Studio Pressure – Relics / Presha III

Both absolute classics and used in the LTJ Bukem mix on the Fantazia Jungle triple CD/LP which is also an awesome thing, don't let the Fantazia label put you off...and get the version with the unredacted Grooverider set. Never heard these tunes played out at the time, not sure why.

buying this in the Rough Trade shop in the basement of Slam City Skates Covent Garden. Good times great tune!!

Both sides are sublime, but Relics takes centre stage for me on this one.
Presha III fiercer than a beat-bull in a china shop.

This is another example of out and out quality from the golden age of D&B/Jungle. two sublime slices of beautiful music that is great on the headphones or simply blasting out on a fat rig. Both stunningly produced and historic.

Oh Mr Parkes, you make us smile with your finest intelligent masterpieces. I would kill for one gram of his creative and technical genius. I wonder if artists like these will be considered alongside Mozart, Bowie and the like, they should.

Presha III Bukem to the Max....

IT'S A BELTER OF A TUNE =)

I think this might have influenced "Play On Me" by Marcus Intalex.

Relics is beautiful (and better than the remixes) but for all out heavy futuristic badness ( this was 1994!), Presha III is just incredible.

Played on a big system (which unfortunately is not likely these days) this tune just blows you away and raises the hairs on your neck every time.

The amen is edited to heavy perfection without any fuzz or cymbal (almost clipped to a giant stepping snare) and the Detroit bass notes that form the melody are utterly minimal and dark. The simple pad chords that come in later as the amen starts to roll give you a full on chemical free rush before the bass kicks in again. No vocals just heavyweight cold genius from a total master of his art.

Timeless - you could play this now and people wouldn't know it was nearly 15yrs old.

NOTE - Lots of his early stuff is still cheap to buy so buy on sight - these are future classics.

I wonder why Relics did not get a review before, maybe it's hard to describe such an incredible beautifull track..While listening to this track right now and trying to get the review done (at least trying to make it as best as possible, would be as respectfull to Mr Parkes!). It strucks me again after so many years, don't know where to start writing this review.. but here we go!
Relics could easily be renamed as The Moodswing Tune because of it's different musical phases; starting mellow with a hypnotising looping Bell intro, smoothly adding some hi-fi woodblocks, techno hi-hats and strings and not forgetting very simple, but oh so, effective warm bass stabs untill dropping in some smoothly chopped Amen beats. By only adding a deep jazzy saxophone(sample?)in the short break and some additional light beats and changing the patterns of course it makes this track as mesmerising and seductive as it can be with Intelligent Drum and Bass. It seems Rupert did not put much effort in this track (at least it sounds like that in a good way)! With his minimal approach of editing studio crafted sounds and getting the job done on different layering of the bass and getting the drum patterns just perfect he created a luscious and hypnotising atmosphere throughout this original track. I wondered how many times Bukem & Fabio played this track in clubs around the globe, i even heard it on some Bukem studio mixtape so grab a piece of history as this timeless piece of art is also suitable for homelistening and also recommended for every electronic music fan! That's why Plaid of Warp fame and Digital of Timeless Records got the hard job to make the remixes wich sounds nice but it's this track that created a whole new type of genre and could be considered as groundbreaking, it's just a classic piece of music made by Rupert Parkes aka Photek and released by Paul Arnold (Cert18). Job well done!