Planet Mu welcomes back owner Mike Paradinas (a.k.a. µ-Ziq) for Magic Pony Ride, an album of joyful, melodic, jungle-inspired music, and his first LP of new material on the label since 2013. The title reflects the childlike wonder of the album, happy melodies are foregrounded, wordless vocals bounce and echo while sounds bubble and sparkle. Paradinas had been releasing archival albums but got a taste for making new music after a trip to Wales (inspiring Scurlage, his 2021 album on Analogical Force). This influence of using trips away as a muse is carried on in Magic Pony Ride after a weekend getaway found Paradinas riding Icelandic horses across a snowy landscape at dawn. You can almost feel the relaxed wide open spaces in the lush synth chords of the title track and Uncle Daddy. The album also reflects on family with features from his daughter Elka on Picksing and Elkas Song and Galope in memory of his father who passed away a few years ago. The theme of family is also found in the meditative Shulems Theme, a title inspired by the Netflix series Shtisel. These reflective themes tie in with this years 25th anniversary reissue of µ-Ziqs 1997 breakthrough album Lunatic Harness. In Mikes own words Magic Pony Ride was written as a kind of follow up to Lunatic Harness, at least in terms of genre and style. After mastering Lunatic for its reissue I went back to using breaks again on some newer tracks and this is the result!

Anyone with a passing interest in footwork and juke will know of Traxman. Corky Strong has a long history of deep involvement in Chicago house, first releasing on the legendary Dance Mania label in the mid nineties, and since then splitting his productions between ghetto house, juke and footwork, releasing alongside Steve Poindexter and Fast Eddie and the late DJ Deeon and DJ Rashad, including an seemingly endless supply of self-released juke edits of whatever direction his deep knowledge of Black American music takes him. The third volume of Da Mind Of Traxman is his first since 2014. In the intervening years hes kept things rolling, DJing regularly, releasing lots of music, becoming a grandfather and being a mentor for younger artists coming up in the scene. This new album was crafted with the help of fellow Planet Mu artist Sinjin Hawke, who took on A&R duties to collate the best from hundreds of tracks dating back to 2005. Sinjin holds Traxmans status in high regard; This album series is important and holds real documentarian value—working on it feels like the modern equivalent of curating a piece of Miles Daviss catalog in the 60s and 70s. Volume 3 showcases Traxmans uncanny ability to take old music into the future without losing the feeling and energy of his samples and influences. He knows how to add a hi-definition modern chassis with the skill of someone who deeply and intuitively understands the craft of dance music. These are some of the purest, most innovative ideations of Chicago footwork.