Playing with fire
loteq | Regensburg | 02/28/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"u-ziq's debut album surprisingly is the work of a duo, consisting of Mike Paradinas and Francis Naughton. As I'm a fan of early-era u-ziq, I think "Tango n' vectif" is a great album and stands up to some of labelmate Aphex Twin's best efforts. Too bad some tracks had to be left out to compress the original double-vinyl release onto one disc. Yes, the music is quite a step from the lightweight "Royal astronomy", but "Tango n' vectif" is darker, better structured, and more powerful. u-ziq's unique mix of metallic, heavily distorted beats and lovely, psychedelic melodies is not necessarily a contradiction by any means. It rather indicates that u-ziq derives its musical creed precisely from this inner tension relationship. On the strength of these brilliant melodies, this album is more accessible and listenable than Mike's work in recent years. Terrific tracks are the title cut, "Swan vesta", "Auqeam", and "Beatnik #2". On the other hand, there are enough ambient tracks to make this CD palatable for fans of Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works I&II", just listen to "Burnt sienna", "Iesope", "Whale soup", and "Die 2.Heimat". All in all, this is just u-ziq's best album and one of my favorite techno records."
Great personality but not that attractive...
loteq | 03/15/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I'll be honest with you; Tango N Vectif is HARSH like a bad lover. And it doesn't get much softer with repeated listenings. Although this music might lack surface beauty, it has great personality. If you've heard U-Ziq's more accessible Bluff Limbo then you know what to expect. But be warned! If your looking for some easy listening music you're in for a rude awakening! This stuff ain't for everybody."
Awesome Music...
Duble0Syx | Columbus, OH USA | 12/14/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"All right, this is an awesome piece of music to own. The beats and the melodies just go together beautifully. I'll warn you though, just because you may like Aphex Twin doesn't mean you'll like this. They have 2 very different styles of music. If your an aphex twin fan you may be better off buying more AFX cd's from warp records. If you already own some of Mu-Ziqs albums and not this one, then you need to buy it. It is by far the best I've heard by Mike Paradinas."
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1
