The record industry didnīt approve of the connotations of the word Jungle, so gradually when signing independent acts, the record industry introduced a new word: drumīn bass. Even this word originally came from the independent music scene in Jamaica and the dub-aesthetic of producers like Lee Perry and King Tubby. But to the music industry in North West Europe it didnīt sound so threatening and was supposed to appeal to a wider audience. Which it obviously did as the drumīn bass scene have had itīs fifteen minutes of fame during the last years.

Listen to the latest albums by well respected artists like Grooverider, 4 Hero, Goldie and LTJ Bukem - and you will end up listen to compositions aimed at a distracted coffee table listener rather than the attentive dance crowd or the serious headset listener.

On their new albums they all sound like Tangerine Dream with drum patterns minus the bass pulse. The result turns out to be New Age inspired music for the millenium, with no hooks or sharp edges. Music without other purpose than making sounds.

Now I donīt say that progression is bad - on the contrary, but the above mentioned artists has not produced progression on their latest releases. Considering the good music they have produced earlier, it seem like they have landed a long way from home. It canīt be a coincidence that all these artists are making atmospheric, jazz fusion influenced and "accessible" drumīn bass on albums released in the span of six months. They seem to have been caught in the traps of their record companys and are now ending up doing music that the record company think, or hope, will sell.

Last year there were a couple of important drumīn bass albums released, which seen in retrospect, marked different turns for the whole scene. Roni Size Reprazentīs New Forms, the Metalheadz presents Platinium Breaks compilations, LTJ Bukemīs presents Logical Progression and Photekīs debut album Mondus Operandi. I genuinely liked all the albums and listened to them quite often. But today, about a year later, most of the music on them appears old and sounds like they were made in another era. They have not aged with grace - except for some tracks on the Metalheadz compilations and Mondus Operandi.

A couple of weeks ago the "new" Photek album was released on Science/AstralWerks records. Photek is holding position with a unique sound in the scene. In many ways he is still making jungle, rather than drumīn bass.

Like on last years Mondus Operandi I thought Form & Function was a bit too sterile at first listening - but soon enough a musical construction of rare beauty and form took shape. Photek is still making his music dark and difficult with a huge bass sound and hard, distinct drum patterns. And he is far ahead of his time - no other contemporary artist is even close to his ingenious musical explorations of jazz, hip hop and beats.

Listen to Photekīs music, constructed using tiny samples of jazz drum solos, and you're hearing the spirit of an alternative, abstract, jazz tradition. Jazz can mean John Coltrane and Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock, Fats Waller or Duke Ellington.

Form & Function came about out of a desire to make some of the seminal Photek tracks available again (while also making them available for the first time on CD), and also specifically looking at re-addressing these tracks through contemporary remixing.

The original versions of Rings Around Saturn, UFO, The Water Margin and The Seven Samurai are included here along with remixes by the cream of UK Drumīn Bass, Peeshay, J Majik and Doc Scott and Photeksīs own reinterpretations of two tracks. Two brand new tracks, Santiago and Knitevision, are also included in this album.

Photek doesnīt make obvious tracks. Anything that sounds too catchy are sorted out. He minimise the music and creates darkly introverted music instead of going for the instantly appealing - which differs him from most of the artists in the drumīn bass scene.

Track titles like The Seven Samurai and The Water Margin instantly bring to mind the cult Japanese films they are taken from, but the music itself is not preoccupied with a theme, and there is none of the martial arts dialogue found on the Depth Charge or RZA produced albums. Jungleīs roots are in the urban experience but every experience are an influence.

Rings Around Saturn, begins and ends with the sound of night-time rainfall distorted into electronic hiss. These represent the definitive Photek sound. The natural becomes alien, the familiar becomes lost and unknowable.

Photek sound like no one else on the scene, and draw comparisons with techno experimentalists Black Dog and Carl Craig. Pho-tek. The name plays on ideas of light, vision and technology. Rupert Parkes' music is all about looking, and listening, closer. It's about things not being what they seem.