PERLON135
« Alcachofa » repressed 20 years later
Twenty years ago, Ricardo Villalobos was releasing his very first album « Alcachofa » on Playhouse back in September 2003, he was 23 years old and he created one of the most timeless piece of arts from the early 21st century, including productions everybody knows such as « Easy Lee » or « Dexter » within this album that shaped the beginning of his music legend self.
By the end of 2023, this ultimate opus has been repressed for everyone’s sake, this time on another German pioneer label that is PERLON as their 135th piece of collection, and as Christmas wasn’t soon enough, this time it’s featuring aw well his « Alcachofa Tools » on an exclusive 4th vinyl, so let’s travel back in time together to highlight this unique masterpiece.
Ricardo Villalobos : a music legend
We don’t need to present Ricardo Villalobos I guess, whether you’re a freak about electronic music or know just a little about it, everybody knows there’s a Rici out there, so let’s introduce the legend.
Ricardo Villalobos is one of the greatest inspiration in terms of performance and music production, he’s not only touring everywhere in the world, but has also released a hundreds of vinyl since his debuts back in 1993, by this time under the alias Minta Spacew. He was born in Santiago, Chile in the 1970s, and quickly moved to Germany with his family.
He started to play congas and bongos when he was a child, and learned to produce more electronic rhythms during the 1980s. As a tip, he’s always been a huge supporter of Depeche Mode, who he was following the tours of all over Europe to listen to their music.
Since the beginning of his career, he’s been releasing hundreds of releases as I previously mentioned, on the most renowned and lasting labels around such as [a:rpia:r], Cadenza, Cocoon, LoFi Stereo, Mosaic, Perlon, Pressure Traxx, Raum.. Musik or Sundance among so many more, and of course, many times on Playhouse. On the other hand, he’s also curating his vinyl label Sei Es Drum he launched in 2007, while he released under different aliases too like Alliv Sobol, Bajo Tierra, Bispeed Black, Minta Spacew, Richard Wolfsdorf and Termiten.
Ricardo Villalobos, this is also numerous timeless collaborations, starting with Narod Niki, defined as a jam laptop supergroup that features Akufen, Cabanne, Dandy Jack, Daniel Bell, Dimbiman, Luciano, Ricardo Villalobos and Richie Hawtin, which is still today one of the most interesting lives ever.
Aside, better be curious when it comes to Ricardo Villalobos, as he also teamed up under plenty of producers under different aliases, such as with Max Loderbauer as Vilod, with Chez Damier and Ben Vedren as Villa H2H, with Luciano as Sense Club, with Dandy Jack as Ric Y Martin, with Petre Inspirescu as PedRic, with Roman Flugel as RiRom, with Umho as RicMho, with Jay Haze as Social Being, with Argenis Brito as Pol, with Tobias Neumann as Gucci, with Butch as ButRic and more recently together with Tripmastaz as tRicMast or with Edward as Disordered Rhythm Metronomy.
It’s a lot right, still I’m sure there are plenty more unknown ones.
Playhouse : a vinyl pioneer in the House
Let’s roll on by talking about Playhouse, home of his first « Alcachofa » release, a record label founded 30 years ago back in September 1993 as a sister label of Klang Elektronik and Ongaku Musik, both launched between 1992 and 1993. The three of these music projects have been created and curated by Heiko Schäfer and Atanasios Christos Macias, both known as artists under their M/S/O and Ata aliases. Ata and Heiko have been starting to play together back in their beginnings as Delirium Posse with another friend of theirs Jörg Henze, who actually is one of the co-founders of the electronic music distributor DBH Music, distributing timeless gems since 2007.
The Playhouse label evolution has been particular in the sense it has been influencing the German and international electronic music scene ever since its beginning. Welcoming since 1993 artists like Daniel Bell, Einzelkind, Isolee, LoSoul, Melchior Productions, Prosumer, Rework or Roman Flugel among many more, this imprint was considered in 2002 to be one of the most risk taking/ pioneering labels around, with a consistently good quality in the music delivered. He founded the first ‘real’ nightclub in Frankfurt for modern and deep house which was called the ‘Wild Pitch Club’ at the Nachtleben-Club back in 1995. In case you wouldn’t know, he’s the mastermind behind the Robert Johnson club, that he’s been founding in 1999 in Offenbach near Frankfurt in Germany. Over time, through the artists he’s been booking into his very special club, his own performances and the overall development of the club itself, he turned the Robert-Johnson into one of the most prominent clubs worldwide when it comes to electronic music ever since 1999 until today.
Amongst the labels previously mentioned, he took a significant part in the Playhouse label curation and evolution, especially by welcoming numerous friends who would become over the years some of the most important actors of the electronic music industry by the early 2010s, including of course Ricardo Villalobos. And so, ten years following Playhouse label launch, this is the album « Alcachofa » that he delivers on the label, featuring what are still today some of the best tracks ever produced.
Alcachofa on Playhouse - 2003
This is therefore 20 years ago that his very first album « Alcachofa » was appearing on Playhouse back in September 2003 as a 3LP gatefold, and actually when you open that gatefold there is a little note from Ricardo that I definitely have to share, Google translated it from German to English and it says :
Through this, I can feel the humility and humbleness and passion he does have for his music productions, he’s thankful for this album released 20 years ago, and I’m sure he could say the exact same words today about it. And just this last sentence Let the vinyl live and not the robots do our jobs.. I mean how much of a visionary is he considering the social robot patterns of today, and I would even had he might have been freaked by the first Matrix movie, considering it was released in 1999. It’s only my thinking but I mean I’ve been personally freaked to rewatch it in 2020 and listen to this sentence : It started early in the twenty-first century, with the birth of artificial intelligence, a singular consciousness that spawned an entire race of machines – who knows.
Anyways, so “alcachofa” means “artichoke” in Spanish, and I’ve found this quote that says :
meaning in English :
And this is exactly what we’re gonna do with this « Alcachofa » album that features 8 productions completely out of time, from « Easy Lee » to « Quizas » towards « Dexter » just to name a few, this double LP is home of few of the best tracks ever produced by a human. Ricardo Villalobos is to Techno music what Mozart used to be for Classical : might be perceived as the weird one, the cool one, the crazy one, they both are first and foremost Virtuosos.
Ricardo Villalobos is to Techno music what Mozart is to Classical : a Virtuoso
The « Alcachofa » album is a gatefold including 3 vinyl featuring « Easy Lee » and « Theogenese » in the first, « Bahaha Hahi », « La Raja » and « I Try To Live (Can I Live) » on the second, « Quizas », « Fusion The Enemies » and « Dexter » on the third one.
Easy Lee is a forever classic, I mean when you start to discover this kind of music this is without any doubt one of the first you get to know, wherever it is and whatever the context is, everyone has peculiar memories through this dazzling one. Just by quickly checking at people’s comments under each « Easy Lee » track shared online, as well as the numerous remixes of this track, you can most definitely feel how much of an inspiration and influence is Ricardo onto the generations of producers and music lover.
This is with impeccable creations like that « Easy Lee » one that Ricardo Villalobos has been spreading this music genre furthermore and opening it to broader audiences, while being pushing in the meantime the newer wave of artists coming at that time, such as Raresh, Rhadoo and Petre Inspirescu, also known as [a:rpia:r].
Theogenese is the second creation of this album and it most surely shows what sophistication in music means, the development is so smooth yet this heavy bassline is displaying such a deep groove, this is magnificent. As a matter of interpretation, Theo means god while Genesis means the origin or mode of formation of something, and so, when it comes to this « Theogenese » track, this is according to me the definition a kind of the formation of divine in music, courtesy of Rici.
The second vinyl is featuring a couple creations, starting with Bahaha Hahi, which one has one of the best bassdrops ever, like this is seriously savage vibes and we do love a savage vibe track of Ricardo. La Raja comes next, a creation that is doubtlessly pioneering the style in music production we get to become way more familiar with : modular deep grooves. I’ve been reading an interesting comment saying I feel so glad I understand this kind of music and well, these are true words, especially to me on this « La Raja » I mean, it just touches some feelings deep inside like straight, this is crazy the emotions Ricardo Villalobos can provide through his creations, he definitely share a piece of his heart and soul through each of his music productions.
On the other side, this is another timeless tune, which title might be felt as a cryptic message : I Try To Live (Can I Live), or the definition of minimal grooves. This is an insane piece of music highlighting a perfect match between raw yet refined rhythms, sensual yet striking pieces of voice, this is an album full of forever tunes beyond any doubt.
On the last vinyl of « Alcachofa » are featured some of my ultimate ever favorites, and yesss, this is starting with Quizas, quizas, quizas.., another gem in which the music speaks for itself, a true piece of joy, highlighting mesmerizng vocals, that backgrounded leading piano line, this stunning kick I mean, it is perfection.
Following up there is the Fusion The Enemies creation, a truly sick rhythm, I mean it’s all about the bassline skills, and it’s blissfully introducing the conclusion of this album with the last one of 2003 Dexter – thankfully not the least thanks to Perlon in 2023 – and as a matter of fact, no word can really express the beauty of this impressively well produced creation, I mean everyone deserves in life to face at least once the emotions provided by this jewel of a music : this is beautiful!
Another one showing how much of a genius Ricardo is when it comes to music production, this one is most definitely heartfelt by everyone, I feel like nobody today besides Ricardo himself could ever produce a better track than this one. I mean, this is my definition of a perfect track, this a long-lasting- smoothly-developing tune bringing both a killer groove and cerebral melodies, melancholy, it’s a real music dissertation, this is poesy until the very last second, this is beauty and passion in music production. This is Ricardo quoi, and what makes of him such an unique artist. His music was incredible back 20 years ago, it’s still today and it will most probably be in 20 years, it’s traveling the time just like it’s just been released, I have a lot of respect and admiration for his work, it goes without saying. Ricardo is the king of music production, and he’s most definitely ahead of his time when it comes to music performances.
And aside of the music itself, as I’ve been scrolling in comments under the most viewed Dexter video that features a clip from Nosferatu movie from 1922, and it’s so true to read that this is the most brilliant combination of music and visual, as the atmosphere is suiting so much this Nosferatu vibe, this is truly hypnotizing.
Alcachofa on Perlon - 2023
And so, the combo of the year we didn’t know we needed is definitely the repress alert of this ultimate « Alcachofa » and this time this is on Berlin’s very own pioneer label Perlon as their 135th piece of collection. And apparently for the impressive label heads that are Thomas Franzmann, Markus Nikolai and Chris Rehberger, this magnificent 3 vinyl album wasn’t enough, so they decided with Ricardo Villalobos to include as well a part of his incredible Alcachofa Tools. Indeed, a fourth vinyl has been added to this golden wax in and out, in which the seriously sophisticated productions that are Bach to Back, Y.G.H and Waiworinao – fun fact did you know it means why worry now
This unmissable piece of art is still available at a bunch of vinyl shops such as black.round.twelve, Deejay, Elevate, Juno and Yoyaku, it is most probably sold out already on the other ones, so better be fast if ever you’re interested because you don’t want to wait an extra 20 years to have a chance to get this absolute beauty home!
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