Ricardo Villalobos - Unflug Mixes

  • Share
  • With interest in the Chilean overlord of after-hours weirdness at an all-time high following last year’s marathon gypsy horns-sampling track ‘Fizheuer Zieheuer’, it was perhaps inevitable that a spate of cash-in reissues would follow. ‘Unflug’, originally released as part of a Various Artists EP in 1998, is Ricardo at his most straightforwardly banging, a turbulent, kinetic slice of super-charged tech-house that doubles back on itself to become progressively harder and tougher. For all that, it still has Villalobos’ trademark loopiness written all over it, a determination to cross all the ‘i’s and dot the ‘t’s and subvert the dancefloor with his perverse imagination as far as is humanly possible. And it is this latter element that the remixers here have chosen to exaggerate. Good Groove & Yapacc’s rework is stuttery and busy, full of ghostly disembodied handclaps, driving bass and acres of reverb. Some cool filter effects liven things up a bit, before the track finally settles into a likeable robotic groove about six minutes in. Franklin de Costa’s offering is a dubbier affair; distorted bell effects and phaser stabs play over powerful sub-bass, amid a suffocating atmosphere of rubbery pitch-bend chords and small electronic farts. Overall the track sounds like a drugs party full of lairy, annoying aliens. This release shows how aiming to sound far-out and inventive just isn’t enough; the two remixes have an over-cluttered and inconclusive feel, where the original settles for something much simpler – with far more impressive results.
  • Tracklist
      A Unflug (Good Groove & Yapacc Remix) B1 Unflug (Franklin De Costa Remix) B2 Unflug (Original Mix)
RA