villalobos / alcachofa / playhouse

Recent minimal house releases have been more "yawn" than "Yeah!!", But I have to say, when I walked into the OM office while this was playing I had to stop in my tracks and say "WHAT is this?! Is this the new Villalobos?!" Ever since "What You Say (Is More Than I Can Say)", this man is single-handedly reinventing the use of the vocoder for psychedelic stimulation. No ironic robot vocal delivery here, just pure wooziness that sounds like an intoxicated person talking to himself. All tracks segue nicely into each other for an uninterrupted listening session. All the sharp, dry funkiness that this man has been refining for the last five years has culminated in "Alcachofa," his finest recording yet. Deep, dry, funky, sharp, and pumping as ever, but these tracks have a new found sense of focus that is unwavering. Villalobos is no longer satisfied with finding a sick, deep, ultra-stoned loop and drawing it out. Now he seems to hack at it with machetes, thrash it about and turn it inside out. These tracks dig deep into you and rewire your psyche. Sick. Guaranteed to be as influential as Akufen's "My Way", but personally, I like this one better. Another thing: Before he sounded like a German-born Chilean, but now he sounds like a hot-blooded Chilean-born German. Guess what? RECOMMENDED.
listen: villalobos/dexter