Various

Planet Mu turned twenty in 2015. The label run by Mike Paradinas, who records as µ-Ziq, had moved over two decades from IDM and breakcore through dubstep and grime to Chicago footwork. To mark the anniversary it issued µ20, a 50-track compilation on CD and digital. A deluxe edition added a third disc and a book on the label's history by Rory Gibb. Rather than a greatest hits, Paradinas chose mostly unreleased material, recent productions alongside tracks from the archive. The Vinyl Factory then made the vinyl edition, eighteen of those tracks spread across three 12" records. VF called the compilation a living document of the label's history.

The vinyl sequence moves roughly from the present back to the early years. Side A includes Paradinas's own Cherk from 2014, which The Quietus heard as techno with the atmosphere of his earlier work. Then comes Remarc's Thunderclap in a dubplate mix, which Resident Advisor found "so unhinged that it practically one-ups breakcore" (Resident Advisor, 2015). Footwork, the Chicago style the label had taken up in recent years, runs through several tracks on the middle sides. On side D, Jlin and Sarah Fawkes contribute Ankou Celeste, which the same review heard as a "thunderous death knell" (Resident Advisor, 2015). The Quietus, for its part, praised the way it sets chopped, elegiac vocals against a swinging rhythm. The last two sides reach back further. Vex'd contribute Firestar from 2003, the only dubstep track in the set besides one on the CD edition, according to The Quietus. Jega's 103 dates from 1997, a slowed version of his track Nia that the same writer heard as spindly and narcoleptic. The set closes with a 1999 remix of one of Paradinas's group projects. Each track title carries its year, which turns the tracklist into a short timeline of the label. Reviewing the full set, Resident Advisor concluded that originality, not a shared aesthetic, is what holds the Planet Mu catalogue together.

This is the VF edition: three LPs on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl in a bespoke full-colour sleeve, with eighteen tracks, limited to 1,000 copies worldwide.