Listening back to this album from the dawn of summer 2022 feels like the antidote to the murky grey gathering outside as autumn asserts its cold presence. Full of life affirming sounds and songs singing praises most notably on the piano coloured melodies of Black Apple Pink Apple and in particular the cool illumination of the anthemic Star.
It may at first seem like a strange occasion to facilitate Ricardo Villalobos to recraft the harmonies of delicate voices, as well as such soulfully poignant music like this, but equally it is also a very inspired choice. After all, if you want freeform expression along with radical, artistic remodelling who else on the planet might be more fitting to bring a new way of realigning the art of these glorious pieces of music than he.
Returning to my original thought on Star, happily the Beachside portion of this albums two parts opens with the song intact in all its replenishing glory. If anything magnified by a more open remastering allowing for the subtleties and their consequent complexities to truly shine through. As indeed it does with each number in this section deemed more suitable to exposure during the light of sunshine hours. Another version of note is the energised shuffle belonging to the excellent Black Apple Pink Apple, by adding extra crunch to the rhythm while retaining the all-important illusion of mystery within.
Beginning the Klub selection with Make My Love Grow it evolves through the prism of free jazz inversions and the application of dub, especially on the Sleazy Christopherson styled treatments of the voice, to inform the rhythms until they reach a heightened psychedelic conclusion. Much could said in the same way with Softlanding which if anything extends that process still further with considerable weight enhancing the sparkling drums etc. The likewise excellent remix of Dealer then adds a raft of arpeggios into the equation while feasting on soulfully haunting keys as they loop and dance in reverse. There is also a superlative ELKO version of Black Apple Pink Apple that reimagines the funky sway from Beachside as something altogether tougher, more proactive as the song floats heaven like over a rigorously intense fizz of electrical information.
The thing about the art of remixing, perhaps even about electronic music in particular. Is that music was born to evolve, to progress, to transform. To excite feelings of happy/ sad by its very nature. To converse. Not to regress. To honour past idols. Not to continually regurgitate them. Part of that answer lies here.
Release: November 10
Buy https://amountainofone.bandcamp.com/album/ricardo-villalobos-reimagines-stars-planets-dust-me
https://linktr.ee/theviciouscharm
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