Toronto has seen a lot of ups and downs in the growth of rave culture and electronic music. Spanning the years starting with small illegal events and evolving through generations of party people, promoters, club spaces, laws, drugs, drama and, of course, the music. One thing Canada's megacity has counted on to stay current is the infamous TorontoJungle.com. In 1997 the site came to be, and has since evolved into a truly epic 24/7 portrait of not only Toronto's drum & bass/jungle scene, but all electronic music from all over the country. Stats reaching more than one million views per month make obvious how important the URL has become to the music-focused community it supports.

Ownership and hosting of this forum-focused site has changed hands a few times in its history. In speaking with current owner Clancy Silver, the following document (originally posted in 2004 with v.5 of the site) surfaced once again. It's a bit of the background and ethics that's important to include with this article before I get into an attempt at describing the madness:

This has been long awaited and rightfully so; this site has gone through so many changes it's hard to figure out where to begin.

So many questions... Who? What? Where? When? Why? The truth is, it really doesn't matter. TJ was never about a person or even a crew. It was, and is, about a city's love for then, jungle, and now, drum and bass. That love has been growing in Toronto for many years, and TJ has been through thick and thin, all the while documenting this incredible journey of ours.

Toronto Jungle is a movement. It is not a person. It is not a crew. It is not a DJ. It is not a producer. It is not even a single style of music. It is none of these things on its own, past or present. TJ is a symbol of strength and perseverance. TJ is the symbol of an era that is simply not ready to quit. It's about those amen's and drum rolls... and about those few seconds we hold our breath before that bass drops. TorontoJungle.com is something we are all a part of. Toronto Jungle is a movement.

In late 1997, the dream of a website in Toronto was born. It was a dream of a site that repped our people, our stars, our triumph and our failures; most of all, our music. Over the years the crew that put so much hard work in to getting the message out changed and changed. Friends were made & lost. Affiliations grew and some disappeared. With every year that has gone by, TJ has changed for the better. Growth is for the better, and with every change came a renewed love of this thing we call jungle/drum and bass. And with that, came new perspectives, and new attitudes as well. The music, the culture, and industry have all changed so dramatically in Toronto over the last decade... and we were there to document it.

In late 1997 the dream took reality and with a lot of late nights, triumphs, and failures, Toronto Jungle is still here. Like the music we love, it just won't quit.

Out of all the names and dates that could have been mentioned here, none were. This is not out of disrespect, but just the opposite. None of you can ever be forgotten; we've worked too hard and come too far. As the original Mighty Jungle Mouse once said to me, "You can't stop this... it's larger than life... Everybody will know what we have going on here in Toronto!"

Big up the Mighty Jungle Mouse and all his people... Those still around and all those who have moved on to other great things. He was right... You can't stop what can't be stopped, and this site right here is bigger than life.

Respect, Ziaud Baksh

 
The URL is homepage to a large percentage of the cities die-hard DnB fans. In its current state a forum is all that exists, having gone through many versions of magazine style sites in its time. The forums at TJ are broken up into easily recognizable categories much like electronic music boards all over the world, so what about TorontoJungle.com makes it stick out? Let's take a look...

Events – a constantly updated list of nearly everything going on in and around the city. Well organized, this has been THE best way to figure out where to go just about any day of the week, for years. In addition to event details, ticket locations & press for their artists, promoters will use this spot to post time slots and other pertinent information about their events, and of course the party goers are there to hype the night and share their excitement. A lot more than just Drum'n'Bass is listed, though the genres of choice are clear from the first page... In a similar layout, there is an Event Photos / Video board for the media collected at each party, showing off the fun had by various users and often the excellent work of our local photographers.

A Music category for pushing new releases, talking about tracks, production methods, questions and advice on hardware is also a feature of the iconic website. This section is all about the beats that keep us coming back. Pretty straightforward. Though not the busiest section of the site, the frequent users are passionate about their craft so there are always great reads and reposted articles to find and check out. For specific updates on more local artists, the Canada Drum & Bass section exists, often featuring press for new music, tour dates, and whatever else fits. This section is something of a sanctuary from all the crazy happening elsewhere on the board, with focus staying on our music it's much more common for conversations here to stay on topic.

On to the Mixes category, this section of the site has an incredible cross-section of jungle/dnb/dubstep with the odd bit of other genres. Anybody can post here, and the mods will only move posts that don't belong (spam mainly). An excellent archive of DJ sets is always at our fingertips, and probably the best way to get heard. After years of additions, it's now a living depository of electronic music, and there really is something for everyone. Toronto DJ's of all skill levels post sets regularly, sometimes live recordings from events or radio shows, sometimes studio mixed masterpieces including artwork and 12 mirrors that nobody will use, sometimes old archived party tapes recovered from a shoebox... With over 5000 posts making up the section and no sign of slowing down, it's evident from this board alone why Torontojungle.com has become an archive for our generation.

Finally, the General Forum. This is a place of unmentionable madness and debauchery. Labeled 'Enter at your own risk' before allowing the crazy to flow, the General board is busy 24/7 and covers some of the wildest topics you could ever imagine. While there are moderators to keep the peace, it is rare to see threads locked or deleted, as the registered users (12,745 people and aliases) love to stir up drama, and almost never back down from a challenge regardless the cause/consequence. An uncensored look into the psyche of Toronto's jungle community, it can be a pretty daunting place for new users. On more than a few occasions noobs have been flamed and harassed until giving up, or turning into one of the seasoned hard-asses that make up the majority of regular posters.

Like a few other 'major' electronic music forums, TorontoJungle.com has been the "thorn in the side" of the club centered scene. Seeing online, very publicly, the exploits and mishaps of community members has long been a source of daytime entertainment for users, but also soured people away from the site, and in some cases, the music & scene altogether. Real fights, though rare, have happened. People stealing and getting busted bad, that's happened. Breakup letters that nobody should ever see getting posted, that's happened. DJs & MCs getting called out for all kinds of wild shit, that happens. It's a pretty crazy environment sometimes...

A quote from the site's co-owner 'Rick Toxic' sums up the experience quite nicely, so we'll leave thoughts on the General board with this...

"Over 10 years of drama, breakups, porn, spam, sex, fights, parties, drugs, bootycalls and exhibitionism; and a bit of Jungle Music too... you guys are all awesome."

A recent thread, and the place Mr.Toxic so eloquently described his years on TorontoJungle.com with the above quote, helped me put this piece together. In it, the question was posed 'has anyone stopped to think – about the forum's place in our scene's development, and how great a cultural snapshot it can be?' Reading about the history of the site and experiences of its users gave me a feeling of community in a very real sense because even though the archiving is taking place online, it's a very social thing to be involved with. Are your local forums like that? Share em!

You can check out that thread here and, of course, the main boards at www.torontojungle.com/forum/

 
Photo: TorontoJungle.com ten year crowd by OTIS

 

Related Links:

• Ragga-Jungle.com Profile
• All Crews Website Relaunch
• Toronto Drum And Bass Awards
• Empire Productions Archive
• Knowledge Website Phase 2 Details

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