Barong Family mainstay and jungle terror creator Wiwek brings back his Jungle Terror EP series with Volume 5 today, May 3. This is the 10th anniversary of the series and the first Jungle Terror EP since 2020.
If you’re unsure of what jungle terror is, it’s the genre that Wiwek pioneered that combines “offbeat kick drums, dissonant lead synths, and tribal drum and animal sounds.” The name originated from Wiwek’s SoundCloud days when he had to tag songs with a genre and none of the other labels fit.
The first Jungle Terror EP was released on October 6, 2014. It leaned more into the trap genre and was at a slower BPM than the subsequent Jungle Terror EPs. Over the years, Wiwek has developed his sound and honed in on his production techniques. Vol. 4 was more house-influenced while Vol. 5 sounds more like techno.
Wiwek has continued to innovate and evolve the jungle terror sound with whatever subgenre of EDM is currently the most popular. There are four tracks on Jungle Terror, Vol. 5, and all four bring the energy that Barong Family releases are known for. “Sirens” was released as a single ahead of the EP and is most representative of the jungle terror sound.
“Crash The Party” also has the old Wiwek vibes, incorporating timbales, a trappy baseline, and his beat tag. “Cola” features vocals from Dutch singer/songwriter Emy Perez and a four-on-the-floor techno beat with a booming kick. “Scream” was the most interesting track on the EP to me. It’s a collaboration with bass producer Holly. The synths throughout have an early hardcore or gabber quality to them. The second half of the song changes direction, going into a progressive house breakdown before making a U-turn back to how the track started.
Wiwek described the evolution of his latest EP saying, “Jungle Terror EP, Vol. V is a collection of songs I’ve been playing a lot in my sets. The idea at first was to just have fresh tunes for my DJ sets. When I noticed that the first Jungle Terror EP came out in 2014 it felt like a cool idea to do a new one 10 years after the first one. I owe a lot to these series and it was fun to still be creative with it after all these years.”
Keep up with everything Wiwek has going on by using the links below. Be sure to check out the rest of the hard dance tracks dropping this week by following Moon Lvnding’s New Music Friday Heat playlist on Spotify.
