Review
Genre and Mood
The Colorist Orchestra and Emilíana Torrini play Jungle Drum as indie pop handed to a small orchestra that draws on world music: joyful, playful and, in the strings, euphoric. One reviewer summed up the arrangement as finger-clicking, foot-stomping joy.
Song Summary
Jungle Drum was Torrini’s biggest hit, a 2009 single written with her producer Dan Carey. Here it is rebuilt from the ground up. NPR’s Michelle Mercer heard homemade percussion and a line doubled on piano and bass deepening the groove, with strings accentuating the euphoria, and noted that even when the players break the song down, they never lose its original dancing beat. At 2:46 this version runs about half a minute longer than the original single.
Musical Breakdown
No source walks through this recording part by part, so this follows the elements the reviews name.
The Beat
The beat comes from the ensemble’s percussion, played on traditional and self-designed instruments, and the song’s pulse survives the change.
The Doubled Line
Piano and bass play one line together, and that doubling is what gives the groove its depth.
The Strings and the Breakdown
The strings push the song’s euphoria further, and when the band breaks the song down, the dancing beat stays.
Concepts in Focus
This is an alternate version: the same singer and the same song, a different arrangement. Play it next to the 2009 single and listen for how much of its mood came from production rather than melody.
It is also a live recording. The album captures the collaboration on stage, strings and woodwinds played live.
Its groove shows that a dance beat lives in how parts lock together, not in a drum kit: percussion and a doubled bass line keep the song moving. Compare Wax Tailor – Que Sera - Phonovisions Symphonic Version, another song rebuilt for live players.
Artistic Context
The Colorist is a Belgian ensemble founded in 2013 by the multi-instrumentalists Aarich Jespers and Kobe Proesmans to reinterpret singers’ songs, a method it calls an acoustic live remix or inverse karaoke. Its eight players use percussion, prepared piano, bass, bass clarinet, violin and viola alongside stones, mirrors and glass bowls. Torrini, its dream collaborator, toured with it from 2015; Rough Trade released the live album on 9 December 2016.
Impact and Reception
The original Jungle Drum spent eight weeks at number one in Germany. Blogcritics called this reworking one of the album’s liveliest tracks, and the partnership continued with a studio album, Racing the Storm, in 2023. Start here, then play the original.
