Paradinas taps into some early memories for the basis of this new collection of tracks, and it somehow plays out like the score to a narrative born from these memories.
Paradinas gazes backwards to move forward
Mike Paradinas will need little introduction to most. Approaching a thirty year career which began on AFX’s legendary (and now defunct) Rephlex Records’, he is also the brains behind Planet Mu, arguably one of the most influential labels of the past 20 or so years. Whether he is making IDM, drill & bass or downtempo, his quirky and idiosyncratic stamp is present across all his aliases and collaborations, and these new works are no exception. With his new album 1977, under his most widely known μ-Ziq moniker, Paradinas gazes backwards to move forward.
Whilst it wouldn’t be surprising to find 1977 in the Ambient section, it’s perhaps a little lazy to categorize as such. Firstly because, frankly, this is not a purely ambient album. Secondly, as alluded to in the album notes, the albums general sound and mood is more conceptual than stylistic, it isn’t simply “this is my ambient album” (plus a quick trawl through his back catalog will tell you he’s been dabbling with ambience and beat-less excursions since 1993’s Tango & Vectif).
A homage to the different eras of his career ::
Paradinas taps into some early memories for the basis of this new collection of tracks, and it somehow plays out like the score to a narrative born from these memories. Certainly some of the more ominous sounding pieces conjure up Greek composer Tangelos. In fact, the album might be called 1977 but it could be the soundtrack or score to some obscure 1980’s experimental thriller. “4am” is a fitting introduction; Mike’s first for Spanish label Balmat. A hazy, vocal-led track that sounds like a long lost ambient remix of a Cocteau Twins song. “Éire” and “Allegro” are similarly mellow and warm, before “Houzz 13” steps things up, coming straight in with a lo-fi house beat, yet with familiar sounding motifs that crop up throughout the album, such as the intermittent vocal chants interwoven with waves of lush synth pads. Wife, fellow artist, and occasional collaborator Meemo Comma is featured on the title track (and I’m fairly sure she crops up elsewhere on the album). “Mesolithic Jungle” is perhaps the closest thing we get to an archetypal µ-Ziq track, but the beats don’t hammer and drill your cortex, they are reserved, polite even, keeping within the wider theme.
Throughout the album, it sounds in many ways like a homage to the different eras of his career, but it goes much deeper than that. It’s obviously a very personal trip through nostalgia and sentimentality, dating back to Mike’s childhood. There are none of the extreme shifts in genres and tempos one might expect from a μ-Ziq album, but the lack of surprises and unexpected turns might actually make 1977 his most cohesive yet.
(Mike) Paradinas, of course, needs no introduction. Under a slew of aliases, chief among them µ-Ziq, the British artist revolutionized leftfield electronic music in the 1990s—coincidentally, this year marks the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Tango N’ Vectif, for his friend and sometime collaborator Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label—and his label Planet Mu has built up a formidable catalog of visionary, forward-looking records, mapping virtually every corner of the electronic spectrum. ~Bandcamp
1977 is available on Balmat. [Bandcamp]
