Christina Majcher

Jungle Confessions: “I love the crazy mix of reggae bass and sound effects”

Posted on December 22, 2016     1 Comment

Whohooo, it’s time for an energetic Q&A with the one and only Dj 2000F aka Frederik Birket-Smith aka dj Zoooooooof aka Jungle Professor Birkvit-Smith aka Frederick, original junglist, sound effect enthusiast and head of the Strøm festival.

2000F is a bit of a story teller, so let’s dive right in. You have 20000 words and some scrolling ahead of you.

2000F doing some truly expert level group hugging at RAW 2009.

When did you become a junglist?
“In front of the telly at my parents’ in the beginning of the 90s. It was on MTV Party Zone… Shut Up and Dance… The track was called The Green Man – (Rum & Black remix). That was a defining moment for me. It had such a weird mix of breakbeats and bleep sounds and reggae bassline and I didn’t really get it. Prodigy and what came after that was much easier to understand, but this track… it was just so trippy and weird and sounded like something I had to look into. I’ve loved that sound ever since, whatever it is, that weird mix where it’s neither breakbeat or jungle or raggahouse or whatever.”

And you were attending the legendary Jungle Fever II party at Operaen, like everyone else.
“Yes, I was dj’ing. I’m sure my mixing was terrible. I actually brought my own mixer. It was this Monacor thing, a present from Anne Linnet to Jan Martin (her son) and me. She wanted us to learn how to dj, so she bought us two 1210s and a mixer and a lesson with a dj from Cut’n’Move. The mixer had all these crazy soundeffects, like the sounds of lasers and telephones ringing, very jungle style. I have had the sound effect part of the machine cut out, and we still use them all the time at Fyraftensboogie.”

Frederik and the all-important whistle at Jungle Fever IV at Operaen.

Why do you love jungle?
“The drums and the bass. I just love drums and bass. And I love the ”everything goes” part of it. I love the crazy mix of reggae bass and sound effects. That you can just put anything into a track. UK has always been this melting pot. It has influenced me a lot as a dj, the sound effects and the way that things are layered on top of eachother. It still inspires me.”

There’s this Remarc tune called Sound Murderer where he samples this old funk group called Starvue. It’s called Body Fusion, a classic raregroove boogie track. And we play it all the time at Jolene at our disco club night Fyraftensboogie which we have been running for 8 years now. And whenever we play it, we just go crazy with the sound effects so that it sounds like Remarc.

How are you spreading the jungle gospel?
“Oh man. I played a strictly jungle set back to back with Raske Penge at our JuleBass party this last Saturday. I do that quite often.

And I released the jungle track “Blæst Igen” last year with Raske Penge and Høyer Øye. Danish jungle. The video is made solely out of old movie clips from Danish raves from the early and mid-90s.”

“And then I’ve been a part of the Ohoi! crew since 2002.”

2000F killing the rum at the Ohoi! 6 year anniversary.

“And going further back, I made the Rolandoposen parties from ’93 and onwards. The biggest ones were at Ungdomshuset with jungle on the ground floor and gabba on the second floor and techno on the third. We did some Rolando Posen parties at Vega, too. DR2, which was a really new tv channel back then, was sending live from the jungle raves at Vega. That was at The Invasion of the Bass Snatchers party. But then someone at Vega realized that everyone attending was under 18 and that was the end of the jungle era at Vega.”

Small diary intermezzo in case you missed the “How to be a Junglistst: Flyers, flyers, flyers everywhere” post from JUngLEkalenderen 2014. This is the Bass Snatchers flyer, glued into my diary from 1997. 🙂

This flyer is just a masterpiece.

Yes, we need a closeup.

What’s your favourit tune?
“Dream Team – Stamina.”

“It’s not my favourite track of all time, but it’s close. I played it last Saturday, too. I play it every time. Wait, I’m just gonna check if it’s the Dread Bass Remix; I think it is. But I can’t really tell by the label. All my jungle albums are all white and greyish , they’re so worn out.”

2000F wearing out his vinyls at the Ohoi! 2 year anniversary. We’re on a boat.

What’s the best thing that happened this year?
“I was in London with Raske Penge a month ago at Finyl Tweek. They do everything for Hospital Records, everything for Dillinja. We were getting two records cut that I am releasing on Raske Plader next year. The test press just arrived this evening. So I’m going down the studio to listen to it now. It’s in steppas style. It reminds me of jungle, being at the steppas parties in England. It feels like being back at the old jungle raves in the 90s. You just have a microphone, a soundsystem and some vinyls. And that’s it. Sometimes they don’t even turn off the lights. I love that.”

2000F feeling bubbly at RAW.

What’s the most exciting thing about the future?
“Strøm Festival just made this four year deal with Frederiksberg Kommune, Københavns Kommune and Statens Kunstfond where we work to support and promote electronic music in the entire country. That means that we will be doing the festival, still, but also teaching all year and something called ”genre work”, where we just help the genre to blossom and grow. This means that electronic music has finally been recognized as a genre on a completely different level than has been the case so far.

I’m super proud of this new development, and I think it’s going to be really exciting. We’re going to be able to help the genre but on it’s own terms, finding out what’s really needed. It will give us some much needed political awareness, too, and access to funding, which is important. Just like it has been for jazz and world music. The electronic music scene has so much talent, and we could do even bigger things if we were better organized. This is a big step in the right direction and it’s super super super important and very exciting.”

2000F celebrating some more.

What’s your best party moment ever?
The best rave was when I met Anna at Operaen in 2001 where I was dj’ing at some oldskool jungle reunion.

Awwwwww. Well: Here’s 2000F and Anna some fun-packed years after that, celebrating the neon frisbee present at Ohoi!’s 6 year anniversary.

“The maddest festival I ever attended was United Nations of Dub. It was in Northwales by the sea in this deserted and half forgotten holiday centre like Lalandia or something. The festival was dedicated to dub and ONLY dub music, all weekend. So it was basically Lalandia but with dub music playing 24/7. It was this tiny little Miss Marple village with little baskets with flowers in them and a church and a tea house. And then this Pontins Holiday Park is just invaded by 1500 rastas from all over Europe. And there’s dub everywhere. There’s dub in the supermarket. There’s dub at the pub. And again, it was just like the old jungle raves where all you need is a sound system. No lights or anything, just a wall of speakers and a rug and 1000 rastas listening to dub at 17 o’clock in the afternoon.”

2000F throwing a complicated handsign signalling something cool to Frederiksperkers everywhere.

Do you want more 2000F?

Join the party at Jolene on Christmas eve where 2000F will be playing boogie, disco and xmas classics. And the Starvue track. And junglistic sound effects: Jolene’s Big Christmas Eve Party

Lots more pics of 2000F at this Blasts from the past: Ohoi! turns 6

If you want to read my impression of the Jungle Fever II party where Frederik brought his own mixer, there’s a LOT of details in this post: Jungle Diaries: Longing for the Tribe

And if you want more flyers, go here: How to be a Junglist: Flyers, Flyers, Flyers Everywhere

Keep updated on the evergrowing Strøm Festival at http://www.stromcph.dk