Ricardo Villalobos

Dependent and Happy

BY Jason QuintonPublished Oct 17, 2012

Rap and rock releases are the province of the young, while a DJ of advanced age can acquire cultural cache as long as the drums are slamming and they're still standing. Ricardo Villalobos's Dependent & Happy is an album full off good beats, but the experiments with layers, loops, bloops and tempos see him drift into Flying Villalotus territory. Dependent & Happy flows with the smoothness of an expert DJ set, yet it's so modest that it sounds like a record best suited to get a fancy haircut to. Eventually the listen feels like cerebral wallpaper, with predictability slotted as a positive attribute, lest we risk being moved through minimalism. At its best, it is classical house music, with tips of the hat to disco, odd sounds and infinitely mixable consistency. These songs feel ripped from sets you'll most likely never see, as the technical skill of Villalobos conspicuously reminds the listener of the less boring record it could have been.
(Perlon)

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