On last year's Lunatic Harness, grandmaster Mike Paradinas helped form yet another electronic hybrid-- that of the legendary "drill-n-bass." But whereas that album concentrated on melody for only the first couple of songs, eventually drifting off into spazzy snare slaps with little musical flow to hold it all together, Brace Yourself is eight tracks of a perfect pairing: Paradinas' hyperspace drum loops and keyboard tiny-tones which soar like computer-generated string sections in outer space.

Among some of the record's better tracks are the pokey, afternoon drone of "Vaken Bolt," the twitching, tripping rhythmscape of "Intellitag" and both the remix and reprise versions of the Aphex Twin-inspired title track. With every record, u-Ziq seems to have advanced in both accessibility and ingenuity, which can only mean one thing: Mike Paradinas is evolving at light speed, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop him.

-Ryan Schreiber