Scurlage

µ-Ziq — the long-running project of London-born producer Mike Paradinas — returns with Scurlage, his first album of new material since 2013’s Chewed Corners. Written during the 2020 lockdown while Paradinas was living in Gower, the dramatic headland of the Welsh coast, it’s a record that wears its surroundings gently: unhurried, wind-blown and warm, with none of the nervous energy of his nineties heyday but all of the melodic invention.

That warmth is the record’s defining feature. Scurlage is acid-laced melodic IDM in the classic mould — squelching 303 lines rubbed up against soft-focus pads and Paradinas’ trademark lopsided breakbeats, which tumble and reassemble themselves with a drummer’s dexterity. There’s a generosity to the production, too: chords are left to ring, reverb is used to open up space rather than fill it, and the basslines — round, analogue and ever-present — hold everything together.

It’s a sound that finds a natural home on Analogical Force, the Spanish underground label whose catalogue has championed the outer reaches of braindance since the mid-2010s. Handing a returning veteran like Paradinas an AF038LP is a statement in itself — this is a record pressed for people who still treasure a well-kept vinyl collection, and it’s all the better for it.

The highlights come thick and fast. Opener Blakers Loop locks into a gently bouncing acid figure that never quite resolves, the melody curling in on itself like smoke. Preston Melodics is the closest thing to a pop moment, its ascending synth line pure vintage Paradinas, while Oxwich & Penrice — named, like much of the record, after Gower landmarks — is the most spacious piece here, all shimmering pads and unhurried percussion. Closer Strawberry Aero ties it together, its soft breakbeats and submerged chord stabs a perfect summary of the record’s quiet confidence.

Scurlage is a graceful return from an artist with nothing left to prove and everything to enjoy. It doesn’t reach for the visceral heights of his classic material, but it doesn’t need to — instead it offers a mature, gently psychedelic take on the sound he helped define, made all the more poignant for having been born out of lockdown stillness. Warm, human and quietly brilliant, it’s the most at-ease µ-Ziq has sounded in years.