Photek

Programmed breaks

Rupert Parkes was born on September 6, 1971 (the Wikipedia article gives St Albans in its text and Ipswich in its categories) and is based in Los Angeles. He began in hip hop and added soul and jazz, started on tenor saxophone, and by 1992 moved from sax to a sequencer. His first releases came in 1993 under other names: "Jump" as Studio Pressure, "Dolphin Tune" as Aquarius and "Pulse of Life" as the Sentinel. Touching Down... Planet Photek on his own label in 1994 was the first as Photek, and the Natural Born Killa EP on Goldie's Metalheadz was his breakthrough (dated 1995 by Wikipedia and 1994 by MusicBrainz). He told Line Noise that "U.F.O." with "Rings Around Saturn" was the first perfect record he made.

Signed to Virgin, he made The Hidden Camera (1996) for the Science imprint, and the debut album Modus Operandi, released in September 1997 (Astralwerks in the US), 70:12, produced by Photek, with ten tracks including "The Hidden Camera", "Smoke Rings", "Minotaur", "Axiom", "KJZ" and "The Fifth Column". It reached 30 in the UK. He told FACT in 2012 that he spent about three years developing the sound and a year thinking before making it, that Virgin gave him time and budget, the perfect deal, and that the title answered people asking him to define jungle: a way of programming sounds rather than instruments. He now feels some tracks have too many stuttering edits. Burial has cited its percussion as an influence, and FACT ranked it 81st among the best albums of the 1990s. Pitchfork gave it 9.3 in 1997 and 8.8 in 2024, the Guardian four stars and Muzik 9 out of 10.

Later work

Form and Function (September 14, 1998) is a compilation of remixes and originals; Solaris (2000) moved toward Chicago house and minimal techno, and Form and Function Vol. 2 followed in 2007. He has scored television and films, including season two of How to Get Away with Murder (2015) and the Mosul soundtrack (2019), and made music for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II in 2023. He was nominated for Grammys for best remixed recording in 2012 (Daft Punk's "End of Line"), 2013 (Moby's "Lie Down in Darkness") and 2014 (Bob Marley and the Wailers' "One Love/People Get Ready"), and has remixed David Bowie, Bjork and Goldie. He did Essential Mixes on December 28, 1997 and October 6, 2012, and in 2012 played a Modus Operandi set at Hospital Records' Hidden Depths party. Setlist.fm lists 22 sets from 1998 to 2026.