μ-Ziq - Rediffusion

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  • Despite being an evangelist for forward-thinking electronica over the past two decades, Mike Paradinas plays the nostalgia card on Rediffusion. He says these half dozen tracks are inspired by his childhood memory of kids TV. (Accompanying it, he's posted an hour-long mix of TV themes from the '70s and '80s.) Some tracks have more overt references than others. The doleful "Rimmy" uses Oneohtrix Point Never-style angelic synth vocals and has the same air of blissed-out wistfulness that Boards Of Canada (themselves no strangers to kids' TV themes) achieved on Music Has The Right To Children. "PRG" follows a similar path, although Paradinas strips it of beats, leaving in its place a beautiful, gossamer-thin tune constructed from misty synths and digital chimes. "Blem" is part Jarre, part Travis Stewart-style slo-trap experimentalism. "Smeester" starts friendly enough, before its twinkling melody gets crushed by Godzilla-sized kicks. A sense of eccentricity is never far from the surface on µ-Ziq records, and it reaches its high point here with "Tambor," a nutty Tudor dirge that manages to artfully splice sombre chords with what sounds like Pardinas hitting the hurdy gurdy switch on his Juno synth. It leaves the somewhat frothy, twinkling drum & bass interlude of "Taxi Sadness" as the EP's odd one out. A whimsical collection this may be, but Paradinas' intricate melodies resonate long after the final note sounds.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Taxi Sadness A2 Rimmy A3 PRG B1 Blem B2 Smeester B3 Tambor
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