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2LP
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BALMAT 019LP
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$35.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 1/23/2026
"Two years after he first appeared on Balmat with 1977, Mike Paradinas returns with 1979. The sense of continuity between the two records is clear, and not just from their titles. Both capture the Planet Mu head venturing into the wilderness, seeking something -- half-formed memories, thoughts caught in midair -- in some of the most abstract, searching music he has released. Just like 1977, 1979 surveys a synth-heavy array of ethereal soundscapes, ominous crevasses, and strange, psychedelic fugues. Like its predecessor, the new album's atmospheric cast sets it apart from much of the work Paradinas has released as µ-Ziq on Planet Mu. It's not strictly an ambient record, but it's close, as close as this famously mutable artist ever comes to inhabiting a particular genre. Paradinas' inspiration for the record began on visits to the Spanish cities of Ávila and Majadahona, where his family hails from. That might account for the sense that there are spirits flitting through this music, presences you can intuit if not quite grasp. But 1979 is also a record to meet on your own terms, and to find your own meanings in. It's a stunning record, every track a world unto itself: the mysterious contours of "Majadahonda at Dawn"; the playful melodic fillips of "Clari"; the airy melancholy of "Galletas"; the full-scale breakbeat abandon (yes, you read that right) of "Houzz 14," the rarest of dancefloor detours for Balmat. There are echoes of classic braindance and isolationist ambient and golden-age IDM; there are easter eggs and recurring themes and hidden symmetries. Despite what the title might suggest, it's less a trip back in time than a portal to another universe, a destination for(to?) which only Mike Paradinas knows the exact coordinates." --Philip Sherburne
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2LP
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BALMAT 005Y-LP
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2023 yellow vinyl color repress. The British producer μ-Ziq has been an inspiration to label co-founders Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne since the 1990s. In fact, his album-length remix project The Auteurs Vs μ-Ziq was one of the very first pieces of electronic music that Philip bought, way back in 1994. To have the opportunity to release his music now feels like a real full-circle moment. Paradinas, of course, needs no introduction. Under a slew of aliases, chief among them μ-Ziq, the British artist revolutionized leftfield electronic music in the 1990s -- coincidentally, this year marks the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Tango N' Vectif, for his friend and sometime collaborator Aphex Twin's Rephlex label -- and his label Planet Mu has built up a formidable catalog of visionary, forward-looking records, mapping virtually every corner of the electronic spectrum. With 1977, he turns the clock backward in a sense, and not just with the album's title: Rooted in classic ambient and electronic sounds, these 15 tracks evoke the anything-goes spirit of the early '90s, before the tools and tropes had calcified into cut-and-dried styles. There's no shortage of familiar sounds on 1977. There are echoes of raves and chillout rooms and transmissions from the fringes of techno; there are detuned synths and glistening reverb tails and, above all, gauzy vox pads, the eerie glue that holds it all together. The title, he says, is meant to invoke a general sense of nostalgia, bookmarking a year in his boyhood when he became more self-aware. More than anything, 1977 sounds like μ-Ziq distilled: Stripped of his signature breakbeats and customary chaos, Paradinas's first-ever strictly (well, mostly) ambient album presents the essence of his music in a whole new light. Along the way Paradinas touches on dark-ambient drones ("Marmite"), horror-film themes ("Belt & Carpet"), jungle breaks ("Mesolithic Jungle"), and even house music ("Houzz 13"), which marks the first bona fide dance-floor moment on Balmat to date). Yet the album never feels expressly retro. Rather, Paradinas plucks timeless sounds out of the ether and gives them a gentle tap, spinning them into unexpected new orbits. At times, 1977 feels like an experience of extended déjà vu: When we first listened to it, we had the sense that we already knew this music. It was as though we had heard it years ago, perhaps on a battered cassette tape lent to us by a friend, and been searching for it ever since. "1977" features Meemo Comma.
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2LP
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BALMAT 005LP
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Double-LP version. The British producer μ-Ziq has been an inspiration to label co-founders Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne since the 1990s. In fact, his album-length remix project The Auteurs Vs μ-Ziq was one of the very first pieces of electronic music that Philip bought, way back in 1994. To have the opportunity to release his music now feels like a real full-circle moment. Paradinas, of course, needs no introduction. Under a slew of aliases, chief among them μ-Ziq, the British artist revolutionized leftfield electronic music in the 1990s -- coincidentally, this year marks the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Tango N' Vectif, for his friend and sometime collaborator Aphex Twin's Rephlex label -- and his label Planet Mu has built up a formidable catalog of visionary, forward-looking records, mapping virtually every corner of the electronic spectrum. With 1977, he turns the clock backward in a sense, and not just with the album's title: Rooted in classic ambient and electronic sounds, these 15 tracks evoke the anything-goes spirit of the early '90s, before the tools and tropes had calcified into cut-and-dried styles. There's no shortage of familiar sounds on 1977. There are echoes of raves and chillout rooms and transmissions from the fringes of techno; there are detuned synths and glistening reverb tails and, above all, gauzy vox pads, the eerie glue that holds it all together. The title, he says, is meant to invoke a general sense of nostalgia, bookmarking a year in his boyhood when he became more self-aware. More than anything, 1977 sounds like μ-Ziq distilled: Stripped of his signature breakbeats and customary chaos, Paradinas's first-ever strictly (well, mostly) ambient album presents the essence of his music in a whole new light. Along the way Paradinas touches on dark-ambient drones ("Marmite"), horror-film themes ("Belt & Carpet"), jungle breaks ("Mesolithic Jungle"), and even house music ("Houzz 13"), which marks the first bona fide dance-floor moment on Balmat to date). Yet the album never feels expressly retro. Rather, Paradinas plucks timeless sounds out of the ether and gives them a gentle tap, spinning them into unexpected new orbits. At times, 1977 feels like an experience of extended déjà vu: When we first listened to it, we had the sense that we already knew this music. It was as though we had heard it years ago, perhaps on a battered cassette tape lent to us by a friend, and been searching for it ever since. "1977" features Meemo Comma.
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