Jungle Brothers – Done By The Forces Of Nature

Just chiming in because several comments mention how the pressing is quiet. A lot / most of late 80s and early 90s hip hop vinyl had to be mastered this way because the total running times of albums had increased for the CD age, and the vinyl format can only really "safely" accommodate a 45-minute running time. Once you push beyond that limit, the grooves are getting closer together and the needle is more likely to not track well or jump out of the groove, especially with bass frequencies which we all know hip hop and rap has plenty of. One workaround for this was to make quieter pressings. De La Soul, Tribe had this issue as well. Of course the BETTER workaround, used in most reissues, is to just press them as double LPs and that way you don't have to compromise. And full disclosure, I only have this album on CD and not vinyl, but I think the general rule still applies. 3 Feet High & Rising, Low End Theory etc have running times of around 1 hour and IIRC this album does too.

I really thought this pressing would sound worse than it actually does. Yeah it's a bit quiet but so is the digital version as well. With a quiet preamp and the volume up it sounds quite good, maybe even better than the digital version.

I had this on CASSETTE in 1989, so didn’t experience any of the quiet pressing issues of the LP at the time. With those OG pressings the sheer length of this LP was always gonna have issues. The solution? Get your hands on one of the Get On Down 2 x LP pressings. I did, and it sounds GREAT! An awesome LP, transcending the genre (I don’t have a lot of time for many hip hop LPs then or now) - like 3 Feet High and Rising it’s a snapshot of where hip music heads were at that time. Some (like myself) went down the House/ Disco route, others to hip hop, and some to techno. But in 1989 good music was good music - there were NO barriers separatring the genres.

A definate must for hip hop fans , its wicked !

One of the most creative hiphop albums of all times...

Possibly the quietest pressing ever committed to wax, and the biggest shame as it could't have happened to a better album. Mystical, spiritual genius beyond Africa, America and the whole planet... Childhood album full of memories, both of the music & what was going on growing up wise, the pain, the learning- and the beginning of unhealthy record collecting behaviour ;)

A Landmark Hip hop album IMO . From the funk to the positive vibes this one really seems timeless. I do miss the early Native Tongue Days!

I love this album - it is a brilliant progression for the JBs from 'Straight Out The Jungle' and the genre from the likes of '3 Feet High..' But I always find it ultimately an unrewarding listening experience, because the album is so poorly recorded / mastered or something. It sounds like you listen to it through a wad of cotton wool. It sounds shit. What a shame.

Wow, can't believe no one's written a review of this amazing LP! I listened to this pretty much continuously from 1989 through 95 or so, along with Low End Theory and 3 Feet High and Rising. I still go back to it, even more than those other albums, every few months. And every time I listen to it, I'm moved and inspired to groove, dance and create music. Awesome, that's the only way I can describe the positive, knowledgeable message set to real soulful and banging classic hip hop music.

There was a lot of talk about turntablism as an art a few years back. Listen to the sampling and overall production of this album and you will get a valuable lesson in the fundamentals of not only hip hop but of post-80's music, period! The samples flow seamlessly with the live instruments and vocals. Think Billy Squire beats with Lonnie Smith organ samples overlayed with minor key saxes and vocal samples for choruses, all in a Terminator X 48-track style.

The lyrics are funny and intelligent, beautiful even. Maybe it's because I've listened to it straight through thousands of times, but I can pretty much recite the whole LP and it's kind of like one long song, even though there are a lot of guest rappers. They don't make albums like this anymore! Check it out if you missed it.