The U.K. jungle scene has spawned a number of distinctive personalities, but few have a sound as immediately recognizable as that of Rupert Parkes, a k a Photek. A connoisseur of metallic, percussive minimalism, Parkes arranges break beats like a bop drummer gone drum and bass, jaggedly compressing tempos and textures into cold, precise and sharply angular urban landscapes. On his full-length debut, Modus Operandi, Parkes maneuvers his trademark dueling drum patterns around discharging shotgun shells, hissing steam and muffled echoes of clanging steel. Modus takes its most innovative turns with the futuristic synth noodling of "Aleph 1" and the crashing cymbals and looped jazz breaks of "KJZ," when Parkes deftly translates '70s jazz fusion and '80s Detroit techno into a blueprint for a new, more expansive drum-and-bass architecture. (RS 769)

JOSH KUN