State of Bass
State of Bass: Jungle – The Story So Far (Boxtree), published in 1997, was the first book length account of the dance music genre drum and bass. The book was written by music journalist Martin James who went on to write several other books on dance music before becoming a Professor of Music Industries at Southampton Solent University.[1]
State of Bass explores drum'n'bass through its antecedents and on to its emergence. James explores the debate that surrounds the split between jungle and drum'n'bass, analysing the use of the genre names. He also reveals for the first time the existence of the jungle committee which was set up to manage and control the jungle and drum'n'bass scenes.
As the book was published in late 1997 this account does not extend as far as the Mercury Prize winning Roni Size Reprezents, the point where arguably, the scene was at its most mainstream, but it does provide a thorough account of the evolution of jungle and drum'n'bass.
State of Bass was proposed as one of 20 essential music books from the 20th century in a 1999 edition of now defunct music magazine Select. State of Bass has been out of print since 1998. A full update called State of Bass: The Breakbeat Era was due to be published in 2010.[2]