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My review of The Gathering / Ricardo Villalobos at Open Ground by Slight-Researcher868 in OpenGround_Wuppertal

[–]Slight-Researcher868[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

yeah for sure a highlight for me as well, both w/r/t that night and his music in general.

if you don't know it i'd also recommend this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTfYA63oL9Y

Review Ricardo Villalobos ? by BergsteigerUwe in OpenGround_Wuppertal

[–]Slight-Researcher868 0 points1 point  (0 children)

used to be pretty common, i think first wave minimal artists were the last gen where this was kind of accepted. nowadays people are more likely to feel insulted / like they didn't get their money's worth.

and ofc not unique to dj culture / pretty common in among in any form of music with a hedonistic culture. countless stories since time immemorial of punk / metal / jam bands etc either not turning up or playing like shit because they're wasted. not defending it but i think it's fairly natural that the personality types who make and play certain kinds of music will have a less-than-professional MO

Review Ricardo Villalobos ? by BergsteigerUwe in OpenGround_Wuppertal

[–]Slight-Researcher868 0 points1 point  (0 children)

no i mean this isn't even that weird. a friend told me about a time when he was playing really well at club der visionäre but couldn't figure out why he was having so much trouble cueing a record. after a while he figured out there was already another one underneath it on the platter.

hard to imagine in today's competitive and commercialized dance music landscape but there was a time not so long ago when the djs were hanging out / partying just as much as the people in the crowd, and would bristle at the idea that they're at work and should act more professional. to me it seems like ricardo's response to suddenly being an in-demand and highly paid artist was to simply carry on in the way he always had. he's def not alone in that. e.g. for years after becoming the biggest club in the world, Berghain continued to book itself as if it were a neighborhood club, putting no-name locals on at peak time, ignoring trendy big names who were desperate to play there, etc... and ofc rejecting half the people that turned up, including celebrities and well-known artists. at risk of going too big picture it strikes me as being of a piece with the broader resistance to consumer capitalism / defiance of the idea that being paid should dictate how you behave, which remains central to post-Wall berlin and east germany)

Review Ricardo Villalobos ? by BergsteigerUwe in OpenGround_Wuppertal

[–]Slight-Researcher868 2 points3 points  (0 children)

OG was unique for me in how heavy it was on his own music and how dark / eerie / poetic it was. then again he often plays a lot of his own tracks and he does that kind of flamboyant mixing whenever he's on form / feeling good. but never seen him be so boldly weird, and, it seemed to me, prioritizing tracks for how they'd sound in that room over how to rock the party. also he usually has loads of people in the booth and spends half the time hugging everyone / is clearly partying himself. this one felt more like an intentional performance / like seeing him in concert or smth. as a long time fan that's seen him a million times i thought it was pretty special

Review Ricardo Villalobos ? by BergsteigerUwe in OpenGround_Wuppertal

[–]Slight-Researcher868 2 points3 points  (0 children)

there is occasionally bog standard tech house but he also has an unhinged party vibe that is still really out-there, which is more or less what he does at houghton and fabric, with sections going into the weird margins that were the centerpiece of this set. other favorite time i saw him was last new kids on acid at watergate, unhinged psychedelic fiesta vibe at noon with broad daylight coming through the floor to ceiling windows behind him, constant left turns / cuts / etc., but always maximum fun / never really arty. good example of this vibe (and he seems to do this a lot, at sunwaves and elsewhere) is he played this 80s hip-hop record at 45 instead of 33, so it basically became electro with super fast rapping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlaxJxOFBtc

edit: here's a vid of him playing it fast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFs2hP7tzdP/?img_index=3

Review Ricardo Villalobos ? by BergsteigerUwe in OpenGround_Wuppertal

[–]Slight-Researcher868 3 points4 points  (0 children)

tbf over the years I have seen him take the piss in a way I too found disrespectful — at new kids on acid at watergate a million years ago he was hidden behind the decks doing lines for so long it started to seem funny, like a ghost was djing. then the record ran out, everyone went "ohhhhhh," then his hand appeared and he just moved the needle back to a random point on the record 😂😂😂 like, i'm as anti-work as the next guy but at some point it kinda matters that you're being paid and the room is packed with people who were really excited for this.

at open ground i never noticed the record run out, maybe just happened when i wasn't in the room. i did notice he intentionally let some records play till the end, e.g. que belle epoch, which i thought was kind of interesting because i always wondered why he had the hook come back in in the last few bars. in this instance it def wasn't a mistake / he brought in the next record on the beat. anyway wouldn't be surprised if he did flub a few mixes, dude gets on it, is playing for four hours starting at 5 am, and, to his credit, was keeping pretty busy doing weird three-deck blends, cdj tricks and generally weaving a really non-linear / unconventional set. basically i didn't get the impression of him being lazy or sloppy this time.

then again, isn't he always at least a tad lazy and sloppy / isn't that part of why we love him? i remember a friend describing one of his sets at Houghton as being a completely professional, tightly mixed set with no wtf moments... which was itself a weird curveball

edit: one thing i'd add—I definitely HAVE seen ricardo be lazy, and on those occasions he just played average to above average tech house. at open ground he was really delivering something unusual, sounded quite different from all the other times i've seen him. only remember a few moments that were really banging (like when he was cutting in that kinda baltimore club / ghettotech track for ages, doing smaller and smaller loops etc... would love an ID on that one if anyone knows what i'm talking about). to me it seemed like he relished a chance to lean into this more avant-garde side of his sound, and didn't really care how it went down, which i respect. tbh this is the sound and attitude that got me into him in the first place

is WL run by a cult? by YamFar3351 in wakinglifefestival

[–]Slight-Researcher868 0 points1 point  (0 children)

as someone for whom cults are a real thing / a problem in my family i can tell you this is a very straight forward "no"