JUNGLE JAM SUMMER BBQ | CLUB REVIEW
Tramshed, Cardiff, Sat 15 June
It’s not easy to get something like Saturday’s Jungle Jam off the ground anymore. Cardiff’s drum’n’bass scene has taken a real hit over the past few years with the closure of Aperture and rave-friendly venues like Buffalo, and for a while now it’s been the community’s call whether the city held its own or let itself be swept away by the tide; whether the d’n’b events that dominated the city for the better part of the decade ended up being shared joint-custody with Bristol or let go completely.
But on Saturday, the community were all there in force. A day rave in Cardiff was hitting over 800- strong before teatime – and the city had struck back. The Tramshed smoking-area’s worth of Stone Roses rejects that squeezed together behind the railings continued unbroken into the main hall, where the massive Jungle Jam brand had been dragged down from Leeds. Bladerunner B2B with Ray Keith, DJ Serum, DJ Hybrid, Jungle Jam’s own Kuramachi and Deadline, some more; and hosted by Ragga Twins, MC Fearless, Inja, Navigator, MC XL. The gravity of the lineup wasn’t lost on anyone: this rave was pulling in revellers from Brum, from Essex, from Jungle Jam HQ Leeds and beyond in what was, for many, their first ever Cardiff detour.
Upstairs, harder and faster bass sounds were being made by the Riddim gang: the upstarts vying to slip into Aperture’s shoes in the local scene. This BBQ was their baby, their South Wales d’n’b community ready for the taking – and they took. With a rare slither of evening sun streaming in through the Tramshed upstairs windows, the Riddim room was the duttier, merciless mercenary skank to Jungle Jam’s all-star catch-all rave, the blistering mix of local familiar faces that played straight through to closing time and on into the afters at Undertone.
Cardiff doesn’t get nice things like this often, but now that there’s someone around to pick up the slack and the people have shown they’re still up for it, maybe the past few dark years can slip out of memory like just another bad night.
words JASON MACHLAB photos AIYUSH PACHNANDA
