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-- Ricardo Villalobos

Ricardo Villalobos

Dont post on here as much as I used to. But I felt the urge to come log on and discuss him since I have now grown to really like a lot of his stuff and really wanted to see what the board thought of him. Yes I realize I am about 10 years behind the times but I was just never that into minimal. I heard he finally released an essential mix and I gave it a listen:



It wasn't anything out of this world but I really enjoyed it and was intrigued by the fact that it was live at amnesia. Honestly, I would have a great time listening to this live. So I went back and went through his catalog again and listened to as much of his stuff as I could.

I was very blown away by his live set at time warp in New York.



I have listened to this multiple times and to me this is as good as a modern festival set as I have ever heard. The amount of risks this guy takes both in song selections and mixing is unreal. The way he builds it up slowly using very traditional deep house type grooves, playing some tech house big room stuff as it goes on, before getting downright weird and tripy is a masterclass in taking an audience where you want to go and not where they wanna go. The way he just drops the incoming tracks a little before the transition, and the mixing back and forth between two tracks are so fn unique. He has a style completely his own. What he does in the middle around OUthere brothers fuk u in the ass just blew me away. Its almost downright hallucinatory the way he mixes out of the track and brings it back later. At some point it almost feels like a different mix altogether takes over. One darker. But to me, how he slowly brings the entire tempo down towards the end and drops his own remix of Blood on my hands in fn New York is really something else.

He reminds me of a Godard or Antonioni. Guys who take popular art forms and try to do something very unique with it. Guys who have their own style and are always pushing conventions.

I don't even like minimal. Still don't really like it. But this guys stuff is something else. I have never seen him live and as luck would have it he is coming to LA in November. Really excited. Was wondering what peoples thoughts on him are. My friends are not fans and don't get it no matter how many of his mixes I send over. I don't know, maybe I've taken too many fn rave drugs in my life and this is what happens but I have become a huge fan of this guys work in one month since his essential mix dropped. Like borderline obsessive with his stuff over the last month.

When that timewarp set came out I was also blown away, I thought it was groundbreaking and remember thinking to myself and wondering if it was just a natural thing for him or a serious attempt at maybe re-inventing himself I don't know. I remember even posting something on here to that effect, but trance nerds are idiots, they don't get it. I wish I could have been there, it was not too far from home. He is fully deserving of the hype I think, especially as a DJ. All my favorite DJ's are ones I've seen in person, but it's tough not to even think about him when talking about the best out there because even through the recordings you can smell there is something unique happening with this person. And then you go listen to one of his records or a remix and it all makes sense in a weird way.

Il check out that essentiel mix, thanks

I,always admired his work from afar hes never made it out This way To perform.

Somehow I've never actually seen him. He's known for being very hit and miss, I guess it depends on how much drugs he is on for a given night. If it's too little, he's boring, if it's too much, he has to be escorted out of the booth because he can't play anymore and is completely trainwrecking every mix (I've heard of multiple occasions where that actually happened)

A huge part of the reason why that EM is so good is because some of those tracks are over a decade old. Actually, most are. Some of his work pre-2010 is really masterful and has amazing attention to detail. However, and this is only my personal opinion, he's been really irrelevant since then.

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Originally posted by Woony Somehow I've never actually seen him. He's known for being very hit and miss, I guess it depends on how much drugs he is on for a given night. If it's too little, he's boring, if it's too much, he has to be escorted out of the booth because he can't play anymore and is completely trainwrecking every mix (I've heard of multiple occasions where that actually happened)

Yeah his drug use and the effects it has on his sets is borderline urban legends by now. But really you can almost hear it in his mixes. While the styles and mixing are completely different and not even at all similar, his sets almost remind me of 90s Sasha in the sense that you can almost hear the drug experience coming through the set. The time warp set I swear to god you can almost hear when the mdma runs out and the ketamine takes over. Im really excited to see him play and I am hoping they give him just the right amount of drugs.

How have you never seen him while living in Berlin? Especially since some people swear by him. It seems if you catch him when he is a hit, its supposed to be something very special.

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Originally posted by SPANIARD A huge part of the reason why that EM is so good is because some of those tracks are over a decade old. Actually, most are. Some of his work pre-2010 is really masterful and has amazing attention to detail. However, and this is only my personal opinion, he's been really irrelevant since then.

Yeah I noticed that but it seems like its his thing. From what I can gather he has always just played tracks from all time periods and isn't into pushing unrealeased promos. I actually read an interview where he said how much he hated listening and playing promos and how much he prefers just playing the vinyl records he likes.

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Originally posted by wotyzoid When that timewarp set came out I was also blown away, I thought it was groundbreaking and remember thinking to myself and wondering if it was just a natural thing for him or a serious attempt at maybe re-inventing himself I don't know. I remember even posting something on here to that effect, but trance nerds are idiots, they don't get it. I wish I could have been there, it was not too far from home. He is fully deserving of the hype I think, especially as a DJ. All my favorite DJ's are ones I've seen in person, but it's tough not to even think about him when talking about the best out there because even through the recordings you can smell there is something unique happening with this person. And then you go listen to one of his records or a remix and it all makes sense in a weird way.

Shit man, I would have killed to be there in person for at time warp for this. Bunch of ravers on drugs and a huge sound system would go perfect with the time warp mix.

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Originally posted by SPANIARD However, and this is only my personal opinion, he's been really irrelevant since then.

This is exactly what I was talking about. This is complete bullshit. The whole romanian minimal revival is inspired by Ricardo Villalobos.

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Originally posted by wotyzoid This is exactly what I was talking about. This is complete bullshit. The whole romanian minimal revival is inspired by Ricardo Villalobos.

He is at least nowhere near as relevant as he was while flying the Cocoon banner with V�th and Hawtin from around 2004-5. Techno's nose dive into minimalism around that time dovetailed nicely with the stuff he, Markus Nikolai and Zip were doing on Perlon at that time. Combine that with Ricardo's party animal antics (which were similar to V�th's to begin with), and you have an ideal superstar DJ for your roster.

It's obviously not a hype you can sustain forever. Techno moved on from mnml as well, and Ricardo clearly isn't as good of a fit with the greyscale techno onslaught that's doing the rounds on dancefloors now. He's also gotten older.

That said, I think his tracklists look a bit more interesting now compared to some of K-hole stuff he was knocking out during the peak of his hype. I think he also doesn't get enough credit for being a skilled selector who knows how to adapt to different dancefloors, as shown in this HR3 Clubnight show. It's REALLY good:



[01:29] Dimitry & Jaimy - Being Served [Opara]
[01:33] Andrew McLauchlan - Love Story [Figment - 4]
[01:40] John Tejada - Music For Doubles [Palette - PAL 12]
[01:45] Jeff Mills - Condor To Mallorca [Axis - AX 021]
[01:48] Conceiled Project - Definition Of D. [Svek - SK 040]
[01:51] DJ Bear Who? - The Jungle Fire [Cross Section - CS 137]
[01:56] Gary Martin - Cyba Tiki [Teknotika - GG 27]
[02:00] Gemini - Swimmin' With Sharks [The Classic Music Company - CMC 77]
[02:04] Derrick L. Carter - 10 [The Classic Music Company - CMC 80]
[02:12] Stress - You Chased My Life [Transfusion - TF 011]
[02:14] Milk - Theme [Capricious - CAP 004]
[02:17] DJ Duke - Tribal Liberation [Earth Moon & Sun - EMS 02]
[02:23] Bobby Productions - Subido [Paparazzi - 005]
[02:25] Private Productions - Sad Sad Song [R 49401]
[02:30] Technasia - Force [Technasia - TA 5]
[02:37] Common Factor - World Is Mine [Planet E - PE 65252]
[02:42] Quakerman - Schlamm Me [U Star - USR 006]
[02:46] Solid Groove - Won't Stop [Slip 'n' Slide - SLIP 112]
[02:50] Dub Taylor - Bullitt [3LG - 661956023319]
[02:52] Bandulu - Runnings [Foundation - FD 030]

quote:

Originally posted by Sand Leaper Techno moved on from mnml as well, and Ricardo clearly isn't as good of a fit with the greyscale techno onslaught that's doing the rounds on dancefloors now. He's also gotten older.

Again, complete nonsense. He's still a bigger, better, more hyped DJ than a lot of the "hot DJ's of the moment" are. Go look at his bookings. If anything he's bigger and more hyped now than he was then.

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Originally posted by wotyzoid Again, complete nonsense. He's still a bigger, better, more hyped DJ than a lot of the "hot DJ's of the moment" are. Go look at his bookings. If anything he's bigger and more hyped now than he was then.

I'm sure he is still plenty popular and selling out shows. I'd still argue that the kind of powerhouse V�th was running during the Cocoon era made Ricardo more of a trendsetter and innovator of the genre than what he is now. Perlon was way ahead of its time with their reductionist take on techno, and Ricardo was a perfect fit. If you look at what a techno festival like Awakenings puts on now (where he used to be a regular), it's not quite the same hype (although he certainly pulls in the gang at Time Warp).

If you want a REALLY good example of a veteran who has maintained his relevancy in the game, I'd say Adam Beyer and what has happened to Drumcode fits the bill better. He's had the big room techno thing locked down for decades now, and regularly packs out the Westergas warehouse for the Awakenings brand.

Edit: Does Ricardo even feel that connected to techno these days? The last few things I can remember him producing recently are those ECM albums with Max Loderbauer, and he's apparently also making records with Oren Ambarchi from Touch AND dabbling in Honest Jon's percussion based material from Africa. It looks to me like he's going in somewhat of the same direction that Rhythm & Sound did once dub techno had run its course, even though he is DJ-ing regularly at all the biggest spots still.

That's crazy dude. Adam Bayer sucks, Drumcode sucks. You're conflating commercial success with relevance and as a comrade I'm disappointed. And you're talking about Awakenings, he gets booked almost every year also. I just checked the past two years and he's on both line-ups.

Pedro, Raresh, Rhadoo, Cristi Cons, Barac, Praslea, Vlad Caia, none of that happens without Ricardo Villalobos and Luciano.

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Originally posted by wotyzoid That's crazy dude. Adam Bayer sucks, Drumcode sucks. You're conflating commercial success with relevance and as a comrade I'm disappointed.

Didn't say I was a fan. We're looking at who manages to achieve commercial success and set the biggest trends, and I'm arguing that Beyer is a better example of that. I don't personally care about this when it comes to who I decide to listen to and go out to hear at a club.

quote:

And you're talking about Awakenings, he gets booked almost every year also. I just checked the past two years and he's on both line-ups.

Does he get his own name branded event for them regularly, where he headlines the evening and brings all of his label guys in?

https://www.drumcodefestival.com/en/

The newer generation of "digger DJs" that are very in-fashion right now like Binh, Nicolas Lutz, Even Baggs, Andrew James Gustav etc. are also all heavily influenced by Villalobos style of DJing. There's an entire new scene that has sprung up in the last few years that on some level goes back to Villalobos' basic tenets of dance music: always be trippy, dig deep, throw curveballs.

Beyer obviously reaches more people but in the underground, Villalobos is still very influential to cutting edge and critically aclaimed (look at the RA ratings for the Time Passages label, they rarely hand out 4s let alone 4+ to straight up club records these days) developments, which really can't be said about Beyer.

Right. I guess the issue here is who is he relevant FOR. He probably hasn't faded in the eyes of underground heads like us, but he was a household name on the superstar DJ scale back in the Cocoon days. I can therefore see why people think that things aren't quite the way they used to be for Ricardo.

If nothing else, I'll always appreciate him for this:

just my 2 cents but I don't give much of a shit about what is relevant today or not. That is just fashion. It comes and goes. Real Art is what lasts after fashion dies. Godard used to be relevant but not much after the 60s. But he was and is a great artist bc people will watch his movies long after he is dead. To me, Ricardo is similar. Doesn't matter that he is no longer the in vogue guy. His stuff will last.

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Originally posted by wotyzoid That's crazy dude. Adam Bayer sucks

Fuck Off

Oh, you Techno hipsters.....

Beyer is an OG and still one of the better Techno dj's around. You guys used to cock ride him, but then all that Berghain and Dixon hipster shit came around

whenever i think of romania children underground comes to mind..


https://www.snagfilms.com/films/tit...ren_underground

quote:

Originally posted by Sykonee If nothing else, I'll always appreciate him for this:

this will go down as an all time classic, my dream is to drop this one night at a house party.

ill have to wait till everyone is mashed of course and not really paying attention to whats playing .


but this recent essential mix is definitely a jam and a half , probably mix of the year.

quote:

Originally posted by MR STROKE Fuck Off

No

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