I didn't really know how else to title this post other than just call it 'Ricardo Villalobos'. Hardly the most elaborate of titles I'm aware, but then then I realised that for someone as illustrious, artistic and modest as Ricardo, there is something so appropriately pure about just using his name, nothing added, to title a post dedicated just to him. Just like his music, less is more.

Ever since his return to fabric was announced a few weeks ago, I have been mulling over the idea of putting together some kind of tribute to him, something we are yet to do for any DJ or producer so far on SOTW. But if there's one person who deserves special acknowledgment more than any it's Ricardo Villalobos. A DJ who delivers legendary sets of epic length and memorable content, a producer who seems able to manipulate the machines he uses in ways nobody else can, and a personality who makes us all smile with his warmth, generosity and charisma. This is why we love him, and with only a week to go before he lights up the lives of the many who will pack out fabric in the early hours and beyond, here is our pick of what we believe is the best of Ricardo Villalobos's own productions.

10. Ricardo Villalobos - What You Say (Is More Than I Can Say)


The first of three to come from Villalobos's seminal album, Alcachofa, and easily one of the LP's signature anthems. Just like all that appeared on Alcachofa, What You Say is ungulfed in all that warm, organic sound that became unique only to that album. Never again would the droning, tripped out vocals appear on any other Villalobos production, and that is perhaps why particularly this track, among all the rest on Alcachofa, have become so cherished and celebrated.

9. Ricardo Villalobos & Jorge Gonzalez - 4 Wheel Drive


Admittedly, this track is taken off Villalobos's fabric 36 mix, but its inclusion for me still feels like the heartbeat of the mix. At only five and half minutes in length it's remarkably short for such a outstanding Villalobos track, but in that short time is an array of glorious percussive elements glued together with typically nonsensical but welcomely trippy vocals from Los Updates' Jorge Gonzalez, creating something peculiar, but irresistibly rhythmic.

8. Ricardo Villalobos - Queen of Bass Mix


The final part of his deeply beautiful three-track 808 The Bassqueen EP, and one that left a lasting impression on me from the very first time my ears were treated to it. It's not the kind of Villalobos you would hear midway through a set, designed to keep people moving, but far more downtempo. You can imagine him using it to end one of his marathon sets at fabric when those left really are running on empty. Apparently he did.

7. Ricardo Villalobos - Lugom-ix


Villalobos's fourth full length album, Salvador, certainly presents the Chilean's most classically 'techno' work to date. The fragile, minimal structures he had become synonymous with were cast aside for muscular, aggressive basslines that we would never see again. The pick of these on Salvador can only by Lugom-ix, which rumbles in a way that these days you find hard to believe came from a musical mind as minimalist-conscious as Villalobos's.

6. Ricardo Villalobos - Minimoonstar


Shackleton's remix may have received more universal acclaim, but the original Minimoonstar for me is still unreachable in terms of creative genius with such restricted musical boundaries. The microscopic intricacy of every flake of percussion and every beat of a drum could rarely construe something so powerfully metric, but such is Villalobos's command of and attention to every single frequency, what is created is something as deliberately moving as it is delicate.

5. Ricardo Villalobos - Electonic Water


The second track to be taken from Villalobos's most recent full-length, Vasco and like Minimoonstar, Electonic Water it's more of the same microscopically meticulous soundscape, with sounds so organic, so abnormal you couldn't possibly mistake it coming from the mind of anyone else. What begins as a skeletal sequence of bass and delicate flecks of percussion gradually builds towards a frighteningly surprising climax of just one single synth, which opens the door to floods of utterly fascinating sonic gesturing.

4. Ricardo Villalobos - Enfants (Chants)


Just because Enfants is potentially no more than just a DJ 'tool' doesn't necessarily rule it out as one of Villalobos's greatest works. There's no bass and the entire 17 minutes is nothing but pianos, the gentle clatter of a kick drum and the endless, repeated infantile chant of "Baba Yaga La Sorcière", sampled from an old Christian Vander track, but its magic is undeniable. There is something so pure, so inspirational about the simplicity of Enfants, which is probably why it has become as iconic as the man who made it.

Ricardo Villalobos - Easy Lee


Arguably Villalobos's most famous track, Easy Lee opened Alcahofa in a style nobody had quite heard before. As RA's Todd Burns so perfectly described the 'dessicated' voice that reverberates throughout, it is just tantalizingly out of reach. After listening to it over and over we feel like we know what is being said, despite in reality being no closer than the first time we ever heard it. It is this dimension of mystery that Villalobos can inject into his music that makes it so addictive, and there's possibly no better example of this than in Easy Lee.

2. Ricardo Villalobos - MDMA


If I was going to be pedantic and a little superior, I would have confused many and correctly titled this track as Bosch by Richard Wolfsdorf, an alias of Villalobos when he produced the track we know today as MDMA (Chris posted about this a little while ago). Whatever you want to call it though, it's one of the most recognizable tracks in the world of techno, and whenever it's played the reception it gets as it thumps and chugs soundsystems all over demonstrates exactly how good it is.

1. Ricardo Villalobos - Dexter


I remember the very first time I heard Dexter. Coming towards the end of Alcachofa, I was already fairly absorbed, but then I was hit with what I would regard as the greatest track I've ever heard, as far as electronic music is concerned. After probably listening to it about 100 times since, I still am not yet bored of hearing it. There are dark, seductive secrets about that bassline that I still seek to discover and it's rare to find a track sealed with so much intrigue and enigma, yet still able to make you move in such a free, limitless manner.

So I promised more music, and less of me waffling on about all my mischief, so I feel now is the time to just unload all the tunes I've been rinsing lately and put them all up for your enjoyment. I would like to think of it as a little gift package, and a thank you to those who have been reading, and hopefully will continue to read SOTW. We are approaching our year 1st birthday soon and so far our humble little blog has gone from strength to strength. Our mission has stayed the same since day 1: to provide our small, focused and intelligent audience with regular updates on the developments in the electronic music scene, from two people who are a little obsessed with it.

I'm sure you'll find something in this selection to fall in love with, some of these tracks go back a month or two but are still all doing the rounds in sets all over the place. Unfortunately, none of them are the track in the video above, which was taken at fabric's birthday weekend last year during Damian Lazarus's Sunday evening set. It took a while to have any idea what the first track was (the second track is Russ Yallop's I Can't Wait), and still nobody can be totally sure, but I'm 90% certain it's called Much Too Much, by Art Department and it will be included in their forthcoming album, due to be released in late April. Why do I think this? Well a couple of good reasons I believe: Firstly, as a DJ, Damian Lazarus certainly doesn't hold back using his label's finest output, which although could come across a little self-indulgent, you can hardly blame him considering the ridiculous success of Crosstown Rebels. It's worth noting he also dropped this when he appeared at Eastern Electrics NYE party. Secondly, listen to the lyrics: "Love you, love you, love you, love you much too much", and on Art Dept's album there is track called Much Too Much. Those clues are enough to convince me, but either way I can't wait much longer for this, another early contender for one of the year's best tracks, whatever it is.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the best of the last while.

Afrilounge - Lux Dementia (Not at all new I'm aware, but it's inclusion in Steve Bug's fabric mix, who I'm seeing tomorrow night, has rekindled my love for this classic)


Cut Copy - Take Me Over (Mylo Remix)


BeatauCue - Behold


Random Factor - Convergence


Benoit & Sergio - Walk & Talk


Geddes & Alex Jones - Tubular (Lauhaus Remix)


Ernesto Ferreyra - Letting Go (Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts Remix)


Jay Haze & Ricardo Villalobos - The Darkest Disco


Agoria feat. Carl Craig - Speechless


Freaks & 012 - Conscious of my Conscience (Dubstramental)


Maya Jane Coles - Play The Game


Frivolous - Back Into The Deep


Steffi feat. Virginia - Yours


Tame Impala - Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind? (Erol Alkan Rework)


dOP & Seuil - Prostitute (Visionquest Remix)

I can honestly say it's been an incredible start to 2011 already, and we have barely scraped the surface yet. This is even more exciting, if slightly precarious as we have just stepped into typically the calendar year's first major month for parties. Last weekend closed February in style for myself over in London with four exceptional parties over the three days.

On Friday, we took a trip to the temporary Old Street warehouse space CitiPost where James Holden kept us captivated until 5am with his genre-spanning CDJ wizardry. It was an almost flawless night- I say almost because I lost my keys, but that trivial point aside, we enjoyed Holden's impeccable skills mixing experimental electronica, fizzing house mutations and delicate divergences into techno, all in the blissfully crude surroundings of a Shoreditch basement, on a fantastic soundsystem.

Saturday was never going to be for the feint-hearted. Bugged Out! returned to XOYO as we returned to Old Street, and Boys Noize was who we were there for. Despite minor publicity and no tickets available through RA, the night sold out weeks in advance, something I fully expected. Chris couldn't make it unfortunately, having felt his wallet a little lighter than desired after an impromptu trip up north to Sankeys, a night I'm sure he'll share all the enviable details after he's recovered from mumps, which he believes he caught while up there. Without counting, it must have been about the sixth or seventh time I've seen Alex now. Disregarding the very first time, when we witnessed arguably my most memorable night to date at Bristol's legendary 300 capacity boat, The Thekla, I've only ever seen him at huge-scale events, like several times at The Coronet or at EXIT. By large, this is because the nature of Boys Noize's music and the size of his fanbase makes only very large venues appropriate for his visit, but XOYO is certainly no converted theatre or 17th century Serbain fortress. I would estimate its capacity to be little more than 500, which is a fraction of many of the crowds Ridha is used to entertaining, but this made the prospect naturally far more exciting, and consequently very, very violent. During a typically explosive two-hour set of classic BN techno/electro/acid (all the fav's such as the opener, Jeffer, Yeah, Lemonade, My Moon My Man and surprisingly his magnificent summer mix of Chemical Bro's Swoon), the dangerously overcrowded basement main room rocked back and forward in waves of techno-induced chaos, leading to some very angry bouncers, plenty of raver-on-raver and raver-bouncer conflict, gallons of sweat and me unsurprisingly losing my wallet in the bedlam.

As thrilling and typically awesome it was, I left XOYO as we made our way to fabric for part 2 of the night rather dejected. I somehow had the mental collection and wisdom to call my bank and cancel all my cards, which turned out to be a somewhat premature move as miraculously moments later XOYO called me to say they had found my wallet. After marching back to get it, we waltzed past the farcically long queue that snaked round the corner of Charterhouse Street with my retrieved fabricfirst card and headed down that famously treacherous stairwell to another uncomfortably packed main room, this time where Marco Carola was about to start is 5-10am set. As if fabric isn't normally filled out with enough annoying ketted-up Italians, Carola's Play It Loud album launch was always going to attract plenty more of his compatriots, as well as what seemed like the rest of London. As we squeezed ourselves onto the floor of Room One and shuffled a little to the monstrous basslines Carola's album promised from this set, we could barely breathe. After checking out Robert Hood over in Room Two and Terry Francis upstairs, we decided to call it a night at the young time of about 7am, as virtually no essential dancing space was vacated and we didn't feel in the mood to be sardines for much longer.

After only a few hours 'sleep', it was time to begin London's Sunday fun and games. Kroenenbourg and Tequila straight off wasn't the classic lazy Sunday brunch with the broadsheets that is often traditional, but is shamefully necessarily when the party begins at 5pm and you get up at 3. The Half Baked crew returned to the East End after a few months out, this time bringing Dan Ghenacia with them for another dark and sweaty close to the weekend for the many still desperately clinging on to it. The party delivered, but Ghenacia was far from his best and several times we were plunged into darkness and silence as power cuts interrupted proceedings. As the clock hit midnight and it was time to leave, a few of us still had a little energy left and jumped in a cab to, of course, fabric, WYS! style. Despite my initial reluctance to go, the few hours we stayed were great fun. Sascha Funke was the main guest, the portion of his set we caught sometime after 3am was deeply satisfying squelchy, acid-tinged minimal. We finally resigned ourselves to the week ahead tired, but gratified by one of the busiest, most eventful weekends in a long time, but it's only gonna get better. Now it's March...

The video featured above is one I deeply cherish. It was the first time I ever witnessed Ricardo Villalobos in all his glory and will be a night I will never forget. If I had to pick one moment from the 12 hour night that stood out most it would be the one I captured above, where in a moment of dream-like idealism, the master slowly mixed out Laurent Garnier's legendary Acid Eiffel and in comes my greatest track of all time, the Chilean's own Dexter. I'll let the video do the rest of the talking, but I decided now was the perfect time to share this as at almost the exact same time as last year, Ricardo is back at fabric on the 12th, as the previous FABRIC WATCH post elaborates on. But that's just the tip of the iceberg:

London is spoiled for choice this weekend with a handful of huge parties taking place all over the city. The unmissable events happening down at fabric this month are discussed in the last FABRIC WATCH post, but away from EC1, Carl Craig, Radio Slave and Paul Woolford headline the massive 20 Year Anniversary bash for Planet E at Ewer Street car park in South London this Saturday with tickets still available. Elsewhere, Move D, Ewan Pearson and Will Soul take over Corsica Studios with Trouble Vision and even Ministry of Sound has grabbed my attention for once, booking two of my favourites, Joris Voorn and Butch. To not be attending any of that would require only the most credible reason, but I feel I've got one- I've chosen Superfreq's 5th Anniversary party 31 floors above Oxford Street at Center Point where Steve Bug headlines the private members bar. Ok, a little more swanky than usual but the prospect of seeing the sunrise over London as we rave to Bug was something I couldn't say no to.

The prognosis for the rest of the month is, dare I say it, epic. Kubicle with Lee Foss et al will be this Sunday's little treat, while next weekend offers possible the weekend of the year. If I was feeling inexcusably crazy then I would check out Claude VonStroke's London visit next Thursday, but I'm seeing him the following night in Bristol at The Blue Mountain, where he's joined by Seth Troxler. Not a bad line-up, usually one to settle a weekend's raving, but back to London the following day, taking Chris and several other Bristolians with me for Mr. Villalobos's well documented visit. To be honest, I've not stopped thinking about that weekend since it was finalized, but can you blame me? The physical and financial restraints of it will be a challenge I'm aware, but if that's my last 'big' weekend of the year, then I'm satisfied. Art Department and Tim Green are in town the next week at a venue yet to be confirmed, but for now March has promised me more than enough.

Check out Resident Advisor for all region's events this month- there are too many for me to pick out but I can assure you there will be plenty of choice, wherever you are. I also plan on posting two features soon of pure music- I'm aware that reading my essays might be a little turgid at times. First, I will post all the tracks I've been listening to religiously over the last few weeks, and there are plenty of sensations I can assure you, and secondly a little feature I'm conjuring up in dedication to an artist we love very much, and the best of his work. Keep an eye out...