Bournemouth-based events brand House of Hi-Fi return with their jungle night at the popular underground venue, Bomo Bunker. This time to make a statement in the local drum and bass scene.
Junglist will take place on Friday 8 March, which falls on International Women’s Day. This will be the first time Junglist falls on a weekend date, making a departure from its usual mid-week slot. The team have set out to celebrate women in the scene by programming an all female line-up.
The inspiration for the event comes from a notable imbalance in the dance music scene, as mentioned by DJ Flight, “drum and bass is the worst for supporting women”. With an increase of accessibility to technology, more people giving mixing and production a go but most line-ups are still made up of all male DJ’s, producers and MC’s and because of this, many women haven't got the confidence to dive in and get involved in the scene.
As DJ Mantra investigated and reported in Red Bull Music, “at Hospitality in 2017, 251 sets were played by men and two were played by women; at Critical it was 90 to three; and at Metalheadz it was 75 to one”. A clear imbalance can be seen across line-ups, and it comes as no surprise when the scene evidently lacks women and female promoters to look for the imbalance and book other girls. As Alley Cat said during the Rinse FM EQ50 podcast, “there’s only so many people they [promoters] can pull”.
Following in the footsteps of Mantra’s EQ50 project - an evening celebrating and encouraging female and non-binary people in drum and bass through talks, workshops and music, House of Hi-Fi have organised an all female line-up for Junglist. The purpose of this event is not to “kick men off the top spot”, but to give women the opportunity to have a go on the decks and to celebrate the confidence of putting themselves out there by booking them first. House of Hi-Fi is all female team and strives to try and work with a balanced line-up to break the stereotypes within the industry by always booking at least one female at each of their events.
The drum and bass scene was arguably influenced originally by females. Legendary artists such as Kemistry and Storm dominated and influenced the scene, as reported recently in Vice Magazine, “the achievements of Kemistry and Storm, along with Goldie, defined drum and bass in the popular imagination”. With DJ Storm claiming, "we'd say we were DJs, we wouldn't say anything about our gender, so it wasn't until we turned up that people were like 'oh, they're women”.
Alongside Kemistry and Storm, many strong females have influenced drum and bass such as Flight, Mantra, DJIIN, DJ Rap, Kyrist, Mollie Collins, Sweetpea, Indika and more. But as observed in the Rinse FM EQ50 podcast, “we need women in positions of authority, who are bookers, putting on events and running record labels, because that’s really where you see the change happen”. House of Hi-Fi hope to make a difference as female promoters themselves, in a strongly male dominated industry - they believe it's important to have females running the show, mixing, producing.
House of Hi-Fi have been searching for the best innovative and determined girls in the local scene. Their first booking hails from Portsmouth, as a newcomer; Kyro was inspired by her love and interest of music to start mixing. She began in December 2018, experimenting with different sounds and styles such as drum and bass, UKG and jungle. Kyro has been inspired to seek further challenges since learning, making her debut performance with House of Hi-Fi for Junglist.
Bristol-based Katalyst is an example of the new generation of DJs that are pushing the boundaries in underground electronic music. This girl brings inspiration from many genres of music from jungle to breakbeat, taking the crowd on an energetic journey with her upbeat mixing style shown to cause exactly the reaction you would expect from her name. Katalyst’s determination, passion and ability to win over the crowd breaks through, bagging multiple residencies at Rinse in Oxford, Road Runnaz in Reading and Shotgun Sessions in Bristol. Alongside these, she hosts a monthly show on award winning Rough Tempo with her DJ collective Affemity. Katalyst has also played across the country at clubs and festivals, supporting the likes of Andy C, Storm, Document One, Dillinja, Saxxon and DLR.
Bournemouth’s own Kira adds some darkness to the predominantly jungle line-up. She has had a keen interest in DJing for just over two years, where she has explored her love of drum and bass, half time, 140 and footwork. With inspirations from Alix Perez, Bredren, Arkaik, Amoss and Halogenix, Kira has adopted a style described as gritty, dark and minimal with deep rolling vibes. Having performed at Breakout, alongside a live guest mix on radio for the Lo Key Collective, she makes her second debut playing to a crowd at Junglist. Kira will be bringing an extensive dark, minimal and deep mood, that you won’t want to miss.
House of Hi-Fi’s final artist for Junglist is DJ AMA, a drum and bass artist from Hertfordshire. She began her musical journey in 2008 after studying at university in Newcastle by producing IDM and electronic/instrumental music under her alias, Amally Music. In 2009 she then began working remotely with a production company in Germany producing film scores for documentaries.
Amally Music began mixing in 2010, using hip hop instruments from charity shops and record stores and using serato to develop her skills. In 2011, she moved to Bournemouth where she discovered her love for drum and bass and since then she has never looked back. Starting out by mixing at smaller events and venues and later progressing to playing in Pretoria in South Africa and Outlook Festival two years in a row, including the Garden Stage for Spearhead Records. AMA is looking to get her name out there and to spread the vibe with her skills and passion.
Facebook event - Junglist
Tickets - Eventbrite
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