SAD PENGUIN
By neon liminal on July 1, 2026 5:47 pm
DADDY'S FIRST JUNGLE. Actually first thing I did with breakbeats in a serious way entirely.
This week's post brought to you by the RMR Discord Challenge, of which I am a helper puppy, and June's challenge was Jungle (Jungle June, get it?)
I grew up on jungle, alongside techno and trance, like literally I was in my early teens when the first jungle tracks were appearing out in the wild on the rave scene and underground compilations. It's not in my blood like other genres, but it's got its own set of distinct musical memories for me because there was a real energy of excitement when it first hit and it was pretty awesome.
I love jungle, love listening to it, dancing, and it's unbelievably fun music to make but I'd be lying if I said it was something I felt passionate about making, at least, right now. But - you don't have to be passionate about a genre to make it and give it its due honours, give it the attention it deserves, the deep listen, and put in the work to "do right" by it, and thus it gets no less attention than any music I make.
I knew I wanted to work this on the M8 for the chops and effects, and I got the "vibe" right pretty early on but definitely sensed there were missing parts. When I jump into a genre I usually saturate my brain with it by listening to as much as possible almost constantly, and I gotta admit - this was a challenge to parse. I could hear where the music I was listening to did amazing things that my track was missing, but I couldn't quite define the how.
Which is usually when I bring a track to Jeremy for a lesson, not just to fix the track, but to learn all those things that are missing and get a map for "stuff I don't yet know but can learn". Mostly my issues were with how I was chopping breaks - too many beats 2 and 4, too many 16th notes, not enough 8ths, and a bridge section that couldn't decide if it was a build or a bridge. Also a kick. Also I missed a lot of things in my preoccupation to not make DnB by accident. My sound selection was on point tho!
Anyway, it came out pretty good, though I think it trends towards PS1 racing games a little more than proper jungle.
Any questions, ask away - also, this would be my monthly plug for the RMR Discord (link above), which is a fantastic and diverse community of musicians. Discord access is available at any level of the Patreon (the lowest tier is very affordable), and this keeps the community safe from the open-chaos that "free" discord servers can experience. The people there are invested and welcoming and it's an awesome place to be if you're a musician.
Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike (BY-NC-SA)
although I feel reminded of 2005ish EA Sports soccer games or later rally sims. Love the drums and the pads. The vocals give it some soul. Makes we wanna do something. Great track.