Here’s a little write up for the recent repress of the Rumble In The Jungle compilation from Soul Jazz Records.
Firstly let’s read the promo gubbins they sent with it…
New special 18th edition red vinyl edition of our long out of print Rumble in the Jungle featuring General Levy, M Beat, Barrington Levy, Beenie Man, Ragga Twins …
Calling all Junglists! Murderation! Massive tunes throughout!
Soul Jazz Records’ special new 18th anniversary one-off limited-edition heavyweight special-edition red coloured vinyl pressing (+ download code) exclusively for Record Store Day 2025 of their out of print classic Rumble In The Jungle.
This album is fully remastered, relicensed and with new tracks exclusively for RSD 25.Soul Jazz Records journey in to early 1990s ragga, drum and bass and jungle.
The album features all-time classic jungle anthems such as General Levy’s ‘Incredible’ alongside some serious Ragga heavyweight tunes like Cutty Ranks ‘Limb By Limb’ and Congo Natty’s classic re-make of Barrington Levy’s Under Me Sensi’.
The renowned album tells the story of how Jungle developed out of acid house but with its roots in the UK Dancehall scene of the 1980s and comes with extensive sleevenotes, exclusive interviews and photography.
Tracklist:
- M-Beat Featuring General Levy – Incredible
- Barrington Levy & Beenie Man – Under Mi Sensi (X Project Remix)
- The Ragga Twins – Ragga Trip
- Ninjaman, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man & Ninja Ford – Bad Boy Lick A New Shot (Jungle Bullet)
- The Source – Rude Boy State Of Mind
- Shut Up And Dance – No Doubt
- DJ Massive – Final Conflict
- Asher Senator – One Bible
- Poison Chang – Press The Trigger (Half Breed Remix)
- The Ragga Twins – Illegal Gunshot
- Ben Intellect Featuring Ragga G – Oh Jungle
- Cutty Ranks – Limb By Limb (DJ SS Remix)
- The Ragga Twins – Tan So Back
OK, so looking through the tracks there, you’ve got a couple of stormers (1,2 & 12) in amongst it. Let’s go through and check them each.
We begin with the absolute classic ‘Incredible’, all round jungle anthem combining the M Beat track ‘Style’ with crazy vocals from General Levy. This is Jungle 101 and you are required to have a copy to hand at all times.
Next up jungle royalty Rebel MC makes an appearance under the X Project guise, remixing Barrington Levy & Beenie Man – Under Mi Sensi into an anthem. This was big back in the day and it’s still big now, You Need It.
Ragga Trip is the first cut from the Ragga Twins on this project and in itself its quite a pleasant listen, plenty of vibes. As far as jungle weaponry goes though, nah mate doesn’t cut it. Weak bassline, break is half speed, basically unmixable. You probs won’t put this in your crate.
Next up we have another one of the Greensleeves jungle remixes after X Project, this one uncredited but I can tell you its remixed by DJ Monk. All fairly competent, nice vocals, but it’s a set filler – won’t tear down the place.
I was not familiar with track 5 at all, so after a bit of digging I discovered this was a 1993 release on Slipmatts Awesome Records. After chucking it on, it’s decent but another filler – got most of the right elements (minus an amen and a phat reece) and not displeasingly arranged. However you won’t be dropping this at 3am to re-energise the dancefloor.
Onto the Shut Up & Dance number. Again, its got vibes – not arguing, but also good luck mixing that into a jungle set lol. Not gonna happen.
Side 3 opens with DJ Massive’s amen workout Final Conflict. First release on Conqueror Records back in 95. This one slaps.
Asher Senator turns up with One Bible next. No idea where this hails from, vocal grates me. Perfectly competent but I don’t like it.
Next up Poison Changs Press The Trigger gets the Half Breed remix treatment. Apologies, but this track is weak af. On the LP it’s lifted from (Cutty Ranks Vs Poison Chang – Rumble In The Jungle Volume Two) there are at least 3 other serious tunes they should have used instead, Shot Fe Bust would have been my choice.
Illegal Gunshot has got vibes to burn, definitly one for the summer jams at like 138bpm or whatever it is, you will struggle to mix it in with other Jungle records though.
Ben Intellect Featuring Ragga G come next with a transposition of the classic 007 tune. Another Conqueror records contribution. This is pretty charming to be honest, unsure how the dance will react.
Classic business arrives next, DJ SS storms the gates with the Limb by Limb remix. You should probably get this.
And the final track is another Ragga Twins effort, again vibes heavy and again allot slower than most jungle tunes, lacking the rolling breaks or heavy bass, kinda think it’s on the wrong compilation tbh.
In summary then we’ve got 13 tracks of which 9 had a vaguely positive reception, and 5 were considered worth owning on balance. For me thats not enough to justify the hefty £40 asking price. So to sum up, buy those 5 tunes above which are actual bonafide Jungle and you’ll probs have change from the purchase price of this project. More so if you go buy the digital files…
If you’re after the vinyl try here: Juno Records
6/10
SDM