In 1993 Basement Records was still issuing the classic 4/4 tunes but in the studio working on the new Sound of Drum & Bass. In this newly formed studio operating in the Basement Records / Vinyl Distribution building and run by Roger Johnson as the in house engineer a series of early Drum & Bass releases were produced. To release the tunes being made in late ’93 The Street Beats label was formed in early 1994. The first releases were a series of limited edition 10" singles of early works by artists such as RJ himself plus Peshay, Paul Z & The Truper.

In 1994 I received a promo through the post from Entity Records featuring System Ex - Mindgames EP, I loved the track and wanted to know who the artist was? So I rang Ray Keith at Blackmarket Records to see if he could shed any light. Ray told me this was the new artist he had been telling me about when we last spoke, that artist was Rupert Parkes now known as Photek.

I rang Rupert to introduce myself and invited him down to Reading to meet me, which he was more than happy to do as he was well aware of what we were doing at Basement Records and Vinyl Distribution.

At the meeting I stated how much I love the EP and his release on Certificate 18 but at the same time felt the production sound could be improved. Rupert told me about his home studio and its limitations, so I asked him how much money he needed to get the studio to the level he wanted and then advanced him the money to upgrade his studio. The next batch of tunes that were then made were all released on the Street Beats label.

When Rupert sent in the second batch of tunes I was blown away with them and wanted to release these tunes with an artist name, so I took T from the end of his name and placed it in front and the ’Truper’ was born. The idea of the name was he was marching forward with the Drum & Bass sound. These three EPs were all released as limited editions and as the years have passed, all three become holy grails for all collectors of early Drum & Bass and rightly so. This relationship was to grow and grow over the following years with releases on Basement Records and the distribution deal which led to the launch of Rupert’s Photek alias and label, which have cemented his reputation as one of the great Drum & Bass producers of all time.

A genius in the studio and a wonderful person to know and work with over many years. So now Basement Records proudly presents the reissue of these stunning six tracks pressed on 12" and accompanied by a CD which also features the six outstanding The Sentinel tracks that were released on parent label Basement Records, for you to all enjoy. (Basement Phil / Basement Records 2015)