The U is supposed to be the Greek symbol 'Mu' but Sun Micro-systems didn't think to provide one of them on their keyboards. Hence the name is Mu-Ziq.
In Pine Effect is Michael Paradina's third album proper in three years, not including two U-Ziq mini-albums and albums under the guises of Tusken Raiders, Kid Spatula and Jake Slazenger. A very busy young man. U-Ziq is electronica rather than techno. For the dance-floor of your mind, Paradinas' primitive equipment lends a human rawness to his sound and allows him to concentrate on the music. Pure, beautiful melancholy floods out over the most distorted beats, in a style which soon becomes the instantly recognisable U-Ziq trademark. Repetitive soundscapes metamorphosise achingly, like sunrises or night-fall.
Already disowned by Paradinas as being 'old already' he moves so fast, he seems happier with his Jake Slazenger Makesaracket album of cheasy-listening lounge techno and his soon-to-be-released collaboration with old-pal Richard James AKA Aphex Twin which has left the lucky few who have heard it speechless.
Track names write their own review. "Roy Castle" is an affectionate trumpet melancholy which jitters and jumps like the trumpet-playing childhood-TV presenter it remembers. "Within a Sound" is childhood longing. "Funky Pipecleaner" is night descending on Tokyo viewed from above, while "Iced Jem" feels like your down in the streets amongst the dark chimes and stuttering snare. "Melancho" is John Carpenter's "Halloween" hanging on a street-corner with a hat pulled down low over it's eyes. And "Pine Effect" is a jaunty, toytown-soul thing.
That's the highlights. The rest is a little too often down-at-heel, too *dark*, beside the shimmering hopeless beauty of the best stuff on offer here. Paradinas seems to have a good feel for his own work (unlike most other prolific artists, Prince being the perfect example) and is first to admit that In Pine Effect is a little anti-climactic, merely a collection, with a 'here ya go - it's not a masterpiece but I never expected it to be' vibe. It's not the perfect example of why I reckon he's an artist that scholars might be studying as a composer in the next century (almost anything else under the U-Ziq banner *is*), but for its golden moments it still remains priceless.
For info on all things Paradinas check out the WWW site at http:\\hyperreal.com/music/artists/mu_ziq
