The New Year isn’t even a month old yet and we’ve already been given the gift a new Ricardo Villalobos 2×12″.
The hosts of the Chilean’s new work of art is Italian label Deset, the child-label of Greentech music. The release offers an almost perfect showcase of Villalobos’ current sound and production techniques. After all, none of the four tracks are under 13 minutes.
On the A side, we have the title track ‘Mandela Move’. The track is a masterclass in building tension and illustrates how much a track can develop when you don’t give your music time constraints. Muffled vocals of ‘Move, Mandela’ are present throughout, eventually becoming crystal clear before the drop of the track.
The track is an almost perfect representation of what a Villalobos production is nowadays. It’s the bassline often twists and morphs through many phases, the use of percussion is often unconventional, as illustrated by compressed trumpets and distorted claps in Mandela Move.
Another particular highlight of the EP is C1’s ‘Ectroscop’. Compared to Mandela Move, the track is far more downtempo but it’s clear from within the first ten seconds that it’s vintage Ricardo.
Once again surpressed vocals are present yet remain unclear throughout the track. The bassline is jam packed is fluid and oozes groove, feeling reminiscent to the bassline of ‘Widodo’. A compelling contrast in the track is how defined the drums and snares are compared to the bassline, giving them more an extra level of punch as they pound through the speakers.
The other two tracks on the EP, B1’s Fontec and D1’s Beetglass are less jaw-dropping but intriguing in their own right. They show how no percussion is too unconventional for Senor Villalobos as Fontec features Christmas-themed bells as well as Beetglass’ hip-hop style drums.
Mandela Move is on presale at Decks, Juno or record store of choice (most likely).
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