[Cadenza]
Los Updates’ First If You Please full-length has the distinction of being not only the first artist album released on Luciano’s Cadenza imprint, but also hands-down the most disappointing thing the label has released to date — an uninspired set of tech-house tunes dragged down like an anchor by Jose Gonzalez’ cringe-worthy lyrics and decidedly tuneless vocals. It even abandoned Cadenza’s normally gorgeous cover art. Thankfully, the remixes — first by Villalobos and Dandy Jack, and by Tobias and Luciano on this outing — have managed to redeem things to some degree.
Tobias takes on “Pictures of You” by reducing things to a minimal level, running an unadorned but driving techno beat and a handful of random noises (twisted guitar notes, rewinding tape, etc.) around Jose Gonzalez’ love-’em-or-hate-’em vocals. The magic really happens, however, when Tobias skillfully deploys a teasingly brief amount of bass line, just barely enough to give you the hint of where the groove should be. Many may be ready to usher “minimal” out the door at the moment, but as with any musical style, when its done well, it still works. Tobias does it well.
Luciano’s 15-minute take on “Getting Late” reflects his growing fascination with the deep-house sound by keeping things sparse and dark from the get-go, with a swerving synth loop and a simple bass drum the only accompaniment to Gonzalez’ vocal line for the first few minutes. But the gradual introduction of layer upon layer of extra percussion — including a snazzy hi-hat that really pays off when it finally kicks in — soon brings the mix into familiar Cadenza territory (and helps to drown out the rather banal lyric as a bonus, though it is repeated about three times too many throughout the run time). This is surely a fine mixing tool, as displayed in Luciano’s Fabric mix a few months back, but it never quite seems to reach its full density. While both tracks are distinct improvements over the originals with both producers in fine, if not exactly inspirational form, the Los Updates chapter of the Cadenza story is one best closed quickly.
i was really excited for the tobias remix. he is probably the best producer of this year and i had astoundingly high hopes.
it just falls flat.
and it’s not because of the vocals, which i’ve never minded.
luciano’s mix is good, but i’ve heard it an awful lot at this point.
Fair enough — I wasn’t blown away by either (though I do think tobias’ version is better than you say), as I said above (“fine, if not inspirational form”).
But how can you not mind those vocals? Especially on the Luciano, where the same annoying verse is repeated over and over and over and over. His voice, those lyrics… UGH. Just so BAD and cheesy.
i guess i never minded jorge’s vocals because of how blown away i was by fabric 36, especially four wheel drive. now that you mention it, the fact that the same verse repeats over and over and over and over in the luciano mix is pretty tiresome; it gets annoying by the third time, which is usually when its mixed out of (as you said, it’s a great mixing tool), but in its full 15 minutes it’s certainly a chore.
hopefully cadneza can deliver us another ‘tips’ or ‘achso’ so that we can just forget this happened.
Oh god yes.
I’ve heard the new forthcoming Argenis Brito and Digitaline releases and I can tell you both are a VAST improvement over the whole Los Updates fiasco.
Is it me, or do they have their best material for the Xmas season every year? Achso, Harissa, Luciano’s Etudes Electroniques… all released around that same time (nov/dec)!
[…] RSD, “Jah Way” [Punch Drunk] 08. C.B. Funk, “Subway to Cologne” [Story] 09. Los Updates, “Getting Late” (Luciano’s Getting Late remix) [Cadenza] 10. John Roberts, “Hesitate” […]