Today we salute Rupert Parks a.k.a. Photek. Beatmaker extraordinaire originally from St. Albans in the UK now residing in L.A. Inspired by the great jazz percussionist as well has detroit techno legends he's legendary for his precision beat making process where every hihat, crash and snare gets all love and attention it needs to come out just right. His philosphy is to approach each track is if it was his last track ever to come out. No fillers. He spent a full twelve weeks to put together the track below, Ni ten ichi ryu. Its drum pattern is based on the samuari two sword technique.
Rupert's beats have been a great source of inspiration for beatmakers from all genres. On his 1994 release Natural born killa EP (Metalheadz) he dropped the track Into the 90's that was one the the tracks that started the confusion among DJ's at which speed his tracks were supposed to be played (since they sounded great at both 33 rpm in a hiphop blend as well as at 45 rpm in a more uptempo set). Later he explained that Into the 90's refered to BPM and not the decade.
In L.A. he's appearantly scoring soundtracks for Hollywood and for the first time in a very long time he has a new EP out entitled Avalanche. Available at photek.fm
As a bonus here's the video for his amazing 1995 chop-up remake of Thearpy's Loose:
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