Words and Photos by Canon

When it comes to UK junglists, Darren Jay is one of the most respected and best loved DJs in the business.  He’s been playing major events all around the globe for years as well as lending his DJ talents to countless parties and clubs in his native England.  In addition to his DJ commitments, he also finds time to run his record label, Mecca, which puts out quality hip-hop, R&B, and not to mention some of the best jungle records on the shelves right now.  Among the most recent releases on Mecca is the dancefloor smasher “Style Warz” by L Double.  He is also one of the friendliest people you’d ever want to meet in the drum & bass scene as well totally down to earth and always smiling.  I sat down with Darren in Denver while commuting to Skylab V by Together and Lower World productions to talk about his beginnings in the scene and what motivates him to keep going.

Back in 1987, during the acid house explosion in England, Darren made a quick habit of going out to parties every weekend and “raving off his face.”  “Before acid house,” Darren explains, “clubs were all very posey and pretentious.  Acid house was a breath of fresh air!  It brought a lot of different people together.  People from all different walks of life came together and began dancing together.  People made a move away from pub culture.” Acid house was incredibly influential as it changed a lot of attitudes and laid the initial building blocks for everything still to come, including jungle.

When Darren first became involved with rave culture, he had no intention of becoming a DJ, it was just something that evolved naturally over time through his love of music. All his life he had collected loads of music and eventually became fed up with DJs who just weren’t doing it for him.  “If you realize that you want to be a part of something, you have to grow with it.”  For Darren, this meant an evolution from party-goer to DJ.  He’d been DJing for himself for years, and decided it was time to try his hand at playing for other people.  Luckily, the people liked him and he’s been doing it very successfully ever since.  Most notably as a member of the AWOL crew alongside Randall, Mickey Finn, Kenny Ken, GQ, and Fearless back in ‘95.

By the end of ‘91, the music basically split into 2 paths:  house, and a faster, breakbeat path.  Obviously, Darren opted for the breaks.  “If people were into the vocally, slower tempo stuff, then they stayed with house.  If they were into reggae or hip-hop, then they moved into the breakbeat scene because that’s what the producers were putting in their tunes.”  The breakbeat scene then evolved into jungle and Darren was right there with it as it was happening.

Like rock n’ roll in the 50’s and 60’s, jungle was at first demonized by the mainstream media.  Most music critics had few good things to say about it, and it was often denounced as a musical form.  “It’s the bastard son of house,” Darren says, or as MC 5ive-0 has put it, “It was reject music.” Jungle was soon written off and ignored by the mainstream media, thus allowing it to develop it’s own completely self-sufficient and underground culture outside of the dominant rave scene.  Jungle nurtured itself without help from the media or any outsiders and became a very tight  community.  “This scene is a close-nit thing. It’s about working as a collective.  It’s about working as a team.  Mickey Finn or Hype can have a new track and I’ll get a DAT from them and cut it and play it out that night.  Without one another, you isolate yourself.”  This may explain why some refer to them as the “jungle mafia.”

If you’ve ever had the chance to hear Darren play, it should be very apparent where his tastes lie.  “I like something with a groove to it.  If it’s just mechanical, then you may as well just be listening to hard techno, which, to me, isn’t what the scene’s all about.  A lot of people slagged off people like me who played music with ragga or hip-hop influences, but for me, those are the things that have influenced me in my life.  If those elements had never been there, then nobody in America would have ever been into it either!  It was those elements that drew them in!” Darren explains.

Hip-hop has been a huge influence on Darren all his life, and if you happen to catch him away from his DJing commitments, chances are he’s listening to hip-hop or R&B.  “I never, EVER play jungle in my car!  I can’t be around it 24-7!  When I hear it or play it, I want it to effect me.  If you’re around it all the time, and hear the same records again and again, it’s hard to get off on it,” he explains.  In addition to playing drum & bass out at the big parties, Darren has also been known to throw down an occasional hip-hop set with the same mixing style he’d apply to a D&B set.  He describes his style simply as “flowing.”  “There’s nothing worse than going out to a hip-hop club and hearing a really good tune that gets everyone jumping and then the DJ starts scratching over it!  And then you get to hear 16 bars of a track before something else is on!  To me, that’s bollocks!  I’m sorry.  I know some DJ’s are great at it, I love DJ Rectangle, but for ME, I like a DJ who can let the music FLOW.  To me, it’s about keeping the people dancing.  These DMC competitions are about tricks.  It’s the technical side of things.  That’s great if you can do it, and I have the utmost respect for those people, but I like a DJ like DJ Premier who can do all that, but can also play an hour and a half set and just keep it flowing.”  So it’s safe to say Darren isn’t going to take on the Invisbl Skratch Piklz any time soon, but don’t underestimate the man’s skills either!  His mixing is as tight as it gets and his selection will always keep the dance floor roaring.

Darren Jay is definitely on a roll at the moment.  With DJ commitments and several releases planned for Mecca in the upcoming months (be sure to keep an eye out for “Rippin Up Shows” by the 175 Crew), it’s safe to say Darren is going to be one busy man.  There’s even talk of a US tour with Mampi Swift happening in early ‘99.  If you ever happen to see his name on a flyer for a party near you, make every effort to get there because I guarantee you will NOT be disappointed!