RESPECT IS DUE (TO PLANET MU)

Thanks for the responses to yesterday's post. To think I was actually considering disallowing comments on that one for fear of ridicule! Glad to see it clicked with a few people, in some cases to an almost supernatural degree. I did indeed 'uhhm and ahhh' about doing it for some time, and kept coming up with excuses not to, but when I got the Kinks theme going it all started to fall into place. Plus, I had to rise to the challenge laid-down by John Eden over at Dissensus the other day. But it was hard...the hardest thing I've ever had to wrench out of my guts. Don't expect another post like that for a while!

Oh, and thanks to 'anon' for pointing out that those TV commercials were actually for HP printers, not Kodak. Just shows how much attention I actually pay to these things.

I hadn't actually seen K-Punk's latest piece when I wrote it, yet mine does seem like a deliberate counterpoint to his 'anti-natal' theme. Pure coincidence, I assure you. For a true and proper response, check out Loki's post, paying particular attention to Psychbloke's comments, where he gets out the textbooks and takes Mark to task on an intellectual battlefield that I'm too dumb to get involved with. I personally have no qualms with K-punk. What I get out of that post at the end is a condemnation of the 'nanny-state' and a fervent call for personal choice and individualism. I choose to reproduce and raise offspring. I also choose to smoke, when the mood takes me (though not at the same time, of course!)

Yesterday was a bitch, but not because I was wallowing in misery. No, it's because both my lovely children have heavy colds and the baby (whose now turning into a toddler -god help me!) has been in an absolutely foul mood all day, only relieved by brief, fitful slumbers and occasional periods of tranquility when the Calpol rush kicks in. For a suitable soundtrack to my day, listen to this:

MP3:Mu-Ziq - Mr. Angry

This migraine-inducing slab of terror-techno is basically what I was dealing with all day, with added beats. It comes from the 1995 album "In Pine Effect" which, like all the early Mu-Ziq albums, retains a distinctive charm all of it's own. Surely the first post-Aphex Twin artist to find a unique voice in the medium.

Mu-Ziq is of course Mike Paradinas, who's also the one-man record label operation known as Planet Mu. Mike is also responsible for the only good thing that happened yesterday, when the postman called with a chunky Recorded Delivery package that was stuffed with Planet Mu CDs. You see, last week Mike e-mailed me to ask if I was interested in hearing a few things. Of course I was interested! After nearly 18 months of blogging, someone finally offered to send me some stuff for review. That this person is Mike Paradinas, as opposed to some complete nobody, is simply amazing. Now I'll start getting serious delusions of grandeur!

The contents of this package were unbelievably generous. I thought he was just sending me an advance cd-r of next years' Virus Syndicate/Mark One album. But I also got a stack of shrink-wrapped finished CDs from Planet Mu's recent and forthcoming release schedule and, best of all, a unique compilation CD-R entitled "A Comp. 4 Nick" featuring what appears to be a selection of stray unreleased tracks from Mu's artist roster, including some exclusives from recent signings 0=0 and Vex'd. What with all the other stuff going on, I haven't even begun to sift through the hours of music on offer here, but rest assured I intend to give each and every one the Gutterbreakz treatment over the coming weeks.

Thanks Mike, you're the best.