REVIEW: u-ziq, Royal Astronomy (Astralwerks)
- Krisjanis Gale
It seems Mike Paradinas, aka u-ziq, is all finished writing "songs" designed to cause seizures in fifty percent of the human population and killing the neighbor's cat. u-ziq has refined and redefined his style yet again in order to stay current and possibly even gain some fans instead of enemies this time out.
He hasn't forgotten what works, though. Still here are the layered orchestral bits that make his music larger and more intelligent than most electronic music. The first track, "Scaling" is a perfect example. This neo-classical style has always been an underlying factor in a majority of his music, but it always seemed to be hidden beneath unnecessary noise. But on Royal Astronomy, Paradinas allows himself the necessary headroom in the mix to let his talent, for taking traditional instrumentation in brand new directions, really shine.
"Scaling" leads right into "The Hwicci Song," with the vocal cut "You want a fresh style, let me show you" laying out Paradinas' mission in creating this album. The orchestra set up in track one becomes layered with contemporary synthetic noise and an odd but clever percussion set. "Autumn Acid" gets right down to business, with a distorted guitar sound forming a foundation with a rock progression, framed by a strange bass synth sounding a bit like parts of The Orb's album Orbus Terrarum. A scratchy sort of percussion sits in the background while a very hard, slamming and mixed up break sits in the fore. "Slice" gets right back into that neo-classical sound, and quickly serving chunks of fat synth-rhythm sounding very much like Aphex Twin's I Care Because You Do.
"Carpet Muncher" is a clearly a nod to Squarepusher, incorporating the same sort of funky organ lines, sweetly squelchy acid bass, and sped up, cut up, syncopated jungle breaks. "The Motorbike Track" is the hardest track on the album. Taking a cue from Gang Starr's "Royalty," Paradinas heeds the sample's message. "I need to knock that shit off for real. That's some greedy ass fake bullshit." A thick synth-guitar squelches and buzzes around as an absolutely punishingly fast break builds to climax, then stops. The bassline is equalized into the background, and the breaks get solos, then the bass slowly works its way back into the mix. And quite cleanly, Paradinas lets it all loose again, the faster break slamming right back in alongside the one-two jump-up jungle break.
"Mentim" is just strange, and is indicative of u-ziq's previous work. Big fat distorted metallic piano pads panning chaotically left and right, in large blocks of chords, and framed by slightly detuned, spacey strings. This one's a bit too lengthy, but there is some enjoyment in it. Think of it as a means of providing the necessary, painful solace at the end of a long day, when things couldn't possibly get worse.
"The Fear" is a nice, bouncy, happy track. Not pop, mind you, but very nice. This is vocalist Kazumi's recording debut. I have no idea what she's singing, but it sounds very nice. Maybe I could hear it if the mix was a little cleaner. But, perhaps that was Paradinas' point - to create a pop-sounding electronic track which doesn't compromise its emphasis on synth-sound.
"Gruber's Mandolin" is like a chase scene from a cops-and-robbers silent film. It's quite clever, actually, meandering into some rather nice arrangements.
"World of Leather" may have well just as easily appeared on the "Richard D. James Album" as it does on this one. But to give Paradinas proper credit, the style is a bit skewed from the Aphex Twin's. Part disco, part funk, part sloppy messed up electro, this one is definately fringe music.
"Scrape" starts with some nice staccotto strings, followed by the same weird detuned bass sound used on "Autumn Acid," and framed by a quiet choir at the left, and a deep, fat second bass zooming around the middle. An interesting interlude, to say the least.
"56" starts quite like Jean Michael's Jarre, if all he had at his disposal was a Commodore 64 for synthesis. But Paradinas seems to use the minimalist sinewaves well, as the track soon fills out with more layers of strange synth noise, and a really killer drum break, and then a second one with a hard-hitting cymbal filling in on occasion. Midway, a really haunting set of voices "ohm" and "ah" their way deep into your subconscious, reminding you of Radiohead's tune "Exit Music from a Film" on OK, Computer.
"Burst Your Arm" is a super clean, super quick jungle track, true to the genre with an echoey organ pad, a bassline that is tweaked twenty ways to Tuesday, and more drum fills than you can shake your baggy cargo pants at.
Kazumi returns for the last track "Goodbye, Goodbye." The title is rather fitting. Starting off with a deep, soulful bassline, and minimalist bits of tribal percussion, and then Kazumi's vocals filling out the top-end quite nicely, it's a perfect outro to this album, which covers so much ground.
There are parts of this album which hail back to u-ziq's desire to create a new form of audio torture, but overall, Paradinas has truly reformed. Fans of electronic music diasspointed by his previous efforts should definately check out Royal Astronomy.
