Ricardo Villalobos – Chromosul

Fadutron. What a monster of a track. One of my favourite released Villalobos production to date. I would dare to say my favourite Villalobos production all together, but when Ricardo says that 99% of the stuff himself and his friends are producing ''is staying unreleased'' it's not hard to imagine that he might have easily pulled off more complex tracks than this and everyone who has had the chance to listen to him playing late on a Sunday morning at Fabric, surely knows what i mean.

What strikes me personally in Ricardo's music and more particularly in this track, is how different this sounds to everyday electronic music all together. First of all the drums: Most house/techno/deep house of the past 20 years use drums to get the groove going. But that's no the case in Fadutron: instead we get a concoction of ingeniously cut, spliced and put together funked-up sound design , which substitutes completely the need for hihats, snares, toms and all other ''everyday'' sounds. A very small, tiny hi-hat can be heard in the background, as if it was put there for us to be able mix the track. The way his personal sense of rhythm is applied in the different elements of the track is unprecedented, with complex, syncopated, evolving patters swarming out effortlessly and naturally. To my - perhaps limited - knowledge, (please correct me) i have heard very few, almost close to nobody, doing this in such dance floor friendly concept in the history of electronic music. The bass line, the synth line that comes later and the grooved-up sound design seem to compliment each other so well, that to my ears it feels as if this track is not i.e. 10 different parts put together, rather than 1 whole body of sound.

This an absolute masterpiece in modern techno and to me personally, along with Easy Lee and other tracks of Ricardo's, it's certainly the track that has set the standards by which we rate, listen and create techno for many years to come. Villalobos is unquestionably on a level of his own, light years ahead of the best producers around. His contribution to music and to our scene is such and of such high quality that one feels that our epoch could easily be described as post-Villalobos.

The producers of our time and those to come in the future years have a momentous task to complete: where do we go after Ricardo? How do we make electronic music that is going to define our generation and is going to be challenging, fresh and new, given his massive contribution to electronic music? These are questions to be answered by all of us. In the meanwhile let's enjoy this and get inspired.

Ricardo is up there with the Detroit and Chicago masters and certainly the man around which the real underground electronic music scene is evolving. No exaggeration! Amen.

If you are already familiar with Villalobos's work ranging from Perlon to Playhouse releases,
You will find that words simply can't describe the ' DEPTH ' his productions have.
A Classic Perlon _ Villalobos release on the first listen!!!
Timeless music speaks for itself and this release speaks with DEPTH!!!
Don't Think, Just Listen. And then...???

Another classic from the man who approaches minimal techno with an organic touch.

Surely one of the most impressive release by the chilean master, "Chromosul" present a unique state of emptyness (in a "boudhist" meaning) used as a musical tool. I mean that this track is a meditative act more than a travel, it pushes the listener in that kind of introspective listening that is not about anxiety, but surely about joy, about a fresh air comming from deep inside. This is the kind of experience that you're suposed to expect from the work of great electro-acoustic minimalist like Bernhard Gunter, or a classical composer like Morton Feldman, but not from a dance music track.
The ability of Villalobos is really incredible, his willingness in melting almost uncompatible genres & emotions in one track (see the ending "proto-zouk" melody) is only the mark of a musical genius, apart from laws & classifications.
And i'm only talking of the a-side !

Perhaps I missed the boat on this one but I was unable to listen to it more than once, maybe twice at that. What's the big deal here?? Random bleeps and random bass that farts back and forth without much rhythmic focus.

If ever there was a release that DIDN'T need talking up this is it! Mr Villalobos straps himself in and delivers a huge funky strike in the form of 'Chromosoul'. This thing struts, grooves and jacks like the insane minimal beast that it is- nothing more, nothing less. Then on 'Fadutron' Ricardo hits familiar territory with a tuff jack track that drops like Luciano on steroids. It's brilliant