Description
30th anniversary reissue of DJ Fokus’ deep jungle masterpieces.
Frankly, Doug Shipton’s Fundamental Frequencies are doing God’s work with these reissues for some of peak jungle’s most desired plates. Just months on from the reissue of DJ Fokus ‘Get a Bearing / Dream’, the other release on his short-lived label Suicide Records, ‘Watch Out / Media’ is dusted down, engineered, remastered and newly cut by OG hardcore junglists Pete Parsons (Voyager) and Beau Thomas (Intense) to sound brilliant on 2024 soundsystems.
Both tunes are an apotheosis of jungle’s darkside, hailing a point when precision-tooled engineering was taking over from more manic cut-ups, in the roiling wake of breakbeat hardcore styles forged and rolled out by likes of Rufige Kru, Tom & Jerry and Doc Scott. A-side ‘Watch Out’ is a nervy warning signal arranged from cold FM bell motif recalling ‘Incunabula’-era Æ, cantankerous breakbeat choppage and gorgeous darkside choral pads held in sublimely rude equilibrium for hardcore dancers in motion.
B-side ‘Media’ is more manic and definitely darkside, finessing sounds also found in DJ Hype’s remix of ‘Underworld’ by 2 Bad Mice with more judicious use of space and FX that launches it off double-sprung 808 subs into martial arts dance battle. Both are just sheer fucking class and should be copped without hesitation.
