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Photek is Rupert Parkes (born 1972, St Albans, England), a Los Angeles based record producer and dj. He joined the drum and bass scene relatively early (his first release was in 1992, a collaboration with Rob Solomon a.k.a. Lexis), and is still one of its most respected players. In the mid-to-late Nineties he was a very active remixer and has also done some soundtrack work, most notably for The Animatrix. His newest album in 6 years: "Form & Function Vol. 2" is set to be released in 2006.
Styles
His early tracks are somewhat ambient, but already feature the rhythm pattern of his seminal 1997 work Modus Operandi, which embodies most of his mid-nineties style: Atmospheric, but at the same time very cold and paranoid, consisting mostly of jazz-influenced, highly complex drum patterns and sequenced double bass lines, sometimes with minimalistic synth melodies on top. He is also influenced by traditional Japanese music, with song titles as Ni-Ten-Ichi-Ryu (2 Swords Technique) (named after the Hyoho Niten Ichi-ryu technique) and The Seven Samurai (named after the movie of the same name). His album Solaris (released in 2000) saw quite a bit of change to his music, with gloomy house tracks alongside free-form ambient noise and the usual snare drum attacks. It included the house single "Mine To Give" (featuring Robert Owens), which reached the top spot of Billboard magazine's "Hot Dance Music/Club Play" in 2001. After Solaris, he paid his way out of his contract with Virgin Records sublabel Science, and continues to release 12-inch singles on his own Photek Productions label.These tracks are more club-oriented and reminiscent of the recent work of Roni Size. Parkes also worked with Nine Inch Nails on the album With Teeth by providing additional programming on "All The Love In The World" and remixing the single "The Hand that Feeds", he's rumored to also have been working with Pharrell. His new album "Form & Function Vol. 2" is set for a summer 2006 release.
Other monikers
- Special Forces
- Studio Pressure
- Aquarius
- Sentinel
- The Truper
Album discography
- Risc vs. Reward (1997)
- Modus Operandi (1997)
- Form & Function, a collection of early work and remixes (1998)
- Solaris (2000)
- Form & Function Vol. 2 coming summer (2006)
See also
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart
External links
Electronic musicians | British record producers | British DJs | Remixers | British dance musicians
"Photek"