Planet Mu Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Alan Myson's latest album as Ital Tek - his eighth for Planet Mu since debuting in 2008 - is an album of contrasts, offering aural darkness and light, intensity and becalmed beauty - and sometimes within the same track. It's rooted in ambient, experimental electronica and what would once be called IDM, but Myson has gone to great efforts to avoid stylistic cliches and well-worn tropes. As a result, it's unpredictable but addictive, with distorted creep-outs ('Heart String') and unsettling soundscapes ('Darking') sitting side by side with cuts smothered in glacial beauty ('The Next Time You Day') and melancholic, slowly unfurling sonic bliss ('Shattered').

Review: The return of Jlin is always a cause to celebrate. In the eight short years since she first emerged, the US producer has firmly positioned herself as a fearlessly inventive, sharply focused artist who never misses. Her fourth album for Planet Mu continues her considered sonic evolution, maintaining the needlepoint percussive programming she's made her name on but broadening the source material to take in some more harmonically rich tones. As ever, you can hear a hint of footwork influence in her work but she's moved beyond obvious links to the Chicago sound, instead occupying her own space where brittle drum science can be a catalyst for rich, continually evolving electronics of the highest calibre.

Review: Planet Mu main man Mike Paradinas has been busy throughout 2022, with this expanded edition of new album 'Hello' also including the entirety of the recently released (and sonically similar) 'Goodbye EP'. As Mu Ziq, Paradinas has always been good at inspirational, boundary blurring brilliance, with his tracks routinely adding gorgeously tuneful lead lines, ear-pleasing chords and jumpy IDM basslines to beats variously inspired by breakbeat hardcore, jungle and darkcore. While the collection is undoubtedly balanced and includes some less manic material geared towards home listening, it's the club-baiting tracks that often hit home hardest. Amongst the many highlights are the disco-sampling 'Green Chaos', the fiendishly sub-heavy 'Modulated Angel', the loved-up and subtly dubbed-out future anthem 'Goodbye VIP' and the three different takes on 'Rave Whistle'.