Grooverider’s seminal label ‘Prototype’ had a huge influence on the progression of D&B in the mid 90s; from its humble beginnings in 1994 and Rider’s early work as Codename John, up until the turn of the millenium when Bad Company released the anthemic ‘Planet Dust’. But it was also as elusive as it was influential.

Unreleased Photek

If you look down the catalogue numbers for Prototype releases, you’ll notice a few are missing, in this case “PRO006”.

In 1994/1995 Photek was churning out razor sharp, amen fueled D&B by the bucket load. Around this time it looks as if the great ‘Rider signed several tracks to Prototype. The tracks in question were Feeling Up, Flavour Of A Sound, One Nation and Say It. There has been much internet discussion in the years since, but according to rumour (and rumour only) the releases might have been like so..

• PRO003 – Flavour Of A Sound / Feeling Up
• PRO006 – One Nation / Say It

If you are reading this, you probably know that neither of these release ended up in the shops for whatever reason. PRO003 never even got as far as test presses so it seems, but there are some lucky blighters out there with a few early copies of PR006.

The tune in question, Say It, is not to be confused with the Photek tune of the same name (under his System X alias) on Entity Records from 1994. Whilst I have read that some people seem to think the version on the video below is actually a 1995 mix, I can’t quite see the similarities that make this a remix – to me it seems like a stand alone tune.

One Nation did eventually see a release on Photek’s Form & Function Vol 2 LP in 2007 along with another unreleased track entitled ‘Saturated Hip Hop. But of the four tracks I listed, to this day, One Nation remains the only one ever officially released.

Sadly, it remains highly unlikely any of these will ever see the light of day as presumably the DATs are long gone. Bukem can still be caught spinning his dubs of Flavour Of A Sound / Feeling Up on occasion, but unfortunately that might be the closest we ever get to them. However, not all is lost as some generous individual, lucky enough to own a test press of PRO006, has shared WAVs of his recordings, get it while you can!

The post Photek – Say It [Prototype Recordings] appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

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

The post Law – System X vs The Truper Mix appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

This happened

“There was a period (roughly) between 1993 to 96 where jungle was not only atmospheric or dark, but it had an other worldly, sci-fi feel. Labels like Deejay, Lucky Spin, Legend, Timeless, Rugged Vinyl and others captured this spacey, blissed-out vibe. A quality that now seems more or less extinct within the contemporary drum and bass scene.

I tried to select tunes for this mix that represent the broad spectrum of this sound. With brooding, dark tracks like ‘Fury’ and ‘Genesis Project’ to the more calming, deep sounds of ‘Intalect’ and ‘Traveling Pt 2’.

There is a feeling of nervous mystery and wonder to these tunes, as if they could be the soundtrack to that part of a sci-fi film where the human protagonists discover a new world, a mystery accelerated by the fact that these sounds now only exist in the past.”

01. Lucida – Tunnel Vision – Production House
02. Chuck E – Fantasy – White House
03. Mysteron – U Don’t Know – Timeless
04. D.O.P.E. – Travelling Pt 2 – Good Looking
05. DJ Monita – The Party (Remix) – Skeleton Recordings
06. Skanna – Greatest Thing – Skanna
07. DJ Pulse – Stay Calm (Foul Play Remix) – Moving Shadow
08. Rufige Kru – Fury – Moving Shadow
09. DJ Fokus – Trigger Happy – Lucky Spin
10. DJ Fokus – Pulse – Lucky Spin
11. Intense – The Genesis Project – Rugged Vinyl
12. Orca – Intalect – Lucky Spin
13. Sounds Of Life – Don’t Resist The Beat – Certificate 18
14. System X – Move Yourself – 3rd Eye
15. The Invisible Man – The Beginning – Timeless

The post Law mix for Two Hungry Ghosts appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.