Planet Mu 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Alan Myson's latest album as Ital Tek - his eighth for Planet Mu since debuting in 2008 - is an album of contrasts, offering aural darkness and light, intensity and becalmed beauty - and sometimes within the same track. It's rooted in ambient, experimental electronica and what would once be called IDM, but Myson has gone to great efforts to avoid stylistic cliches and well-worn tropes. As a result, it's unpredictable but addictive, with distorted creep-outs ('Heart String') and unsettling soundscapes ('Darking') sitting side by side with cuts smothered in glacial beauty ('The Next Time You Day') and melancholic, slowly unfurling sonic bliss ('Shattered').

Review: Planet Mu main man Mike Paradinas has been busy throughout 2022, with this expanded edition of new album 'Hello' also including the entirety of the recently released (and sonically similar) 'Goodbye EP'. As Mu Ziq, Paradinas has always been good at inspirational, boundary blurring brilliance, with his tracks routinely adding gorgeously tuneful lead lines, ear-pleasing chords and jumpy IDM basslines to beats variously inspired by breakbeat hardcore, jungle and darkcore. While the collection is undoubtedly balanced and includes some less manic material geared towards home listening, it's the club-baiting tracks that often hit home hardest. Amongst the many highlights are the disco-sampling 'Green Chaos', the fiendishly sub-heavy 'Modulated Angel', the loved-up and subtly dubbed-out future anthem 'Goodbye VIP' and the three different takes on 'Rave Whistle'.

Review: Given it's a reunification of latter-day UK electronic visionary Rian Treanor and decade-spanning next level imprint Planet Mu, many ears will already know what to expect from this one - a collection of tracks that are jarring, alien and wildly unorthodox, while still somehow immediately engaging rhythmically. Suffice to say, your presumptions are correct in this case.

In many ways the four tracks here are among Treanor's most accessible, although that's perhaps not saying too much. The broken, dub-techno-on-speed opener, 'Obstacle 2', manages to be frantic and deep at the same time. The glittering synth lines of 'Obstacle 3' help create a sense of rave-y invitation, despite the track itself being a staccato curveball. While the remaining two efforts are equally impressive examples of how to push sonic limits without asking too much in terms of audience endurance.