Matias Aguayo

There’s nothing necessarily new about injecting techno with a Latin infusion: both are, or rather can be, hugely percussive, both shake, both sway. Which explains how Aguayo somehow made the jump from the introspective, gorgeous deeper-than- deep, sadder-than-sad emotive techno of his Closer Musik project with Dirk Leyers to the lurching panglobal-polyrhythmic stew of 2009’s Ay Ay Ay with relative ease. The Visitor, his third solo record, sadly, irritates more than it delights. The pseudo- playful tics of Dear Inspector make the listener’s skin itch with the knowledge that somewhere, under the layers and layers of percussion and the looped vocal ‘whoops’, there might be a good song buried away. This problem repeats itself throughout: good moments – the machine gun schaffel beat that propels Llego El Don, the disorientating vocal loop that turns Aguayo into a stuttering synth running through Do You Wanna Work – but they come slathered in a gloop of unnecessary accompaniments. Perhaps that should be seen positively, perhaps Aguayo’s willingness to stuff the sonic field to the max should be praised. But then another jarring element is added to the mix and we’re convinced that he wants to irritate, wants to annoy. If he does, he’s succeeded.