has mike paradinas been treated kindly by history?

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mikey p seems to have been glossed over a bit, he seemed to be quite a big deal once. picked up the re-issue of tango'n'vectif at the weekend. unmistakably paradinas, i think he was original and recognisable. but also a strange datedness. very 93. fwiw, i think upto and including 'In Pine Effect' (esp 'in pine effect' - his best work?) he made some good records, although far too long - meaning mucho dross amidst the pearls.

after that, well, Urmer Bile Trax was quite dense and harsh and only had one great track, but then after that he seemed to swing completely the other way and just became very bland. he seems to have been out in the wilderness for a long time now, and his rep as suffered. all the stuff he did under other names is rubbish (with exception of mike'n'rich album, but that had afx input so its going to be good no?). so where did it go wrong for mu-ziq?

― gareth, Thursday, 4 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it actually DID go wrong with the Mike'n'Rich album, the board-game cover inadvertently revealed a bit too much about the album, even if it was supposed to be a joke.

― dave q, Thursday, 4 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think he has been treated quite rightly be history. 'In Pine Effect' was indeed rather good, but somehow he lost the plot between 'Mike 'n Rich' (an album, that even after all these years, I can't quite decide if it's Classix or Dudilski) and 'Das ist ein groovy beat, ja?'. Bought that one for the title alone, some decent tracks but way, way too long. Than Plug and Squarepusher came along and basically pushed out of the way, yeah? I heard some good things about that album with Astronomy in the title. He just isn't Aphex...somehow.

― Omar, Thursday, 4 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mental note: don't eat lunch and post at the same time. Spelling suffers. For some reason I'm looking for a footie analogy here, AFX being Real Madrid (royal, brilliant, coming up with the goods most of the time, interesting even if they fail) and Mu-ziq being Atletico Madrid (occasional flashes of brilliance, underarchieving, lost in second division). Erm...proceed.

― Omar, Thursday, 4 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought Royal Astronomy was pretty awful. Sub aphex w/far too many strings.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Thursday, 4 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Royal Astronamy sucks balls but Lunatic Harness is beautiful and wonderful.

― chaki, Thursday, 4 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mike is really good live but his last album was kinda dull unless you do the hoovering

― Tom, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I do the hoovering and I still didn't like it.

― Mark, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'Makesaracket' (under the Jake Slazenger name) is by far his best album - i heard that first, and then everything else was a disappointment. the Gary Moscheles album was ok, but he spoilt the decent house-ish beats by arsing about on synths

― m jemmeson, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

oh and Plug's a dud, surely?

― m jemmeson, Friday, 5 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

oh yes, Plug is a dud. no doubt.

― gareth, Saturday, 6 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'Plug' is Luke Vibert. Mikey P goes by Mu-ziq, Kid Spatula, Tusken Raiders and Jake Slazenger.

― chaki, Saturday, 6 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I loved royal astronomy, it got a lot more music press atention than his other stuff, maybe it was more middle of the road ( the guardian gave it a very good review i think). Some of the noises on it kinda broke away from the usuall AFX style noises he was making before, and the use of vocals was a nice surprise. Kid Spatula was essentially a remix of royal astronomy, you can hear all the same samples all over. Mike P's label is putting some great stuff out at the moment, Venetian Snares, Leafcutter John, i think they did some stuff with tigerbeat6 recently as well .. ...

― jk, Sunday, 7 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

four weeks pass...

Tango'n'Vectif was the work of sublime genius but I don't think he ever got over that, and then subsequent releases contained far too much guff with the odd gem. Bluff Limbo has about 2 good tracks tho'/

― Powerpill, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

no quality control - why can't the guy sift the gems from his own shit before proffering it for public consumption. someone posted that plug is "surely" a dud. NO WAY! luke v's stuff is ace! again maybe not quite so consistent as the twin (although his detour into marilyn manson carnival hucksterism is depressing) but intriguing (and damned funky) nonetheless. i think expert knob twiddlers is great, though - it's so loose sphinctered.

― bob snoom, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There really is no need to slag "Royal Astronomy." Some of my favourite Mikey p. tracks are from that outing. "The fear" is beautiful--it is one of the only tunes with sweeping strings that I really find inspiring. His carnival/circus bent on "Astronomy" is really restrained in comparison to stuff like the ep "Salsa with Mesquite." Granted, I agree that "Lunatic Harness" is brilliant--"London" is one of the spookiest--but spooky in a good way--tracks I've heard. Also, "My Little Beautiful" makes crazy, layered, syncopated drum loops sound calming. Whereas Luke Vibert has done some good stuff under "Wagon Christ," I think that the highly mathematical sound of Mike Paradinas provides something different than the joint-blazing approach Luke V. seems to take. I'm not going to sit here and argue that Mike P has anything on Richard D. James in terms of a total "ouevre," if you will, but certain mu-ziq tunes are far superior to various Aphex stuff. I'd rather listen to "Lunatic Harness," song for song, than that highly arty and overrated "Selected Ambient Works Vol.2."

― cybele, Sunday, 4 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I concur, 'Lunatic Harness' is full of joy and wonder--I especially love the second track. I think Mu-Ziq is better than Squarepusher myself, although my exposure to both is admittedly limited.

― Clarke B., Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

random fact: i went to the same school as Squarepusher, and my friend bought a bass guitar off him. he [Squarepusher] was an *amazing* bass player and drummer.

not sure which i prefer, prob Mike P, but ought to actually get round to listening to more Squarepusher sometime.

― m jemmeson, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

oh, and talking of Luke Vibert, the library music album he's compiled ('Luke Vibert's Nuggets') is pretty good, especially the 2nd track, which has GRATE chipmunk wordless vocals

― m jemmeson, Monday, 5 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

I'd just like to say that Lunatic Harness was the first digital music I ever heard that I liked. I heard it in florida in 1998 and since then...I've found out about Aphex Twin and SquarePusher...I love these 3 ....u-Ziq's got the trip-hop angle covered... aphex has the industrial angle and tom has the jazz....Then there's other I love like LTJ Bukem's Journey Inwards and Dj Food's stuff ...Also StairCaseEffect's stuff is complex and minimal....but I think of mike, rich, and tom as the tri-force.... To answer your question--- Lunatic Harness is still my favorite....After LH, Royal Astronomy was a partial letdown...It just has less great moments...but they are still there...all you people that say RA sucked....go try and make a better album than that.. don't complain... go and make the music you wanted to be on it...

― Justin Beideman, Wednesday, 19 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

true justin, but have you never spent money on an album, hard earned money that you don't have a lot of, on an album that you didn't like?

has nobody ever asked you your opinion about an album you didn't like? don't you tell them the truth, or say 'this other album i think you'll like better'?

if they said. 'dude, better than you can do', what would you think?

i mean, Stone Temple Pilots, Cast and Staind have all made albums, i haven't. but they're still shit.

don't mean to have a go, because you said some good stuff, but if you can't say your real opinion about a record, how is anyone ever to know what you think?

― gareth, Wednesday, 19 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Gareth, for a moment I had a vision of you as the main character in "Teachers".

― Tim, Wednesday, 19 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

not really relevant but we saw mikee p play on friday and he was well good - had cut all his hair off and looked a bit weird, but played loads of manitoba esque garage-ey stuff, then when i came back was rinsing out full on gabba/hiphop stuff like 'mama said knock you out' interspersed with 1000% overfdrive max. gabba pressure beatz, which we just jumped around like loons to, in the absense of anythign else to do to the music....

good fun. dmx krew was legendary too, but thats another story....

― ambrose, Wednesday, 19 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tim, thats really cruel

― gareth, Thursday, 20 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

twelve years pass...

getting back into "lunatic harness" - best drill n bass album of all time?

― the late great, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 15:56 (ten years ago)

it's by far the best thing he ever did, imo. The "brace yourself" ep is really good as well.

― brimstead, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 16:00 (ten years ago)

getting back into "lunatic harness" - best drill n bass album of all time?

It's not even his best drill'n'bass album, IMO, the previous one is. The toy synth sounds on every track on LH get really tiring after a while.

― Tuomas, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 17:54 (ten years ago)

urmur bile trax EP? i got that one when it came out but my car disc changer ate it and i busted it up trying to remove it, never got another copy i remember it being very ... aggressive?

― the late great, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 18:50 (ten years ago)

Royal Astronomy is far and away my favourite thing he's done as a recording artist. I feel as though the nintendo melody + incongruous breaks formula works better on that record compared to Lunatic Harness which can sometimes feel like two records playing over the top of each other. The Hwicci Song and The Fear are all time favourites for me.

― 3kDk (dog latin), Wednesday, 20 August 2014 13:39 (ten years ago)

Best drill'n'bass album of all time (if it counts) has to be the Come To Daddy EP because it's pretty much perfect.

― 3kDk (dog latin), Wednesday, 20 August 2014 13:40 (ten years ago)

favorite drill n bass album for me is AT 'i care because you do'

― marcos, Wednesday, 20 August 2014 14:01 (ten years ago)

but lunatic harness is good, i remember liking it a lot, well, some of it, at least, mostly track #2. i remember it being inconsistent.

― marcos, Wednesday, 20 August 2014 14:01 (ten years ago)

to answer the thread question i don't think he or IDM in general has been treated kindly by history. a lot of sounds really dated, even some of the players that are still esteemed today, e.g. boards of canada. hell even tomorrow's harvest sounds dated to the early 00s and that came out last year

― marcos, Wednesday, 20 August 2014 14:03 (ten years ago)

lol @ the question in the thread title being asked in 2001

― jaymc, Wednesday, 20 August 2014 14:06 (ten years ago)

i know!

― marcos, Wednesday, 20 August 2014 14:06 (ten years ago)

feel like he was pretty low-key at that time tho - Planet Mu hadn't really hit its stride as a label and there was two years either side of his Mu-Ziq albums I think

― for sale: Bebe's boots, never worn (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 20 August 2014 14:10 (ten years ago)

'winter's log' is my fave cut from lunatic.

― 3kDk (dog latin), Wednesday, 20 August 2014 14:12 (ten years ago)

that duntisbourne abbotts album was absolutely horrible.

― 3kDk (dog latin), Wednesday, 20 August 2014 14:13 (ten years ago)

wow that melody in "hasty boom alert" is wonderful

― marcos, Wednesday, 20 August 2014 14:16 (ten years ago)

I wish I hadn't sold Royal Astronomy. It seemed far too safe and classicist at the time, but a lot of it's stuck w me

― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Wednesday, 20 August 2014 14:18 (ten years ago)

some of the stuff on here was bonkers http://www.allmusic.com/album/mealtime-mw0001009208 especially towards the end

― 3kDk (dog latin), Wednesday, 20 August 2014 14:18 (ten years ago)

two years pass...

https://dotheastralplane.com/2017/01/26/mike-paradinas-mix-for-the-astral-plane/

https://soundcloud.com/do-the-astral-plane/mike-paradinas-mix-for-the-astral-plane

― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 26 January 2017 19:08 (eight years ago)

three years pass...

this just got released as part of jake slazenger "drops a deuce" set

https://mikeparadinas.bandcamp.com/album/drops-a-deuce-2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkOc2NO0iAw&feature=youtu.be

― the late great, Saturday, 31 October 2020 19:18 (four years ago)

strange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkOc2NO0iAw

― the late great, Saturday, 31 October 2020 19:18 (four years ago)

Jake Slazenger is back with "Drops A Deuce", a prelude of sorts to the imminent third Jake Slazenger album which drops next week

!!!

― the late great, Saturday, 31 October 2020 19:20 (four years ago)

didn't he say he was totally uninspired by music-making now? there was some really depressing interview

― lukas, Saturday, 31 October 2020 19:34 (four years ago)

at this point the exposure he’s given to footwork matters more than his own music

― Get Me Bodied (Extended Mix), Saturday, 31 October 2020 19:41 (four years ago)

― lukas, Saturday, 31 October 2020 19:55 (four years ago)

At some point I came across the pdf of the 20th anniversary Planet Mu comp, it was an interesting read for sure
https://planet.mu/releases/various-artists-%C2%B520-20-years-of-planet-mu/

― change display name (Jordan), Saturday, 31 October 2020 21:26 (four years ago)

at this point the exposure he’s given to footwork matters more than his own music

holy shit yeah - this is hugely otm

Planet Mu has been a godsend of musical and artist discovery for at least 15 years. RP Boo/Bangs & Works, Ital Tek, Boxcutter, Claude Speed, Sami Baha, Kuedo, Konx-om-Pax, Sinjin Hawke & Zora Jones, and Ziúr along with many others....

Seriously, sometimes taste making can suit people better than music making and that is Mikey P's legacy for sure imho

― octobeard, Saturday, 31 October 2020 23:54 (four years ago)

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