Ricardo Villalobos - Thé au Harem d'Archimède (Perlon, 2004)

I've been working on putting a little something together for each of the posts I've made in the last month or so. Obviously Villalobos is one of the better known artists that I've posted, but I'm not so sure that KiC is the hangout for many of his fans. I think the jet-setting image, and the popularity has him lumped in with some of the cheesier dance/techno names that are more or less household names by now. This couldn't be further from the truth. Villalobos produces some of the most mesmerizing music in this vein.

Back when this came out, I was very much into micro house, yet, once I heard this, I was mostly done with the genre. I have yet to hear something so strongly conceived in the genre as this album. There are small melodies working, tiny percussion slowly changing, and multiple layers that interchange and mix, moving from the fore to the background. This is not robotic by any stretch. What seems repetitive from afar is lively, mutating, and full of surprises when listened to closely. Villalobos' talent is in part his keen ear for sounds (there is perhaps no greater audiophile), and his love of music. If you ask him what goes into his tracks, you'll hear a wide variety of genres.

For those of you that don't get caught up in whether or not something sounds dated, this record might provide you a new artist and sound to follow. Yes, amidst all the repetitive copy cats there are artists as vital as any in improv or whatever that have a strong feel for drum machines and tiny sounds.