Fault Radio Label Spotlight: In-N-out Records and GoodChill Records
Aaron Ruiz aka m27 Hardcore Junglist is near-singlehandedly launching a breakbeat revolution from his home in Oakland, legit all the way down to his Vestax battle mixer.
The Bay Area has long been known as a stronghold for Jungle and Drum’n’Bass music in the US, with some of the earliest appearances from Jungle royalty like Goldie and LTJ Bukem happening as soon as 1995 and by 1997 the D&B scene in San Francisco was in full swing, with myriad different crews all pushing their own interpretation of the sound. Quite famously, an avid junglist could go out and dance to the latest dubplates seven nights a week, unheard of anywhere else in the States. No big surprise, then, that despite the scene being on a low simmer for the past decade and change, that a new crew emerging from the East Bay would be taking the now-throwback sounds of the breakbeat continuum to new heights, all centered around one man steadfastly living his passion.
Aaron Ruiz aka m27 Hardcore Junglist is near-singlehandedly launching a breakbeat revolution from his home in Oakland, legit all the way down to his Vestax battle mixer. Ruiz runs two vinyl labels since 2017 - In-N-Out Jungle for ruffneck breakbeat mayhem and GoodChill Records for atmospheric jungle and rushed-up ‘ardcore, has just started a third label called OOZE, whose initial release is out any day now, in addition to mixtape label Ruff Tapes launched in 2014 and continuing to issue unique cassette releases including the recent three-tape pack Peace Earth Jungle, containing no less than three full tapes of m27 beats.
Taking his blueprint direct from the 90s London scene, Ruiz revels in the mystery of multiple labels and aliases while using modern object fetishism to his advantage as well, selling limited edition 10” records & tapes through his Bandcamp store as well as one-offs like a recent, super-limited flexi-disc release - flexi-discs, of course, being the almost-disposable super-thin plastic records that one used to get for free on the backs of cereal boxes in the 70’s.
Musically, Ruiz might be carrying the biggest torch in the US for the old skool rave daze, nailing the vibe and bringing a West Coast angle to what’s usually a London t’ing. As Ruiz told Fault recently, “The labels I run are what I view as the California answer to Europe's current resurgence of underground vinyl...The idea is to add to the rich history of jungle and underground rave and give our present era a voice for a future to be inspired on, much like what early rave did for us.”
Fans of the sound should be paying close attention to the moves of this nascent DIY empire, busy as ever during the Pandemic with new releases from In-N-Out Jungle & GoodChill due any day now while releases from two new labels for 2021 called FDisk & Major League are imminent, featuring a solid stable of new artists with names like Bc Rydah, Erize, Rufkraft & Dj Please as well as connections with junglist veterans like R.A.W. from Los Angeles. Keep your lighters up for the Oaktown crew!
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