Sparky - Portland (Villalobos Mixes)

  • Share
  • "Portland" is a jaunty electro number recorded live to tape from hardware by Glasgow's Dave Clark back in 1998. It was released in 2002 as part of the first release on Stuffrecords, one of the Glasgow labels that would eventually form the powerhouse Numbers family. It's a pretty unassuming song—there's a catchy melody at its heart that makes it easy to love, and the bright synth that eventually overwhelms the track is pretty gnarly. Somewhere along the way it became an enduring favourite for some of the world's most admired DJs, among them Ricardo Villalobos, who was tapped for a remix once the Numbers crew discovered he'd been playing it. In typical fashion, the Berlin artist turns in a two-part, 31-minute remix that takes a good 15 minutes to get going. "Part One" rewrites the track as a slow house number—on first glance Villalobos merely stretches out the lead and puts a flaccid kick drum underneath it. There are plenty of weird little touches, though, with ribbons of sound flitting about in his microscopic ecosystem. What at first feels listless turns hypnotic. But it's the 20-minute "Part Two" that takes the cake. It starts where the first left off, but soon unravels into something unrecognizable—more like a Villalobos original, which certainly isn't a bad thing. And, as recent Villalobos goes, it's one of his more club-friendly tracks, as it spools bits of sound around the leaden kick drum as if they were clay. Time-stretching artefacts and volume fluctuations only add to the disorientation. Like his excellent remix of Envoy's "Seawall," it's a transportive effort with a few bumps in the road that make it all totally worth it. To sweeten the deal, Numbers have included two extra tracks sourced from the same 1998 session that birthed "Portland." "Jigsaw" easily stands up to the title track, making up for the lack of a melodic hook with a sense of robotic funk and violent, Drexciya-style synths. "Wilson St" is an ambient trifle that doesn't add much to the package, but at only a minute and a half it isn't exactly wasting your time. An unexpected but welcome surprise, the "Portland" reissue shines light on an obscure gem and offers up a mind-bending 30 minutes as a bonus.
  • Tracklist
      01. PortlandQueue 02. JigsawQueue 03. Wilson StQueue 04. Portland (Ricardo Villalobos Remix Pt.1) 05. Portland (Ricardo Villalobos Remix Pt.2)
RA