Jack Stevens, better known by his stage name Sully is a

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

DJ and producer from

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, England. He is best known for his contribution to the 2020s increase in jungle music popularity.

Early life

Prior to his electronic music career, Sully worked a nine-to-five job at the UK post office, whilst playing in Leicestershire metal band Niroth. Following the separation of this band, Sully learned to produce electronic music.

Career

Sully established his name in the UK bass music scene in the late 2000s, releasing

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

and

UK garage UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house and jungle production methods, but also incorporates elements from ...

on several UK labels including Second Drop and Frijsfo Beats. His early releases was characterised by a

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that uses drum breaks, often sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as Florida breaks, hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat ...

-led approach to garage production. In 2011, he released his debut LP ''Carrier'' on Keysound Recordings. The album was noted to span a wide range of tempos and styles, and influences from the

footwork Footwork may refer to: * Footwork (cricket) *Footwork (dance) *Footwork (genre), a genre of electronic music, also known as juke *Footwork (martial arts) Footwork is a martial arts and combat sports term for the general usage of the legs and ...

genre which was beginning to rise in popularity in the UK. His follow up album ''Escape'' was released in September 2017 on Keysound Recordings. The album expressed a selection of styles including

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust Music * Grime music, a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * "Grime", a 2023 song by Macklemore from ''Ben'' * "Grime", a 2024 song by Kittie from ''Fire ...

and breakbeat infused dubstep. In 2018, Sully launched his own record label, Uncertain Hour, to publish his own releases on. Although his early releases were popular within the UK underground scene, he was not able to pursue music full time until the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Following a significant revival of interest in Jungle at this time, Sully was able to resign from his role at the post office and pursue professional music full-time. His 2021 single "5ives" received widespread attention and was played out by several DJs for its energy and positive reception on the dancefloor. DJ and production duo

Bicep The biceps or biceps brachii (, "two-headed muscle of the arm") is a large muscle that lies on the front of the upper arm between the shoulder and the elbow. Both heads of the muscle arise on the scapula and join to form a single muscle belly ...

closed their

Printworks Printworks may refer to: *Printworks (London), a nightclub and events space in Rotherhithe *The Printworks (Manchester), an entertainment venue *Printworks Campus, of the Leeds City College {{DEFAULTSORT:Printworks, The ...

headline set with the song. Over the next few years, Sully continued to release music on a wide range of labels including Fracture and Neptune's Astrophonica. He collaborated with a wide range of jungle artists including

Tim Reaper Tim Reaper is a DJ from London specializing in jungle music. He is regarded as one of the key figures of the genre's revival between the late 2010s and early 2020s. His label Future Retro London, originally conceived as a night club, won the Brea ...

, Coco Bryce and Dwarde. The four artists also toured together playing back-to-back in 2023, which included a performance at

Boomtown A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although t ...

festival. In 2022, he collaborated with Nikki Nair and Fracture by releasing a breakbeat sample pack in support of the homeless charity

Shelter A shelter is an architectural structure or natural formation (or a combination of the two) providing protection from the local environment. A shelter can serve as a home or be provided by a residential institution. It can be understood as both ...

. In 2025, Sully released "Modal Collapse", which was the inaugural release on the newly founded

Fabriclive From November 2001 to November 2018, the London nightclub fabric ran a monthly mix compilation series. Mixed by a variety of emerging and established DJs, the two series were entitled ''fabric'' and ''FABRICLIVE'' respectively. The compilation ...

record label run by London club Fabric. The release was widely successful, and reached the UK top 40 peaking at number 39.

Musical style

Sully's earlier

and

releases were noted for an unusual blend of influences including

future garage Future garage is a genre of electronic music that incorporates a variety of influences from UK garage and softer elements from 2-step garage, leading to an off-kilter rhythmic style. Characteristic sounds are pitched vocal chops, warm filtered ree ...

UK funky UK funky (sometimes known as UKF or funky) is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England that is heavily influenced by soca, soulful house, tribal house, funky house, UK garage, broken beat and grime. Typically, UK funky ...

and

. Sully has been noted as approaching jungle production in an atypical way. His music is often characterised by pitching and phasing of the drums to use them as a melodic instrument. He was unsure on how this unorthodox approach would be received with his audience. He predominantly works in

Renoise Renoise is a digital audio workstation (DAW) based upon the heritage and development of tracker software. Its primary use is the composition of music using sound samples, soft synths, and effects plug-ins. It is also able to interface with MID ...

, a

digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation (DAW ) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pr ...

heavily inspired by tracker software. The use of this software allows him to take a more detailed approach to sequencing, and has been popular amongst jungle artists. Sully intentionally keeps a minimal setup, since selling much of his hardware after starting a family, he prefers to work on his music solely on his laptop which allows for greater versatility and freedom in the creative process.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Carrier'' - 2011, Keysound Recordings * ''Escape'' - 2017, Keysound Recordings

Selected singles and extended plays

* "Soundboy Don't Push Your Luck" / "368ft High And Rising" - 2018, Foxy Jangle{{Cite web , last=Hindle , first=Ben , date=2018-03-08 , title=Premiere: Sully 'Soundboy Don't Push Your Luck' , url=https://djmag.com/content/premiere-sully-soundboy-dont-push-your-luck , access-date=2025-07-07 , website=DJ Mag , language=en * ''Swandive'' - 2020, Astrophonica * "5ives" / "Sliding" - 2021, Over/Shadow * "Model Collapse" / "The Wash" - 2025,

References

External links

AllMusic

Discogs
Living people Jungle musicians Electronic dance music DJs English drum and bass musicians Musicians from Norwich