GROOVERIDER’S TOP 5 JUNGLE/DRUM & BASS ANTHEMS

It's no secret that we're big fans of Grooverider here at DJ Mag. The drum & bass veteran has always been a go-to for the best in 170 beats, and along with long-time collaborator Fabio, picked up the Outstanding Achievement award at our DJ Mag Best of British ceremony earlier this year.

With a 25 year career spent rubbing shoulders with drum & bass legends (or just hanging out with his mates, depending on which way you look at it), including his days playing the seminal Rage events at London's Heaven nightclub, and over a decade of shows on BBC Radio 1, it's pretty safe to say that Groove knows a good tune or two.

Who better then, to get us warmed up for the latest edition of Innovation in the Sun? Taking place from 28th June – 5th July in Lloret de Mar resort near Barcelona, the festival will see a plethora of boat, beach, foam and pool parties featuring the likes of Andy C, Friction, DJ Hype, Hazard, Ed Rush, Congo Natty, SASASAS and of course our main man Groove. It’s line-ups like this that have helped Innovation grow over the past two decades to become one of the world’s best loved drum & bass event brands, hosting parties in the UK, Amsterdam, Spain and most recently, the first ever Innovation in the Snow in Andorra. 

Tickets for Innovation in the Sun 2016 are available here, and while you wait, crank up your system and enjoy, “in no particular order,” Grooverider's top five tracks!

Sound Of The Future (DJ SS) 'Lighter'
Formation Records [1995]

“I always remember the first time I played this, it was the intro that threw everybody off. I was playing at Bagleys in Kings Cross and I started off with that tune; the dancefloor was packed but when the intro came in on that tune, everybody in this party started looking at me like, 'What the fuck is Groove doing?' That piano intro was the intro to the Hamlet Cigars advert back in the day, so when it started playing everybody was like, 'Why is Groove playing that?' But when it actually dropped: I've never see a reaction like it.”

Deep Blue 'The Helicopter Tune'
Moving Shadow [1993]

“My thing is, a tune's gotta have three parts. It's gotta have an intro, a banging bit and it's gotta have a good ending, and 'The Helicopter Tune' has all of those. It's got everything. It's got the into – you can hear the helicopter coming in, nobody knows what's going on – and the actual drop is one of the best drops in history. It took drum & bass music to another level, 'cause we were coming out of jungle into drum & bass and that was one of the tunes that was kind of a crossover. Also I was the first person to play it, ever. So nobody knew what that was and that's what I'm about, bringing the fresh stuff, something that's totally different and that's gonna work. They might not get it straight away, but later on down the line they're gonna get it.”

LTJ Bukem 'Music'
Good Looking Records [1993]

“That's gotta be one of my top drum & bass tunes of all time, because of the classiness of it. It sounds like a house tune with drum & bass beats and that's where I started off – Grooverider was born out of acid house, so it took me back to those times. When that came out there wasn't any tunes like that around; that was the beginning of the LTJ Bukem sound coming out of hardcore. I've always rated LTJ Bukem as one of the greatest producers this music's ever seen, but he doesn't make enough tunes. He never has done. And that's a drawback production-wise for everybody, because the more tunes LTJ Bukem makes, the better this circuit would have been in my eyes. He's such an innovator, in more ways than just a DJ.” 

Capone (Dillinja) 'Fly Away'
Test Recordings [2010]

“Now Dillinja, for me, opitimises the whole jungle/drum & bass scene. I call him The Professor. He's probably the greatest dancefloor production man ever within this music. At one point Dillinja could make a tune and you would just play it without even hearing it, 'cause you'd know that tune's gonna work. This tune was really personal for Dillinja. He told me the story behind it – which I don't really wanna go into – and I nearly wanted to cry. It's one of those tunes that myself and Fabio call a 'parcel tune' – you can take to any party and it would work. You could take it anywhere, a smaller party, a junglist party, a drum & bass party, and it's gonna work in all of them.”

Rufige Kru 'VIP Riders Ghost'
Metalheadz (1994)

“Goldie used to make different versions of the same tune, so he'd have one tune and about seven different versions that didn't sound anything like each other. He made me a version of 'Ghost' where he was just playing about on the mixing desk, so it wasn't even actually mixed. Him and Rob Playford, fading in and fading out, but it was all freestyle. I heard that thing on a DAT that I wasn't even supposed to hear; I was just flicking through it and I heard this version of 'Ghost' and I was like 'Woah, hold on a second!' I didn't realise the simplicity with which he made it, this thing just sounded so together. It was the best version of 'Ghost' that he had, for me. Then he named it 'Riders Ghost' because I picked up on it and he thought 'This is the one I've gotta put out'.”