A sought-after track rescued from the cutting floor 14 years later.
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"Mecker" has been floating around since at least 2007, when it appeared, for approximately three minutes, on Ricardo Villalobos's renowned, all-originals fabric 36 mix. Since then, versions of varying length have surfaced on YouTube, including one labelled "RPR Secret Weapon." I wouldn't say it's the holy grail, but this track has a hold over Villalobos fans, as you'll see in the YouTube comments. Now Berlin record store and distributor black.round.twelve is finally giving it a release, with two versions emphasizing its most pulsating passages. In some ways, it's the most approachable thing released under the Ricardo Villalobos name in years.
"Mecker" is catchy. Both versions here are based around a simple descending melody and bassline, made from one of those fantastically squiggly, wobbly sounds Villalobos wrings out of his modular rig. It sounds like alien organic matter. The track's jogging pace and insistent melody—which shimmies and wobbles in different ways each time, sometimes triggering little earthquakes in the sub-bass zone—gives it an urgency, something we don't always associate with Villalobos in his era of 30-minute tracks.
At around ten minutes each, these versions of "Mecker" feel bite-sized, which adds to the 12-inch's appeal. Though a 20-minute version on YouTube includes a particularly atmospheric passage, these two black.round.twelve versions are to the point and just as hypnotic. There's something captivating about the descending melody, which holds your focus as it repeats its insistent hook over and over and over. It's peak Villalobos.