Crack

15/20

This is quite clearly the album Ricardo Villalobos has wanted to make for sometime. His output as a much revered minimal house and techno producer has seen him increasingly wander towards the more obscure and ambient sounds deployed on this record, in which he and collaborator Max Loderbauer reinterpret and re-imagine a selection of works previously released on classical label, ECM.

Working with Max Loderbauer, whom this record is almost certainly more familiar territory, the pair recorded Re: ECM in a studio behind Berlin techno mecca Berghain. A consistent innovator who has consistently sampled jazz and classical parts in DJ sets and productions, the fact Villalobos has entirely rejected all club potential in all of the tracks in this 2CD set makes the quality of this record remarkable.

Yes it’s really avant-garde stuff, and will probably be wasted on a fair proportion, but as producer Villalobos has rarely been a simple listen. Re: ECM is at times too ambient and your mind does wander, but at others it’s remarkable in the clarity and beauty of the noise on show. You cannot help be but consistently surprised by one of experimental music’s true masters.



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Words: Hulio Borgeois

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