DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Parallel World – Tear Into It / Contagious

1994

For the next forage into the executive mystics of music, we have one of those releases that might not always spring to the forefront of your memory when Good Looking is recalled. It’s this very notion though, that makes today’s release so very special. Because this 12” lurks like an essential background soldier, waiting to unleash with full force, then retreat with grace, as the music on here captures moments that define just how many circles were overlapping in 1994. Of all the GLR releases, for me, this particular record brings together all the components that expanded the trunk of the jungle tree. The pirate stations, the London ting, the atmospherics, the rolling breaks, and the ravers and DJs that worship those moments from the then-and-now. Let’s lower the winch and descend into the key elements of all things sparkling about GLR in 94.

   It was not known who Parallel World were for a fair amount of time, at least I had no idea that it was the work of two producers that have hit some of the essential music of the scene. Andrew Richies & Jay Hurran (EZ Rollers) are better known as JMJ & Richie. They had already given us in 1993, the legendary Moving Shadow release, Case Closed & Hall Of Mirrors. As they were signed to Moving Shadow as JMJ & Richie, it was under this one off alias of Parallel World (no doubt to signify that they were both heading in the same continually gauged direction), that they put today’s release out. They then went onto more classic releases on Moving Shadow and even had a sort of remix of ‘Tear Into It’ on the Two-On-One – Issue 7 plate on Moving Shadow. It was also amazing to have them team up on White House Records for a couple of releases with Jonny Tekniq as Spirits From An Urban Jungle. 

   Let’s lower the needle and turn the key for today’s music. Side A gives us the gorgeous tune, ‘Tear Into It’. “Ding ding ding ding bass ding ding bass, ding ding bass, bass, ding ding ding ding ding ding bass…” I may have added or missed a ding ding there but you get the drift…from the intro (which has the marmite effect of love it or hate it), it’s onto the marvelous breaks and humming bass that Jay and Andrew supplied on their early work. This all leads to a breakdown that you want to wrap around “make me feel…let me feel” vocals pinch the nerves of the sweet pads and elevate them up substantially further. Another beats section works its way toward the main plume of the second breakdown “teaaaaarrr into it”. The love I have for these guys working with this way of having three different tunes within one track and they all connect in a way very few could master, is etched forever. 

  On Side B we have a tune that is one that I personally tended to veer more excitement toward than the A Side, but only by the width of a worms eyebrow. You could drop ‘Tear Into It’ into nearly any 94 jungle set, however with this next tune ‘Contagious’ you have something that is picked up by the angels and garnished with the tears of the gods within the beliefs of song writing. It sits as a moment of reflection and interpretation. 

   From the pads and aquatic dolphin signals, the mood is already one of drifting, effortless richness as the highly viscous break and simple bass prod the tectonic plates of music into reforming the way the deep and desirable sound unfolds. I could listen to the main vocal “ooo hoo..oooo yeah” and those distant chords and pads for the rest of my life. These guys had a gift for making some of the most beautiful and stirring sounds. ‘Contagious’ scoops the vibrations in the air around the London scene in 94 and delivers them here. Everything about this track bleeds the delicacies of the purest atmospheric pleasures.    

    If you ever need to seek the perfect snapshot of the GLR label, you have here two of the core components that inspired the rest of the pack to step things up. The movement was well and truly filling with the priceless content, that continued into the more thoughtful side of drum and bass. It  strengthened the whole scene by offering this complimentary side serving to the jungle tray and offering us another channel to release our thoughts and ever changing moods. JMJ & Richie will always be Jedi masters in this field.