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Photek

11:40 / 09.10.04

I'm listening to Photek now, anyone ever heard this music? I bet you have and don't even know it. You know Blade, where Deacon Frost, (Stephen Dorff) is sat in the library listening to that Techno tune? Well that's Photek.

This stuff is so awesome that there's no possible way words can describe it........no, there's no way.

Anyone got any Photek albums then?

Oh the shivers this stuff gives me....

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13:06 / 10.10.04

Yep, he's the boy with the anal obsession for programming that just makes me say 'Thanks, geeky bloke!'

The Hidden Camera EP is essential. And all his early releases...Pre 'UFO', which is when he really found his stride leading up to 'Hidden Camera'...Ni Ten Ichi Ryu is just the most unbelievably demented shit ever...Used to love seeing people dance to it in clubs around London...Looked like marionettes being played with by an epileptic in the middle of a seizure.

He really does have a way with tinkering doesn't he? Very, very deep programming, far too boring to actually do, and yet he does it. Thanks Rupert!

08:16 / 11.10.04

Parkes is one of my top five favourite drum programmers, period. I think I have almost everything he's put out on CD, and his breaks are of the highest, bonkers obsessive quality. They twist and writhe around, the virtual drumstick never falling in the same place twice, yet far more cohesive than Aphex' aproach. I love the spectrum between wet and dry reverbs to add chasms of depth. No one consistently programs with so much sense of space, time and movement. His later stuff is very different but no less absorbing, much more techno and house.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

10:36 / 12.10.04

Is he still signed to Sony?

They've dumped just about everything and everyone else.

Shit, I haven't been record shopping for agaes.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:34 / 12.10.04

I bet you have and don't even know it.

Doesn't it say something like this on the adverts for The Very Best Of Photek? "You know more Photek songs than you think you do..."?

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17:19 / 12.10.04

Now That's What I Call Photek!

Summer Photek Party 04!

The Best Photek Album in the World - Ever!

and so on.

04:28 / 13.10.04

Doesn't it say something like this on the adverts for The Very Best Of Photek? "You know more Photek songs than you think you do..."?

I don't know I've never seen any adverts for Photek, I just know that I need all of his albums. I didn't know he had that many and was surprised when I searched on the HMV site. I'm still new to his tunes, but I love them and need more ASAP.

I thought this thread would just sink, it's good to know that there's more fans of his music here.

14:01 / 13.10.04

Look on Soulseek, too. You'll find a million and one tunes that aren't available on CD.

14:55 / 13.10.04

i remember i used to really like one of his which is basically just four minutes of kung-fu punching sounds and people going 'hai', 'cha' etc.

tried listening to it again not so long ago. ooch. his less tryhard pieces are top dancefiller rollocks though.

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:01 / 13.10.04

i remember i used to really like one of his which is basically just four minutes of kung-fu punching sounds and people going 'hai', 'cha' etc.

Ha, me too, but this was at the same time I was listening to the Wu-Tang Clan and basically no other contemporary rap at all.

Ouch. Cringe. Etc.

17:04 / 13.10.04

Actually listening to Photek when I found this thread...

If you can find it, the video for Ni Ten Ichi Ryu is incredible. It's two samurai fighting in time to the music.

Anybody know why everyone confuses Photek and Orbital all the time?

06:55 / 14.10.04

Does everyone confuse them all the time?

Excelsior!

08:54 / 20.05.05

I'm amazed how long it's been since I made this thread. I got around to buying Modus Operandi yesterday anyway, and I'm glad I got it, it seems like a great album.

The Hidden Camera is mentioned further up this thread, and that's the one that stands out a mile for me at the moment. It's the first track on the album, and as soon as I heard it I loved it. It's a really chilled out track but it's got beats in it that send your head all over the place. I usually tap away to the songs I'm listening to, but there's no chance with this one at all, it's just so complex. It arrives at places where the track seems to break down, and you wonder how he's going to pull it back, it loops and loops on the same beat pattern then changes to something completely different, and just as you think he's lost it the beats slide back in seamlessly and join the rest of the tune. It's awesome stuff. It's pretty entrancing aswell, I'm sure I'll be listening to it for a long time.

Two tracks from the album I already had a while ago when I downloaded some of his stuff, I'll still love to listen to them for ages I'm sure, and the rest of it sounds really cool too. I've only listened to most of it once so far, so when it starts growing on me I'm sure I'll love it even more.

I was gobsmacked when I saw that it's from 1997! I couldn't believe that. I'm about to check out what year Solaris is from and probably buy that soon because that was also in the shop in town, I'm sure I'll love that too.

Brilliant tunes, and I'll probably never get to tap along to them in time either, but I'm easily content with just listening.

09:58 / 20.05.05

It's KJZ from that album that really stands out for me. God that tune is fucking fantastic.

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11:19 / 21.05.05

That's the one he's referrring to, 1st track on Hidden Camera.

Very Lovely.

He was given those breaks by Kirk DiGiorgio, who's also a bit of a whizz programmer. Hence the title KJZ = Kirk's Jazz er Zomething. Worth tracking down Kirk DiGiorgio stuff if you like Photek, I think they collaborated on some stuff as well.

Check out his pseudonyms and alter ego's as well, there's loads of stuff out there. He had contemporaries as well, when I was collecting vinyl, I forget their name (records not with me at the mo) a duo who had a fucking awesome tune called 'The Black Rose'...they were prolific, did loads of stuff at the same time as him, and very similar feel. I'll dig out my crates and get back to you tomorrow, you'll love it.

15:35 / 21.05.05

It's KJZ from that album that really stands out for me. God that tune is fucking fantastic.

Yeah I liked that as soon as I heard it too, the drumming and baseline in it are brillaint.

That's the one he's referrring to, 1st track on Hidden Camera.

I meant the actual track Hidden Camera when I mentioned it, I think you mean the first track from the EP though. I just looked it up and it's the first on that. Thanks for the other info anyway, I was wondering why he'd not released much as Photek.

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08:54 / 24.05.05

Yeah, that other crew were called Source Direct. Fucking great tunes. Sometimes a bit less 'alien' and more 'crack comedown' that Photek, but very similar.

Also, you'll have to somehow find the stuff Photek released on Razor's Edge and Op ART records. There was this wee tune called T-Raenon parts 1&2 on the latter which is just so beautiful, and began the dpearture of little fluffy triplet breaks that he went through after the major darkness and obssessive licks of the first album (which I'm not that into any more...a bit too technical).

Check out Source Direct if you can.

11:21 / 25.05.05

Cheers, I'll probably do that as soon as I can. I'm going to get Solaris next and maybe QOTSA's new album or With Teeth by NIN, then I'll see about getting that. Thanks again for the help.

21:08 / 20.12.05

Well I've just got Solaris and it isn't what I was expecting. It's totally different. I haven't heard all of it yet but most of it sounds like more chilled out stuff, like mellow dance music and I wanted more of the same. :P

I just went to shop with the CD player and was listening to it, and after a few tracks I started panicking, so I skipped through some and ended up listening to the start of number 6, Infinity, which sounded more like what I wanted to hear. Then on the way back I actually listened to it and it was just fucking awesome! I really, really love that track. I quickly looked at an online review when I got back and found this comment, which sums it up perfectly I think :

the first half of Solaris exposes more intricate beats and uneasy contortions, the man refusing to compromise himself to a simple 4/4 beat, the only concession to drum’n bass being the chaotic Infinity, dropped like a bomb amongst the rest

That just seems to explain it perfectly. It's like the album contains this song in the middle that just........ha, I can't really describe it. It just seems to blow the rest of the tracks on either side of it away.

I'll keep the album though and it'll probably grow on me, but I could've got Form & Function and I'm now thinking that I really should have. I'll hopefully get it next week. Ha, I'm off to listen to Infinity again as soon as I've checked this post over, it's amazing.

04:18 / 21.12.05

No, you really want to get to grips with Solaris. It's what happens when Parkes stops showing off and starts getting soulful. Great record.

02:47 / 23.12.05

Yeah, I think I'm getting into it now, but I really didn't think I was going to at first.

The main problem was that I could hear house music in there, and even though I loved that type of music at one time, I really went off it when I started getting into heavier rock music. I made myself listen to one of the main house-type tracks tonight though, and I liked it quite a bit. Even though it was more or less a house track, it sounded like a really cool one. Tracks 1 and 2 are the ones that I got into first after 6, then a few more, and now I'm pretty much liking the album. I'm sure it'll carry on growing on me aswell so that's cool.

I got Form & Function though the next day, and that was the type of music that I was looking for, so I'm happy that I have both of them to listen to now. The Seven Samurai is a brilliant tune that I'll probably be listening to for a long time to come, and stuff like UFO is so original sounding that it makes having the album really worth it. I've still not listened to the whole of either album so there's still plenty of tunes to listen to and get into.

One thing I'm wondering about is what happened after he made Solaris.....I checked a couple of sites out and didn't find much though. I wonder if he has any more albums planned.

I visited http://www.photekproductions.com/ and another site that I can't remember the name of, but I didn't see anything about any albums I don't think. With the site above that I linked to though, it was really wierd for me to find some stuff about Teebee, because I'm after some of his music aswell. His stuff is really awesome, and the one old tape I have of a set he did on the breezeblock is easily up there with Photeks as some of the best sounding music I've ever heard.

I've had the tape for years and still get addicted to listening to it every now and then, it's amazing music. I'll be getting some of his music next I think, because between the both of them I'll easily be getting a good enough drum n' bass fix for a while to come. It made me realize how much of a small world it is when I saw Teebee on that site though, I guess that a lot of Photek fans will easily be familiar with him.

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18:59 / 27.12.05

Rupert has upped ship to LA LA land, where he now scores rather expensive Hollywood films.

Not bad for a Ginge from Stevenage. A bit of a shame for us fans of his records, but no doubt nice for him and his ladywife.

01:01 / 02.01.06

he still makes and DJ's drum'n'bass, though - plays up here in SF all the time...

08:23 / 02.01.06

Wow, well I hope he makes another album at somepoint, it'd be really cool to see what type of music he'd make for one nowadays.

Mikebee that sounds brilliant aswell, if only he'd come and play in Hull.