(A HTML version of this review with sound snippets can be found at:
http://hyperreal.com:70/1/music/reviews/davis)
u-ziq
Salsa with Mesquite
planet mu
flatscd 18
7:26 108 Salsa with Mesquite
6:31 121 Happi
6:08 120 Loam
6:52 114 Reflectiv
6:05 158 Leonard
6:49 143 Balsa Lightning
6:42 143 Balsa Lightning (Jake Slazenger remix)
Mike Paradinas' latest EP, his first on his semi-mega-psuedo-independent
imprint planet Mu, is aptly named. It's got chunks of spice, hints of
smoke, bits of quirky trademark u-ziq cheese, and flashes of panoramic
brilliance. With 6 tracks proper, MP does an enjoyable job of covering the
turf, and occasionally (but not frequently enough) you get snippets of the
chilling beauty that Tango n Vectif and Bluff Limbo still induce, 2 years
later. One thing that still catches me (favorably) with this collection is
that I get a real deja-vu feeling that several of the tracks use sounds
sampled from SAWII(*). I don't know if its intentional, accidental, or
imagined, but it's kind of a neat effect.
Salsa with Mesquite, the self titled chiller opener opens with detuned water
gong ambience* and tweeter testing icepick tinnitis tones. Trademark MP
scratchy funk is folded in next, though softened and filtered to dull the
sharp edge. This is a strange and disoriented piece, which rewinds several
times back to its soft and eerie ambient roots. This cushioned foundation,
when overlaid with kung fu fighting samples, clangoring slow breaks and the
slightest whiff of u-ziq funky melody is a tasty yet surprising concoction,
hence the title, a startling appetizer that leaves you ready for just about
anything.
You leave the opener pretty tensed up, but when you hear the opening soft
and bouncy chord strokings of Happi, you instantly de-brace yourself. It's
soothing, yet peppy and decidedly upbeat. It's a lovely mixture of soft
attack jazzy syncopation, a staccato oriental stir fry over melody,
whip-sawed percussion, and a lagging single finger hunt and peck loop that
continues through out the core of the track. At the first break, all is
peeled back, save the simple imbalanced loop until some metapharstically
sinister synth pounding scares you back to the un-niceness of the real
world. Happi is an uplifting armchair finger tapper, and happi techno
definitely wins out over all things dark and ominous in the end.
Loam is a rhythmic, gyrating unit that bears little resemblance to the loose
soil of its namesake. Cool rhythmic pulsing, ricochet firing range drum
hits, and a paranoid synth loop topsoil give this one a decidedly Detroitish
feel. Midstream, Jake Slazenger cameos his own brand of thumbwheel
pitchbending electrofunk gymnastics, which give it a nice bump, until the
track is terminated mercilessly.
Picture a bank of tines of graduated length carved of high tensile steel.
An irregular cam of acetylene torched slag, has raised nibs which
majestically pluck the metallic tines once this mechanism is energized by a
coal fired sputtering steam engine. This bladerunner music box sets the
opening stage and ongoing foundation for Reflectiv, one of the high points
of this collection. Mike's Claire de Lune gets increasingly funky and beat
driven, until it's a full fledged dancefloor stomper. A constantly
reassuring u-ziq birdcall synth warble reminds you who's at the wheel, and a
Paradinas cum rock star solo which is muchos excessive makes you thankful
that that the Casio's electric guitar patch is so infrequently used. This
one evolves in a big way, and fun's a common element throughout.
Leonard is a bleepy little hummer with a decidedly rephlex mechanical feel.
The rhythm is impelled by beeping, pinging and squonking on many levels.
The refrain is a ultra-squirty dodger over softly ebbing waves of familiar
sounding * ambient strings. Mike next subliminally chills spines with minor
key hollow gourd climbing and a barely perceptible major key sub-bass figure
which leaves you smiling all warm and fuzzy, although everything your
hearing can perceive is basically dissonant and ominous. A sensation that's
fleetingly brief, but it's a yummily brilliant u-ziq moment.
Balsa Lightning is the closer and we are (for whatever reason) graced with
two mixes. Opens with emotion filled piano pounding, overlaid with u-ziq
plucky synth curiosity and a gary wright dreamweaver trill. Shades of
Auqueam as a probing and soaring melody makes you longful for all things yet
unknown. Tightly and frenetically plucked rhythm guitar arpeggios lead the
way to a lazy but oh so silky fluegelhorn solo line. Frantic polyrhythmic
percussion winds the energy up to the close until this one collapses on top
of itself abruptly. Jake's mix is not drastically different from the
original; the synth lines are tweaked and bent farther, and the drums are
farther away down the echo chamber, but hit much more tuffly. The only
offbeat additions are some rhubarbesque steel drumming and a probing synth
line which namechecks Morricone. One of these mixes is superfluous, but
don't ask me to give one up.
Altogether, Salsa with Mesquite lives up to MP's credentials, although fans
who were hoping for ground breaking sonic vistas a la T-n-V may come up a
little disappointed. Mike is obviously relying on the groove more than the
majestic melodic journey these days, but his stuff is still creative enough
to warrant admiration. It's certainly tasty enough to tide us over until
Spatula Freak and In Pine Effect.
1995. all rights reserved, all wrongs reversed.
Jeff Davis ____--~~~~~~vvvv~~~~ oooooo 812.831.7846
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