ricardo villalobos

i am down with restless or relentless experimentation because when it works there is just this frission especially in the context of house or techno where the idiom is so strict but there can be that huge payoff in the way tracks mix together. even if such experimentation doesn't work, the reverbations on the culture or other artists are worth it. so if it's deploying post-rock stategies or sampling depeche mode into the k-hole or choppy rhythmic tricks, the ends are the same. the actual sound of tortoise and autechre and villalobos are very different to my ears so i think it is hard to discuss this topic without comparing scenes or methods or culture. the big post-rock record for me is millions now living... and i get the autechre reference in a villalobos review, but autechre have gone way further out in the way they stutter their beats. they seem to be returning to the dancefloor though. (i have been listening to untilted a lot lately). i guess if i had to say one thing these artist's sounds all have in common is their songs can sound as if it they are evolving in real-time, sometimes from measure to measure. but with autechre there are strong hints of detroit techno and electro and the sheffield legacy and industrial music; tortoise feels more formalized and not reliant on software (at least in a live setting), based in a jazz and improv legacy; and villalobos sounds more painterly and decorative like he's cooking something brilliant with rare ingredients, but there is always (on the singles) a strong hint of rhythm in the house/disco/techno tradition. he doesn't sound as hard as autechre or as mathy as tortoise. this is all reminding me of taka taka and how it brings all of these different techniques together (well not necessarily post-rock)

ep7 is one of my favorite pieces of music ever. it sounds so troubled by its own existence.

But I guess it also gives a sense of how different techno is today than 10 years ago. It's so much more niche now, so someone with a sound as uncompromising as his can be that big. And that niche is clearly catering mostly to people who like uncompromising club music and don't necessarily need melody etc. (also shows how druggy that niche is).

The other day I sat down with fruity loops and tried to replicate even just one bar of "ichso". It's impossible! The amount of detail in these tracks is totally extraordinary, not that this is necessarily a good thing, but I can't help but be reminded of how in the early days of jungle producers would talk about spending weeks just crafting a beat - it seems to have that level of intensity.

postrock / postrave song-building method 101

1. begin with building blocks of some accepted genre
2. introduce elements of new genre as the song progresses until the two mesh
3. song falls apart as elements stop meshing

(if i haven't metamorphosed into a being of pure logos by the time i'm done)

i can just see him disintegrate into a million tiny drum sounds and float out the window.

haha...brilliant.

(seems I'll have to try that exact combination of tracks)

kinda funny to recall Jess's initial dismissal of The Au ("a slog" on his blog) in light of how he now considers Villalobos the "first genius of the 21st century" or whatever.

anyway: i find "The Au Harem..." infinitely more interesting than "Alcachofa". It's probably got a lot to do with listening to it at home rather than in a club situation - listening to it as an LP - but it's got all these subtleties that make it sound different every time i hear it.

"Achso" is the same really, although that has an overall different sound but then i guess Villalobos meant for "Achso" to be played out a bit more, seeing as it's vinyl only and whatnot.

I was only today comparing Confield to minimal techno with some other people, although i think that "The Au Harem..." is far more Autechre than "Achso". The percussion on "Miami"!

And no, i've never taken ketamine. Although when a friend did, he requested "a creamy ball to get inside". Hmm.

"But history has done a curious thing to Spandau Ballet. It's made them more interesting. I think that's a valid way to listen to music, by the way. I think lots of things get more interesting when you add some time to them. To hate something now and like it three years from now isn't so much hypocritical as it is critical."

Also I think the song order doesn't help. After the first track there's several tracks in a row of very minimal four-to-the-floor stuff with very subtle rhythmic shadings. It only really breaks out again on "Miami" and "True To Myself", which perhaps a lot of listeners don't hang around for.

some of the other ones are good but there's not much about them to latch on to .... you couldn't even say "the one with the fizzing sprinkler noise" or "the one with glisteny Orbital IDM chimes" like you can with Achso

Could someone point me to this please?

The track 'que belle epoque 2006' is a remix right? So is 'lazer@present' also different from the original?

anyway, without looking up old threads/reviews, i think au'harem has proved to be a real grower for lots of people - certainly for me "hierklon" was the only thing that stood out at first, but now it's one of my favourite albums of the last few years.

also, i feel like "miami" offers lots of possibilities that no-one else has explored, although i'm not really sure how to make that statement more precise.

re villalobos and autechre - i've had that comparison in my mind for a long time (maybe back to au'harem?), but less in the sense of the actual sound and more in the relationship to their peers - e.g. au'harem to the other microhouse i was listening to was somehow like mid/late 90s autechre were to other idm. but possibly this just shows how shallowly i engaged with these genres! i definitely disagree with this trend to single out villalobos as the only innovator in town, but i do think that he was an eye-opener for a lot of people (esp with au'harem).

what else? oh, i've taken ketamine, but only by accident, and i din't find it worked that well with this kinda music (or indeed sound full stop). these days i find that this stuff's best listened to on sleeping pills - stay up really late until your super tired, then take some sleeping pills, stick au'harem on repeat on your headphones and drift off into the warmth...