When drum n bass exploded onto the underground music scene in the early 1990s every man and his dog seemed to want to get in on the act. Needless to say the result was a proliferation of low quality garbage churned out to keep the club DJs happy, while only a few producers really knew how to take the format in interesting directions. At the forefront was Rupert Parkes, also known as Photek (and a dozen other lesser known monikers), whose Modus Operandi demonstrated that drum n bass could be intricate, punchy and damn smooth as well as pleasing the throngs on the dancefloor. Parkes is a bit of a Japanophile, and some of the beats resemble samurais hurling blades in a bamboo forest, clashing and scraping with increasing ferocity.
