ricardo villalobos

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re: accessible the au hareme...
surely the most accessible tune is "true to myself"???

godammit i wish this had been released as a 12" instead of chromosul

ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 10:50 (eighteen years ago) link

eh... it is a 12"? unless you have the CD copy. if so, sell it and buy the vinyl. as noted above, it's much better.

a, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 11:03 (eighteen years ago) link

sorry i meant the tune itself on a 12" single, as opposed to buying the whole album. tho i'll probably buy it all anyway

ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 14:16 (eighteen years ago) link

Tim, that was a great post, and very thought provoking. I (and probably many of us) think about these things (too) often. There is something very rewarding or satisfying in feeling that this music we spend so much time with (whatever it may be) is meaningful (in whatever way music can be meaningful) because it strives for something more, something exciting. But how is this vanguardism really defined when all these sounds are just built on history? Oh well, at least it's fun to think about.
On a kind-of-related note, my classic-rock-only office mate informed me yesterday that she stopped going out with her gay friend when he started listening to disco in 1990, "ten years after everyone else forgot about all those albums that took less than five minutes to make." This bit of intelligence came out immediately after she said he had taken her to a GWAR concert the previous year and she was really okay with that, "it was pretty cool."
So maybe we're all thinking too hard. She seemed quite sure about her feelings.

matt2 (matt2), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 20:22 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm not getting the Villalobos-Autechre comparisons AT ALL. "Achso"-Sheffield Bleep/early Black Dog, OK. But Autechre, no. The "twittering" in Villalobos' music is more like breakbeat rave c. 1992, at least to me.

NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 20:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Villalobos confirmed for Denmark's Roskilde Festival

http://www.roskilde-festival.dk/object.php?obj=4e342774&code=1

DJ Martian (djmartian), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 20:36 (eighteen years ago) link

countdown begins for "Villalobos cancels Roskilde" post.

biz, Wednesday, 22 March 2006 21:20 (eighteen years ago) link

denmark is close enough to berlin that i hope won't er, 'miss his flight' this time.

geeta (geeta), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 21:27 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm not getting the Villalobos-Autechre comparisons AT ALL.

Isn't it the long (9 mins or more) unfolding of larger musical pieces from "micro" structures?

file under cozy techno (fandango), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 21:43 (eighteen years ago) link

vahid can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Autechre reference is to the rhythmic structures and not necessarily the sounds/noises used to contribute to those structures. Even so, the patterns aren't quite coming from the same place since the rhythmic base is different -- Autechre's not starting with a minimal house beat..

mike h. (mike h.), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 21:47 (eighteen years ago) link

"Chiastic Slide" might fit that description. Each track is very repetitive and slowly builds up by adding more and more microstructured layers. Or the "Basscadet" single, arguably. I find "Confield" is too dense to merit the comparison, and most of the rest of their backcatalogue is too spacious.

NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 21:59 (eighteen years ago) link

there's also the "organic" techno thing which vahid flagged up in Ricardo's art (& peoples crit. reading of his music) and everyone associates with Autechre's "living" gloopy-melting-circuit-board music circa Chiastic Slide/EP 7/Confield (& others).

file under cozy techno (fandango), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 22:18 (eighteen years ago) link

mr fandango has nailed what i was getting at.

vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 23:09 (eighteen years ago) link

one thing about black dog is that they're actually quite "functional" - even plaid's most "out there" compositions (around the time of "rest proof clockwork" and the "trainer" set) are built around straightforward electro/hiphop beats. there's not much to rhythmically differentiate "bytes"-era black dog and something like, dunno, jaydee's "plastic dreams" - it's all about stuff like sound palette and those microtonal drones + harmonizings between the drums and synths and so on that gives it the alien feeling.

vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 23:13 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't think Achso sounds that close to Autechre, or Black Dog in any immediate way though, even if it is similar in method/structure to it, but less similar to non-IDM house, techno music (but not by that much, or as much as people think, which I think is vahid's usual sticking point).

Probably why I like it as much as any other reason. I've heard enough recycled sounds of all that "golden age of IDM" stuff.

file under cozy techno (fandango), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 23:27 (eighteen years ago) link

kellman on "the au harem":

"He's perfectly content with forming luscious, pensively roiling, ten-minute grooves that double as some of the most organic-sounding electronic productions imaginable ... all patterns of percussion, save for the bumping tubs of bass thrum, could come from folk-dancing marionettes. The splats of harpsichord-like acoustic guitar seem wind-generated..."

sherburne on "confield"

"Autechre are part of a movement of artists exploring generative composition, harnessing algorithms and complex programming to create tracks that warp and morph independent of the producer's will. To whatever extent that method was used in creating Confield, the album certainly sounds like an automaton's creation. "VI scose poise" opens the album with a skittering cadence of ball-bearing rattle, seemingly without logic or repetition ... Confield's lithe processes slip nimbly from measure to measure, creating themselves anew at every turn ..."

vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 23:28 (eighteen years ago) link

i love when vahid does the side-by-side crit-quotation thing!

geeta (geeta), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 23:31 (eighteen years ago) link

stirmonster on autechre:

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

stirmonster (stirmonster), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 23:33 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm imagining some alternate future where Aphex Twin decides he really likes DJ-ing for the masses and moves to Berlin & actually makes a proper "comeback". It'd be a nice surprise!

So are Ricardo & co going to avoid the mistakes of the past on their further excursions?

I totally hear the Black Dog tone coming through Luciano's stuff incidentally, fwiw.

file under cozy techno (fandango), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 23:34 (eighteen years ago) link

p.s. I haven't really given any of the Analord's a decent listen (was listening to a mix of Druqks today though!) so my opinion isn't really much to be trusted when saying he's "lost it" or whatever.

file under cozy techno (fandango), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 23:36 (eighteen years ago) link

when did this become an IDM thread, full stop?!

dude, remember house music? house is a feeling!

geeta (geeta), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 23:38 (eighteen years ago) link

I blame Tim Finney

file under cozy techno (fandango), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 23:40 (eighteen years ago) link

(for being quicker to post than me ;) )

Looking forward to whenever I get round to hearing Au Harem(House?) Luciano's SFHFi(House?) or Taka Taka(ah.. House!) though.

file under cozy techno (fandango), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 23:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Sure beats DJ Aphex Twin and his fabulous collection of circular sandpaper sheets.

blunt (blunt), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 23:56 (eighteen years ago) link

"I blame Tim Finney"

????

Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 23 March 2006 00:13 (eighteen years ago) link

well, ok, he's not very 'house'...i just wanted an excuse to say 'house is a feeling'

geeta (geeta), Thursday, 23 March 2006 00:14 (eighteen years ago) link

blunt, you're just putting a huge damper on things

Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Thursday, 23 March 2006 02:08 (eighteen years ago) link

;_;

blunt (blunt), Thursday, 23 March 2006 02:09 (eighteen years ago) link

the reason people wouldn't speak about booka shade like this, or argue about them like this, is because they make house music. you can't minutely debate someone fulfilling a purpose we can clearly identify as easily as someone fulfilling no purpose we can see, villalobos may be more experimental but what's the point half the time.....what's it for?

Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 23 March 2006 07:54 (eighteen years ago) link

sorry just crushing under the strain of overdiscussion of villalobos.......

Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 23 March 2006 07:54 (eighteen years ago) link

also for me the fact that I can play booka shade to a total uninitiated type (or dancefloor) and also see it as seriously smart and innovative house is really worthy of praise, walking the titerope between populist and innovative is always more worthy of praise for me though...

Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 23 March 2006 07:58 (eighteen years ago) link

and music has to have a purpose... ?

a, Thursday, 23 March 2006 08:00 (eighteen years ago) link

anyway, the Au Harem does have a function. monging on my couch and stroking my chin.

a, Thursday, 23 March 2006 08:08 (eighteen years ago) link

haha somewhat echoing a i will say that i've recommended villalobos (particularly achso) to folx that i wouldn't dream of recommending booka shade to, i think he definitely would hold more appeal for someone coming from a rock background (ie maybe it is just idm).

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 23 March 2006 08:32 (eighteen years ago) link

The audacity of the translation of influences? Villalobos is drawing on stuff from further outside house's legacy, but it's not really outside techno's legacy. His chosen sources may appear to come from more disparate genres, but they actually blend together quite easily and smoothly - whereas with Booka Shade the influences rub up against one another quite forcefully and delightfully ("Mandarine Girl" and esp. the new track "In White Rooms" do quite amazing and unexpected things with tearjerker trance riffs).

I'm really interested in this comparison, since it's based on my two favorite producers at the moment. Probably the only two that I've kept a determined watch on.

I'm not entirely convinced about this idea that Villalobos' influences blend easily. While they create an impression from the outset of a compositional whole, I think the actual production internally emphasizes disorientation and perspectival hallucination. He routinely highlights discrete elements that operate almost like feedback, temporarily frazzling and distorting the mix (throughout 'Sieso' or 'Let We Go', for instance).

If Villalobos is a smooth blend, this would only be in terms of pattern rather than perspective (particularly when he presents a point of view that is rapidly shifting, scanning). A classic sonic trope here would be the splayed snare as informational pattern on 'A Walk In The Park (Villalobos 'Til Thursday Rmx)', which catches both elements in motion.

This is opposed to Booka Shade I'd say, whom I find much easier to 'focus' on. While they have an aesthetic of the trance-riff as a evolutionary hinge (In White Rooms, Mandarine Girl, most obviously), the music always feels consistently 'out there' and clearly placed. Their embrace is a emotive hold.

So I realise I'm merely enforcing (somewhat boringly) the very consensus position on Villalobos that you're quite rightly attempting to disrupt, but to seperate out 'production' from 'influences' seems disingenuous considering the two artists involved.

Plus, I just wanted to mention that snare-sound that I so love, and mention some other things that Villalobos makes me think about, and want to write about.

Michael Dieter (Mika), Thursday, 23 March 2006 08:52 (eighteen years ago) link

"So I realise I'm merely enforcing (somewhat boringly) the very consensus position on Villalobos that you're quite rightly attempting to disrupt, but to seperate out 'production' from 'influences' seems disingenuous considering the two artists involved. "

Mike I think this is an important point to make - actually with Villalobos and Booka Shade both, I think that when we are tempted to talk about "influences" we should usually actually talk about "production" (by which I mean, what may seem as deliberate influences may be organically developed production choices). My discussion above is a bit artificial because I'm trying to magic up a neat example of how discussions of influence (and their relationship to the notion of vanguardism) are less straightforward than they appear - or they should be less straightforward than they appear, at any rate.

Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 23 March 2006 10:57 (eighteen years ago) link

from this interview with villalobos:

"Basically everything is house music and there are different versions. Even techno music is a different version of house music, it's a little bit faster and more aggressive. I try to be somewhere in between techno and house, and the reality is that everything is based on house. I would say I'm a house DJ for sure. And all this click-house, and micro-house and bleep-house, it's only to sell better the product, you know? At the end, everything is obeying the rules of house -- the breaks, the snaps, the snare-drums, the high-hats. Everything is absolutely house. You can substitute different sounds -- instead of a normal high-hat, you can use a click or whatever, but it's all house."

geeta (geeta), Thursday, 23 March 2006 12:32 (eighteen years ago) link

but what's the point half the time.....what's it for?

for listening to. there are very few villalobos records i'd play out as i rarely get to play late enough at night for them to work on the dancefloor. they would probably clear most dancefloors i play for but i love listening to his music wheras i can't imagine lazing about reading a book with booka shade on in the background. there is a world beyond the dancefloor ronan. :-)

stirmonster (stirmonster), Thursday, 23 March 2006 13:15 (eighteen years ago) link

dont blow the poor boy's mind, twitch.

strongo hulkington is a guy with a belly button piercing (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 23 March 2006 13:30 (eighteen years ago) link

most of booka shade's memento album is home-listening head-music, too. they're not meant for rocking the dancefloor.

geeta (geeta), Thursday, 23 March 2006 14:01 (eighteen years ago) link

i laze around reading books to booka shade and dance to "achso"

thats not true but its what i aspire to

ambrose (ambrose), Thursday, 23 March 2006 14:01 (eighteen years ago) link

i think there's a tendency with booka shade to associate them with 'mandarine girl' because that's still their big tune, i think. but i read books listening to memento all the time.

geeta (geeta), Thursday, 23 March 2006 14:05 (eighteen years ago) link

ok, i confess to never having heard memento. i shall dig out a good book, laze about with it on and report back.

stirmonster (stirmonster), Thursday, 23 March 2006 14:28 (eighteen years ago) link

i think dance music should be judged by how dancable it is first and foremost.

Good Dog (Good Dog), Thursday, 23 March 2006 14:33 (eighteen years ago) link

know any good thursday afternoon dance parties?

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 23 March 2006 14:55 (eighteen years ago) link

I was listening to Memento while reading this thread at work yesterday! While actually doing work, too. It'd be worth comparing the Villalobos edits to his tracks that fit them on CD -- shorter version of Hireklon and other tracks -- to the edits Booka Shade do on album versions of their tracks. I think that BS do a lot more home-listening type edits that add layers while Villalobos gets away with doing a lot less since he's supposed to be abstract and cerebral to begin with!

mike h. (mike h.), Thursday, 23 March 2006 14:58 (eighteen years ago) link

Even Movements is fairly home-listening oriented (albeit less obviously so than Memento) - with "Mandarine Girl" re-edited there's actually nothing on there that I would describe as a "dancefloor track" (most everything is too musical, too songful, over too quick though yeah some tracks would certainly work well in sets... but this is true of Ricardo too!). It's more an album about the dancefloor than an album for the dancefloor. (in fact the new version of "Body Language" could accurately be retitled "Fond, Hazy Memories of Body Language")

Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 23 March 2006 21:39 (eighteen years ago) link

"Basically everything is house music and there are different versions. Even techno music is a different version of house music, it's a little bit faster and more aggressive."

Villalobos is kinda talking out of his ass here, particularly if you consider the roots of both of these genres. HIS version of techno might be sped-up house, but to generalize like that is silly.

NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Friday, 24 March 2006 01:43 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh, like we haven't all shouted the same thing, or the reverse, in somebody's ear somewhere.

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 24 March 2006 01:48 (eighteen years ago) link

stop pretending y'all are reading books to dance music.

jed_ (jed), Friday, 24 March 2006 01:59 (eighteen years ago) link


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