- Zen Paradox
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Zen Paradox is an electronic music artist, primarily involved in the production of techno as well as other more experimental electronic sounds, from Melbourne, Australia. It is the principle name under which Steve Law records and performs electronic music. He also uses the names Mr. Suspicious, and Mutagenic Mind, and collaborates with a range of artists under other names as well, such as The Sonic Voyagers, with Voiteck.
Law is reputed to have been one of Melbourne's principle live electronic acts since 1994. His first musical efforts were released in cassette form for the Melbourne Ambient Music cassette release in the mid 1980s, then in the early '90s he was a member of industrial music group Foil. He was also a principle act on local Melbourne labels Psy-Harmonics and IF? Records from the early 1990s, performing live throughout the 1990s, and on into the new millennium, at big warehouse rave parties like Every Picture Tells A Story, Hardware, Zoetrope, Omniglobe, Technofest and TransAtlantic, not to mention smaller, more esoteric gigs around Australia, and also overseas.
More recently, in 2008, Law's work has appeared on the Sydney-based netlabels, Elektrax and Hypnotic Room.
The principle Zen Paradox releases have included Eternal Brainwave (1993), Catharsis (1996), From the Shore of a Distant Land (1995) and Numinosum (2005). Zen Paradox has more recently been a fixture at various large festivals such as Rainbow Serpent Festival and Earthcore and has many releases on various European record labels.
Of late Law has also been working as the touring keyboard player for Melbourne shoegazer act Black Cab (band), and in 2008 he released the Zen Paradox digital download retrospective EP, Corrosive Artifacts, through Sydney label Elektrax.
Media feedback
"It is perhaps cliché to describe music of this sort science fiction-esque, but there's a ring of truth to that label that can't be denied, especially given the choice of song and album titles," wrote John Brassill in his review of the recent Zen Paradox album Numinosum, on About.com. "If this isn't music for nerds, nothing is. Allowing that song is yet another form of storytelling, Numinusom surely has a place alongside Clarke and Gibson, Asimov and Dick, or more likely, the lyrical razor wielded by the inimitable Ray Bradbury. If a tree falls in the forest, will it make a sound of thunder?"[1]
"Whilst many other Melbourne producers of the mid '90s had disappeared or relocated overseas by 2000, Law was still making stuff as Zen Paradox without the archetypal deejay hype or techno live act fanfare... as well as cutting a diverse swath of material under new aliases like Mutagenic Mind, Mr. Suspicious, Retreat Syndrome, and just plain Steve Law," noted Andrez Bergen in an article for Sydney's Cyclic Defrost magazine.[2]
References
- ^ Numinosum Review, John Brassill. [1], 2005.
- ^ Steve Law & Zen Paradox, Andrez Bergen. Cyclic Defrost, 2006.
External links
- Solitary Sound, Steve Laws web site
- Zen Paradox / Steve Law discography on discogs.com
- Article in Cyclic Defrost
- Numinosum record review
- Steve Law interview (2006) @ de-VICE
Categories:- Australian electronic musicians
- Electronica musicians
- Intelligent dance music musicians
- Australian techno groups
- Techno musicians
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