William Orbit - Hello Waveforms (2013 Update)

Sanctuary Records: 2006

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review.)

Truth is, when I first launched this blog back in 2010, I never bothered looking at stats. I cannot deny it was partially due to ego (“don't wanna know how few are reading, don't wanna know how few are reading...”), but I wasn't expecting much anyway, so barely gave it thought. Fast forward over two years later, and I'm surprised that the blog was sitting just fine in all that time, ready to pick up right where I left off (with a few aesthetic adjustments). Well, just to sate curiosity, let's see what kind of stats I did gather in my absence.

To be honest, there wasn't anything remarkable, except for one anomalous item: my original review of William Orbit's Hello Waveforms had gained nearly four times the amount of hits as anything else! What the hell? I knew spambot spikes sometimes artificially inflate numbers, but this was bizarrely out of the ordinary. Was it being linked from somewhere? Ah, sort of. Turns out the cover image was highly ranked in Google Image searches, which is kind of cool. Maybe someone even checked out the actual review too!

Oh God, I hope not. It's really one of the weaker ones I ever wrote, struggling to find anything of substance to say in the ol' track-by-track method. It's weird to think a high-profile release like a new William Orbit album would garner such mediocre reactions, but can any of you seriously recall much about it, beyond the nifty cover art? There was nothing sonically groundbreaking as he crafted during his Strange Cargo period, nothing charmingly indulgent as found on Pieces In A Modern Style, and certainly nothing as radio-ready friendly as his productions with Madonna and Sugababes. Instead, Hello Waveforms finds Mr. Orbit at a meeting ground between all three, with little offensive to the ears (unless you just can't stand girly vocals on Spiral and They Live In The Sky), yet even less you'll be compelled to reach for again if you're well versed in the world of chill out music. Except Who Owns The Octopus?, that one's still mint!

I wouldn't go so far as to say Hello Waveforms derailed ol' William's career, but boy was he ever forgotten about in the pop world shortly after, the promised 'upbeat' follow-up My Oracle Lives Uptown passing by with barely a blip (is it any good?). Trouble is music of this sort can easily drift through one’s head without much fanfare, an almost death knell when written about with a customary 6/10 score. There's a word for it... oh, what was it? Amiable? Charming? No, wait, I remember! Cordial! No, that's not it. Cheerful? G'ah, not it at all. It started a 'p', didn't it? Pleasing! Nope, something more like mild. Homey? Maybe congenial? Copacetic? What the hell does that even mean?

Whatever. Hello Waveforms is something like that, and has held up in an unassuming way. Not really a critical album to own, but pleasant enough. Hey, that’s the

Photek Productions - Form & Function Vol. 2 (Original TC Review)

Sanctuary Records: 2007

(2013 Update:
It'd be another half-decade before Rupert Parkes finally released another proper Photek album, KU:PALM, which received... mixed reactions. Guess time will only tell whether folks warm up to it like they did with Solaris or not. As for this collection of odds'n'sods, I can't believe I neglected to mention the Pendulum influences on several of these tracks ...or maybe not. I was kind of in denial about the whole 'rock-and-bass' movement, firmly planting my flag with the liquid funk sound for much of that year.

Oh, and celebrations, as this is the last of my old TranceCritic reviews I'll be uploading for a while. Cripes but are there ever a lot of 'em in the 'F's.)


IN BRIEF: Back in business.

So Rupert Parkes is back with another Photek album, eh? And apparently he’s producing drum’n’bass again too. Hhmph. Does he really think the jungle scene will so willingly take him back after he tried to sell out with house music? Like all is forgiven? Hell, he’s even enlisted the aid of Robert Owens here, always a sure sign of trying to appeal to the liquid funk crowd. You’d think Parkes had discovered the guy or something. Why, he even... he even...ah, heh.... *snicker*...

Okay, I can’t write that with a straight face any longer. It’s just silly to think the jungle scene would have grown that jaded over the years, although there may be a few out there. For the most part though, the return of Photek has been welcomed by the dee’bee faithful. They’ve sat patiently as Parkes dabbled in house beats, Nine Inch Nails remixes and soundtrack work, hoping he would one day return to the dark, techy drumfunk of yore. And now, after a few years of side-projects spurring interest again, the man from Ipswich has finally delivered a full-length release some seven years after the last.

Only this isn’t quite a pure Photek album. Much like the previous Form & Function, FFII is rather a collection of past and present tunes, including remixes done by other producers; rare white vinyl releases like One Nation sit alongside current singles like Love & War, while the likes of TeeBee and Tech Itch lend their hand to proceedings as well. Such a release might have some thinking ‘stopgap’, but Parkes has definitely been a busy boy recently, and his offerings on here are anything but rushed fillers.

In fact, you’d almost think this was a proper album from the opening three tracks, although slightly more in a commercial vein. Industry Of Noise finds those rock collaborations still on Parkes’ mind, while Love & War is as smooth a slice of sultry d’n’b as anything from the genre’s 90s heyday. And yes, Robert Owens does make his obligatory cameo here on Things, but considering Photek pretty much did introduce the house legend to junglists everywhere, another collaboration is only right. Besides, the tune’s mint!

From here, FFII lays out banging track after banging track, and not once falters (well, one stumble, but I’ll get to that in a bit). Parkes unearths long-lost gems like One Nation and Saturated Hip Hop, but new offerings such as Deadly Technology and The Beginning easily hold their own too; drum patterns are gripping, with basslines rumbling with just as much authority as ever. And if you were ever a fan of the more paranoid aspects of Photek productions, Full Spectrum Dominance’s talk of cyber espionage will certainly grab your attention, should the intense beats in this track not pummel you into submission beforehand.

For the most part, the remixers hold their own too, with only DJ Die and Clipse being the weak link here by turning in a rather cornball liquid funk outing on Thunder. Everyone else is in top form though; heck, TeeBee’s go on the rare-ish Ni Ten Ishi Ryu is just as good as anything Parkes did when the track was first released a decade ago.

There is a quibble to be had with FFII though, but it has to do more with Parkes as a producer than the actual music on hand. For as solid of a collection of jungle as this is, one can’t help but feel that Photek isn’t quite as far in the lead of the pack as he once was. Whether doing his own thing in the mid-90s or branching out into other genres at the turn of the century, you always had the sense that Parkes was operating on a totally different level than your standard d’n’b maestro. Here, it sounds more like he’s following the trends rather than spearheading them.

Still, even if he is more of a follower than a leader now, his wily veteran sense of the scene will undoubtedly keep him in the minds of junglists should he be here to stay this time. And even if the next proper Photek album finds Parkes trying his hand at, say, psychedelic minimal electro-prog, I’m sure fans will be far more willing to forgive him for it this time should he continue to produce d’n’b as solid as this on the side.