Atmospheric drum & bass has seen a rise in popularity in the past few years, thanks in no small part to younger producers discovering the genre through video games and other media.
These albums and mixes largely take inspiration from the visual aesthetics from the late 90’s/early 2000’s era of gaming pop culture. It was the time of Ape Escape and Street Fighter 3: Third Strike.
But here’s question, what about the GameCube? We don’t often hear about jungle being associated with Nintendo’s sixth generation console. In this modern revisiting of these genres, the GameCube (and other Nintendo consoles) largely get omitted in favor of other consoles from that period, namely the Sega Dreamcast and PlayStation 2, which had released in 1999 and 2000 respectively.
That question led me down a rabbit hole and eventually led me to the work of Jelly Diver and their latest EP. Jelly Diver is a producer/DJ from North Carolina who makes, as stated on their Bandcamp description “GameCube jungle/breakcore”. The sounds here are low bit-rate and even playfully jagged at times.
In this interview, I spoke with Jelly Diver about their new project PORTAL, that GameCube jungle genre label, and what games from that era of gaming inspired their unique sound.
First, congratulations on the release of the project! The PORTAL EP has been out now for about 3 months. How are you feeling about the EP now with some time having passed?
Jelly Diver: I feel decent about it. I don’t think it’s gonna be anyone’s favorite jelly diver project but I’m glad I did it, releasing anything more than 1 song at a time is always an accomplishment
What was the timeline for this project coming together? Were these songs made recently or did you have these in the drafts for a while?
They were all made pretty contemporary with one another. I have a lot of projects that span ~8 months of music making but this one was a much tighter window, maybe a month or 2 of real songs.
When I was listening to the EP for the first time, I was really amazed by the noticeably low-bitrate texture of the songs added to the listening experience. Tell us about why you decided to work in that sonic framework.
The last EP I did, CONSOLE, was an exercise in restraint. my first album, Cybercrystals, was cool and complex but in hindsight I let things get a little out of control. I kinda reached a similar point after my second album, DIVE IN THE JELLY, where I wanted to step back and make something with a primary goal of simplicity.
Then I saw a YouTube video of a guy making a jungle song entirely using a specific sampler made to kinda emulate those older amiga jungle tracks, no synths just this sampler, and that constraint sounded fun for me so I made these 4 songs using it.
I turned down the bitrate on (almost) every single sampler to the same to give it a uniform sound. It also takes the pressure off of trying to get a clean mix which helped me release it faster. I also just have a passion for retro game music and such so it captures that as well.
How did you get started making music as Jelly Diver?
I used to make chiptune music for fun back in the day, and I really got into jungle/breakcore/etc in 2020. The first songs I made in this genre (that will never see the light of day) were a lot more atmospheric, long, noisy, early Sewerslvt-inspired songs. Then I became obsessed with “webcore” music, stuff that evokes the early internet, usually as it relates to video games or animations. The first marriage of jungle, chiptune, and webcore that sounded good at all was my first song I ever put out, “static void”.
From there Jelly Diver just continued to evolve, started to use more amen breaks, be more video gamey, etc.
On your Bandcamp page, one of the labels you use to describe your music is “GameCube jungle”. Can you talk a little about your experience with that console and the games that inspired you to take this approach to jungle/breakbeat?
Yeah! So, I never had a PlayStation nor Dreamcast as a kid, but I did have a GameCube. There’s not near as much jungle on the GameCube, but there’s a ton of atmosphere.
Games like Digimon World 4, Animal Crossing, Kirby Air Ride, Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 (I know they were originally on Dreamcast but I knew them as GameCube games as a kid) and Smash Melee come to mind. The big one for me is a game called Gotcha Force. It was Capcom’s attempt at a Pokemon-esque game with a bunch of characters to fight with. The name Jelly Diver itself comes from that game.
So, it’s “GameCube jungle” in the sense that it’s retro-ish, atmospheric and Nintendo-y. Mixed with jungle that’s more associated with other consoles.
How did the “Heather” remix collaboration between you and Girl Brutal come to be?
Girl Brutal has had 3 members over the course of its existence and I’m actually one of them! I’ve produced some of the songs (like “Asteroids”) but Heather was made entirely by Grace, so I thought I’d remix it for fun. I’ve done it at live Jelly Diver sets for about a year at this point, but thought it was a good time to put it out.
For those that aren’t familiar with the North Carolina underground music scene, give us some insight into that community. What do you enjoy about the scene and who are the artists that people should check out?
Electronic-wise, the scene isn’t as big as I would like. Girl Brutal was pretty hype for a while but we’ve closed the book on that band. I hope to do something in that digital hardcore area in the near future. I’m in Charlotte, so Haunt3d, Sober Dad, Ashley! are the ones that come to mind there. Asheville NC has Lady Kabela and Machine 13, they both have good music online and really good live shows.
As for just bands in general, I love Cloutchaser (insane math rock shi), I Hate Dave (just good ass interesting rock music), Mindvac (post hardcore), Infinxty (metalcore but sometimes hyperpop) all come to mind as NC heavy hitters for me. But there are countless cool bands around here.
What’s next for you? Can fans expect another release this year?
Definitely some singles, maybe not another EP/album. There’s actually a single coming out within the next couple weeks, it’s a bit dancier. I’ve also been working on a lot of non-Jelly Diver digital hardcore style beats lately. Hopefully I can package that into a separate project at some point.
PORTAL is available now on Bandcamp, Spotify, and Apple Music.
Mark is a 20-something-year-old DMV-born music and games writer, currently residing in the Midwest. Chances are, you’ll probably catch them binging Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
