Muziq "Royal Astronomy" (Astralwerks ASW 6275-2)
Well enough about Christina Ricci. Mike Paradinas is one of 3 or 4
artists that really have defined for me what IDM is -- music informed
and influenced by the global dance culture, but targeted towards more
reflective listening. Since his first two records (Tango N Vectif and
Bluff Limbo) were real masterpieces and classics of the form, he's always
had to battle to live up to those records.
Well in my opinion, "Royal Astronomy" is the first album mu-Ziq has
done that is as consistently as high in quality as the first two records.
We all know that MP always brings his sense of humor and skill at
bedroom beatslicing to the table. But "Royal Astronomy" exhibits
new depth in his songwriting skills. Each track is harmonically lush
in the classic mu-Ziq style.
The first track 'scaling' segues without break into 'the hwicci song'
and represent a soundtrack aesthetic -- lush string sounds in 'scaling'
and a puckishness reminiscent of Danny Elfman in 'hwicci.'
'autumn acid' brings on the beats along with a guitarish synth sound,
and what sounds like Mike himself on 'ooh ah' vocals. What makes the
track for me is the variation introduced by MP's live playing on top
of the sequenced tracks.
'slice' returns to a neo-classical feel down to the timpani accents
and glockenspiel hits. Formally it is almost identical to to 'hwicci' --
presentation of a theme, build up, add in filter-distorto drums. Then
let the lovely melody ride.
'carpet muncher' melds the jazziness of a jake slazenger track with
drill-and-bass rhythmic collagework. And for the loop-spotters, it opens
with a bit of the 'think' break, and the amen break working most of the
track. What makes the track worthwhile is the way that the break programming
supports and propells the melodic material.
'the motorbike track' is the first track that might actually get played in
a dance context due to it's use of the basic 2 step rhythm, but it keeps
things nicely varied throughout, something you don't hear too much in
contemporary drum and bass. And it builds and builds, like a good dance floor
track should, and when the amen break comes in full on (about 3:10) I can
imagine people yelling on the dancefloor.
'mentim' is another soundtracky cut -- more portentious than previous tracks.
Without any beats, you can really hear him distort nearly everything in
the mix. This isn't really to my taste -- there is 'good' distortion --
running sounds through big muffs and the like, and bad distortion, where
you're overloading mixer inputs. This track is marred by the latter. I
assume he's doing it on purpose, but as a producer I just want to redo
his gain-staging for him to clean it up.
'the fear' (also out on a 4 track EP of it's own) has lovely vocal samples
over another neo-classical strings-n-drums workout. It's a decent
track, but doesn't stand out the way 'carpet muncher' or 'autum acid'
do. I suspect it came out as a single because the vocal makes it a little
more MTV- and Radio friendly.
'gruber's mandolin' is a return to Elfman soundtrack territory.
'world of leather' is a standout for both the dr. dre portamento synth lead,
and the bluff-limbo-esque echoey stuff in the backround.
'scrape' matches a looped sforzando string ensemble agains layers
of mu-ziq noodling. It's only 1:42 long and so is more a transitional track,
but lovely nonetheless.
'56' changes tone, starting with a mancini lonely trumpet sound. More than
any other track here it recalls label-mate aphex twin's more lyrical output
-- think 'Alberto Balsam' here. It's also a showcase for MP's tendency to
play different synth sounds slightly out of tune from each other to increase
harmonic tension.
'burst your arm' comes at you with the hard 2 step beat and wah wah
guitar, making it the second junglist-friendly track on the record. I don't
know which filter-box MP bought with his Virgin cash, but the thing
is wicked.
'goodbye,goodbye' is just simply lovely. The female voice returns from
'the fear' and the twists and turns the piece takes puts it way ahead
of the run of the mill 'work-one-loop' electronica. Again for me the
track is marred somewhat by distortion in the wrong places, but hey,
it's mike's world -- we just live in it.
kent williams -- kent@avalon.net