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In the time it takes you to read this review, Mike Paradinas, the Jesse Owens of techno, will have dashed off another album. It might be as Jake Slazenger, Gary Moscheles, Kid Spatula, or even µ-Ziq, the name with which the multimonikered Paradinas never disappoints. For Lunatic Harness, Paradinas combines the breakneck beats he explored earlier this year on Urmur Bile Trax Part 1 & 2 with the mellifluous Mickey Mouse melodies of his first masterpiece, 1995’s In Pine Effect. The effect is like that of Aphex Twin’s “Girl/Boy Song”: While the melodies caress, then vanish, the rhythms pound and possess. At first you can’t figure out what to listen to on Lunatic, the synths or the beats. But Lunatic’s inspired craziness reveals itself with time, and as if the record is teaching listeners a new language, eventually Paradinas’ musical glossolalia begins to make sense. “Hasty Boom Alert” and “My Little Beautiful” are Lunatic’s most extreme examples of the war between the senses: As the melody lines drift in one tempo, the drums are fired across their bows like rockets. Like many albums of the CD age, Paradinas’ latest carries on too long (the last few songs halfheartedly enter the avant-classical realm). But the majority of Lunatic Harness will have your ears all tied up.
Christopher Porter