After releasing more than one hundred tracks on singles, scattered over half a dozen labels and as many pseudonyms,
Rupert Parkes finally issued his first long-player in late 1997, and it seems the lack of time restraints got the better of him.
Parkes is near idolized in the jungle underground for his obsession to detail when patterning his breaks, but his take on paranoid drum'n'bass wears out its welcome less than halfway through this album. While electronic artists usually mix up styles on full-lengths to make the lack of song structure less of a liability for home listeners,
Parkes seems resistant to diversity (three small exceptions are the Detroit-inspired "Aleph 1" and two down-tempo tracks, "124" and the title song). Much of this criticism is the kind leveled at a stellar artist who could (or should) have brought excellent work onto a higher plane altogether, but the fact remains that
Modus Operandi is a difficult listen, even for fans. ~ John Bush