Four days ago, the only sound you could hear throughout South Africa was the sound of the Vuvuzela. As the countdown reached 0 and Fifa World Cup kick off was screened world-wide… it was a moment of pride and chaos. And it seems that June will be remembered as milestone month for those also off the field, where the piercing sounds of Vuvuzelas are instead the heart, soul and mind bending beats of filthy drum n bass. June 3 2010 was the night that Cape Town celebrated four years of drum n bass pandemonium – it was the fourth birthday of It Came From The Jungle – an weekly party driven by the prolific DJ Niskerone – Mark Stevens – who started these now legendary nights back in 2006 at Fiction night club on Long Street.

Fiction opened its doors in 2006 and has now become synonymous with all that is drum n bass, giving underground DJs a platform to wreak audio-visual havoc, causing social unrest on the dance floor and restless Thursdays in the office. Every Friday has been resigned to feeling fragile and hung over, as when one climbs the stairs into Fiction all good intentions of leaving at a respectable hour get mocked by the beats that resonate from that beautiful corner on the dance floor. Praise was given to the stage of the mighty dnb kids… Thursday 3rd June was a tribute to all the “gut-wrenching bass and ‘slap-the-taste-out-yo-mouth’ snares” of the last four years.

The night was transcendent in every way – the line up, the crowd, the bday features – and Cape Town witnessed what can only be described as a trip into the past, then to the future, then back to the present. The various realms of audio indulgence were blasted through the speakers and into the crowd, sweeping everyone away in a shared love for the sound of liquid drum n bass.  There have been an A-List repertoire of international artists who have performed at the ICFTJ parties over the years, including Pendulum (Warner Music), Dieselboy (Human Imprint), Drumsound (Technique Recordings), Danny Wheeler (W10 Records), and NYMFO (Ram Records/Critical Recordings/Shogun LTD). Adding to this list is also Counterstrike (Algorhthm Recordings), Temper D (Offkey Recordings), TKO & Miss Wendy (Breakbeat Kaos/Sole Recordings), Matt Impact (Lucky Devil/Revolution Recordings), Just Jeryl (C.I.A./Wesbay Recordings), Felon (Dsci4 Recordings) and Freesteppa (Steppasoundz).

It was an insane line up – Niskerone played a two hour ‘classics ICFTJ’ set, which of course included ‘Propane Nightmares’, and then also gracing the DJ platform was HYPHEN & GUYVER, BROKE GUY aka BRUCE WILLIS?? and MYSTERION & SUBLIMINAL. The visuals were all in the hands of illustrator Daniel Ting Chong and the night also featured canvas art by SHELFLIFE [ft. Falko, Toe, Dr Zulu, Slate, Disk, Sure, Unik, Cros and Bzar]. The entire line up of the night paid testament to the skills Cape Town has when it comes to assaulting a crowd with dnb, and I’m certain that It Came From The Jungle will continue to make Thursdays the new Fridays for years to come. And with all the overseas fans roaming the streets now, it is the world that will experience the cutting-edge DJing capacity that our Cape Town boys ‘n girls deliver. Things will keep amplifying at ICFTJ… the bass lines will get fatter, the licks dirtier, the breaks heavier and the crowd a little bit nastier, in that great ‘we love it hard’ kinda’ way.







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