The closest Photek came to mainstream fame was back in 1998, when the landmark album Modus Operandi was released. Shortly afterwards, the drum and bass genius’s early singles were compiled and released as Form And Function, giving further insight into Modus Operandi’s jazz-influenced minimalist drum and bass. Both were released at the height of late-90s electronica, when radio was beginning to discover there were beats beyond big beat, and the man behind the machine, Rupert Parkes, was the man to beat in some circles—here was someone doing something popular, and yet different from the rest of a scene already falling into habit and cliche. It was, as much as anything else, his moment to shine.

But time stands still for no one; the drum and bass revolution fizzled, radio turned away from electronica and subsumed the poppier elements into the mainstream, and Photek had to keep up or shut up. But 2000’s Solaris was a stylistic shift, almost completely abandoning the clinical, minimalist sound for a more upbeat house atmosphere. And while the darkness still remained in some of his tracks, it was obvious Parkes had moved on. With Solaris, Photek retreated from view, his contract with Science finished.

Since then we’ve heard very little from Photek proper, though his Special Forces alias has put out some hard-hitting drum and bass that resembles neither his late-90s work nor Solaris; as the name implies, Special Forces puts out a far more aggressive brand of drum and bass miles apart from Parkes’ older work. Recently, that style has carried over to his Photek-labelled work, as evidenced by this compilation track. Whether Photek will ever reappear in the same capacity as before—releasing full albums as opposed to twelve-inches and compilation tracks here and there—remains to be seen, but it’s clear that even if he’s kept a low profile, Rupert Parkes continues to evolve.