I'm a huge fan of Robert Owens, and was very impressed
to hear new material featuring him. That the person behind
Owens was Photek came as a shock to me the first time
I heard Mine To Give and Can't Come Down from Photek's
Solaris album, BUT, Photek has shown that he can do drum
n bass incredibly well and I personally applaud him for tackling
other things AND doing a great job of it (those who like house
and tech house are VERY happy with the house tracks on
Solaris; personally, I'm buying both singles on sight--and for
the original versions from Photek, not the remixes).
re: this new Photek "not being IDM", or it being
bad that it is a mix of styles instead of just drum n bass:
Mocean Worker's new album, to contrast,
shows that Mocean Worker should have stuck to what he
*used to* do--the new MW album features Bono on a cut (!) and tries
to be all things to all people and it is dreadful (and I liked previous
Mocean Worker material, so I'm not knocking him for the sake
of it); it is a truly skilled musician who can record
in a variety of styles and still do a great job in all of them. Photek
is one of these great artists, despite the fact that many are not
enjoying his new album.
I can think of plenty more artists who have moved from one
style to trying their hands at a variety of styles--and failed miserably
at doing so. I say thumbs up and congrats to Photek for taking
this risk: A) He could have done a full drum n bass album but
that wouldn't have made him happy, and artists must please themselves
first--that, plain and simple, is art. B) He recorded with Robert Owens
because Robert Owens is one of the first (and best) house music talents
out there--this was done as a tribute in that Owens' songs (and others
in that vein) were a big inspiration to Parkes to start recording. It's
good to see Parkes showing his influences a bit. Enough rant from me :)
Andrew Duke
--
Cognition/Andrew Duke's In The Mix
mailto:cognition@techno.ca
http://techno.ca/cognition
1096 Queen St #123 Halifax NS Canada B3H 2R9
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