Photek

Though Goldie became the first superstar of jungle, the recordings of Rupert Parkes — as Code of Practice, Aquarius, Studio Pressure, the Truper, and Sentinel, but most famously as Photek — made him an easy pick for the style’s most artistic and intelligent producer. Working his way through street-level hardstep (on early productions for Certificate 18 and Street Beats) and airy, sub-aquatic “dolphin” tunes for L.T.J Bukem’s Good Looking label, Parkes finally arrived at a sound that pushed the bounds of drum’n'bass from the dancefloor into the realm of breakbeat head space. His incredibly intricate rhythm programming — often requiring weeks of computer preparation — and the unmissable aura of paranoid menace on recordings such as “The Hidden Camera” and “UFO” exerted quite an influence on the return of dark-style drum’n'bass during the late ’90s.