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DJ Mag Top100 DJs
49
Ricardo Villalobos
| RE-ENTRY

The master of minimalism and the lord of the spiritual DJ set, Ricardo Villalobos was born in Chile but his family moved to Germany when he was very young to escape the fascist dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
As a youngster he was into Depeche Mode in a big way, and he started DJing while studying at university. He's worked with cats like Luciano and Dandy Jack, though it was his fantastic 'Alcachofa' artist album in 2003 that broke him through to the next level.

DJmag likes Ricardo Villalobos and his uncompromising stance to everything. You want a remix? Better save a whole side of vinyl for its 18-minute meandering. You want him to play? Make five hours of room for his set. A compilation? He's only going to put his own tracks on it. You want him on a flight? Better have a back-up plan. And don't ever ask him for a request.

When he's good, he's out on his own. Psychedelic techno stripped back to almost nothing, he'll take you on a journey where a map would be useless - there are no landmarks. Given a great soundsystem like Fabric, an understanding crowd like at DC10, and the space to weave one of his incomparable and limitless spiritual tapestries he really is something special.
And when you throw in Richie Hawtin as a back-to-back partner - as frequently happens these days - well, there's not much to compare.
Check out his new 'Fabric Live' mix to find out why his followers rate him so highly - you'll be hypnotized.