Jorge has been a central figure on the Latin-American musical stage since the '80s—first as
the co-founder of Chile's beloved political rockers Los Prisioneros, then as a restlessly
inventive solo musician and as one half of Gonzálo Martínez, the experimental electronic
duo with Dandy Jack (Martin Schopf). Now based in Mexico City and working alongside
Loreto Otero, Jorge presents Los Updates, a new project combining electro-pop with an
unusual approach to minimalist house and techno. Designed both as a studio affair and a
live performance, Los Updates expands its collaborative scope by reaching out to a crew
of well-known Chilean and European musicians who were central to the development of
Chilean techno in the mid '90s: Ricardo Villalobos, Dandy Jack, Luciano and Tobias
Freund, all of whom deliver defiantly original remixes across a series of 12-inch singles.
After last month's initial salvo, which featured the
original version of '4 Wheel Drive' plus Ricardo
Villalobos' remix of the same (already featured on his
Fabric 36 mix CD) and Dandy Jack's remix of 'Inviting
You Here,' Los Updates return with another three cuts.
'Getting Late' opens with anxious, squirrelly bass lines
and dry, fidgety drum work that mutates bar by bar; it
eases into the groove with optimistic guitar figures and
Jorge's curiously ambivalent lyrics:
'It's getting late for kicks/
And no one else will help for free/
The city lights are fading out/
Bank tellers dance to the heat.'
Quirky, moving and instantly memorable, it's a
sophisticated pop song displaying a rare degree of
musical maturity.
Tobias closes out the A-side with his remix of 'Pictures of
You,' simply one of the most dazzling things you'll hear
this year. Tobias' recent string of work—singles for
Wagon Repair and Ostgut Ton, as well as remixes for
Two Armadillos and Jim Rivers—has shown him to be a
master of the hypnotic groove, and here he entrances
like never before, laying down a stark 808 drum pattern
which he threads through dubby keys, analog
explosions and liquid bass figures. Jorge's seductive
voice escorts us through it all like a superhero soaring
above the aurora borealis.
Finally Cadenza's Luciano is getting late and brings his
inimitable touch to the remix of “Getting Late”,
reworking the song into a lean, bleepy groove that
marries the cool restraint of vintage DBX to Luciano's
own effusive style, buoyant and percussive and
completely enveloping. Fifteen minutes long, and
crowned with a joyous spray of brightly popping
arpeggios, this is the kind of track that enfolds you and
refuses to let go.
The Los Updates series of remix singles will be
continued, the full-length version of Los Updates First If
You Please will collect eight original Los Updates
tracks, including those released on vinyl and new
material, for a CD release.