μ-Ziq - Chewed Corners

Before dropping an EP called XTEP on May 20, it had been approximately 6 years since electronica mainstay Mike Paradinas released new music under the most revered of his many aliases, μ-Ziq. Here it is roughly a month later, and we get a full-length μ-Ziq LP, Chewed Corners, released on Paradinas' own label Planet Mu.

It's amazing to consider μ-Ziq's expansive lifespan, from his 1993 debut album Tango n' Vectif on Aphex Twin's Rephlex Records to his 1997 masterpiece Lunatic Harness, and realize that he's been at for it for 20 years. Sure, one could say that Paradinas has been "grandfathered in" to a certain extent, in that he hails from a period of music before the industry measured its attention span in nanoseconds, but the bottom line is that it's impressive for any artist to continually reach a high level of excellence for two decades; to not simply "be around" for such a long period, but create good music, and always be evolving. Also taking into account that the μ-Ziq catalog comprises less than half of Paradinas' total discography, it becomes apparent that he's rarely at a loss for creative ideas.

Chewed Corners is, in many ways, markedly different from previous μ-Ziq releases. The rhythms are often more straight-ahead and repetitive, and the sounds are richer and deeper in texture, almost reminiscent of house music of the past. It's not the experimental record that μ-Ziq fans might be expecting, but at the same time, it's hard to say whether the music is decidedly less "avant garde" or whether Paradinas has streamlined his vision to a point where his particular brand of weirdness doesn't come across as weird anymore. μ-Ziq's musical sensibility is hard to mistake, however: layers of haunting melody, and the feeling of a forward-moving song structure (a quality that's all too often overlooked in electronic music). The track "Tickly Flanks" (below) is a standout that hints at vintage μ-Ziq material within the album's modern context.