µ-Ziq

by John Bush
One of the premiere names in the field of electronic home-listening music, Mike Paradinas recordings retained the abrasive flavor of early techno pioneers and explored the periphery of experimental electronica even while coddling to his unusual ear for melody, the occasional piece of vintage synthesizer, and distorted beatbox rhythms. While his side projects — including Diesel M, Jake Slazenger, Gary Moscheles, Kid Spatula, and Tusken Raiders — have often emphasized (or satirized) his debts to jazz, funk, and electro, Paradinas reserved his most original and exciting work for major album releases as µ-Ziq. Early µ-Ziq LPs were based around the most ear-splitting buzz-saw percussion ever heard (in a musical environment or otherwise), with fast-moving though deceptively fragile synthesizer melodies running over the top. As Paradinas began weaving his various influences into a convincing whole, his work became more fully developed (though possibly not as exciting), a fluid blend of breakbeat hip-hop and drumnbass with industrial effects and the same brittle melodies from his earlier work.
Born in Wimbledon (though he grew up in several other spots around London), Paradinas began playing keyboards during the early 80s and listened to new wave bands like Human League and New Order. He joined a few bands in the mid-80s, then spent eight years on keyboards for the group Blue Innocence. During that time, however, Paradinas had been recording on his own as well with synthesizers and a four-track recorder. When Blue Innocence disintegrated in 1992, he and bass player Francis Naughton bought sequencing software and re-recorded some of Paradinas old material. After the material was played for Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton — the duo behind Global Communication and Reload as well as being the heads of Evolution Records — they wanted to release it; recording commitments later forced Pritchard and Middleton to withdraw their agreement, though by that time Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) had also heard the tracks and agreed to release a double-album for his label, Rephlex Records.
The debut album for µ-Ziq (paraphrased from the side of a blank tape and pronounced mew-zeek) was 1993s Tango N Vectif. The LP set the template for most of Paradinas later work, with at times shattering metal-cage percussion underpinning a collection of rather beautiful melodies. The Rephlex label was just beginning to flourish, with added journalistic attention paid to Aphex Twins recent Selected Ambient Works 85-92, and though James began to feature less in label-doings than co-founder Grant Wilson Claridge, later Rephlex work by Cylob, Luke Vibert (aka Wagon Christ), Seefeel and Squarepusher made it among the cream of electronic home-listening labels.
When Naughton began taking college more seriously (something Paradinas had attempted briefly, from 1990 through 1992), he officially bowed out of µ-Ziq. Second album Bluff Limbo was scheduled to be released in mid-1994, though only 1000 copies made it out of the gate. (It was officially issued by Rephlex in 1996 after Paradinas served papers on the label.) Paradinas first major-label release came later in 1994, after he undertook a remix project for Virgin Records. The EP µ-Ziq Vs. the Auteurs was one of the most high-profile examples of the remix-by-obliteration movement, a burgeoning hobby for many electronica producers in which a pop-song reworking would bear no resemblance to — or trace of — the original.
Though the EP was hardly a prime mover in the sales category, Virgin signed Paradinas to a hefty contract and gave him his own Planet µ sub-label to release his own work as well as develop similar-minded artists. Written into his own contract was a provision for unlimited recording under different names, and during 1995 Paradinas definitely took it to task: he unveiled three aliases and released as many albums in less than a years time. The nu-skool electro label Clear released his debut single as Tusken Raiders early in the year; it mined the fascination with Star Warsand electro music shared by producers like Global Communication, Aphex Twin and James Lavelle, head of Mo Wax Records. Clear also released the first Paradinas alias full-length, Jake Slazengers MakesARacket, later in 1995. Although they were still audible, the LP downplayed his electro influences in favor of some rather cheesy synthesizer figures and a previously unheard debt to jazz-funk.
The distortion re-appeared on Paradinas second LP of the year, Spatula Freak by Kid Spatula. The first American-only release of a Paradinas album (it appeared on Jonah Sharps San Franciso-based Reflective Records), its sound had the metallic feel of the first two µ-Ziq LPs but with a less-dense production job. Just one month after Spatula Freak, Paradinas released his first proper µ-Ziq LP for a major label, In Pine Effect. The album included tracks recorded from 1993 to 1995, and though it was quite a varied album, the distance appeared to give it quite a disjointed feel.
Paradinas spent 1996 releasing a second Jake Slazenger album (Das Ist Groovy Beat Ja? for Warp) and his first as Gary Moscheles (Shaped to Make Your Life Easier for Belgiums SSR/Crammed Discs). Both LPs journeyed further down the queasy-listening route of the first Slazenger record, with departures into 80s-style party funk and surprisingly straight-ahead soul-jazz. He also owned a half-share in the Rephlex-released Expert Knob Twiddlers (credited as Mike & Rich), the fruit of Paradinas 1994 recordings with the Aphex Twin.
Paradinas entered 1997 ready to undertake the most ambitious style makeover in his career; the fusion of his home-listening techno with the hypertensive rhythms of street-level drumnbass. One year earlier, Aphex Twin had released a single of schizophrenic jungle noodlings (Hangable Auto Bulb), and Tom Jenkinsons Squarepusher project had provided the first convincing headphone drumnbass act. Paradinas waded into the pool with Urmur Bile Trax, Vols. 1&2, a double-EP also released as one full-length compact disc. Though the change-over wasnt completely convincing, the next µ-Ziq full-length more than made up for expectations. Lunatic Harness presented a complete synthesis of the many elements in Paradinas career, from synth-jazz-funk and beat-box electro through to ambient-techno and jungle. Though still unable to break through to a mainstream which had recently accepted Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers into the fold, Paradinas and µ-Ziq were introduced to many rock fans after he toured America as the support act for techno chanteuse Björk. [See Also: Kid Spatula, Jake Slazenger]