{"title":"u-Ziq","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eμ-Ziq (pronounced \"music\") is an English electronic\/IDM project. Originally formed in 1992 as a duo of two former Blue Innocence members Mike Paradinas (keyboards) and Francis Naughton (bass). Francis Naughton left in late 1993, and since that time µ-Ziq became a solo project of Mike Paradinas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith a career spanning over three decades, μ-Ziq has established himself as a pioneering force in the electronic music scene. Known for his innovative soundscapes and intricate compositions, he seamlessly blends elements of electronica, IDM, and ambient music to create captivating sonic experiences.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout his solo journey, μ-Ziq has released numerous critically acclaimed albums and EPs on prestigious labels such as Warp Records. His distinctive style combines complex rhythms with melodic hooks, showcasing his exceptional talent for crafting immersive tracks that push the boundaries of electronic music.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"goodbye","title":"Goodbye","description":"\u003cp\u003eµ-Ziq says hello again with \u003ci\u003eGoodbye\u003c\/i\u003e. The six track EP is the first in a series of releases by Mike Paradinas this year, which are all centred around the 25th Anniversary Edition of \u003ci\u003eLunatic Harness\u003c\/i\u003e, his classic 1997 album. Inspired by going back through the archives while he was remastering the \u003ci\u003eLunatic Harness\u003c\/i\u003e reissue, \u003ci\u003eGoodbye\u003c\/i\u003e sees Mike revisiting the nineties, taking on jungle and its precursor jungle tekno and upgrading them with the benefit of hindsight and contemporary software. Imbued with Mike's lush sense of melody and his knack for striking contrasts (don't be shocked to hear maudlin piano, 303 and amens in the same track), \u003ci\u003eGoodbye\u003c\/i\u003e approaches these old genres like a sandpit, and stretches them in directions only Mike might take. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e12\" A: 1\/Goodbye VIP 2\/Giddy All Over 3\/Moise B: 1\/Rave Whistle 2\/Rave Whistle (Darkside Mix) 3\/Rave Whistle (Jungle Tekno Mix) \u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Planet Mu","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50401321648459,"sku":"1146756","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/575ba0ae-5534-47d4-a8d7-03b6d09578fe_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726521062"},{"product_id":"magic-pony-ride","title":"Magic Pony Ride","description":"\u003cp\u003ePlanet Mu welcomes back owner Mike Paradinas (a.k.a. µ-Ziq) for \u003ci\u003eMagic Pony Ride\u003c\/i\u003e, an album of joyful, melodic, jungle-inspired music, and his first LP of new material on the label since 2013. The title reflects the childlike wonder of the album, happy melodies are foregrounded, wordless vocals bounce and echo while sounds bubble and sparkle. Paradinas had been releasing archival albums but got a taste for making new music after a trip to Wales (inspiring ‘Scurlage’, his 2021 album on Analogical Force). This influence of using trips away as a muse is carried on in \u003ci\u003eMagic Pony Ride\u003c\/i\u003e after a weekend getaway to found Paradinas riding Icelandic horses across a snowy landscape at dawn. You can almost feel the relaxed wide open spaces in the lush synth chords of the title track and ‘Uncle Daddy’. The album also reflects on family with features from his daughter Elka on ‘Picksing’ and ‘Elka’s Song’ and ‘Galope’ in memory of his father who passed away a few years ago. The theme of family is also found in the meditative ‘Shulem’s Theme’, a title inspired by the Netflix series Shtisel. These reflective themes tie in with this year’s 25th anniversary reissue of µ-Ziq’s 1997 breakthrough album \u003ci\u003eLunatic Harness\u003c\/i\u003e. In Mike’s own words “Magic Pony Ride was written as a kind of follow up to ‘Lunatic Harness’, at least in terms of genre and style. After mastering Lunatic for its reissue I went back to using breaks again on some newer tracks and this is the result!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Planet Mu","offers":[{"title":"Purple | LP | x2","offer_id":50404978852171,"sku":"1153416","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Black | LP | x2","offer_id":50404981932363,"sku":"1153415","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50404981473611,"sku":"1153414","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/0e3f9b0f-4a7f-4b56-b201-13d778831080_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726572745"},{"product_id":"lunatic-harness-25th-anniversary-edition","title":"Lunatic Harness (25th Anniversary Edition)","description":"\u003cp\u003eLunatic Harness, µ-Ziq's rare and sought-after fourth album, was originally released in July 1997 on Virgin's Hut Recordings label. It is generally considered to be Mike Paradinas's best work of the nineties. An Apple Music review describes Lunatic Harness as \"the prettiest album to come out of the mid-'90s \"drill'n'bass movement\", noting that Paradinas eschewed the abrasiveness of similar works by Squarepusher and Aphex Twin in favour of \"atmospheres of ethereal color and shimmering melody\", bringing the album \"closer to pop music than anything Paradinas had previously attempted\". Planet Mu has compiled a special 25th anniversary edition 4xLP boxset bringing together the \u003ci\u003eMy Little Beautiful \u003c\/i\u003eEP, the \u003ci\u003eLunatic Harness\u003c\/i\u003e album and May 1998's \u003ci\u003eBrace Yourself \u003c\/i\u003eEP (released by USA's Astralwerks label) with the addition of four rare tracks. Discs one and two of the vinyl are the original \u003ci\u003eLunatic Harness\u003c\/i\u003e album, disc three compiles the \u003ci\u003eMy Little Beautiful \u003c\/i\u003eb-sides with three unreleased cuts from the period and a remix of \u003ci\u003eMr.Angry \u003c\/i\u003efrom 1997's Mealtime compilation, while disc four is the 8-track \u003ci\u003eBrace Yourself \u003c\/i\u003eEP which hasn't been re-issued since 1998. This all comes in individual printed sleeves housed in a rigid box with an insert collage of some of the press Mike received at the time. There is also a 2xCD edition with the same tracklisting.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Planet Mu","offers":[{"title":"Clear | LP | x4","offer_id":50404988387659,"sku":"1154045","price":97.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Black | LP | x4","offer_id":50404989698379,"sku":"1154044","price":59.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD | x2","offer_id":50404990583115,"sku":"1154042","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/7855abf9-9c86-4990-8bbb-2ca5c2e83b7a_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726572822"},{"product_id":"challenge-me-foolish","title":"Challenge Me Foolish","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eChallenge Me Foolis\u003c\/i\u003eh is an almost lost album of µ-Ziq material circa 1998-99, an era that saw Mike Paradinas release \u003ci\u003eRoyal Astronomy\u003c\/i\u003e on the now defunct Virgin subsidiary Hut records, and also tour with Bjork. It’s an era of his music that’s definitely worth re-exploring, in which Mike went against the grain by producing music that was baroque, melodic and whimsical, while the IDM movement he was lumped with made instrumental music that was often neurotic and complicated. His taste for melody and dreamy beauty above roughness and intricacy confused people who were hanging on too tightly to the rules. He even brought in Japanese vocalist Kazumi, adding an extra human touch. \u003ci\u003eChallenge Me Foolish\u003c\/i\u003e is something of a companion to the \u003ci\u003eRoyal Astronomy\u003c\/i\u003e record; arguably even better given the fresh ears selecting the material. It’s imbued with a confident sense of pastoral colour, and a gentle optimism, utilising bells, studied orchestral arrangements and airy synthesisers that sit the album somewhere between, Jean Jacques Perrey (the French electronic composer whose whimsy was always balanced with serious innovation and chops) and the colourful, optimistic soundtracks of Joe Hisaishi. There’s a strange sense of the old and new throughout, the sentimental and utopia, with nary a hint of darkness. Even when the album dips into the hyperkinetic rhythms of jungle, the melodies and mood still retain a sense of gentle warmth. Dive into peak time Paradinas.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Planet Mu","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50405034819915,"sku":"1029036","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50405036622155,"sku":"1029035","price":7.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/7d0825e9-7d60-4ef5-8a7b-0c1fd65bb80b_thumbnail_4096.png?v=1726573266"},{"product_id":"1977-9","title":"1977","description":"\u003cp\u003eThere’s no shortage of familiar sounds on \u003ci\u003e1977\u003c\/i\u003e. There are echoes of raves and chillout rooms and transmissions from the fringes of techno; there are detuned synths and glistening reverb tails and, above all, gauzy vox pads, the eerie glue that holds it all together. The title, he says, is meant to invoke a general sense of nostalgia, bookmarking a year in his boyhood when he became more selfaware. More than anything, \u003ci\u003e1977\u003c\/i\u003e sounds like µ-Ziq distilled: Stripped of his signature breakbeats and customary chaos, Paradinas’ first-ever strictly (well, mostly) ambient album presents the essence of his music in a whole new light.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Balmat","offers":[{"title":"Yellow 12\"x2","offer_id":50417191944523,"sku":"2169700","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50417192206667,"sku":"2169701","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/unnamed_43_26a4bb3a_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726720559"},{"product_id":"grush","title":"Grush","description":"\u003cp\u003eMike Paradinas, veteran producer and Planet Mu label owner has written a new album called \u003ci\u003eGrush\u003c\/i\u003e and it's full of weird bangers that reclaim the 'dance' part of the woeful term IDM. A back-to-first-principles record, inspired in part by the group of artists IDM was coined for; melodic dance music that didn't come out of urban scenes, but interpreted them from a distance. The tracks on ‘Grush’ are all road-tested live favorites developed with feedback from Mike's touring partner and visuals guy Mora (Jan Moravec). It's a detailed and energetic journey which replicates the flow of a live gig. A lot of the tracks have been made in hotel rooms in response to shows, ‘Imperial Crescent’ is named after a Japanese Hotel, as is ‘Belvedere’ in Prague, while some tracks such as ‘Hyper Daddy’ were created specifically to play live. Drums are confidently at the fore here and the album feels like it traces Mike's musical history and interests neatly around his sweetly nostalgic melodies, with atmospheres and structures which twist and turn with a charming softness which contrasts with the tension in the drums. Take ‘Hyper Daddy’s’ spiralling notes and twinkling piano which remind one of early Black Dog or Omni Trio rushing alongside splashy jungle drums, or the aquatic acid footwork of the title track with its drums softly bubbling and kicking. Elsewhere there's territory which harks back to his Tusken Raiders pseudonym, like the heads down Drexciyan funk of ‘Windsor Safari Park,’ which transforms from moody electro into a sunny hardcore track midway.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe album is interspersed with Reticulum A, B and C  at the start middle and end of the album which suggest a theme which carries across the music in an effortless and joyful way. \u003ci\u003eGrush\u003c\/i\u003e is a strong album that works both for listening and DJing and a great snapshot of where Mike Paradinas musical head is at in 2024.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Planet Mu","offers":[{"title":"Clear LPx2","offer_id":50426505265483,"sku":"2195578","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Black LPx2","offer_id":50426505593163,"sku":"2216972","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50426504839499,"sku":"2195577","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/ef0b9248-abbb-03c2-ac21-e1c5abc53e0c_f2f0ce9e_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726811493"},{"product_id":"hello","title":"Hello","description":"\u003cp\u003ePlanet Mu owner Mike Paradinas (a.k.a. µ-Ziq) wraps up 2022 with his 3rd release of new material this year. \u003ci\u003eHello\u003c\/i\u003e is the mirror image of the ‘Goodbye EP’. The intensity is heightened, the breaks more manic and melodies inhabit every corner. The material is the final chapter of the ‘Magic Pony Ride’ material and even includes another version of that track. 'Iggy’s Song’ has a slowed down sample of Mike’s son screaming, ‘Ávila’ is an ode to his father’s hometown in Spain and ‘Green Chaos’ even includes a nod to RP Boo. On Side B things get more interesting. ‘Pyramidal Mind Dispersion’ slows things down while amping up the tension, Modulating Angel is at drum and bass tempo but with a choir of angels from hell in the background, while the final two tracks recall the experimentation and melodies of Lunatic Harness.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Planet Mu","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50508016025931,"sku":"1168381","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50508015305035,"sku":"1168380","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/67eedd47-90f5-4323-89f8-8a30425202dd_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727855441"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_839af170_thumbnail_4096_c61a50d4-9b2b-43e7-9229-b15e629b3af4.jpg?v=1726521042","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/u-ziq.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}