Jump to content
IGNORED

Planet Mu Listening Club


KovalainenFanBoy

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 227
  • Created
  • Last Reply

 

 

CLR407

Tusken Raiders

Bantha Trax

Released 06-03-1995

 

CLR407_TuskenRaiders_BanthaTrax-650x650.

Bleepstore: https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/69084-tusken-raiders-bantha-trax

Bandcamp: https://mikeparadinas.bandcamp.com/album/bantha-trax

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1GiuBgaqhIVXBjWiuhF17V?si=neXBUDwyT9WJoRQ_ABqGvQ

Tracklist:

 

 

01 Raider Beetz

02 Tatooine Sunset

03 Gaderffii Stick

04 Sexy Sandpeople

05 Beatnik #3

 

 

Description:

 

 

March 1995 first release of the Tusken Raiders alias

 

 

 

 

CLR410

Jake Slazenger

Makesaracket

Released 05-06-1995

 

CLR410_JakeSlazenger_Makesaracket-650x65

Bleepstore: https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/69231-jake-slazenger-makesaracket

Bandcamp: https://mikeparadinas.bandcamp.com/album/makesaracket

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7xmx7MUqcgb4QYjvnqEg54?si=x0fVvGAARFaI2Ovdn0r_wg

Tracklist:

 

 

01 Megaphonk

02 Get Up R

03 Stupid Wanker

04 Gary’s Birthday

05 Daytime Kiss

06 Erp

07 Wyatt

08 Flod

09 Bolus

10 Feet

11 Five Alive

12 Lux

13 Spry Bat*

14 Acid Pope*

 

*Bonus tracks

 

 

Description:

 

 

1995 release, #1 in the UK Indie Charts. Includes the vinyl only tracks ‘Spry Bat’ and ‘Acid Pope’

 

 

 

 

CLR4103

Jake Slazenger

Megaphonk

Released 11-09-1995

 

CLR4103_JakeSlazenger_Megaphonk-650x650.

Bleepstore: https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/69226-jake-slazenger-megaphonk

Bandcamp: https://mikeparadinas.bandcamp.com/album/megaphonk

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/15bYiAb5mxQbvAVUnCbt5Y?si=B7NQqLvtRn67FoyvXs-Q6w

Tracklist:

 

 

01 Megaphonk (alternate version)

02 Hyperjunk

03 Muddy Tractor

 

 

Description:

 

 

Originally released in 1995 as a limited edition white label of 500 copies on Clear Records, original 12″ also featured ‘Supafunk’ which is now available via Warp Records on Das Ist Ein Groovy Beat Ja

 

 

Relevant mu20 section:

 

 

jkzzOKI.jpg

 

I managed to get 3 of those transparent vinyls that Clear Records put out; Tusken Raiders, Jedi Knights, and Plaid. Classics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still have a big soft spot for old Mike P, especially the crunchy/clanky beat stuff. Looking forward to Jega and Vibert. Oh and the Tetlow, Lexaunculpt, 8FM, there's def some hidden gems

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bluff Limbo is amazing. I've listened to most of the Mu catalog, and there's a bunch of hidden gems. Some favorites:

 

Mu-ziq, Lunatic Harness

Mu-ziq, In Pine Effect

Mu-ziq, Chewed Corners

Mu-ziq, Somerset Avenue Tracks

Mu-ziq, XTLP

Mu-ziq, RY30 Trax

Mu-ziq, Aberystwyth Marine

Kid Spatula, Meast

Heterotic, Love and Devotion

Heterotic, Weird Drift

Capitol K, Island Row

Capitol K, Sounds of the Empire

Tim Tetlow, Beauty Walks a Razor's Edge

Joseph Nothing, Dreamland Idle Orchestra

OOO, Upon Cycles

dDamage, Radio Ape

Chevron, Everything's Exactly The Same

Luke Vibert, Lover's Acid

Venetian Snares, Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett

Pinch, Qawwali

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble

Boxcutter, Oneiric

Tom Burbank, Famous First Words

Few Nolder, New Folder

Jamie Vexd, In System Travel

Kuedo, Dream Sequence

Kuedo, Severant

DJ Rashad, Itz Not Rite

FaltyDL, You Stand Uncertain

FaltyDL, Love Is A Liability

Vezelay, Lyre

Machinedrum, Room(s) / Sacred Frequency EP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i thought i was going to hate makesaracket since that vibert-ish funky midtempo electronica just bores me to tears usually, but was pleasantly surprised. Prob enjoyed it more than the previous 2 albums, overall. Few duds though, it's funny how mu is known for Mike's curation yet all his early albums so far have been around 90 minutes

 

the Tusken Raiders ep reminded me a lot of deejay selek, it's uncanny. Remove the background melodies and it's straight up out of aphex's EP. Really liked it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

couple things

thing #1: switching the schedule to 3 albums a week (mon, wed, fri) cause otherwise this is gonna take forever

thing #2: if you, like me, are embarking on this OCD-ish, strictly chronological adventure, now would be a good time to listen to the unearthed Tusken Raiders EP from '94, released just a couple months ago: https://mikeparadinas.bandcamp.com/album/inchstar-static. There's also the stuff on his dump conveniently tagged by year https://soundcloud.com/mikep/tracks. This is a planet mu retrospective and not a mike p retrospective but, you might as well

Link to comment
Share on other sites

FLATSCD 18
µ-Ziq
Salsa with Mesquite
Released September 1995

R-223088-1480093833-5172.jpeg.jpg
Bleepstore: N/A
Bandcamp: N/A
Spotify: N/A


Tracklist:


1 Salsa With Mesquite
2 Happi
3 Loam
4 Reflectiv
5 Leonard
6 Balsa Lightning
7 Balsa Lightning (Jake Slazenger Remix)



 

FLATCD20
µ-Ziq
In Pine Effect
Released October 1995

R-137791-1173022765.jpeg.jpg
Bleepstore: N/A
Bandcamp: N/A
Spotify: N/A


Tracklist:


1 Roy Castle
2 Within A Sound
3 The Wailing Song
4 Old Fun # 1
5 Dauphine
6 Funky Pipecleaner
7 Iced Jem
8 Phiesope
9 Mr. Angry
10 Melancho
11 Pine Effect
12 Problematic
13 Green Crumble



Relevant mu20 section:

Gj2Bjj7.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok maybe listening to all of muziq's huge as fuck backlog of early music in a month wasnt the best way to start this. It'll be over in december 14th in case anyone's still reading this. it feels silly writing these half baked, no-insight-at-all reviews nobody could possibly give half a fuck about but I'm committed to the bit now. Think of it as a diary of sorts. Oh boy

Anyway I just went through the releases from the past few days and pretty much confirmed my feelings: both first albums are to me grab bags from which, for every 3 or 4 tracks, I'd save one for listening when on the mood and throw the rest away forever. Bantha Trax is still my fav of the bunch, partly because the drums arent as ear splitting and just punchy, and partly maybe because he just goes balls to the wall with it. No forced melodies or trying to make a journey out of 8 minutes of compressed as fuck beats. I dunno, it's a very different mood from the other aliases and I love it. Same with the Slazenger album, overall I just dont like the direction or the... pretense? of the mu-ziq albums. It just feels forced somehow, even though probably mike didnt feel forced at all making them. They just feel too square

and re: salsa and in pine... it's just more of the same but made, paradoxically, a bit more boring by virtue of mike getting better at making music. It all sounds more... formal? I dunno, it's all very similar to the first 2 LPs compositionally but with more experience and extra elements like the brass sections (enjoyed Roy Castle and Dauphine, pretty much the only tracks i'd like to come back to), vocal samples (never want to hear Mr Angry again), but I dunno, it just feels like i'm listening to a more boring ICBYD at points. Quite disappointing, this one. I just have to accept mu-ziq isn't for me I guess. Oh well, only... 8 more LPs to go

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok maybe listening to all of muziq's huge as fuck backlog of early music in a month wasnt the best way to start this. It'll be over in december 14th in case anyone's still reading this.

 

*marks calendar*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 Lexaunculpt

Amazing album on pmu. It's such a shame he disappeared.... Does anyone know what happened? (I've searched but  yeah, couldn't find any info).

 

 

Can vouch for this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Lexaunculpt

Amazing album on pmu. It's such a shame he disappeared.... Does anyone know what happened? (I've searched but yeah, couldn't find any info).
https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/alex-graham

 

he was also half of this duo: https://planet.mu/releases/the-internal-tulips-mislead-into-a-field-by-a-deformed-deer/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

REFCD5

Kid Spatula

Spatula Freak

Released 06-11-1995

 

REFCD5_KidSpatula_SpatulaFreak-650x650.j

Bleepstore: https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/69230-kid-spatula-spatula-freak

Bandcamp: https://mikeparadinas.bandcamp.com/album/spatula-freak

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/15OkNtTVHqRqtjPBjLPaj9?si=1UOF5zsnTLq6h3Lj7GgpbA

Tracklist:

 

1. Dance 3 05:54
2. Chisholm 03:37
3. Xvon 04:26
4. Trunk 06:05
5. Cough 05:19
6. Vampires 06:56
7. Get Up T 06:53
8. Metal Thing #1 05:33
9. Not Human 05:35

 


Description:

Classic 1995 release, originally on San Francisco’s Reflective label.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ahem so... more old mike p... I dug the first track til the afro sounding beat came in, sounded like music from an old tv show for kids or something. It gave me some kind of non-specific nostalgia. Chisholm sounds like American Beauty OST and the percussion comes out of nowhere, pretty funny. Cheesy as fuck brass on xvon.. and from there on the same old muziq from the last few releases. Liked it better than In Pine, gotta give him that, but overall, eh. Dude was making tracks by the dozen back then, fuck me. There's a shitton of them

 

This came out around the same time as Tri Repetae and hangable auto bulb...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ZIQ300
µ-Ziq
Somerset Avenue Tracks (1992-1995)
Released 25-02-2013

ZIQ300_Mu-Ziq_SomersetAvenueTracks-650x6
Planet Mu site: https://planet.mu/releases/µ-ziq-somerset-avenue-tracks-1992-1995/
Bleepstore: https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/69291
Bandcamp: https://mikeparadinas.bandcamp.com/album/somerset-avenue-tracks-1992-1995
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1ogjUhGjQUoaV0QFmv98od?si=XUVEjRTVTq2ftTBrf6rxZQ

Tracklist:


Volume 1
1. Jewel Tea 04:37
2. Vinxel 07:18
3. Trail Quest 05:58
4. Toy Gun #2 04:41
5. Spooky Tooth 06:21
6. Air 06:27
7. Pollux 03:36
8. Str06 05:29
9. Diala 05:06
10. Airto 07:33
11. Johnson's Q-Fab 07:07

Volume 2
12. Green Lanes 04:50
1. Toss 05:02
2. Boistron 03:44
3. Preero 07:52
4. Victor's March 05:23
5. Ischjgt Mmp 03:44
6. Billy Bellsium 06:03
7. Boilig 05:10
8. Sinc 07:17
9. Poc 04:29
10. Ropt 04:32
11. Oh 06:43
12. Melodion 07:18


About the album:


To celebrate 20 years of µ-Ziq, and Planet Mu’s 300th release, Mike Paradinas, owner of Planet Mu has prepared this vinyl only, carefully compiled, limited edition album charting his unreleased productions from the start of his career in the early nineties. Curated by his wife and partner in the band Heterotic, Lara Rix-Martin, the twelve tracks on this double album run the gamut of his various styles from the placid, evocative ambient rhodes of ‘Air’ to the syncopated industrial techno of ‘Toy Gun #2’ and lots more inbetween.

The album opens with the woozy yet elegant counterpoint of 1993’s ‘Jewel Tea’ which swiftly descends into distorted HR-16 drum machine chaos. ‘Vinxel’ switches to a more stately mood with it’s woodblock bassline and measured 4/4 pulse keeping pace with one of those patent µ-Ziq melodies you’d swear you’ve heard somewhere before. Both ‘Trail Quest’ and ‘Spooky Tooth’ continue in this melodic vein until the aforementioned ‘Air’ slows it all down with a much needed breather.

The second half of the album goes into darker territory with the detuned piano of ‘Str06’ duelling it out with a low-slung hip hop beat. ‘Diala’ sustains the reverb drenched mood while adding a sweeter edge as a synth line makes an appearance straight out of his 1993 album Tango N’Vectif. 1995’s ‘Airto’ brings some Marimba pierced, dark, cut-up jungle and the album starts to approaching the final stretch with the Peel Session tracks ‘Johnson’s Q-Fab’ and the classic ‘Green Lanes’.

Mike Paradinas has also compiled a further 12 track album Somerset Avenue Tracks Volume 2 included as a download card only with this edition.

Dedicated to Neil Jones R.I.P.


 

CAT027 / ZIQ369
Mike & Rich
Expert Knob Twiddlers
Released June 1996 / 02-09-2016

ZIQ369_MikeRich-650x650.jpg
Planet Mu site: https://planet.mu/releases/expert-knob-twiddlers/
Bleepstore: https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/74321-mike-rich-expert-knob-twiddlers
Bandcamp: https://mikeandrich.bandcamp.com/album/expert-knob-twiddlers
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3AeR7vn3ZkHCKgHgjNxeQK?si=C8afvVIXQ7eXT1x8gG5tCg

Tracklist:


1. Mr. Frosty 06:53
2. Reg 05:56
3. Jelly Fish 06:01
4. Eggy Toast 04:32
5. Vodka 04:12
6. Winner Takes All 05:44
7. Upright Kangaroo 03:32
8. Giant Deflating Football 06:21
9. The Sound Of The Beady Eyes 07:46
10. Bu Bu Bu Ba 06:52
Bonus tracks
11. Vodka (Mix 2) 04:22
12. Portamento Gosh 02:02
13. Waltz 05:24
14. Brivert & Muonds 06:17
15. Clissold Bathroom 00:56
16. Jelly Fish (Mix 2) 05:21
17. Organ Plodder 04:15
18. Upright Kangaroo (Mix 2) 04:32


About the album:

A collaboration between AFX (Richard D. James) and µ–Ziq (Mike Paradinas), Mike & Rich’s ’Expert Knob Twiddlers’ was made back in 1994. Richard edited the tracks into shape later in 1996 with his new Apple Mac computer and it was released later that year on Rephlex, the label he co-owned and which released the first two albums by µ-Ziq.

This new reissued version has been carefully cleaned up, re-edited and remastered from the original DAT tapes, put into a more fitting order and, more excitingly, seven new bonus tracks and alternative versions have also been added.

The album was recorded over a few days during the 1994 World Cup, back when Richard lived in a big shared flat in Stoke Newington. Richard had tried to collaborate with a few other likeminded artists but something clicked when Mike and Rich worked together and the sessions have a unique feel; playful and at times actually drunk. These are fun experiments in the spirit of lighthearted moog pop and ripe 70s British TV themes, standing out from the po-faced electronica of the time with a garish glee.

The record was made on what is now seen as pretty primitive gear – an Atari, Roland MKS-80, Memorymoog, Roland R8 and a handful of samples on a Casio FZ-10M – but it’s to their credit that it resonates well with the hardware workouts coming out today. There’s a broadminded but sloppy funk to the record, even whistling, singing and harpsichord in ‘Reg’ and wonky beat pile-ons in ‘Jelly Fish’. There’s latin piano and wheezy drunken techno in ‘Vodka’, or the sleepy spaced out ambience of ‘Bu Bu Bu Ba’ with its barely contained laughter which seems to reflect the absurdity.

The new versions and bonus tracks are an absolute delight and well worth the purchase – from a trancier version of ‘Vodka’ to the wonky bounce of ‘Portamento Gosh’, The 3/4 dub of ‘Waltz,’ the banging door bass of’ Brivert and Muonds’, the creepy seasick atmosphere of ‘Clissold Bathroom’ and finishing with the strangely graceful and serious ‘Organ Plodder’. A generous and welcome return to the racks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Putting these 2 together to get it over with

 

I was very pleasantly surprised by Somerset vol. 1. Lara did a great job at selecting tracks, ended up with probably my favorite of mike p's early releases. It feels strangely cohesive, kind of subdued. Volume 2 is more of a mixed bag, but compared to how little I enjoyed In Pine or Spatula Freak as a whole, it's good enough

 

And then there's EKT with which I can't be objective at this point, although it sure makes me wish Mike had done tracks while drunk more often. The only bonus trax worth keeping imo are Waltz and Jelly Fish mix 2. Gr8 albumu

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.