Artiste: Photek
Album: Natural Born Killa EP
Spotlight Track: Into The 90’s
Label: Metalheadz
Rupert Parkes from St Albans, England (and now residing in L.A., USA) aka Photek, was perhaps one of the more influential figures responsible for shaping the drum n bass scene in the late 90’s. His trademark drum breaks and patterns have earned him the title of “Scientist” from the Hot-4-U crew and if our opinions don’t matter too much to you, Photek has also earned the respect of just about every drum n bass don. Legend. My spotlight for this session is a no-brainer, the weather has been particularly warm and wet, and the flu bug has got everyone paranoid, I myself am indoors from a long battle with a chronic cough and flu like symptoms, doc says it’s my sinus that drips into the throat, my lungs are healthy though. I’ve quit drinking, smoking and I’ve even been advised to quit the coffee. What??? So it’s obvious that the spotlight track would have to be “Into The 90’s” on the old school Metalheadz single 008 circa 1995.
“Into The 90’s” takes me back to the times when it was the 90’s, when the days weren’t as hot and the follies of youth meant you could get away with slacking the whole day… good times. The absolute chillness in this spotlight track is a far cry from Photek’s tendencies to throw in the amen jungle breaks. It’s a cool cool track for cool cool cats, every Puma Clyde wearing joe would concur. This was a beautiful era, with quality downtempo break tunes mostly from the UK, also check out London Funk Allstars.
Other seminal tracks would be everything else in his catalogue up to his solo album Solaris. He now produces hip hop for the MTV generation, but you can’t blame the man if he needs to upkeep his L.A. crib. My personal 3 other essential tracks from Photek would be T’raenon from the Op Art Records 001 (Kirk Degirgio’s label – try finding this one!), Infinity from the Solaris album, and One Nation, never released on Prototype.
Tangkap This!!!
-Kenny
