Photek – Natural Born Killa EP

Mariner_9 - you ask an interesting question. My copy appears to be in VG+ condition and would have been played only sparingly, yet has a lot of static. Does anyone else think this record has a lot of surface noise?

Curious if anyone has done a comparison of the sound quality on the originals vs. the re-masters...?

maybe i'm wrong but i'm convinced the pad on consciousness/into the 90s comes from dan curtin - spliffed, transposed -1.

Absolutely legendary release right here! I'm not too familiar with oldschool jungle/DnB, but this certainly seems to encapsulate the best that the genre has to offer as far as song writing and sampling go. Consciousness and The Rain both fall into my favourite DnB tracks, and Into the 90s is a nice little downtempo choon that takes some elements of Consciousness into a chill and playful halftime realm. Get yourself a copy if you haven't already!

The breakdowns on The Rain are easily some of the most beautiful in dnb/jungle. That bleepy melody, the sound of rain, shatner and a deep ass bass are all u need :0

That melody on "The Rain" is probably one of the best things I've ever heard.

Favourite jungle EP

One of Photeks best. Into the 90s is so cool, Consciousness took some getting used to at the time. Intelligent d&B at it's best.

This - 'Consciousness' - was a number I hearing down at "SPEED" i.e. Fabio and Bukem's night that used to be held down at the Mars Bar on Sutton Row just off Soho Square in London, countless times back in 1995/6...

Always mixed beautifully by Fabio into fresh cut dub-plates from the likes of the then hot producers - such as Danny C and Mike Pears a.k.a. Primary Motive, Wax Doctor, Alex Reece, Peshay, Justice, Subject 13, Big Bud, Carlito, Funky Technicians, Hidden Agenda, etc... - all these tracks were tending towards a more experimental drum & bass edge... But it was the beats from this track that, for the first time I can down at SPEED (as I was down there nearly every Thursday night, even if I had an exam the following day), totally hypnotised the whole venue into a frenetic movement of broken down, glitched out dancing. In fact, I Fabio doing a rewind on this track twice the first night I heard it down there... Not to mention I seeing Rupert Parks - a.k.a. Photek/Aquarius/Special Forces/Code Of Practice - standing there at the back of the club listening and watching the crowd's response. Obviously at the time, I had no idea it was his track that was being played... Otherwise I would have bought him a drink.

On the flip... We have another killer track, called 'The Rain.' This was another cut that was dropped countless times down at SPEED too... Again pushing those boundaries of beat manipulation into some fresh, well produced ruffage... You just gotta listen to these beats now and you can still hear that the way in which they're layered is something that many producers today have forgotten how to do. Seems people are more interested in immitating rather than originating.

Still... It was E.P.s like this that began to change and revolutionise the way in which drum & bass was being produced... These were fearless deviations from the mainstream amen break creations that were just being copied and copied by anyone wanting to give it a go... There, at SPEED, the funk was not forgotten... And it was there that we all had a chance to see the new horizons of limitless possibilities and endless arrays of novel breakbeat magic arise... Bits of magic that could be forged from scratch, if only one cared to diligently experiment and persevere beyond the call of duty. Yes, it was unique... And sure it was hard to break away from the mainstream back then... But then that's why you had to have a head of metal to succeed!

'Consciousness' is the main deal here with it's roaring flute and descending b-line matched with punchy beats. For me 'The Rain' also deserves a mention as it's shadowed by the above (which also appears on the Platinum Breaks complilation) The intro builds to the vocal 'and then the rain comes down' with some spooky effects and then breaks down into a moody b-line with intermittent bleeps and bongo hits. Darker than dark. 'Into the 90's' stands alone as a much more downtempo affair with an unmistakable bass guitar and similair effects to 'Consciousness'. What a diverse and sublime 12"