Photek: Classic or Dud?

Yeah, I'd have to agree.

Title: Baltimore
Label: Photek Productions
Artist: Photek

Pounding vintage Bluenote biznizz picked up by Dom & Roland, Tech Itch, Teebee and Friction and all courtesy Photek.

I have this track on an MTV drum n bass compilation I inherited, and it's okay. I've had a couple MRI's done and some of the sounds are similar (though I still think the MRI experience is more intense).

photek = sort of underrated at this point. remember, for a while he was pretty much the only person not using a palette of straight amen and think breaks.

pale scrawny white guys are always always always classic

Hahaha this might be why people aren't holding him in higher esteem.

I think the main reason was that he came off as so dry and serious.

I don't remember "Relics", but "Presha III" and "Jump (MK2)" are both pretty good.

Goldie's best moments often = Rob Playford's best moments. Whereas Photek's best moments = Rupert Parkes imagination.

Yeah yeah yeah and it's all Nico Sykes too and blah blah blah. Maybe Rupert might have benefited from an engineer.

wrong and insane

A lot of his stuff is fantastic though, yeah. I'd say his golden period was '95-'96 - ie. the golden age of the "Metalheadz" sound but just before Modus Operandi.

nothng but piles of asian drums on top of one another. nothing to do but twitch like a jellyfish on a butcher block

wow, probably the truest thing i ever said on ilm

some dude called "the law" assembled this all photek 93-97 mix. makes a pretty damn good case for photek's brilliance.

01.. Photek - Third Sequence - Astralwerks [1996]
02.. Studio Pressure - Jump Mk II - Certificate 18 [1993]
03.. Goldie - Still Life (Photek Remix) - Razors Edge [1995]
04.. Studio Pressure - First Sequence - Photek [1994]
05.. The Truper - Vol 1 A - Street Beats [1994]
06.. System X - Mind Games (Dub Mix) - Entity [1994]
07.. Photek - Consciousness - Metalheadz - [1994]
08.. Photek - The Hidden Camera (Static Mix) - Science [1996]
09.. Photek - Ni Ten Ichi Ryu - Science [1997]
10.. Studio Pressure - The Water Margin - Photek - [1995]
11.. Photek - One Nation - Sanctury [1997/2007]
12.. Phaze 1 - Natural - Timeless [1995]
13.. Aquarius - Drift To The Centre - Looking Good [1995]
14.. Code Of Practice - Infiltrate - Certificate 18[1995]
15.. The Truper - Vol 2 B - Street Beats [1994]
16.. The Sentinel - Pulse Of Life - Basement[1994]
17.. Therapy? - Loose (Photek Remix) - A&M [1995]
18.. EZ Rollers - Rolled Into One (Photek Remix) - Moving Shadow [1996]
19.. Everything But The Girl - Single (Photek Remix) - Virgin [1996]
20.. Photek - Rings Around Saturn - Photek [1996]

go geddit here: http://drumandbassmixes.com/thelaw.htm

is burial the new photek?

yes ... sort of

I like "Two Masks" but think "Black Domina" is a slightly better version of the same thing (both are miles better than "Capital D" or most of Exorcise the Demons. My favourites are "Enemy Lines" and even more so "Computer State", which takes the carefully arranged compulsive fucked-up-ness to its greatest height I think. "Two Masks" verges on fiddly.

Kind of odd to think that both Photek and Source Direct, before they established the sound(s) for which they're still known, were making floaty melodic mash-ups for Certificate 18 as Studio Pressure and Sounds of Life respectively. An LTJ Bukem mix I have from 1994 actually transitions from Sounds of Life's "Release The Bells" to Studio Pressure's "Relics". These records have a very similar vibe - actually the entire Bukem mix (on Fantazia Takes You Into The Jungle 2) is like an advert for the early Certificate 18 sound, moreso than the smoother Good Looking blueprint of the same period.

Bukem agressively cutting 'Can we change the future' (Sound of life remix) into the preceding track (Funky Technicians' - Airtight) on his Mixmag live mix is up there as one of my favourite d&b moments. I never seem to tire of that transition.

Here's a Kryptic Mindz and Leon Switch track "Ocean Blue" from their album of last year. The rhythms on this are pretty amazing, if a lot like "Black Domina" or "Two Masks":

http://www.zshare.net/audio/97808377286d72/

Bukem agressively cutting 'Can we change the future' (Sound of life remix) into the preceding track (Funky Technicians' - Airtight) on his Mixmag live mix is up there as one of my favourite d&b moments. I never seem to tire of that transition.

-- sam500

http://www.sendspace.com/file/1vsa6g

Like the housey photek stuff.

Solaris never gets the props it deserves. Fuck those spoddy D&B purest wankers.

yes!

erm, "purest wankers". Now there's an image for ya

it gets the props it deserves for an album with 2 great tracks on it.

I can concede that "Junk" meanders a bit but this is an album that manages to cover all bases and never sounding awkward or disjointed.

I really can't understand what people have against it. The menace of his ealier stuff being stripped away perhaps? Why does it always have to be about dark vibes?

Some people hate pretty tepid house music (generally) and Robert Owens (specifically) is what they have against it.

Wow I don't remember hearing that LTJ Bukem mix, but I have definitely heard that transition before. Now I have to find that mix to figure out if it was something I may have recorded off the radio in like '97.

That album is worth it just for Mine To Give

"Goldie's best moments often = Rob Playford's best moments."

Yeah yeah yeah and it's all Nico Sykes too and blah blah blah. Maybe Rupert might have benefited from an engineer.

-- Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Saturday, 9 July 2005 16:52 (3 years ago) Link

"Goldie's best moments often = Rob Playford's best moments. belong to 4 Hero"

t'raenon sooooooooooo nice... my least favorite photek record for a long time but i am loving it these days.

Has this been posted before? All Photek mix courtesy of Bailey on BBC 1xtra. Fine stuff - some of which I'd never even heard before.

http://www.mediafire.com/?yufyqxitmm0

Truper - Volume 2 (Street Beats)
Studio Pressure - Jump Mark 2 (Certificate 18 Records)
System X - Mind Games (3 rd Eye)
Aquarius - Drift To The Centre (Looking Good)
Studio Pressure - Fusion (photek)
Aquarius - Dolphin Tune (Good Looking)
photek - Rings Around Saturn (photek)
photek - Say It (Prototype)
photek - Consciousness (Metalheadz)
Studio Pressure - Water Margin (photek)
photek - One Nation (Prototype)
photek - Seventh Samurai (photek)
photek - Still Life (Remix) (Razors Edge)
photek - Ni-Ten-Ichi-Ryu (Science)
photek - Knite Vision (Science)
photek - Something Else (Bleeps Tune) (photek Recordings)
photek - Tuesday (Dub)
Inta Warriors - Inta (Special Forces Remix) (Prototype)
photek - Aleph 1 (Science)

huh, I am really enjoying Solaris

it only took 13 years for me to get to this point

I know the best little Vietnamese cybercafe...

i haven't felt like listening to Solaris since it came out

I only played it because I remember the overall reaction to it being similar to the backlash reaction to RAM; unsurprisingly I am enjoying it a lot more than RAM so maybe I'll be in the mood to really dig that album in 2026

Why did you check it out (at the time and now) Dan I thought you disliked Photek?

What? I loved Photek up until Solaris came out; I bought "The Hidden Camera", "Ni-Ten-Ichi-Ryu", Modus Operandi and Form and Function when they were released. I think you are confusing me with someone else?

i dug it out, it's better than i remembered. it's weirdly all over the place tho.

the main reason I was not into Solaris was because I was so into the doomy drum n bass stuff he'd been doing before and was not at all in the mood to hear his take on loungy progressive house music

Okay must be confusing you with someone else from back in the old days.

i've still never heard this because i loooooved photek and haaaaated house music at the time.

I haven't talked about Photek all that much here, I admit, but I am pretty sure he was among the names I would regularly drop on a.m.a as someone I loved (I'm sure I talked about Squarepusher more, though)

Yeah one of the old regulars used to complain that i'd put them onto Photek with a description that sounded more exciting than the music actually was and I was like I mostly preferred Source Direct anyway.

haha OTM re: Source Direct

oh wow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyKuzY52hWU&feature=player_detailpage&list=PLUdmMccuxH2HJrCrFvMUa6g2VlyPvOpTI

Brilliant! He's such a lad/geezer/geek.

Never really stopped listening to KJZ and Mine to give since they came out, 17 and 13 years ago. Wowsers!

Really wish there was a 10 minute version of the track Solaris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV1MoazXFNM

I think my favourite Photek aliases are Studio Pressure for the smoother stuff and Truper for the all-out layered chopped Amen/Helicopter assaults.

fitting that the Photek doc clip there starts out like a car commercial

"Knightvision" aside (it's just okay in a moody 1998 2-step dancing thinkpiece kind of way) the "originals" half of Form & Function is pretty much unf***withable, amirite?

Esp the "Rings of Saturn" --> "The Water Margin" --> "UFO" final victory lap stretch.

yes sir

tho i pretty much love all of F&F tbh

Oh yeah the remixes are mostly fantastic too.

I was just thinking in the context of the discussion upthread, if someone wanted to "get" Photek, listening to the back half of Form & Function would be a much better option than listening to Modus Operandi (though I like MO too).

yes, forever. F&F was the only Photek record i owned and i listened to it to death. still sounds amazing.

was just bumping MO like 30 mins ago

watch straight ahead off my flashlight ... there it is again

watch straight ahead off my flashlight ... there it is again

Classic. If for that alone. It spookily moves me ,everytime

THIS TUNE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAZmerb5gS4

Should get around to a Photek POX.

Tentatively scribbled this ten down a while back.

Aquarius - Drift To The Centre
Studio Pressure - The Water Margin
Photek - Complex
The Sentinel - TouléPleu
The Truper - Volume 3 B
Photek - Rings Around Saturn
Photek - The Hidden Camera
Photek - UFO
Aquarius & Tayla - Soul Searching
Photek - Consciousness

God how I love Photek

If I hadn't seen the record with my own eyes I'd have thought this was a joke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3AVoBbzMsw

Going back to Form & Function, this is still *the* Photek album for me. I got it on cd from Best Buy in high school, I don't know if I had somehow heard of him or was looking for drum & bass albums and chanced upon it. Still sounds incredible.

Really enjoyed Philip Sherburne's Modus Operandi revisit, and going back to that record:
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/photek-modus-operandi/

Also I'm finally old enough to appreciate Solaris, especially if I just think of it as some house record. The blown-out quality of the kicks and basses is nice, and the dubbiness.

I just rediscovered his 2012 DJ Kicks mix , so nice

ooh, sounds like a good listen for the commute home

Pitchfork piece was great. There’s a lot of electronic music from the mid/late 90s that I loved desperately at the time. These days a lot of it feels… of its time. I don’t want to say they’ve aged poorly but I just can’t separate them from their era (Squarepusher, u-Ziq, Bukem, Roni Size and others). All these years later this particular Photek album still captivates me. I always put it on when I really need to get into a state of intense focus (i.e. writing to deadline).