Friday : Techno
Ricardo Villalobos - Suesse Cheques
Dear Mr. Villalobos,
Please accept my sincere thanks for being so awesome.
With love,
(robot) Blair
Yes, I am a techno-nerd and I have nothing but respect and admiration for Chile-born, Germany-residing musical genius, Ricardo Villalobos. Villalobos began making club music in the early-to-mid 90s - bangers, though still something quite unique - and slowly began a transformation wherein his current sound is massively open space and highly granular in nature. Some of the most micro of micro-house, his hugely influential 2003 album Alcachofa for Playhouse was a watershed document for minimal techno in general, and a must-own for fans of any kind of techno music. He continues to push boundaries and explore what techno music can be, as you can hear in his newer work on the Cadenza and Perlon labels.
So, you're probably asking yourselves (some of you anyway) "but what happened in between?" - I have an answer for you, and I present a piece of it here, via Frisbee Tracks, and a compilation of his work, titled Salvador. All the music on it was originally released on Frisbee between 1998 and 2000 and is now out of print or otherwise unavailable - this particular track, from 1999, is less bumping than some of the other tracks on the CD and more minimal, a transition piece, giving a good preview of the direction he was heading towards. Also on the CD is a new version of one song ("Que Belle Epoque 2006"), and his remix of Señor Coconut's "Electrolatino" (the "'lectro Cariño Mix"), both of which are great.
If you're looking to complete the puzzle that is Mr. Villalobos, this compilation will certainly help put a few more of the pieces in place. You can purchase Salvador direct from the label, here (for both mailorder and MP3 downloads), or from our friends at Forced Exposure - also, be sure to check the Frisbee site, where you can grab another free track.
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Also, as I mentioned earlier this week, I have some very special records by Róisín Murphy (who I posted here a few weeks back) to give away: one set of all three original limited-edition Sequins EPs (of which there were only 500 made) will go to the winner. The question?
What other Róisín Murphy projects has Matthew Herbert had a hand in producing or remixing?
I want you to name as many as possible since there have been more than one (I'm talking about tracks here, don't just answer 'Moloko'), so email your answers to blair @ music.for-robots.com - I will pick the winner at random from the submissions, so get to it! --- and we have ourselves a winner! Out of the people with the correct answers, Darcie Hutzell steps up with the four different Moloko remixes Herbert did, and even thought to include white-label pressings. Way to be!