Mike Paradinas
announced a 25th anniversary reissue of his drill'n'bass masterpiece
Lunatic Harness
for 2022, along with a bounty of new material, and his first release of the year suggests a return to higher BPMs and somewhat frantic melodies, but not a total retread of his late-'90s sound. The title track to
Goodbye
(unrelated to 1999's "Goodbye, Goodbye," his most beautiful composition ever) starts out with tumbling, sliced Amen breaks and frigid pianos, eventually gaining choral samples arranged into a haunting melody, and later sneaking in some squiggly acid synths. "Giddy All Over" features nearly the same choral sounds, almost sounding like a remix of the main track, and while the breakbeats provide a hefty blast of energy, it's not quite on the level of giddiness as something like "Brace Yourself (Remix)." "Moise" seems like a leftover track from
Paradinas
' mid-2010s output, when footwork, trap, and
Kuedo
's
Severant
(also scheduled for a reissue) heavily informed his work. "Rave Whistle" is a flashback to early-'90s breakbeat hardcore, and fits perfectly in a set with tracks by jungle revivalists like
Tim Reaper
and
Coco Bryce
. It's presented in three mixes, with the "Darkside Mix" being the spookiest as well as the most DJ-friendly, and the "Jungle Tekno Mix" being the heaviest and most violent. As a release,
clearly feels like a single plus B-sides and remixes, but it signals a step in a highly welcome direction, as
' work with tricky beats and wistful melodies often tends to be some of his best music. ~ Paul Simpson