Ever wanted to know the difference between drum + bass and jungle? Why there’s MCing in DnB? Or perhaps you’re simply curious about the history of this bizarre musical hybrid with so many fanatical adherents (or should that be, so many adherents that are fanatical?) If so, I suggest you track yourself down a copy of the official drum + bass bible “All Crews” by Brian Belle-Fortune (think I’m making the “official bible” sobriquet up? Not so… read the back cover, who am I to argue with Bailey, Andy C and Grooverider?).

Knowledge Magazine and Vision Publishing have just released the third (and most expansive) edition of this invaluable tome and you ought to beg, steal or borrow a copy (which is, in fact, what happened to my copy of the second edition – I was begged to lend it, it was borrowed and I’ve been asking for it back since 2002).

Brian was involved in setting up One in the Jungle for Radio One (the first national jungle/dnb radio show in the UK) and is one of the very few people closely connected to dnb that has chosen to write his experiences down. The inspiration for the book had its genesis in a blazing row with an MTV Europe producer who was tagging jungle/dnb as a black male thing and Brian (a black male) was trying to explain otherwise. Upon whirling out of that office and slamming the door, Brian sat down and composed a long email to the producer explaining why the perception of drum and bass as solely a black male music was wrong but never sent the email. It became the starting point for “All Crews” instead.

One of the most striking accomplishments of the book (to me) is its capturing of why this music is so utterly captivating. Authoritative books on the history of dance music have been written, usually by writers with a deep-seated need to intellectualise and/or place in sociological context the dance music phenomenon. All interesting stuff if you’re a music historian, sociologist or someone completely unconnected with the subject matter. For those who are a part of it though, books like “Generation Ecstasy” smack of trying too hard to get credit points with uni lecturers and (most importantly) make pretty anodyne reading. They give you the whats in tedious and familiar detail but I feel they miss the whys or give any feeling of what it was like to be there.

All Crews gets it right. BBF tells a captivating story and is able to do it from (at least) three different perspectives – the DJ/producer/promoter – the objective observer – and Brian’s own discovery of, and involvement in, the music scene. Seeing the politics of the scene getting played out across varied fields makes for fascinating reading. The hi-jacking ragga incursions, the re-branding (and implicit race issues) of jungle vs drum and bass, the centralised nature of the DJs/producers calling shots on what is and isn’t kosher and the spectre of violence. Brian mentions his own run ins and non-payment with dodgy labels (and names names) but clearly has no axe to grind – he’s simply keen to paint it as he saw it in all its raw excitable exuberance, adolescent frustrations and occasional temper tantrums.

He’s not writing an academic textbook, he’s recording emblematic anecdotes for posterity and seeking the opinions of the entire cross-section of folks who’ve forgone money, time and comfort in order to get this music out there. The section on pirate radio is especially fascinating for anyone who’s only vaguely divined quite how this uniquely English phenomenon works in practice. Booking agents, radio producers and ordinary punters are all sought out for their stories and woven skilfully together to create the most fleshed out portrait of this music I’ve ever read. BBF wrote the book for those not already up their necks in this music but as I’m a drum and bass fiend, I can’t tell you how someone outside looking in would find the book. But I can tell you it’s pretty darn accurate.

As for the drum and bass ‘whys’ I mentioned, while to a large extent they’re elicited and implied by the cumulative effect of reading an entire book about others’ inspiration, involvement and motivations, there is a pivotal passage about “the thing with the heart” – I’ll leave you with BBF’s explanation from another interview:

“When people talk about their attraction/addiction to drum & bass words sometimes fail them, they end up gesticulating and placing their hand on their heart.”

Anyone who’s had the drum and bass lightening strike knows he knows the score. Everyone else, get your hands on a copy of this book and find out for yourself.

For more info on the ‘All Crews’ book head to the website: http://www.knowledgemag.co.uk/allcrews/