Summary.
Michael Paradinas, better known as Mu-ziq, unleashed the polyrhythmic bacchanals of In Pine Effect (1995), that worked more like a therapeutic shock than dance grooves, an idea refined on his most complex work, Lunatic Harness (1997), that ran the gamut from symphonic music to jazz, from lounge music to drum'n'bass.
Full bio.
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
The British musician Michael Paradinas launched an interesting career as a sound sculptor of the techno era. The electronics and rhythms of this craftsman of electronic dance music owe much to the Detroit school, and to the feverish style of groups such as Drexciya.
He first appeared at the age of twenty under the pseudonym Mu-ziq with an album, Tango N' Vectif (Rephlex, 1993), which portrayed him as a craftsman of studio equipment, immersed in the robotic synth-pop of Swan Vesta and Ad Misericordiam, in Brian Eno-style ambient vignettes such as Iesope and -Ziq Theme, and in the nave refrains of Tango N' Vectif, The Sonic Fox, and Phi* 1700.
After Bluff Limbo (Rephlex, 1994), containing Twangle Frent and Riostand, and the EP Salsa With Mesquite (Planet Mu), Paradinas also launched other parallel careers, playing electronic new age music under the pseudonym Kid Spatula on the album Spatula Freak (Reflective, 1996), as well as chamber-like pieces such as Trunk (xylophone, trumpet, cello) and Not Human, alongside industrial music (Metal Thing, Chisholm).
Meanwhile, the Mu-ziq saga continued with the album In Pine Effect (Virgin, 1995), one of the milestones of electronic dance music. In contrast with ambient practice, the polyrhythmic bacchanals of Roy Castle and Funky Pipecleaner, and the vortices of terrified screams in Mr Angry, are inspired by a philosophy of therapeutic shock, filling every second of the track with spasmodic sounds. Within A Sound and Dauphine are built according to a recurring pattern, progressing from the most chaotic noise to frenzied sequences of danceable tremors. Only toward the end does the magician allow himself a few playful pauses, and then emerge the extra-galactic cocktail-lounge jazz of Pine Effect, the electronic jug of Problematic, and the metabolized ragtime of Green Crumble.
Paradinas does not hesitate to exploit any possible inspiration, from the minimalist concerto for cello and electronics of Old Fun #1 to the Mike Oldfield-style folk melody of Phiesope. The idea is that everything can serve dance, that meditation and dancing are two complementary aspects of the same process of assimilation of sonic vibrations, and that there is no ambient music without rhythm and no dance music without atmosphere. Music therefore becomes a process of metamorphosis, revealing the continuum that leads from disorder to order, from the absence of rhythm to a multitude of rhythms, from nothingness to the absolute.
Paradinas recorded much inferior albums under his other pseudonyms. Jack Slazenger released Makesaracket (Clear, 1995) and Das Ist (1996). Gary Moscheles released Shaped To Make Your Life Easier (SSR, 1996), once again devoted to studio-manufactured dance pop. Overall, between 1993 and 1995 Paradinas released around twenty singles.
Michael Paradinas also collaborated with Richard James on Expert Knob Twiddlers (Rephlex, 1996), credited to Mike and Rich.
Paradinas tested his fans' patience with the long and convoluted pieces of Urmur Bile Trax (Virgin, 1997), particularly the title track and The Hydrozone.
Among the many studio musicians of the techno era, Paradinas confirmed himself as the least self-indulgent with Lunatic Harness (Virgin, 1997). Paradinas's music, less ambient than Aphex Twin's and less dance-oriented than the average, emerges from the fusion of Brian Eno's melodic watercolors and Throbbing Gristle's industrial pieces, that is, between serene contemplation and violent alienation: the opening Brace Yourself Jason superimposes a video-game music box over languid spirals of chords; Lunatic Harness contrasts barbaric polyrhythms with a catchy nursery rhyme. Outside this framework, Paradinas struggles without direction. Exceptions are the atmosphere of suspense created by Approaching Menace with its syncopated cadences and electronic buzzes, and the deformed waltz of Secret Stair, an almost psychedelic novelty piece. There are also a couple of ambitious compositions in the tradition of the avant-garde: the free-jazz cacophonies of Wannabe and the symphonic hallucination of London.
But Paradinas is in reality above all a melodic talent, unexpectedly spoiled by his ultra-modernist arrangements: both Catkin And Teasel (in the video-game register that he practically invented) and the concluding Midwinter Log (a minimalist sequence of variations on a gentle waltz-like theme) are delightful refrains elaborated to the point of exhaustion. Unfortunately, elsewhere Paradinas takes refuge in predictable cocktail-lounge melodies and in worthless "drum and bass" excursions.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
While his colleague Aphex Twin turned serious
composer, Paradinas turned light entertainer. As Aphex Twin borrowed inspiration
from ambient music, Paradinas borrowed from minimalism.
Royal Astronomy (Astralwerks, 1999) offers catchy, disposable techno
funky shuffle for cheesy analogic keyboards (Autumn Acid,
World Of Leather).
Paradinas has fallen in love
with the orchestra and sprays chamber strings on everything.
Scaling blends Michael Nyman's minimalism
orchestral soul The Fear
cartoonish novelties such as The Hwicci Song
Slice, that sounds like a warped tape of a Mozart adagio
The two lenghtier tracks (Motorbike Track and Burst Your Arm)
are the most disappointing, as they recycle drum'n'bass stereotypes with
the only excuse of experimenting with a different palette of tones.
Paradinas made Slag Boom Van Loon (Planet Mu, 1999)
with Jochem Paap (Speedy J). The album is another minor detour within his
career, albeit an entertaining one.
Paradinas has perfected the feeling of a
cocktail lounge for aliens and androids (SPC-CH-PN) while continuing to
revisit drum'n'bass (Butch).
Light Of India, Poppy Seed,
Fallen Angels Entering Pandemonium
rank among his most charming novelties.
Slag Boom Van Loon's follow-up,
So Soon (Planet-Mu, 2001), is only a collection of remixes.
Kid Spatula's Full Sunken Breaks (Planet Mu, 2000) is a far more serious
affair, giving up his flirt with mainstream pop in favor of a harder, sexier
(Hard Love), faster (Dirtwah), harsher (Beaver) sound.
Of course, Paradinas can't resist sticking in a few of his catchy/silly
novelties
(Dancing Demons, Another Fresh Style, Nordy).
Bilious Paths (Planet-Mu, 2003)
offers a hodgepodge of carefully orchestrated experiments.
It's a completely different Paradinas, but only one of these styles fits him
well: the hardcore distorted electronica of
Johnny Mastricht and Silk Ties.
The chaotic assembly of samples and beats of On/Off and especially
Siege of Antioch is intriguing, but somehow contrived.
The atmospheric My Mengegus is the opposite of contrived, but the emotion
that it elicits are more fitting for an Aphex Twin album.
Kid Spatula's Meast (Planet Mu, 2004) collects unreleased material from 1994-1998.
Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique (2007) is a monotonous
revisitation of his techniques.
The decline led to the greatly simplified and relaxed sound of
the five-song EP Xtep (2013), with trivial percussion patterns and
childish melodies, and of the album
Chewed Corners (2013), perhaps influenced by the contemporary vogue of
vaporwave.
XTLP (2015) combines the EPs Xtep and Rediffusion (2014).
An avalanche of unreleased material was collected on
the 24-song double-disc Somerset Avenue Tracks 1992-95 (2013),
on RY30 Trax (Planet Mu, 2016), which dates from 1995,
on Aberystwyth Marine (Planet Mu, 2016), which collects material from 1996-98,
and Challenge Me Foolish (2018), which compiles material from 1998-99.
Overall, these unreleased recordings seem to prove how low his musical talent was.
