When it comes to electronic music’s more experimental side, few labels loom larger than Planet Mu. Founded in 1995 by Mike Paradinas, the label has been a key outpost for leftfield sounds, including Paradinas’ own work as µ-Ziq and efforts from the likes of Venetian Snares, Luke Vibert, Vex’d, Pinch, Neil Landstrumm, FaltyDL, Ital and RP Boo, to name just a few. In the pre-Planet Mu days, however, Paradinas issued his work via Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label, and it was that imprint that issued Expert Knob Twiddlers, the UK producers’ joint 1996 album under the name Mike & Rich. Two decades later, an expanded edition of that LP is being reissued via Planet Mu. To mark the release, Paradinas spoke to Shawn Reynaldo for his First Floor show on RBMA Radio about its creation, and explained why he’s elected to pull the music out of the vaults.



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Why re-issue the album now?

It seems strange, but it’s because Aphex Twin gave us permission to re-release it now. We’ve been asking him for a while, and he finally said, “Yeah, why not?” I think he gave his permission just after Syro was released. He’s suddenly got a taste for reissuing music again after his long fallow period. We wanted Expert Knob Twiddlers to be out digitally for a while because it’s part of the Rephlex catalog, and after Rephlex closed the rights became available again. It was Richard’s idea to do it with extra tracks, on physical formats and with the tape and t-shirts.

You’ve known Aphex Twin for a very long time – the tracks on this album were originally made in 1994, I believe. How did you actually meet Aphex Twin?

I first heard of Aphex Twin because we went to the same university, Kingston University, where he was studying electronics and I was studying architecture. There were a lot of us into music there in around 1990-91. The rave scene was at its height (at least in London, anyway), there was so much interesting stuff coming out in the local record shops and my friend Hal Udell (who ran Clear Recordings) said that he had a friend over in the other campus who was making really good electronic music. This is when I was making stuff with my four-track recorder, too. I didn’t have a computer yet at the time.

I gave Hal a demo of mine and it wasn’t long after that that the first Aphex Twin records came out. They were on the wall of the local record shop, marked as “local artist: Aphex Twin.” I bought Analogue Bubblebath 1 and Analogue Bubblebath 2 and I was hooked. The first time that I actually met him was in a club in London called Knowledge. I met up with him there after speaking to him on the phone about my demo. He gave me advice: “You should tighten up the drums,” that sort of thing. That was probably around mid-’92.