On his latest long-player, 1977, pioneering electronic musician Mike Paradinas, aka µ-Ziq, travels back in time to the possibilities of his debut album Tango N`Vectif, which this year celebrates its 30th birthday. 

Mike seems calmer now though. Gone are the rough, raw, distorted, almost gabba edges. With nothing to prove, most of the abrasiveness has been smoothed away. 4AM, for example, is a glorious, glitched vocal experiment. A collaged choir, Claire Hamill-esque ethereal float. Beatless, but buoyed by a rich, warm bass. A reassuring, blissed-out (analogue) bubblebath. Like Aphex Twin’s X-Tal minus the breakbeat. 

Houszz is another highlight. An homage to old school Chicago jack, driven by incessant graffiti aerosol high-hats. The music muffled and muted as if raving in the mists of memory’s fog. Still, subtly, strong and super deep. The kick inconspicuous while the bass-line races. Recalling idiosyncratic UK techno such as Baird Remo on Baby Ford’s IFACH, or Insync’s Storm. Lee Purkis Rest In Peace. Lime Aero, similarly, is a minimal moment. House music’s rush reduced to a hush.

The title track fuses rapid flickering fragmented voices with slightly unsettling kosmische arpeggios. Burnt Orange, again a standout, is a call-back to Mike’s classic Burnt Sienna, and a serene sunset piece for piano and echo. Its climax constructed from choral snippets and cathartic crashing cymbals. Reference Gravy is dark and moody, but it too features a twilight twinkling. Part John Carpenter horror score, part the introspective electronics that might be included on a Jose Padilla / Cafe del Mar chillout comp. 

Mesolithic Jungle revisits the crazy, cut-up and filtered drum and bass breaks with which Mike first made his name, and couples that with emotive synths worthy of his mates, Global Communications. Hammering out a hardcore perhaps more for the head than the feet. Froglets is a fine “IDM” finale. Its funky break and soaring synth, offset by calming chords. 

Much of the music has this dusty, grainy quality, as if it were rescued from an archival tape, and this by itself cloaks the album in a nostalgic air. The set serving as an affectionate flashback to the energy, enthusiasm, innocence and innovation, of Paradinas’ own seminal mid-90s stuff, and also close friend, Richard D. James’ Selected Ambient Works.*

Notes

*Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin released Mike Joe’s first record. They also collaborated as The Expert Knob Twiddlers. 

µ-Ziq’s 1977 is out now on Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne’s Barcelona-based Balmat.