Ricardo Villalobos doesn’t do half measures. Just as the Chilean German electronic musician’s DJ sets are marathons, so are his productions. Consider 2008’s “Minimoonstar (Full Session),” nearly 32 minutes of pitter-patter percussion and meandering digital steel pans. Or “Fitzheuer Zieheuer,” in which he flipped the sounds of a Serbian Roma brass band into 37 minutes of keening horns and dubby backbeats. Now, remixing Ela Minus and DJ Python’s “Abril Lluvias Mil,” he outdoes himself again, stretching the duo’s downy ambient reggaeton into nearly 41 minutes of grinding, pins-and-needles techno.
Even Villalobos’ fans will acknowledge that his remixes can stray pretty far from the source material. Villalobos does away with DJ Python’s ethereal dembow groove, swapping in his own gravelly bass synth and a nervous, staccato pulse pinging along at 130 beats per minute. What he keeps from the original are just short, meditative loops of Minus’ voice—“La luz o la sombra” (“The light or the shadow”); “Sin tocarte” (“Without touching you”)—which he weaves through his brittle synths and drums, blunting their edges. The further Minus seems to delve into her own thoughts, wisps of delay trailing her murmured vocals, the more that Villalobos’ bass and drums open up, revealing unexpected dimensions in its labyrinthine depths. The power of the original song came from the feeling of eavesdropping on Minus’ innermost emotions; Villalobos’ herculean remix turns that brooding interiority into a wide-screen epic.
