expert knob twiddlers

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i recently got the mike and rich album "expert knob twiddlers." is it a joke? i wasn't expecting it to be so bad.

― ricky l, Wednesday, 4 January 2006 21:48 (twenty years ago)

i assumed this was about ilm

― cancer prone fat guy (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 21:50 (twenty years ago)

First of all, you're buying a Rephlex album, so "is it a joke?" is a stupid question. You're in breathing range of V/VM TEST at this point.

Second of all, it rates as one of the best things Paradinas has ever done. And some spots are pretty nicely done for old-school RDJ as well.

Third: It's one of the last things EITHER of them did before getting swept up into SQP/AE skittery breaks laptop territory, and therefore it is to be cherished.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:00 (twenty years ago)

haven't played this in ages. first track is great though, isn't it?

― terry lennox. (gareth), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:01 (twenty years ago)

SQP/AE
Qu'est que c'est?

― detoxyDancer (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:02 (twenty years ago)

SQP/AE = Squarepusher/Autechre I think

― fandango (fandango), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:03 (twenty years ago)

ok, thought it was software or summat

― detoxyDancer (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:05 (twenty years ago)

Yes, you see, people whose usernames start with T agree.

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:05 (twenty years ago)

ha, his bullet points are fantastic

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:06 (twenty years ago)

I haven't listened to this since the last century, but I remember really agreeing with Forced Exposure's write up of the album, specifically "Not the experimental freakout experimental electronic-fest many expected but somewhat underrated at the same time for it's collection of cheesy effects and programming & incessant melodies."

And I agree with TOMBOT saying it's one of the best things that Paradinas has done, but that's not saying much.

― Vic Funk, Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:12 (twenty years ago)

fuck that, lunatic harness was the best thing he did.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:12 (twenty years ago)

I forgot all about this. I remember loving the first track, as well.

― Tripmaker (SDWitzm), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:17 (twenty years ago)

My brain saw the words "big and rich" in the subject, initially, and got excitedly confused. Then I looked again...

― Dom iNut (donut), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:22 (twenty years ago)

ive never listened to this one, but i like the pseudo-Milton Bradley children's board game artwork

― latebloomer: Grab my puffy nipples and make a wish. (latebloomer), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:24 (twenty years ago)

Haha, speaking of V/vm (and others) this short sharp link was just IMed to me and it's WELL DAHK M8
http://www.brainwashed.com/vvm/news/downloads/20051202_vvm_ps2.htm

― blunt (blunt), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:48 (twenty years ago)

I'm a pretty big RDJ/Paradinas fan and i have to say that this album blows.

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 23:03 (twenty years ago)

µ-Ziq has never done a great-from-start-to-finish album (though Royal Astronomy comes quite close), but every record of his I've heard has some brightly shining moments, and his best tracks are better than any Aphex tune I've ever heard. "Roy Castle", anyone? Besides, I think his style has always been more simplistic ans less skittery than Squarepusher's or Autechre's, and it's better for that.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 23:12 (twenty years ago)

It's an excellent album. Once you get over the cheesiness, there are some really funky, tripped-out beats on there.

Is it true they made it in an afternoon after polishing off a bottle of vodka?

(oh yeh, and Tuomas is right about "Royal Astronomy" being the most consistently good µ-ziq album)

― Wogan Lenin (dog latin), Thursday, 5 January 2006 01:05 (twenty years ago)

royal astronomy sucks

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 5 January 2006 01:26 (twenty years ago)

And the Jake Slazenger album's better anyway.

― blunt (blunt), Thursday, 5 January 2006 01:27 (twenty years ago)

im with cutty here, Lunatic Harness is Paradinas's best

― latebloomer: Grab my puffy nipples and make a wish. (latebloomer), Thursday, 5 January 2006 01:27 (twenty years ago)

To me, the track Tango N Vectif is the best thing he's done... I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking that this dude just CRUSHED MY BRAIN. The whole albums is pretty hot too.

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Thursday, 5 January 2006 01:31 (twenty years ago)

Yes, and "Phi*1700(U/V)" is also a highlight of that LP. Akshuly mefinks Gary Moscheles is the coolest LP.

― blunt (blunt), Thursday, 5 January 2006 01:35 (twenty years ago)

you guys have bad taste in music

― ricky l, Thursday, 5 January 2006 01:37 (twenty years ago)

http://www.youhavebadtasteinmusic.com

― blunt (blunt), Thursday, 5 January 2006 01:38 (twenty years ago)

im sorry that was mean but honestly this album sucks and i'm kind of pissed i bought it :)

on the up side i picked up venetian snares' winter in the belly of a snake and two lone swordsmen's tiny reminders
i'm liking those

― ricky l, Thursday, 5 January 2006 01:41 (twenty years ago)

That stuff came out AGES afterwards

― blunt (blunt), Thursday, 5 January 2006 01:43 (twenty years ago)

LUNATIC HARNESS IS THE BEST. YUP.

― howell huser (chaki), Thursday, 5 January 2006 01:48 (twenty years ago)

that site is pretty genius.

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Thursday, 5 January 2006 02:36 (twenty years ago)

i like this record for how stoned it sounds and how much it confuses hardcore fans of either when they buy it

BU BU BU BA

― HAKKEBOFFER (eman), Thursday, 5 January 2006 02:44 (twenty years ago)

tiny reminders >>>>>>>>>>>>>>expert knob twiddlers.

when this came out, i found it disposable. strangely enough it is still in my collection though.

i find tango'n'vectif to be mike's best for the sheer velocity of it all, though lunatic harness is a close second (the "return to form"). royal astronomy does indeed suck. a trip to fairyland wasn't what i was looking for...

what about umur bile trax or his vs the auteurs albums, those are f'n killer!

― heywood jablomi (heywood), Thursday, 5 January 2006 03:22 (twenty years ago)

what about all those other names he went under like tuscan raiders n shit

― howell huser (chaki), Thursday, 5 January 2006 04:40 (twenty years ago)

I really don't like Lunatic Harness - Paradinas didn't seem to have much of a grip on the drill'n'bass thing at the time. The beats are random in a bad way, and never really seem to kick in properly. It became a lot more coherent on Royal Astronomy.

Mike'n'Rich is a brilliant, stoned, funky thing and it would sit nicely next to some vintage Swordsmen/Sabres stuff.

― Wogan Lenin (dog latin), Thursday, 5 January 2006 13:25 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe y'all motherfuckers haven't mention In Pine Effect yet. Not that I really think the Paradinas catalogue really bears that much discussion. You could go on and on and on about Kid Spatula, blah blah, Urmur Bile Traxx, one thing after another after another, at one point I've owned every CD he put out up to RA except for Gary Moscheles and frankly did you know something they're not that different. Consistently inconsistent, that's our Mike. EKT is memorable because it's like the only AFX/ZIQ release you can sit down and listen to all the way through as an album. Vodka was possibly involved, that would make sense.

It's unsurprising that somebody who likes venetian snares and 2LS' later stuff would think EKT sucks, though. EKT is not nearly rhythmless and overprogrammed enough

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 5 January 2006 13:48 (twenty years ago)

I'm dumping quite a bit of CDs on amazon, I forget if there's much paradinas but definitely some 2LS and a Joseph Nothing in there. Such a wasted youth.

TOMBOT'S Amazon Marketplace Blowout (wherein you make jokes at the expense of my juvenile obsessions)

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 5 January 2006 13:52 (twenty years ago)

Hey, I did mention "Roy Castle", which is still my favourite tune of his. I remember hearing it in 1994 when I was fifteen, having listened mostly to trance and hardcore before that, and thinking, "Wow, I didn't know electronic music can be like this too!". In Pine Effect is a bit uneven, it has some glorious moments, but also one of the most irritating pieces of music I've ever heard - I mean the track with the looped baby cry. Only early Miss Djax tracks can beat that.

Lunatic Harness starts with four great tracks, but then it meanders into more generic IDM-land and never really picks it up again. Royal Astronomy is better because it relies more on Mike Paradina's strengths: lovely, soothing melodies and straightforward electro funk.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 5 January 2006 14:05 (twenty years ago)

That's the complete opposite of what some people expect from him, though! Especially the latter day drill n' bass dudes who go back and listen to Tango n' Vectif and expect him to sound HARD. Royal Astronomy really sounds like music that could be licensed for advertisements although I have no idea if anything on it was.

― mike h. (mike h.), Thursday, 5 January 2006 14:30 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe y'all motherfuckers haven't mention In Pine Effect yet.

I'd have to say -- with the possible exception of Urmur Bile Trax, Vols. 1 & 2 -- In Pine Effect is my favorite Mu-Ziq track. Of course, the latter was also my introduction to Paradinas' work, so that surely has a lot to do with it. Royal Astronomy is likely the biggest turd I've ever made the mistake of buying, however. Seriously.

― Josh Witkowski (braineater), Thursday, 5 January 2006 15:27 (twenty years ago)

By track, I mean album.
By working, I mean "posting on ILM while I answer phone calls."

― Josh Witkowski (braineater), Thursday, 5 January 2006 15:28 (twenty years ago)

Royal Astronomy is likely the biggest turd I've ever made the mistake of buying, however. Seriously.

But-but what about the Hwicci Song? What about The Fear?!!

I can't say I've ever been that big of a fan of µ-ziq's releases. Mike Paradinas is a top bloke and he works very hard, particularly with his record label. He's also one of the few IDM artists who isn't a total recluse and regularly chats to fans on the net.

Sadly though, I often found when listening to something like Lunatic Harness that he was trying too hard to play second fiddle to Richard D James rather than ploughing his own furrow. LH sounds like someone trying to make a copy of the RDJ album, despite a few glorious bits. It sounds like a child who won't sit still for a second though, and while this might be the point, I find a lot of the beats on there absolutely exasperating, since they never ever settle into a groove. Somehow with Aphex's material at the time, it was still random and jittery but there was a good beat in there at the same time. Royal Astronomy is a lot more mature, and yeh some of the melodies are cheesy as hell but I like them.

― Wogan Lenin (dog latin), Thursday, 5 January 2006 17:01 (twenty years ago)

I think the whole idea is that they're a bit cheesy, why else would've he done those pseudo-classical tunes with synth strings? And yeah, I love them too. However, I find µ-Ziq's cheesiness to be the sort innocent type of sentimentalism, which doesn't hide under the veil of postmodern irony, like so many other IDM dudes do, and which is therefore instantly lovable and doesn't require the sort of ironic listening stance, which I think is the absolutely worst way to listen to any music.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 6 January 2006 13:04 (twenty years ago)

that's true, tuomas.

― Wogan Lenin (dog latin), Friday, 6 January 2006 16:00 (twenty years ago)

Christgau on Aphex

― jfdskl, Friday, 6 January 2006 16:17 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

Slazenger and this were always considered jokes back in the heyday of IDM chinstrokery. I'm listening to the Jake Slazenger album now, having always avoided it before and fuck me if it isn't the best thing Mike Paradinas has ever done, and I really like a lot of his µ-ziq stuff. Mike & Rich is also very quirky and good fun.
The irony is these two records were supposed to sound cheesy at the time but if anything they've managed to improve with age.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 09:37 (twenty years ago)

I really like EKT as well, although I'm not sure it or Jake Slazenger are the best thing Paradinas has done- his Royal Astronomy album, as mu-Ziq, is fantastic, although i think I'll be in the minority in saying that.

― Neil Stewart (Neil Stewart), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 09:54 (twenty years ago)

nah, i agree with you. for the time royal astronomy was the best, but these days slazenger has kind of pre-told the current music trends and it sounds really fresh.

allow it.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 10:08 (twenty years ago)

I'll have to give it another listen. I remember at the time I thought it was quite similar to stuff like Plone. Who would you compare it to/ say it prefigured now?

― Neil Stewart (Neil Stewart), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 10:42 (twenty years ago)

Oooh God, good question... It doesn't sound like anyone but it sounds up-to-date ina retro way as opposed to retro-for-cheese-and-retro's-sake as it would have done back in 95.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 10:45 (twenty years ago)

I think I see what you mean- modern retro electronica sounds in a kind of Metro Area or Luke Vibert eighties italo/ acid stylee?

― Neil Stewart (Neil Stewart), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:00 (twenty years ago)

yes, like Metro Area - that's exactly the kind of thing I mean.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 11:32 (twenty years ago)

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