Jungle ride a wave of momentum for Reading 2014 set

Jungle’s rise from blog-friendly nobodies to a genuinely big deal took just over a year, but in relative terms this set had a little longer before it kicked into full gear. Blame it on Sunday hangovers, or maybe the crowd’s dancing shoes’ desire to save itself up for a headline set from Disclosure tonight, but to begin with, the London collective don’t quite match the rapture previous festival slots have reached. They soon see to that.

Flexing songs from their self-titled debut album, the group begin with their traditional theme song before easing into ‘The Heat’. Bodies are raised on shoulders, screams wash through the NME/Radio 1 tent, but it’s in quieter numbers like ‘Lucky I Got What I Want’ and ‘Drops’ that they hit the spot. The latter especially gets raised to another level when the ever-active ’T’ - one of the brains behind the project - creates a wave of synth that threatens to topple the entire tent.

Eventually the hips shake and the feet get into gear. Jungle have that effect - resistance doesn’t tend to be an option, no matter how much dancing’s taken place across the previous two days. ‘Busy Earnin’’ and ‘Time’ are coupled up, and together they reach the frenzy this group always promise to prompt. “You’ve been fucking amazing,” shouts ‘J’ at the climax of ‘Platoon’, and by this point there’s no question Jungle have established themselves as R&L favourites. They’ll be back in a much bigger spot this time last year - no doubt about it.

Jungle played:

Smoking Pixels

The Heat

Lucky I Got What I Want

Julia

Drops

Time

Busy Earnin’

Platoon