#63

#63. Tash Sultana - Jungle (#3, 2016)

8th of 2016

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I've said before that I find an artist's earliest impression to be fundamentally interesting. Often times you know where you stand with them in the long run, but the first time they come up, you're making some sort of decision as to whether or not you ride with them. It's something that with hindsight can look a little surprising. I know I look at Hottest 100s that I didn't witness in the moment, and it's full of all these isolated moments with artists that ultimately are on the mid-tier popularity scale but they just have this big one time awakening where seemingly everyone is capable of being on board.

I look at the 2001 countdown, and honestly you can use the sentiment for nearly every artist that's up there, but the one I find the most interesting is "Betterman" by the John Butler Trio. It's the first of many appearances for them, a legacy that runs all the way forward to 2013 (#810). It's not even their biggest hit in the end, but it's the most interesting result. If you look at the top end of the list, John Butler's contributions afterwards are largely treading the well trusted ground that "Zebra" set up. Extremely radio friendly, poppy songs. "Betterman" is an over 8 minute monster that stands alone simply because it was never re-created (although there are longer songs on that particular album). The song isn't without its appeal, but seeing it where it is on the list is such a shock to my system having only known what came after it. You look at John Butler from the lens of 2001 when he's basically only known for this and it's interesting to imagine the outlook of voters then. They might have thought they found the next big thing, and perhaps they were right although it panned out a little differently in the end.

I had an easier time piecing this together in 2016 when I felt like I witnessed the same thing all over again. Here comes Tash Sultana out of nowhere in 2016 and suddenly they're right up in the thick of it in this list. Hilltop Hoods' highest charting single of all time on the ARIA Chart? (#599) Get to the back of the line because this quirky guitar jam called the spot first. "Jungle" didn't even make the ARIA Chart until after the countdown happened so it doesn't even feel like a bandwagon as much as it is a very enthusiastic crowd who were instantly hooked. It's easy to see why. "Jungle" is one of those songs that can't help but stand out, with its pervasive, duelling guitar riffs and for better or worse, memorable scat-singing.

It's one of those songs, like "Betterman" that as an introductory statement, opens up a vague pathway for what Tash Sultana's music is supposed to be about. This is a song that is entirely instrumental for just shy of two whole minutes at the start, which is more than long enough to raise some eyebrows, the way hearing something that doesn't quite fit in with what you're used to tends to do. Unlike John Butler, the trajectory since this has been a little less clear cut. For all the more radio friendly follow ups we got (#302) (#773), we also weren't lacking for songs that felt like odysseys in one way or another (#290) (#951). I should acknowledge that "Jungle" did get a radio edit which just cuts down the song's intro to 40 seconds. If memory serves me correctly, it was actually a double-edged sword at the time because after the Hottest 100 when the song could've been primed to reach the Spotify top 50 (a big deal at the time and I'll get into it on a later entry), it never got there because its streams were being split between the two versions. I don't even think people necessarily wanted the radio edit, but somewhere along the way, that's the version that was put on Australia's biggest playlist. The song still fared fairly well, reaching the top 40 and so far being certified triple platinum (probably up to quadruple now). I find myself thinking about the intangible importance of maximising your potential when you've got the most eyes on you though.

While I didn't vote for it myself, I was one of those people who were very quickly charmed by "Jungle" when I first heard it. It's the holy grail I find myself comparing the rest of Tash's discography to, and it's just such a hard bar to clear. A song that's over 5 minutes long could run the risk of overdoing it, but there isn't a moment of this song that I feel is wasted. It's all a very steady process of easing in the listener, occasionally blasting them with something new (it's easy to notice the rapid fire second verse, but it's all building up tension to the big drum break that comes afterwards), but recoiling back to the elements that work each time. There's also just a huge (though brief) guitar solo at the end that reminds me of "Hotel California", John Mayer on Frank Ocean's "Pyramids", all the classics.