Law – System X vs The Truper Mix

truperIf you haven’t worked out by now, I am a bit obsessive over Rupert Parkes’ AKA Photek’s early works in the first half of the 90s.
Some of his most elusive and hardcore drum and bass productions were not under the Photek moniker but recorded under a series of different names.

In this mix we feature probably his rarest and darkest works, under the guises of System X and The Truper.

System X was an early foray in what would become the style Photek would be famous for over the next couple of years. Dark and deep strings, cutting breaks and precision edits.
As System X he released three 12 inch’s on the same label 3rd Eye, including Mind Games (Dub Mix) which was a favourite of LTJ Bukem, as well as Mind Games / Say It VIP which remains sadly unreleased.
These productions laid the foundation for the Truper releases….

The Truper, an anagram of his first name, is perhaps Photek’s most elusive work. Phil Wells of Basement Records, an already established and self proclaimed ‘jungle techno’ label, launched a new imprint called Street Beats to push the emerging deep ‘drum and bass’ sound that was coming out of jungle, pioneered by the likes of Good Looking and Lucky Spin.

Basement Phil explains how his meeting with Photek came about, and the legendary Truper series were born.

I heard a track ‘System X’ on the TelTels label and found out through Ray Keith it was a new artist called Rupert Parkes aka The Truper aka The Sentinel aka Photek. He was making the very sound I was trying to break through whilst the Jungle thing was blowing up LITERALLY!
At that time I had decided to stop distributing Jungle & Rave and concentrate on a new sound that was emerging DnB, when I was trying to sell these new tunes shops used to say “Phil don’t like this new stuff but we like you, so we will buy a couple of each to keep you going”
So I arranged to meet Rupert and told him I thought he was extremely talented and the only thing was the production sound was poor so I would like to back him. So I gave him a few thousand pounds so he could sort out his studio, the result? he brought me 12 awesome tunes.

source

The most infamous track out of these studio sessions is probably Truper Volume 2, Side B. This amen and flute combo ended up on on Coldcut’s 70 Minutes Of Madness mixtape on the Journey By DJ’s label.

It’s fair to say none of these six slabs of jungle drum and bass will ever end up on our Bargain Jungle feature, with the Truper releases especially selling for astronomical prices. But after several years of patience, I managed to track them all down without paying through the nose. I think The Truper Vol 2 was my biggest ‘investment’ at £25.00 a few years ago, which seems  like a bargain by today’s rates.

Anyway, to the mix. System X vs The Truper, mixed and selected by Law…..

01. System X – Feel It – 3rd Eye
02. The Truper – Vol 3 B – Street Beats
03. System X – Mindgames (Dub Mix) – 3rd Eye
04. The Truper – Vol 2 A – Street Beats
05. System X – Say It – 3rd Eye
06. The Truper – Volume 1 A – Street Beats
07. System X – Got To Believe – 3rd Eye
08. The Truper – Volume 3 A – Street Beats
09. System X – Metamorphasis – 3rd Eye
10. The Truper – Volume 2 B – Street Beats
11. System X – Move Yourself – 3rd Eye
12. The Truper – Volume 1 B – Street Beats

This is just one of a series of ‘All Photek Mixes’ I have uploaded over the years. Be sure to check out…
Biography Of Photek Mix
Aquarius vs The Sentinel
Complete Photek Recordings Mix

About Law

Main author and creator of Drumtrip. I have been listening to and mixing drum and bass in its various forms since 1998. Drumtrip was designed to celebrate the glory years between 1991 and 1997.