I didn't mention in the previous hardcore rave post about the relevance of beats-per-minute to the development of the sound. While the house and techno that had previously been soundtracking the early raves was generally at speeds between 120 and 130 bpm, hardcore's emergence was in tandem with an acceleration of tempos across dance-floors. Initially the big anthems from labels like Moving Shadow, Reinforced and Production House were established at around 135 bpm but these eventually crept up further. Those accelated tracks (and the preference to spin other records faster through the use of a turntable's pitch control) will be linked by some critics to the changing nature of drugs on the scene. Specifically the increase of amphetamines. However there are other key influences that spawned an eventual jungle mutation.
The influence of hip hop breaks and the appropriation of the attitude then more closely associated with US rap had drew further attention to rave music as a part of the black diaspora. The discussion of the development of dance music is largely punctuated by a trans-Atlantic exchange between "black" American and "white" European sounds, yet this indigenous British development instead prompted many to look towards those other UK-adopted styles that would - as Cynthia Rose notes in Design After Dark - have also been popular across pirate radio. In the case of reggae, this would have also have reflected the West Indian heritage of some of the scene's DJs and producers [many had previous associations with sound systems]. While this citing of formative influences may have been possible even earlier, the rise in bpms had ensured that hardcore tracks were now twice the speed of reggae records - allowing for the easy use of samples from the culture while avoiding the "chipmunk" effect. So while a track's frenetic rhythm might run at 144bpm, a reggae sample would fit despite only being recorded at half that speed. Additionally the use of heavy sub-bass in hardcore was already hinting at what Steve Goodman discusses in Sonic Warfare as 'dub virology': a low-end and very physical form of aural communication that had its roots in reggae.
Reggae - alongside its dancehall, ragga and dub offspring - is then observed as the key ingredient in the sound defined as 'jungle'. A 'rudeboy' interpretation of the hardcore sound, it not only came to borrow elements from Jamaican records, it prompted collaborations with and remixes of some of its key artists. Initially the term was rejected in some quarters - because of perceived racist connotations - yet, after attempts to establish the alternative 'ragga techno' as the genre of choice, the name stuck.
The use of design was unsubtle in jungle's alligning with its key influence. The names of many of the artists and tracks were already following a tradition of Jamaican music and this appears to inform their visual depictions. The more lo-fi qualities of the work is then more than just about a shared graphic technology (or lack of) but actually appear intent on using this to carry some message of "authenticity".
From the DJ and MC through to the sound system, pirate radio and specialist vendor, jungle used many of the elements associated with reggae. The use of "versions" - where a track would find itself reinterpreted by a number of producers or artists - also appears to have crept into jungle [and we can see this concept manifest later in drum & bass with the repeated rearrangement of archetypal drum breaks such as the 'Amen'].
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