Browse by Artist: VILLALOBOS, RICARDO

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Achso
Label:	CADENZA (GERMANY)
Format:	2x12"
Price:	$25.50
Catalog #:	CADENZA 008EP

Double 12" in deluxe gatefold sleeve, over 50 minutes of music. "Minimal techno is generally said to be pointillistic in nature. But Ricardo Villalobos' new EP for Cadenza (his first for the label, and his first new release since the Chromosoul 12" for Perlon) turns its attention to the importance of the line -- not the dots, but the connect. Not the pinpricks, but the thread. (Oh yeah, and 'minimalism' is a dead horse too -- there are more rhythms in 32 bars of one of Achso's tracks than in an entire hour of commercial radio. It's not a 'less-is-more' aesthetic, it's just more things folded into more ingenious hiding places.) Since his epics like 'Easy Lee' and 'Black Conga,' Villalobos has kept stretching out his music, and these songs are longer than ever -- meandering in ever-widening circles, opening up like blossoms from the necks of blossoms, like Terry Gilliam's animated flower in the intro to Monty Python. (To call Achso an EP is a bit of a misnomer: four 12" sides, each at 33 RPM, more than 50 minutes of music. If vinyl records could contain 60 minutes per side, I'm pretty sure Villalobos would start making hour-long tracks for the dancefloor). Instead of techno's conventional 4- and 8- and 16-bar figures, these tracks drift of their own accord; they sound less like standard 12" sides than edits of Villalobos' spiraling live sessions, where loops uncoil into long, slinky springs. Each track feels like it has three or four discrete sections, but you'd be hard-pressed to determine exactly where A morphed into B into C. Achso is a moody record -- contemplative, melancholic, angry, a little bitter at times, and also guardedly euphoric. If most of the floor-filling tracks of 2005 emphasized brazen riffs and strobing sounds, bristling with hooks and fin-de-siecle hedonism, Villalobos has gone down a trap door into a side room of the party, where the dance floor moves at the same pace, but the shadows are darker and the sounds more fleeting. We can be leery of the 'j'-word and still admit that Ach So takes certain inspiration from jazz: not the hard-and-fast signifiers of the blue note and swinging bass, but an emphasis on unfolding structures -- on the overarching importance of the line. From classic ambient music, it derives an attention to timbre, and to the ghost sounds that emerge from chance couplings of machines. There's also folk here -- again, not 'folk,' dressed up in bright acoustic colors, but a kind of placeless folk, a tradition without a history to root itself in. In place of the explicit reference to Chile's '60s of Villalobos' deepest DJ sets, extending Violetta Parra's eerie harmonies into a thicket of drums, Achso emphasizes an all-encompassing psychedelia reminiscent of Krautrock, the Chilean progressive folk/rock of Los Jaivas, and even Southeast Asian string music. Here, psychedelia is a sinew that runs beneath everything else, twisting and unveiling the vein when the music flexes. There's no denying the similarities between these discs and the most rippled, polyrhythmic strains of minimal techno's latest developments; the palette and the pulse both flow from the taut energies of Alcachofa and The Theoreme du Archimede into the dusky web of barbed rhythms that personifies current releases from artists as diverse as Luciano, the Wighnomy Brothers, Trentemoller, or Dominik Eulberg. But Achso is less about proposing a style or defining a genre than in wrapping its arms around a set of ideas and then folding them, Venn-like, into a grey interleaving. A middle space." -- Philip Sherburne.

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	In The Mix: Taka Taka
Label:	COCOON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CORMIX 005CD

2003 release, available again! One of the most devastating electronic mixes since the glory days of Stacy Pullen or Claude Young's DJ Kicks installments. Totally awesome all around. "Well-known as Resident DJ in several clubs since 1988, Darmstadt born Ricardo Villalobos started producing excellent records in 1990. Since 2000, Ricardo lives in Berlin during the summer and moves to his native country Chile in the winter. This big share of summer is also noticeable in his music: his sets come along very light and levitating, the mixes are pointed and skillful. The Mix CD in hand exactly moves within this range: Ricardo gives an overview of his most important electronic Dance Tracks of the year and mixes them in the playful way we all know him for. The last three tracks illustrate his roots; it's getting rather housy here. Villalobos' definition of electronic club music is mainly based on House, even if some tracks sound more electronically. Beneath good fellows and old mates (and their labels), the tracklisting shows many new and partly unknown talents. Supporting new artists and their music always was and still is one of Ricardo's aims." Artists: Joris Vermeiren, Ark, Melchior Productions, Cabanne, Dimbiman, John Shananigans, Jabberjaw, Claro Intelecto, Mathew Jonson, Baeks, Brothers' Vibe, Vainqueur, Walter Jones, Kate Williams, Daniel Bell, False, Ricardo Villalobos, Errorsmith, Luciano, Koro Osanago, Soul Capsule, Joris Vermeiren .

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Salvador
Label:	FRISBEE TRACKS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	FRISBEE 011CD

From South America to Ibiza to Germany, Ricardo Villalobos is a now-legendary minimalist remixer and producer. Proving himself on countless labels and as an inimitable international DJ, Villalobos has a built a solid foundation on breathtaking, visionary pure club sound. Even from his earliest works on Frisbee from 1998-2001, his productions reflected the future of the dancefloor. Now, Frisbee opens its vaults to release long sought-after out of print and out of stock tracks alike, on this gem of a CD compilation -- entirely uncut with complete original and remastered versions. Salvador is an amazing body of work, documenting Ricardo's progression and constantly expanding aesthetic. Ricardo Villalobos has created his own genre: his flair, his intuition and high degree of musicality and rhythm make a giant impression. He has redesigned the culture of excess by pleasurably celebrating the excessive momentum in his compositions ("Electrolatino rmx" for Señor Coconut) and by intensifying the individual elements, causing the entire sound architecture to escalate ("Lugom-ix"). But one must not forget that Villalobos is a classical minimalist: small, inviting elements of surprise are embedded in his trademark sound, and the listener becomes an alert follower, succumbing to the most minute variations of each track. The pulse of Ricardo's sound is less synchronized with the big beat/big bang of the techno universe, but follows the constantly ramifying flow of a psychedelic tradition of free structures ("Que Belle Epoque" even features a melodic progression borrowed from the '70s). Ricardo's work and life are presented on Salvador in a unique, relaxed jam session, tracing back the source of this flow, unearthing many stunning and electrifying moments.

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Que Belle Epoque 2006
Label:	FRISBEE TRACKS (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	FRISBEE 067EP

Reissue of this early Villalobos release from 2000, including a new 2006 remix of the title track. "Since all of Ricardo's vinyl releases are sold out for a long time and most of all never have been released on CD in full length, we decided due to worldwide big demand to re-release his works. Reason enough for Mr. Villalobos to gently remix and re-arrange 'Que Belle Epoque' without losing it's original appeal as the original already has been critically highly acclaimed in early 2000."

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Unflug Mixes
Label:	FRISBEE TRACKS (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	FRISBEE 069EP

The global feedback to the Salvador release plus 2006's update of "Que Bel Epoque" have been overwhelming and immediately a big demand for a vinyl re-release of Ricardo Villalobos' "Unflug" arose (originally released on the Frisbee Tour EP Vol. 2 from 1998). Quite surprised and pleased about it all, Ricardo first wanted to remix the track by himself but several remix jobs (Depeche Mode and Beck, amongst others) and his continuous work for his own upcoming album made that time-wise impossible as well as no longer necessary in his eyes after enjoying both of the remixes by Good Groove & Yapacc and Franklin De Costa.

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Heike
Label:	LO-FI STEREO (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	LOFI 038EP

"I do not want to compare Ricardo Villalobos productions with the character of a good wine again, that gets better and better the longer one waits... This comparison has been mentioned too often however in this case it is again more than true. Damn bastard you, what have done in that lonely night back in '97 delivering such a masterpiece that ranks somewhere between Richie Hawtin's Spastik and the almighty Lemon8 track? A shuffle-909-techno-monster with a mystic female vocal on top and a crazy synthline that makes this a tech-house-classic to stay for ever! For some of us 'Heike' guided us the last ten years through nights at the omen, the e-werk, the Tresor, many open air festivals and various afterhours at beaches and pools. After all those years smiling and screaming about 'Heike' and after nearly a hundred personal requests to repress this masterpiece Ricardo and me finally decided to do it...."

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	The Au Harem D'Archimede
Label:	PERLON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	PERL 043CD

"Archimedes' theorem defines the buoyant lift: Diving an object into a vessel full of water causes an increase of pressure inside the vessel. The displaced amount of water, i.e. the lifting force is equivalent to the object's body volume, i.e. its weight-force. Transferring this theorem to the music of the overwhelming parallel universe of Ricardo Villalobos' new triple EP/album length CD, one will realize the following: Diving all of its notes into reality results in the displacement of the same to a high degree, since the music has an enormous volume by expanding airily. Which means nothing but the musical principle of psychedelics taking effect here. This time by using the method of reduction, Ricardo is closer to the tradition of the cultured jam sessions by the legendary German 70es musicians' collective Ash Ra Tempel around Manuel Goettsching (known from his Prototech solo production 'E2-E4') than to the simply structured march through occasionally rather uninspired club metrics. Ricardo's percussive talent is undisputed: the sophisticatedly elastic rhythm meanders of Latin American/Caribbean origin sound as if they have been introduced to the wild from the base of a cool, impeccably clean laboratory which is located somewhere in the Science Fiction vastness of the Chilean Atacama desert. The loss of sense of time appears in favour of the event of intensity. Frequently the tracks appear surprisingly volatile, despite the considerable playing times of several titles which are absolutely required for exhausting the free, rhythmic modulations. One wishes them to last forever, like the whole production."

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	What's Wrong My Friends?
Label:	PERLON (GERMANY)
Format:	2x12"
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	PERL 059LP

"After Ricardo has being busy doing remixes for Depeche Mode and Beck lately, we are happy to release 4 brand new songs in the quite luxury format of 2x12"... yummy. 'What's Wrong My Friends?' is the general question asked in the opening -- and title track. We know everything is pretty alright.... especially when this brass section swings in. On the flipside 'Gugga Sempa' introduces the subflute, a rare instrument dated back to the bass-age. The second record of the doublepack holds a rough percussive monster entitled 'Africolaps,' as well as 'Dummolator,' an instant 14-minute hypnosis."

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Vasco
Label:	PERLON (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	PERL 069CD

This is minimal master Ricardo Villalobos' second full-length release for the Perlon label. Following the last two 12" Vasco releases featuring "Minimoonstar," "Electonic Water" & "Amazordum" (containing remixes on the B-sides by Shackleton, San Proper & Baby Ford), this CD contains the full-session mix of "Minimoonstar" (32 minutes long!) as well as a CD-exclusive bonus track entitled "Skinfummel." You know, it is most important to get into the flow. This is quite possibly Villalobos' most experimental dance music to date, driving home his ever-widening philosophy that when styles have fallen into oblivion, when dance is subliminal, when positions don't matter, when discussions have faded, when every substance has been dropped, when everyone is free of inert mass, when the set-up is cleared of significance, then mindset and music will float freely. The journey of the most successful explorer, the commander of a floating ship starts from a pool full of nutritionally-dense ideas, a primordial soup filling a feel tank -- as opposed to a think tank. Moves that make a jam session -- that's how to begin when entering and establishing new playgrounds, designing organic technologies, expanding universes. There's enough space to place countless seeds of sense, causing the joint communication between the players of the jam to flower out. The players of these jams are the many spirits of Ricardo Villalobos. His philosophy of the flow of absolute sound is in full evolution here, and this is 70 minutes worth of pure bliss.

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Vasco EP Part 1
Label:	PERLON (GERMANY)
Format:	2x12"
Price:	$22.00
Catalog #:	PERL 069EP

"First part of Ricardo's new contribution for Perlon entitled Vasco EP. Two original compositions by mister Villalobos that get remixed on the B-sides by Shackleton and San Proper. 'Minimoonstar' on the first record gets a special underwater treatment by ex-Londoner Shackleton (Skull Disco). On the A-side, we find a special 12" edit of the original to make it fit on wax. This time the remix gets delivered by Amsterdam-based San Proper, who is known for his superb releases on Rush Hour."

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	The Contempt
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	PLAY 004EP

"The first release in our 'Back Up Classic' series produced back in 1995 this is one of the first Villalobos productions -- and most important -- the first on Playhouse ever. Just starting his career as a professional DJ, Ricardo was famous for throwing illegal parties at pretty unusual locations that time... but even then, he already had mastered his unique style of production that he should become famous for more than 8 years later. The musical journey on side A didn't lose any of its magic or energy until today. This Playhouse classic has not been available for more than six years."

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Alcachofa
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PLAY 008CD

Repressed; genre-defining album from Villalobos, circa 2003. "Welcome to the New Profundity. Ricardo Villalobos is one of the foremost producers in that Zone That Has No Name -- minimalism that's too rosy-cheeked to be minimal, techno too slinky (and dare we say: feminine) to be techno, house too adamantly anti-anthemic to be called house. On singles for Playhouse, Perlon, Frisbee Tracks and more, Villalobos -- both under his own name and as half of Ric Y Martin, alongside Martin Schopf (aka Dandy Jack) -- has broken open techno's crank-case and reconfigured its motor to run on nothing but pebbles and honey, silicon and grass. Less minimalist than profoundly, proudly, regally restrained, his music is full of pauses, patience and white space; he overlaps genres until only their outlines remain, like a kind of subtractive synthesis used to blot out all but the essence of a given combination of tones. Which brings us to Alcachofa, an album that, like its namesake -- the humble artichoke -- peels away in layers, stripping back rubbery leaves to reveal a sweet, pulpy interior crowned by a halo of thorns. 'Easy Lee,' the album's opener, is perversely delicious, pure dancefloor introversion. Graced by plangent, computer-modified vocals, the tune -- a staple in Richie Hawtin's afterhours sets -- is at once stark and darkly romantic, surface-bound and curiously hollowed, hyper-sexed and dead to the touch. It expands upon Villalobos' interest in processed vocals, introduced with 'What You Say Is More Than I Can Say' on an earlier 12" Play 62 -- here in an edited version, which offsets rubberized techno stomp with delusional robot groans to produce a uniquely sensual disorientation. Not all of Alcachofa is so introverted, but most of it is marked by the same kind of restraint, not hesitation. 'Theogenese' juggles South American syncopations, minimalist click-tracking, and '80s synth-drums, all suffused in a delicate sunrise aura, until every beat glows golden. 'Bahaha Hahi,' traveling under a name suggesting some tropical imbalance, dresses up subconscious vocals in clicks and gurgles -- the sound of snorkeling while stoned. A simpler rhythmic experiment is 'I Try To Live (Can I Live),' an excursion into flattened-out funk and artificial mouth harp. But the record's crowning glory must be 'Dexter,' which steadily cycles through a series of improbable chord changes like a cat prowling one of M.C. Escher's surreal staircases. Pensive, poignant, moving like water under ice, the track sucks you in and holds you deep in the heart of things -- and in the heart of Alcachofa. This isn't techno as we knew it; it's a biological experiment, a Petri dish of private elation and muttered damnations, a morphology of voices and tones and exhalations rubbed raw with salt and gravel. Alcachofa presents metamorphosis in play: restless, irrevocable. Wrapped in rubber, green and meaty, the world sounds different now."

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Fizheuer Zieheuer
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PLAY 021CD

2-track extended CD single of sorts, 73 minutes long. "Señor Villalobos is back again on Playhouse so roll out the red carpet for his Fizheuer Zieheuer monster which is no longer than 37 minutes. Represented here in its full glory, we added Ricardo's special 'stripped down to the bone' beat version, the 'Fizbeast,' to give you the chance to enhance your creative DJ skills and add some extra sugar on top. Fizheuer Zieheuer is around for awhile now and a special secret weapon in Ricardo's sets all over the world, causing mayhem wherever he plays it. 100% pure hypnosis, this track plays with certain sounds that you would not really expect from this minimal master in the first place...But it's the way he's using these East European horns which is done so well and their integration in the beats that makes the track so exciting. There are slight changes throughout the whole 37 minutes, morphing and transforming itself and these twisted melodic horn stabs all the time, sucking you deeper and deeper into a very very special state of mind...It's definitely an experience and worth a try. Villalobos, master of hypnosis, magician of the groove."

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Alcachofa Tools
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	PLAY 082EP

"Two CD only tracks plus the exclusive 'Bach To Back' only available on this 12". A truly original Villalobos composition with beautiful fingersnapping handclaps... yeah, you better believe it! Great bassline implanted in the typical psyched out soundscapes of Señor Ricardo. What's more to a perfect tool to fool around with? 'Fools Garden (Black Conga)' and 'Waiworinao' deliver the same craziness and rhythmic extravaganza as present as it is in the whole Villalobos oeuvre. But there's also a beautiful sunny mood to these 2 tracks which puts a smile on everybody's face. It's there when you listen to the nice guitar playing in 'Waiworinao' or while losing yourself in the dreamy atmosphere created in 'Fools Garden (Black Conga)'."

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Fizheuer Zieheuer
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	PLAY 133EP

"Señor Villalobos is back again on Play house so roll out the red carpet for his 'Fizheuer Zieheuer' monster which is no longer than 37 minutes!!! Of course we had to divide it into 2 parts to bring it on the viny l, but it still is a wicked tune. It's been around for a while now and a special secret weapon in Ricardo's sets all over the world, causing mayhem wherever he plays it! 100% pure hypnosis, this track plays with certain sounds that you would not really expect from this minimal master in the first place... But it's the way he's using these East European horns which is done so well and their integration in the beats that makes the track so exciting."

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Sei Es Drum
Label:	SEI'S DRUM (GERMANY)
Format:	3x12"
Price:	$42.00
Catalog #:	SED 000EP

"Ricardo Villalobos with his first 3x12" production as recording artist and actual record label programmer. SED might be a one time venture working completely solo, but one thing can already be said: it's one to remember. Four tracks right off his recent Fabric 36 compilation, plus three new bonus tracks. Each recording stands uniquely on its own but also works yet again in a subtle context with all other tracks. An artistic statement as well as pure dancefloor mayhem! One of the strongest packages that we received in a long time. Or in other words: 'authentic work of an artist, if not an authentic work of art -- and definitely worth a spin.' --Resident Advisor"

Artist:	VILLALOBOS, RICARDO
Title:	Enfants
Label:	SEI'S DRUM (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	SED 001EP

Second pressing of the second release on Richardo Villalobos's "private expression vehicle" SED (what do you call a record label that is not a record label, anyway?). Yes, this is the Villalobos record w/ the Christian Vander (Magma) reconstruction and it's great mix of a riveting minimalist piano pulse and children singing. As they said at Phonica: "'Enfants' is for minimal techno what Mr Levan's 'Stand On The Word' is for disco and what Theo Parrish's 'Friendly Children' is for house! A future classic." "One of the most talked-about records of recent, speculated about, awaited with high and higher anticipation, finally gets released on Ricardo Villalobos' SED label. We can simply think nothing else than this INTENSE follow-up to the massive 3LP of SED00(0) -- it is leading the way to further design SED into an actual label now."

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