Long lost treasures.

I recently found 2 tracks on youtube that I have been looking for since the early nineties.

The first one is this little gem from Italian producer/DJ Lory D.



Back in 89-91, when I was discovering House and techno while i was attending the European School in Brussels, my friend Lorenzo was my main source for this kind of music and information about it. This was before the internet was everywhere, so it was pretty hard to get any info on any of this stuff. I would go out to parties and hear tracks, maybe ask the DJ for the title, and hopefully remember it the next day. If I was really lucky I would find the vinyl record or some CD-compilation with the track later on. Back then the whole thing was still really small as well. Tiny recordlabels with limited pressings, artists that constantly changed names, white labels and an insistance on it being all about the music, instead of faces, places and image.
Anyway, this track showed up on one of the mixtapes Lorenzo regularly made for our crew of partymonsters, and that was THE ONLY PLACE I ever heard it. The tape got lost and I haven't heard it since, 'til I found it on youtube last week, despite searching for it for all these years. I never forgot about it, though. Damn, I love that song.


Next track was another mystery to me. Still no idea who Urban Jungle is.



When I moved to London back in '94, I quickly began listening to Jungle on the pirate radio stations over there, and occasionally recording some of the sets on tape. On one of these tapes, this track showed up. The DJ or MC would occasionally announce what songs were being played, but of course that wasn't the case here, so I had absolutely no idea what this was, and I was too shy and lazy to go around record shops and try and sing the vocal hook to shop assistants, in the hope of finding out more about it. For many years all I had was this one tape with the track. This was also the only tape I would still listen to, if I got near a functioning tape deck.
Next thing that happened was me attending some party about 4-5 years ago, where my man 2000F was billed to play an old school Jungle set. To my immense surprise he dropped this in the middle of his set and I actually cried with joy! Afterwards I obviously asked what the hell it was called, but all he could show me was another white label. Argh!
Finally, Kode9 did a mix for FACT magazine and there it was! Artist, track title and everything!


I'm obviously happy that I finally found these two, but at the same time there's a weird sense of loss. For so many years these songs almost only existed in my head, and there was something mystic, almost magical about them. Especially the Lory D track, since I hadn't heard it at all since about '92. Sometimes i wondered if it really existed, or if it was my drug addled brain playing tricks on me: it could have been a mix of 2 or more tracks or just too much LSD warping my hearing.
Now that I can hear those tracks whenever I want, it doesn't make them bad. They're both amazing tunes that have stood the test of time really well, but the mystery has been lost.

Ignorance will always be bliss.