Do You Know (Intelligent Mix) - M-Beat feat. Jamiroquai (1996)

Groovy jungle production from a man who, after helping to popularise the genre, disappeared from the scene, featuring one of the most celebrated British vocalists of 1990s' dance floors

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I love it when artists from disparate scenes come together to create timeless music.

I love it even more when they already did it ages ago, and I’ve only just clocked it.

Jamiroquai and their vocalist Jay Kay were a mainstay of British dance music across the 1990s, pioneering acid jazz and funk before achieving unparalleled mainstream popularity and pop chart success.

Around the same time, M-Beat had helped to bring jungle into mainstream recognition, becoming most famous for his anthems ‘Incredible’ with MC General Levy and ‘Sweet Love’ with singer Nazlyn.

Their worlds merged when they collaborated for ‘Do You Know Where You’re Coming From?’, the first single on Jamiroquai’s classic, third album, Travelling Without Moving, in 1996 — which won a Guinness World Record for being the highest selling funk album of all time.

The original of the song peaked at number 12 in the UK singles chart, and later appeared on the B-side to Jamiroquai’s mega-hit ‘Virtual Insanity’.

At the same time, an offshoot of jungle and drum-and-bass called ‘intelligent’ — a cleaner, stripped-back and ambient version of the genre’s rough-and-rugged dance floor origins — became both popular and controversial.

It appealed to those who might want to hear the same shuffly drums and thumping bass at home — over a glass of wine or whilst lost in the exploratory introversion of a snow sports video game.

But it offended those who saw it as the watered-down, patronising derivative of a harder-core scene that had proudly sustained itself on a rave, DIY and pirate radio circuit and deserved its flowers.

Anyway, M-Beat released an intelligent version of ‘Do You Know Where You’re Coming From?’ which I actually prefer to the original.

It has jungle’s (albeit tempered) swagger but with extra delicate components: tweeting birds, faded vocal cuts from Jay Kay that let you feel the rhythm up closer, and ethereal, outer-space keys.

Sadly, M-Beat disappeared from the scene after changing British music forever — he was apparently homeless within months of this collaboration, whereas Jamiroquai soon went stratospheric — before popping up decades later, in 2022, with new music and an interview in DJ Mag.

This is one is perfect for kicking into gear on a relaxed summer’s evening.