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- Record Label: Astralwerks
- Genre(s): Electronic
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 10
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Mixed: 1 out of 10
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Negative: 2 out of 10
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UrbPhotek has always been about his drums more than his bass, so it doesn't surprise that some of the tracks on Solaris are more techno than jungle. But vocal house? (#78, p.115)
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SpinMay be Photek's best record yet. [Nov. 2000, p.206]
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Indebted to hard-edged Chicago acid-track producers like Adonis and Armando, Parkes constructed brittle, distorted drum-machine breaks (instead of the usual: endlessly tweaked skittery breakbeats) and matched them with claustrophobic analogue effects, most of which hark back at least a decade or so.... In all, Solaris is just as dense and intensive a production as most of Photek's previous work -- for better, but occasionally for worse -- but the range of styles points to a more ambitious future.
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Photek, has shaken things up with his second full-length album, Solaris -- it owes more to techno and house than to drum-and-bass.
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Last year's 'Bleeps Tune' proved conclusively that he could do drum & bass better than anyone else around, 'Solaris' proves that he has the nerve and range to go beyond it, continuing to source new sounds and create rewarding albums. The best, you feel however, is yet to come.
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Solaris is like no Photek album you've ever heard before: It's an album that celebrates both dance and relaxation, touching on deep house, trip-hop, and ambient, with (gasp) only one drum-and-bass track (the typically spare "Infinity"). Sentimentality for his musical roots and the desire to create music with a warmer, more human feel drive Photek on these 11 disparate tracks, and the outcome is mixed.
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Solaris is an anthem for Eurotrash everywhere. Its sins are ultimately sloth and indifference. Eschewing the brilliantly cold futurism of earlier efforts, Photek has crafted a dull excursion into the sunnier latitudes of electronic music: a tropical cocktail of salt-rimmed drum n' bass, faux-sexual bedroom ambient and lifeless house.