Veröffentlicht
Jun 30, 2017
- Supergroups are thankfully uncommon in dance music, but Ricardo Villalobos is the kind of free spirit who can pull it off. An invitation to hang out in his Berlin studio often results in a release, and here he joins Heart 2 Heart, AKA the French producer Ben Vedren and the house legend Chez Damier.
As Villa H2H, the trio present three new collaborative tracks and Villalobos's remix of H2H's "No More." The latter is relaxed and breathes with jazz flourishes over a gently skipping 117-BPM beat. Damier's most obvious contribution on all tracks is his voice, which, with its informal soul style, sounds like Leon Thomas—minus the ululations—overheard in the shower. There's a nod to 112 and The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Sky's The Limit" with the recurring vocal, "You can have what you want, be what you want."
"Conspiracy One," "Conspiracy Two" and "Conspiracy Three" sound like they're from the same session. Each pulses with a different take on a familiar minimal groove, but there's an odd friction between the soulful vocals that provide most of the melody and the atonality so prevalent in Villalobos's tracks. There are some elements of genius—the unique disoriented dreaminess and delicate sonic details like "Conspiracy One"'s synth burps—but they're too all over the place to be truly effective.
TracklistA1 H2H - No More (Villalobos Remix)
A2 Villa H2H - Conspiracy One
B1 Villa H2H - Conspiracy Two
B2 Villa H2H - Conspiracy Three