Coolmixes

One of the most respected figures in jungle, Photek (a.k.a. Rupert Parkes) has yet to create a full-length album that lives up to the heights scaled by such singles as "Rings Around Saturn," "The Water Margin," and "Into the '90s." This four-song EP is as close as he's come. "K.J.Z.," the lead track, is a stunning collage of samples Parkes recorded of himself playing a set of trap drums jazz style. The nearly-eight-minute result--carefully textured, dramatic but not melodramatic--is exactly what all those Deadheads thought they were rooting for when Mickey Hart would go off during the "Space" portion of the evening. The closing track, "Hybrid," is a breakbeat workout, though the breakbeat in question isn't a dance-floor bomb like "Amen" or "Apache," but a nervous shuffle that soon became Parkes's trademark sound. In between are two different mixes of the influential title track, both genuinely spooky and convincingly three-dimensional. They're also the only songs I've ever played that spook my dog. --Jeff Salamon

10.97