perfected the formula on masterpieces like Music, or Horizons, then the Legend crew can certainly lay claim to their own defining classics in the same space with the likes of Airtight, Motionless, or Deep Concentration. Add to that several more hard-edged, but no less impactful darkside excursions like In Effect, Champion Sound, and Adrenalin and you can see why Legend is just plain sex for jungle lovers.

Legend wound up shortly after DJ Gwange quit the label in ’94/’95. Spinback and Q Project went on to even greater success as Total Science with too many releases to possibly list on Timeless, Metalheadz, their own label C.I.A, and many others, and are still putting out tracks to this day. Here’s a short excerpt from a RollDaBeats thread, with jungle old-skooler The Invisible Man chiming in on his associations with the running of Legend, and engineering many of its notable tracks:

“With Legend Records it was often Gwange and myself who would do a lot of the general running around to distro’s and cutting houses as I already knew the industry from having several releases under my belt, and besides we were ones with transport.. however sometime during 94 both myself and Simon had to go AWOL for a while – him for personal reasons, and me ’cause I had quite literally burnt myself out.. no, not too many drugs.. – more from doing too many tunes and not sleeping or eating properly etc. mind you, working with Quiff and Smithy is quite possibly enough to give anyone a nervous breakdown… 😉 the speech from my tune “The End” seemed to have become a freaky prophecy.. very spooky. It was at that point that I let Brillo (who used to work at Vinyl Distribution in Reading) take over my Timeless label and DJ Hood went on to finance a small studio setup for Quiff and Smithy so they could continue Legend Records without me, the last track I did with them was LEG-013 – by this point they had both spent a lot of time with me and had a pretty good idea of how to go about things, so after a short stop gap to re-assess the situation and learn the equipment they continued Legend for a few releases and finally wound it up at release number 16.”

There are so many great tunes on here it’s difficult to know where to start. Some of the early standouts are the aforementioned darkside efforts In Effect, and Champion Sound. Champion Sound in particular is a classic that has been remixed many times through the years although the Alliance Remix is probably the most famous. Adrenalin is a huge, pulsing monster of a tune. It has an ominous-sounding synth breakdown near the end that gets me every time. Deep Concentration is another standout with its spine-tingling intro into the drop. And Airtight, again, is an atmospheric classic – an epic tune that builds and builds towards a blissed-out pads breakdown before dropping back in with booming subs. Too many to choose from.

If you’re looking to track these records down on wax you had better hurry as a lot of the early releases on Legend are seemingly becoming hard to come by/expensive. Not surprising given the quality of the tuneage, but still.

Tracklist

Q Project & Spinback – Sinister Connection
> Q Project – Impact (Mix 2)
Spinback & Windmill – In Effect
Q Project – It’s Time
DJ Gwange – New Creation
Q Project – Night Moves
Q Project & Spinback – Lively Connection
DJ Gwange – Motionless
Gwange & Spinback – The Execution
Q Project – Champion Sound
Q Project – Champion Sound (Aliiance Remix)
Simon Bassline Smith – Mine
DJ Gwange – Vinyl Paradise (Remix)
DJ Gwange – Vinyl Paradise
Q Project – Beyond This World
Q Project & Spinback – Bongos
Simon Bassline Smith – Distinction
DJ Gwange – Adrenalin
> Spinback & Windmill – Divine Inspiration
DJ Gwange – New Creation (Remix)
Q Project – Deep Concentration
Q Project – Night Moves (Alliance Remix)
Lee and Gwange – 2 Deep
The Alliance – Virtual Heaven
Spinback – In Effect (Remix)
> Q Project & Spinback – Mellow Riff
Lee and Tango – Solutions
DJ Gwange – Adrenalin (Tango Remix)
> The Funky Technicians – You Gotta Believe
The Invisible Man – Skyliner (95 VIP Rmx)
The Funky Technicians – On The Case
Moul’e & Lucida – Aquarium
Spinback & Q Project – Riker’s Island (On The Run Mix)
> DJ Windmill- Out of Mind (Original Mix)
Q Project – Champion Sound (Doc Scott Remix)
Q Project – Guitar Thing
The Funky Technicians – Airtight
> The Funky Technicians – Airtight Remix
Moul’e & Lucida – City In The Clouds
Spinback and Gwange – Open Mind
The Funky Technicians – No Mystery
Spinback & Q Project – Riker’s Island (Dream Mix)
Magnetics – Breakthrough
> The Funky Technicians – Outland
The Funky Technicians – Puerto Rico
The Funky Technicians – Sound Track
Magnetics – Ultrasonic
Q Project – Freestyle Fanatic
> DJ Windmill – Skunk Funk
The Invisible Man – Beginning (Inner Space Remix)
> Q Project – Champion Sound (95 Unofficial Bootleg)

Bonus features

• Q Project & Spinback – CODE001 – The first release on Legend is interesting as it bears the CODE001 cat number, as opposed to the LEG cat numbers that subsequently followed. The tracks themselves are all excellent and definitely set a high standard for the label from the outset. Sinister Connection is another candidate for my favourite tune on Legend. If anyone knows where the spoken sample at the beginning is from please inform me! “There must be a place in all creation…”
• CODE001/Alliance Remixes – The ever-excellent old-skool revival label Sublogic Recordings put this release out in 2009, repressing 2 tracks from CODE001 as well as two unreleased mixes of New Creation and Vinyl Paradise. It is a true marvel of modern music fandom that stuff like this can still be brought to light!
• Code-001 Records – this being the Legend Records sub-label that put out three releases in its brief run. All tracks from these are in the mix. I must say that all three 12″s are absolutely brilliant… these include Aquarium/City in the Clouds by atmospheric jungle duo Moul’e & Lucida. Both tracks are of very high quality and if you’ve heard their other stuff on Timeless, these are just as good. In fact there is an excellent article on this duo up on GodIsNoLongerADJ… check it out. The second release features remixes of Invisible Man tracks – the Top Buzz remix of Skyliner and the Inner Space remix of The Beginning. Both are top ’95 jungle efforts that still get plays from me. And the third release is Breakthrough / Ultrasonic by Magnetics, on whom I could not find any info – this is their only release ever (EDIT – JJ from DeepInsideTheOldskool reckons this is a Funky Technicians release). Basically, the story on this one is that this is a £1 record which should be £20. I love both of these tunes so much.
• Sublogic Dubplate Vol. 4 – Sublogic Recordings again, this time with a from-scratch recreation/edit of a bootleg remix of Q Project’s mega-anthem Champion Sound… the bootleg itself only ever appeared on some obscure (or not so obscure?) jungle mixtape. Think for a second about just how awesome that concept is 😉 The track itself is insanely pitched up which actually came in quite handy because The Beginning Remix is something like 175bpm and I desperately needed something to mix it with.
• Q Project – Freestyle Fanatic EP – Very early release by Q Project from 1992, potentially even his first? I’ve mixed in Freestyle Fanatic as well as Impact (Mix 2) into proceedings, because it’s fun to mix things in.
• DJ Windmill – Out of Mind EP – the mysterious DJ Windmill has only two releases credited to him, the first being Divine Inspiration which is the flip to In Effect (LEG002). Divine Inspiration must be one of the most grimy tunes put out on Legend, I can never tolerate it for long and mix out as quickly as possible (your mileage may vary). Nonetheless DJ Windmill’s other credit is this more old-skool sounding 1993 release on Paradox Records. Two of these tracks are in the mix.
• Q Project – Guitar Thing – yeah, so in 2018 (!) this ‘long lost only ever on dubplate’ track finally came out on the Modern Urban Jazz label. Digging for unreleased old jungle tunes is so hot right now. Originally circulating in ’94, it’s yet more brilliant work from Q Project on the jazzier end of the Legend canon. Btw, it’s hard work for me to get these new tunes into this mix, so labels, not too many more of these please. I’ll buy them anyway but a man can rant.

So let’s go… every single tune ever released on Legend, plus its sub-label Code-001, and some other relevant bits and pieces. 100% crusty vinyls, if that’s something anyone still cares about. Enjoy!

Download MP3 320kbps 138mins

GFT here.

I’ve been spending a ton of time in Bristol lately, so I thought why not mine the rich history of the Bristol dnb scene for a post on the blog. Bristol has been a thriving hub for jungle/drum and bass music since the early 90s when artists like Roni Size, Krust, Suv and Die put the city on the map. Although this core would later form its own influential imprints Full Cycle Records and Dope Dragon, Bryan Gee and Jumping Jack Frost’s legendary V Recordings was also an early outlet for the Bristol sound. The mighty Philly Blunt Records was one of several V Recordings sub-labels at the time, and took a distinctly more junglistic approach to matters than the more progressive style of V and Full Cycle.

Before Philly Blunt was resurrected in the late 2000s, its output on its original run from 1994 through to 1997 features a ton of instantly recognisable dancefloor ragga anthems. This four year period is what I’m focussing on in this post. For those interested in something more contemporary though, Philly Blunt is absolutely still going strong… check them out here. You could even buy this awesome MUG. Slipmats too, damn!

But back to the OG…

Leviticus – Burial, is probably the most well-known tune in the Philly Blunt old-school run. With its memorable “Big, bad and heavy” lyrics sampled from Jigsy King and Tony Curtis’ My Sound A Murder, Burial is one of those classic, rinsed jungle anthems that appears on almost every retrospective mix. What the f*ck are the lyrics after “It’s a wonder…” though? “You came from Malta”??? Eternal mystery… somebody please help!

Burial aside, the oft-remixed, Sleng Teng bassline-sampling Warning is another big track. It’s not one of my favourites but people still play it out fairly often. Roni Size’s 1995 classic Bonanza Kid is probably my own personal highlight. It reminds me of a lot of 97-98 tunes with its slightly warpy No Reality-style bassline. I still drop this in for fun quite regularly.

If it’s amen workouts you’re after then the man himself Dillinja dropped four of his best ever heavy jungle tunes on Philly Blunt… Motherf*cker, Sky, I Selassi I, and the epic Gangsta. Sky, in particular, features some of the most carefully constructed and intricate break-work Dillinja has ever done. Its stuttering, drastically panned intro is mesmerising.

The bulk of the rest of the tunes, tracks like Bass Switch, Check Da Skills, Who Is It, The Only One, et al are in that distinctively sparse, minimal, steppy style synonymous with the Bristol sound and V Recordings at the time. They’re somewhat divisive in that many seem to find them pretty dull, looping the same bassline and break for seven minutes on end. I quite like them. There’s nothing to say that a DJ must roll out the whole tune every time, but whatever.

In summary, Philly Blunt is a jungle label well worth picking up. With the possible exceptions of Gangsta, Bonanza Kid, and The Only One, the records are not particularly difficult to get a hold of either, so you’ve got no excuse. Massive respect and big ups to Bryan G, Jumping Jack Frost and all of the artists involved.

Various aliases are as follows:

• Firefox / Roni Size
• Glamour Gold / Krust
• Survivor / Suv
• 4-Tree / Carl Williams (Roni Size’s brother)
• Leviticus / Jumping Jack Frost
• Trinity / Dillinja
• London’s Most Wanted / The Tearing Terrorist / Ray Keith
• Yolanda / Jumping Jack Frost’s sister
• Guyver / DJ Stretch and Dego (of 4Hero)
• London Sumting / DJ Stretch

Tracklist

> Firefox & Survivor – Warning (Radio Edit)
Dillinja – Sky
> Firefox & 4-Tree – Warning (Guyver’s Rollin Mix)
London’s Most Wanted – Girls Dem Want It (Original Mix)
Dillinja – Mutha*ucka
> Firefox – Buck Rogers
Leviticus – Burial – Chronic 3 (Combination Mix)
Firefox & 4-Tree – Warning (London Sumting Mix)
Trinity – Gangster (Glamour Gold Remix)
Glamour Gold – You Can Run
> Firefox – Bonanza Kid
Firefox & Survivor – Who Is It
> Leviticus – Burial – Chronic 4 (The Tearing Terrorist Mix)
Glamour Gold – The Only One (Mix 1)
Firefox & 4-Tree – Warning (Final Lick) (Bryan G remix)
> Glamour Gold – The Only One (Mix 2)
Trinity – I Selassie I (Artical Mix)
> Dillinja – Mutha*ucka (Fire Fox Re-Lick)
Glamour Gold – Now I Got To Show You
Firefox & Survivor – Back Out of Dis
Firefox & 4-Tree – Warning (Powder Mix)
Firefox & Glamour Gold- Check Da Skills
Leviticus – Burial – Chronic 1 (Lovers Rock Mix)
> Firefox – Bonzna Kid
Leviticus – Burial – Chronic 2 (Madamoselle Mix)
Trinity – Gangsta (O J Mix)
> Firefox & 4-Tree – Warning (Roni Size Mix)
Firefox & Glamour Gold – Bass-Switch
London’s Most Wanted – Girls Dem Want It (Re-Lick Mix)
> Firefox & Survivor – Turbulence

Bonus Features

• Firefox and Survivor – Turbulence – as far as I can determine, did not see a vinyl release. It appears only as a b-side on the Who Is It CD single. Odd, considering the track itself is really good. It’s probably the deepest roller in the entire Philly Blunt back catalogue. The same CD also features a cut down radio edit of Warning, so I had to use this too… the first few seconds of the mix comes from this edit.
• Glamour Gold/Krust – The Only One – only made it as far as promo on Philly Blunt before sample clearance issues shut that idea down pretty quick. It was subsequently released anonymously as the only ever release on Rap Records, with the PB010 cat # scratched out. Shit like this is something I really miss about the old school vinyl era 😥

The Mix

Enjoy! Every tune on Philly Blunt up until PB010 in 1997. All vinyl, aside from the digital only tracks on the Who Is It CD.

Download MP3 320kbps 47mins