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3 1/2There is no denying this mans importance in the electronic, creative drill-and-bass field. There is also no denying his inconsistencies and reliance on filler material. With a blazing first side, RA seems stuck in its midsection only to partially reclaim steam near the end. When in his element, it is a pleasure to hear Paradinas fuse old school IDM melodies and beats together in a way few electronic artists aspired for, but when he lacks focus songs become clunky sound experiments.
"Autumn Acid & Burst your arm" are tight and strong. Yet throw "Royal Astronomy" into the electronica barnyard and it holds up as a good album.
In cyberspace the old critics like to climb up onto this bent CD. Out on the meadow the field goats like to climb up onto that bent old tree.
And the melodies don't have the haunting Paradinas groove. Problem being that we are measuring this CD up to Mu-ziq standards.
No it does not have those lightning edged tetanic seizures. It is a thoughtful imaginative project.
But if your hungry for that vitalized futuristic semi-destructive Mu-ziq engine don't look here.
What first introduced me to the album was the video for "The Fear," a lovely sounding track that's like beauty beginning in the middle of a forming sea of storms, and its always stayed with me as my favorite track on the album. Whether it's the pinging that draws me in or the use of instrumentation that sounds like classical music played through someone's dreams on acid, its always a good fix. Its never really a particular purpose that brings me back to each electronic byproduct, nor is there really ever something to call "method" within that madness. I also like the approach taken here and the instrumentation used, with quite a few classical sounds mixing into the electronic fold and blending seamlessly into the sometimes-bizarre surroundings.
When it comes to Royal Astronomy in particular, it's sometimes the layering that makes me think that a certain song is amazing, and other times its simply the choices that were utilized when furthering that audio dynamo. U-ziq possesses me from time to time, forcing me to return to certain albums and marvel at the way they fell from the musical forge. It begins with a beautiful number, a female voice reaching out from within it, and then it becomes a swell of motion and noise that reaches out to take over. Then there are the almost hip-hop sounds found here as well, the haunting ballads mixing and mingling in songs like "Goodbye, Goodbye," and a few other fashions forming the work as a whole. Royal Astronomy has a little of everything within it, and I found the album amazingly done when it comes down to the dynamic it possesses.
I've always liked that approach to music, too, the calm in the midst of a sea of sounds, with it grasping onto me and tugging me into the beauty of the thing defined within. While this album has been met with a few stiff lips, its actually something I can return to time and again because it has so many components within it. Sometimes it's simply bits and pieces of the proposal itself that make me want the whole. Because of that, I liked the strangely epic yet oddly tempoed "Scaling," the way "Slice" builds itself up while dipping into an electronic swirl of textures, and the way "Gruber's Mandolin" shouts its presence. There are different types of music mixed into the mold, building better tempos and meters by merging blends of "something old" and "something new" until it makes something beautiful.
That causes the mediums to be different as well, and the hints of shading and the musical textures used to shift moods depending on what type of moody lighting is used is delightful. Besides those pieces, there are the more electronic sounds incorporated into the mix; with "The Hwicci Song" taking advantage of a little song of static and a beat mingling as one, "Carpet Muncher" building around some of the noise fibers I've become accustomed to from U-ziq as they ride the electronica rollercoaster ride, and "World of Leather" also playing a little building game within that sound-oriented vortex. The mixes of melody and madness, the tempos within the tempests; these are done in ways that are rewarding to hear.
Don't come to this record looking for the trademark logic-confounding drum-n-bass tweakings of his other work. This one has a more TV-commercial-friendly aspect to most of it, lots of apparent melodies and string-only washes, less of the vaoprizing remixing workouts of, say, his excellent "Lunatic Harness" record. It drones a bit for the first few tracks (which is still decent droning, but droning nonetheless, and not quite what you go to Mu-ziq for). He gives us some of the daring nosebleed-inducing chops he's built a reputation on with tracks like "The Motorbike Track" and "Burst Your Arm", but all in all it's all over the place with the mood, which makes it easy to respect, but hard to enjoy and even harder to recommend.
He stumbles a bit on some tracks like The Motorbike Track but drum n' bass isn't really my cup of tea and some of the sparse pieces bored me a bit. I burnt this disc awhile back and managed to lose it, but I enjoyed it so much that I recently purchased a copy. Besides that, I would recommend this to open-minded fans of electronic music. That's the quality of Mike Paradinas work. Royal Astronomy starts off strong with an interesting piece entitled Scaling and continues to excel on to track three Autumn Acid (reminiscent of an AFX track). The standout tracks as far as I'm concerned are Slice, World of Leather, Goodbye Goodbye and my favorite 56. Looking forward to his next release.
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