Chewed Corners is easily the most surprising comeback album of the big names we’ve seen in the last couple of years, and certainly one of the most welcome. It has a vigor and feeling of reinvention that’s simply lacking in certain other albums we’ve seen so far in 2013.
And so here we have it. After a superlative five-track teaser of an EP, the first μ-Ziq album in seven years has arrived. Those expecting more of the same are in for a bit of a shock, however. This is the sound of Paradinas moving boldly forward, away and beyond. Another unquestionably triumphant entry in the comeback can(n)on that 2013 has so far proven to be, Chewed Corners is a heartfelt document of future intentions, both for Paradinas and for the Planet Mu label as a whole.
The sci-fi sinister “Taikon” is packed full of modulated, sampled choral vocals, slicing TARDIS dematerialisation brushwork and hi-hats along with layers and layers of retro-funk and analogue bleepery. “Christ Dust” maintains the menace, foreboding synths and cascading neon keys crumbling into sheer eighties sleazy action movie bliss, the perfect potential accompaniment to a game like Farcry 3: Blood Dragon, possessed of the evocative vaporwave excess VHS Head so adeptly conjures, minus the actual samples. Then “Wipe” steps back into the fun-loving retro territory explored on the XTEP EP, with more computerized bells, funk-led drum patterns and jangly piano. These three tracks make for one of the most euphoric album openers in a long, long time, not to mention of Paradinas’ career.
Chewed Corners retains μ-Ziq’s trademark shorter, often interleaving pieces, so you get the almost Carpenteresque chill of “Monyth” leading into the fleeting, twisted fairground organ pipes and bells of “Twangle Melkas” or the jangly, elasticity of “Hug”. Meanwhile, the footwork influence that Paradinas has been working into the Planet Mu roster over the last few years becomes most evident in the fast-paced tracks like “Tickly Flanks,” it’s breezy chords and sonorous pads as cute as the track title itself. There’s even some seventies BoC synth thrown in at the end for good measure.
Some of the finest moments emerge when the music is at its most moving and emotional. The vibrating metallic bars and bumper-car syncopation of “Melting Bas” are tempered by characteristically melancholy, introspective melodies and expertly orchestrated key changes. The glittering “Mountain Island Boner” has a retrospective outlook but embraces the new, fluorescent μ-Ziq palette, all burnished bells, brightly-colored arpeggios. It’s not even an issue that “Weakling Paradinas” feels like a highlight because its the most familiar and recognizably old-school μ-Ziq track of the lot. Appearing as it does on such a fresh sounding album full of highlights for entirely other reasons, it incorporates the old with the new and is a fitting extended outro for Chewed Corners.
What is truly surprising about Chewed Corners is the sound palette; unifying but never uniform, the album gels brilliantly even as it shifts across moods and influences, from the funk and fun of archival μ-Ziq to the newly formed, footwork inspired new. “Hug” is outclassed and overshadowed by the infinitely superior “Mountain Island Boner,” while both the plodding “Smooch” and noodling “Gunnar” feel arguably redundant in such otherwise exemplary company, holding up the album’s final KO punch. But remove just these few tracks and you have as close to a perfect album as you can get.
Chewed Corners is easily the most surprising comeback album of the big names we’ve seen in the last couple of years, and certainly one of the most welcome. It has a vigor and feeling of reinvention that’s simply lacking in certain other albums we’ve seen so far in 2013.
Chewed Corners is available on Planet Mu.
