Electronic · jungle · 4/4 straight

Jungle (chopped break)

168 bpm
Play it over changesother tunes, key, solo piano or guitar, loop, mixer
16ths

Jungle — early-'90s UK breakbeat music: an Amen-style break sped up to about 168 and re-sequenced, over a sub bass moving at half the speed. Bar 1 here is the break as sampled; bar 2 is a typical chop — the two-kick pair on beat 3 is cut, the early snare moves to the e of 3, and the bar ends in a snare roll that throws you back to the top.

How it sits: the snares on 2 and 4 (backbeat) are the only fixed points; everything between them is rearranged. The sub holds each root for three beats and steps up on beat 4, so the bass breathes at roughly 84 while the drums race at 168. The pad is one held G minor triad; over the E-flat bass in bar 2 the same three notes become E-flat major seventh.

Listen for the two speeds at once — dance to the bass, nod to the drums.

Practice: play the bass line alone against the full-speed loop before adding pads.

Sources

  • standard practice; no transcribed source