They recall everything your parents' generation were excited by in soul and frame it all in the contemporary context of DIY, tracksuit culture and pimped out ghetto while extracting nearly all of the electronica employed later by disco and even their contemporaries like Metronomy. Instead JUNGLE lay bare vocals that beckon listeners out of their hardened shells, 'til they might forget they are just urban rats struggling to survive. Suddenly the listener is both soaring and walking on the pavement at the same time. Check out Drops if you're still skeptical. And what we mistook for arrogance turns out to be a really homegrown self assurance, that is not confrontational. In fact there's a humility in Jungle's videos, real humour, mock arrogance, eye candy, delicious design and style. This below and Platoon are masterpieces featuring dance routines that are worthy of comparison to Fat Boy Slim's Weapon of Choice, delivered by arch-interpreter Christopher Walken.
We thought we'd hate it, the way it was presented by one platform, but looking across them all and hearing the tracks themselves we realise, as JUNGLE might themselves sing, we're in LURVE.
