For a method ostensibly rooted in membership tradition, IDM has lengthy felt just like the involved frown on the face of digital music: a spot the place gnarled experimentation trumps whimsical journey and enjoyable is sacrificed on the altar of method. Enter Mike Paradinas, a producer who was making leftfield dance music when Chosen Ambient Works 85-92 was a brand new launch, quite than a dusty basic. Grush, Paradinas’ seventeenth solo album as µ-Ziq, strives to place the “dance” again into IDM, impressed by the form of melodic, oddball post-rave music that gave rise to the style again within the Nineteen Nineties: Aphex Twin, early Autechre, Black Canine Productions, and even Orbital.

Provided that self-appointed mission, Grush might simply have been a nostalgic stroll via the glory days of the ’90s, when Paradinas was feted as one of many hottest names in digital music. Anybody who loves Aphex Twin’s Hangable Auto Bulb EPs or Paradinas’ personal 1997 album Lunatic Harness will discover a lot to like in Grush’s vibrant melodies and intricately funky rhythms. “Fogou” is a wonderful mixture of driving, neo-classical synth and glitched-out drums; the pounding “Reticulum B” has the distinct air of Sabres of Paradise’s wobbly-lipped, cerebral techno basic “Smokebelch II”; and “Manscape” feels like Orbital’s “Belfast” being dissected by sharply angled breaks.

The distinction right here—and it may be delicate—is that the drums on Grush often sound like they had been recorded dwell, which is uncommon for the breaks- and drum-machine-heavy world of IDM. They weren’t, however the intention is there: The tambourine on “Fogou” and “Belvedere” consists of single hits, programmed barely out of time to simulate actual taking part in, whereas the shuffling snare and hi-hat sample on “Hyper Daddy” bears a equally human sense of flux. “Hyper Daddy,” which Paradinas created particularly to play dwell, is the tune the place the producer’s deal with dance is most evident: Three totally different drum traces tease, fidget, and needle with the listener’s adrenal response.

Grush’s predictably glorious drums are the mark of a producer who has been reducing up breaks for many years. However maybe essentially the most purely gratifying a part of the file lies in its array of luxurious melodies, which evoke the classical prog of Tangerine Dream, Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, and even, gulp, Marillion. A minimum of two of Grush’s 14 tracks, “Hyper Daddy” and “Hastings,” have clever key adjustments that lend a really prog-ish musicality to proceedings, and immaculately clear keyboard traces ship the listener again to the hi-fi-enhanced stereoscopic sound of the ’70s.