First things first. Jungle raves are physically demanding tasks, so you have to make sure you eat properly before diving in. Of course, junglists eat where wild animals roam amongst the tables.

And send you friendly looks of approval.

And then, you’re ready. Arrival at the Kenny Ken party. This deco sends the most amazing mixed signals ever. CLEARLY, this is the right way.

Party pics from an iPhone are never great, but here is one. I only took the time to take three, anyway. I haven’t heard music like that for TOO long, and Kenny Ken’s set was out of this world awesome. And there was double up on happiness: he played two sets (Slipmatt was supposed to be there, but wasn’t).

I haven’t danced like that for I don’t know how long. I was absorbed with every joyous fiber of my being. It’s the ULTIMATE zen experience! You fall out the other end, refreshed, ecstatic, and totally connected with the universe. And completely exhausted.

The next day, we felt a bit like this. (For the curious: this is from the LEGO exhibition in Shoreditch which I found the time to visit).

But we pulled ourselves together, slowly rebuilding our stamina.

And soon, we were in that proper jungle mood again! (okay, so I could seriously post a gazillion of my shots of the street art of Shoreditch, and I could even do a whole selection of junglist themed ones, but let’s move on.

After a 31 second run, we reached the secret location, and the dancefloor, and then it certainly hit us, the oldskool vibe.

Here’s the host of the night, Uncle Dugs, to the right. Obviously, this is a vinyls only night. OF COURSE! Run Come Follow Friday.

Small place, totally packed, amazing atmosphere. Very soon, the heat got so intense we were literally soaked. Like, swimming pool soaked.

And sooooooo happy. Oldskool jungle tunes, all night. Proper time machine business!

Dugs on the decks with his signature smile. When he played Wardrive by Crystl, we almost flew across the mixing decks. Big enthusiasm. Big rewind.

And then, the one and only Navigator arrived.

By then, the heat had long since reached I-need-a-towel levels.

It was so packed that I was really happy we had been at the Kenny Ken thing the night before. For a proper dancing session, you need som space to move. The Ribena Jungle crowd had to move in unison. We did that very well, though, that’s for sure. Amazing vibes generated, in a room packed with dedicated junglists.

As charismatic as ever, the one like Navi. In 1998 I did an entire paper at university on the “noise” of jungle and its meanings, meticulously transcribing everything that was said through the mikes by Navi, Moose and Five-O at the Roast party in The Astoria in 1994 (attended the party, of course, bought the tapes). Not my best work, the paper, but I give my younger self points for the idea, though. So, with the actual Roast words of Navi from ’94: “As we take you inside the copper setting, easy and warming sounds. Warming up your molecule, seen”.

It might not sound like it just now, but I have always been strongly critical when it comes to mc’ing. Mediocre mc’ing is the worst. That’s why it’s so particularly exhilarating when it’s really good. Shabba D was straight up amazing. Complete crowd control, almost sing-a-long-y.

Ribena Jungle finished at around 2. And then we went to this unbelievable spot. The Backto95 Legends of the Oldskool party at Great Suffolk Street Warehouse. Massive place. My phone had gone to sleep, but fortunately, Mariii’s was still alive and well. Walking down this gigantic hallway, there were four huge arenas to the left. We walked past the house and garage one, straight to the ‘oldskool jungle classics’ arena.

And continued with our raving mission! Up front and go. Part of the lineup at Arch 3 was Nicky Blackmarket, Jumping Jack Frost, Top Buzz and Uncle Dugs again.

The surroundings were like, whoa, but the sound was pretty awful. We are SPOILT with good sound in Copenhagen. Thank you, all you Copenhagen sound geeks with your massive walls of subwoofers, I salute you! Imagine what you could do with this place.

One of my own theories about the massive jungle revival going on in London at the moment is that all the dj’s and mc’s that were there and instrumental in those golden years of everything kickin’ off (’93-’95) – well, their kids are big enough to not need babysitting now, and so the mature grownups finally have the time to dive back into the proper sounds. My other theory is that there is some kind of time machine business going on with some of us. Here’s MC Det on stage, looking exactly the same as back in the day, so there might be some proof here. I will investigate further.

The next day, our shoes felt like this.

But our minds felt like this. Ignore the signs! Follow the smiley! You know you can trust the smiley!