Edited 17 years ago
12 tracks in 2 years by Photek on his first own label which shares its name with Parkes' (now) most famous pseudonim. The name 'Photek' was actually first used for the label and was only later adopted by the artist. I feel that collectively these tracks are the producer's best output, and represent Photek's strongest contribution to jungle.
There simply is not a single weak track here over the six 12"s and although the more well known are 'UFO', 'Rings Around Saturn', 'The Seven Samurai' and, arguably 'The Water Margin', all tracks feature creative sampling and ridiculously intricate work with breaks, whilst all retaining the dancefloor edge. Harder tracks, such as the above mentioned 'The Water Margin' and 'The Lightning' are present on these releases together with softer, more atmospheric material such as 'Complex' and 'Fusion', but the quality on this label is universal.
A common, perhaps coincidental theme here is science and planetology, as evident from track titles. As such i think of Photek's approach to music during this time as scientific, which stands in contrast to much of the mediocre ragga-jungle output in the genre at the time. The quality of artwork across these releases further established 'Photek' as a truly special label.
The 'Photek' label, apparently launched by Parkes with a loan from the Prince of Wales Youth Business Trust shows the quality control rarely seen in jungle/dnb, with all releases being collectable material for old skool jungle heads.
I didn't realise i only had 1 release missing from this set. A true Genius of that era. A real mature sound at the time.