Photek - Solaris

Label: Science
Catologue Number: CDQED6
Format: CD
Date: 2000
Style: Breakbeat / Electro / Drum & Bass
Rating: 7/10
Reviewer: Sidney James

Photek (alias Rupert Parkes) second album sees him making a giant move away from the dark mathematical drum and bass approach of his debut album ‘Modus Operandi’. Where as this previous work has seen Photek lurking in shadowy alleyways twisting and distorting noir jazz breaks into new forms, ‘Solaris’ sees Parkes striding into the sunny uplands. Everything from the sleeve art featuring blurred pictures of palm trees and airport terminals indicates that Parkes has escaped the lure of the dark side. However when an artist’s previous work has been touched by blackness it is very hard for them to fully pull away from such devilish delights. All this makes ‘Solaris’ a strange enigma of an album. Although it seems to be a million miles away from the urban decay and paranoia sonically created by Photek on his earlier work, ‘Solaris’ is still tainted by the musical demons that forged those releases. Underneath the veneer of clear blue skies and palm trees lies the darker side of holidays in the sun; the sunburn and the drink, drugs and heat induced paranoia. ‘Solaris’ could be seen as the dark psychotic yang to the euphoric yin bliss of the Ibiza dance floors.

‘Solaris’ conceptually begins with the arrival at our holiday destination with the track ‘Terminus’. The track is underpinned by huge echoing metallic hip-hop beats that sound like they were recorded in a steel foundry. The beats are soon met by the sound of sampled jet engines and heavily delayed, distorted synth washes and strange compressed and backwards dragged electronic effects. The over all effect of the song is that it is futuristically claustrophobic, perfectly fitting the sterile environments of the track title.

If ‘Terminus’ heralds our arrival then ‘Junk’ represents the discovery that all is not right in paradise. The track itself is carried on a sea of buzzing tripping beats and a heavily filtered 303 bass line. On top of this surfs a simple electronic motif and a repeated dubbed out sample of a cry of ‘Jah’. The song moves forward with a powerful electronic rush before crashing down and building again around the dirt encrusted bass.

Just when it seems that Photek has recorded his version of Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ as seen from the eyes of a madman trapped on a Mediterrian package holiday, things begin to lighten with the arrival of ‘Glamarama’ and a huge change in the direction of the album. ‘Glamarama’ is a minimalist techno track, dominated by a heavy clonk beat and a low end 303 bass pattern. Layered over this are echoed synth sweeps and a sample of a woman speaking Spanish. (As my foreign language skills are poor, I have no idea what she is saying). After the rush of the first two tracks ‘Glamarama’ comes over as a fairly uninspiring and ordinary.

The next two tracks see Photek maintain the more positive vibe and at the same time producing the most commercial and uninteresting tracks on the album. ‘Mine to give’ and ‘Can’t come down’ feature the smooth soulful vocals of Robert Owens. ‘Mine to give’ follows a tech house direction and is only really memorable for having a tuneful and deep bass line. ‘Can’t come down’ meanwhile sees Photek using a two step beat to create a song that comes over as very up and positive but at the same time is to saccharine and meaningless to hold any real interest. The lyrics are particularly cringeworthy and full of cliques. The perfect background music for a tacky holiday romance perhaps?

Just as you think that Photek has taken to many happy pills, the sky begins to darken again and the bleaker side of Photek begins to insert its influence. ‘Infinity’ begins with a rumble of dark synths and a lock groove vocal loop before another thick slice of deep filtered bass enters the mix. Hammering drum and bass beats that recall the Photek of ‘Modus Operandi’ quickly joins this brewing maelstrom. The only problem is that the storm of beats and bass falls to really go anywhere.

Next track ‘Solaris’ again fails to create any real movement and excitement. Photek again plays around with tech house beats, merging them with atmospheric ambient sound layers. However the track just drifts without any purpose or direction. To use the holiday analogy, this current trip has become trapped in a rut of the mundane, sitting in a seedy bar drinking weak lager and sangria as the rest of the world passes you by.

The rest of the album then moves into a more dark ambient direction where paranoia is your only holiday companion. It begins with the 45 second wash of ‘Aura’ all synth whirls and ghostly melodies. This leads into ‘Halogen’ where slow motion beats and a droning synths create a track that sounds like it represents a car crash caught in bullet time. Metal seems to strain and break as the sound of exploding glass punches the sonic backdrop. If a musical comparison can be made it would be to the urban dub decay of the Sabres of Paradise circa Haunted Dancehall.

The track ‘ Lost Blue Heaven’ hints at some kind of redemption, and in deed gives some break from the bleakness of ‘Halogen’. The song again takes a ambient approach as sci-fi synth waves blend again with the sound of jet engines and a dubbed out hip hop drums. The vocal talents of Simone Simone then float over the top of this mesh, producing something that is as glorious and gorgeous as it is chilled and chilling. A perfect track to drift away into sleep too.

The album then closes with the ironically named ‘Under the Palms’. Again the name conjures up images of a pastoral holiday resort, the music again is darkly ambient. A cold synth sound dominates the track rising and falling like black waves against a jagged shore. ‘Under the Palms’ reminds me heavily of the more structured atmospheric work of Coil or the dark ambience associated with the Cold Meat Industries label.

‘Solaris’ sees Photek pushing forward in new directions and producing an album that is varied in approaches. Some that work others that don’t. ‘Solaris’ would have been a stronger album if Parkes has dropped the attempts at a more commercial sound on ‘Mine to give’ and ‘Can’t come down’ and stuck with the power of the opening tracks ‘Terminus’ and ‘Junk’. However it will be interesting to see which way Parkes takes his Photek project next.