Goldie Puts Expert Spin on Jungle Sound

When it comes to the genre of electronic dance music known as jungle, monolithic rhythms are not only an asset but also a necessity. The music’s main objective is to deliver big, booming beats to the dance floor, preferably doled out in long, continuous sheets of sound. That’s why, of electronic music’s many subdivisions, jungle presents the biggest challenge for deejays in search of an identity. At the Viper Room on Monday, English deejay Goldie managed to leave his distinctive thumbprint on jams that morphed into various shapes but never neglected the primacy of the beat.

Although Goldie’s recent two-CD set “Saturnzreturn” is one of the most ambitious electronic albums of the year--containing an entire disc of lush symphonic music--Goldie wisely chose to keep it hard and fast at the Viper. Throttling the crowd with punishing break-beats and floor-rattling bass lines, Goldie dropped in off-beats and sample swatches as he saw fit while a rapper improvised a running ragamuffin commentary.

A remarkably fluid turntable manipulator, Goldie nudged and coaxed the beat into different contexts, dropping out the bottom one minute, then going exclusively with a bass line the next. String lines emerged from nowhere, then vanished; soaring, operatic vocals were used as connective tissue between musical sections.

But for all of Goldie’s obvious skill, he couldn’t hold the crowd for long. Patrons started trickling out 15 minutes after his set began, which only underscores the challenge electronic dance music still presents for even the most open-minded music fan.