Nicolas Jaar: I was a Teenage Villalobos

This is the thread to discuss the wunderkind producer Nicolas Jaar.

Typical teenage boy, loves Satie and Mulatu Astatke. At 14, he decides he loves techno too, even though the only thing he's heard at that point is Tiga's DJ Kicks. His father, the artist and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar, goes to a record store in Chile and says 'Give me the most forward-thinking electronic music album right now', comes home with Thé Au Harem D'Archimède. Dad gives him the Villalobos album ("the sexiest thing I'd ever heard") and Luomo's Vocalcity for Christmas that year. Nico starts making tracks, gets hooked up with Wolf + Lamb a couple of years later, and there you go.

Additional charming details in the Philip Sherburne interview.

Jaw-droppingly good Resident Advisor podcast available on soundcloud (tracklist).

His original tracks, many done before he turned 18, are also up on soundcloud.

My tracklist for the Essential Nico:
*Time For Us
*Mi Mujer
*No Regular Play - Owe Me (Nicolas Jaar remix)
*WOUH
*Love You Gotta Lose Again
*Hage Chahine (ft Will Epstein)
*John the Revelator
*Marquises
*El Bandido
*Kasper Bjorke - Heaven (Nicolas Jaar remix)
*DJ T - Gorilla Hug (Nicolas Jaar remix)
*Mini Calcutta
*Russian Dolls
*Your Waltz
*Nico's Feeling Good

Easily my favorite and most listened to music of the year.

The few tracks I've heard (think one of them was El Bandido) were very very good.

only heard him on thu for the first time - i was doing a radio show with braiden, who's been raving about him for a while - and was totally blown away. love the bluesy vocals, love the way every track ends up somewhere completely different to its start. would add "marks", "angles" and his remix of ellen allien's "flashy flashy" to the must-hear list.

he has a comp coming out in a week or two, right? called inès. can't wait m8

Side one of Inès on soundcloud.

that radio show lex mentioned...

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/lollards-podcast/2010/11/freaky-trigger-and-the-lollards-of-pop-series-4-week-11/

did anyone get tix to the show in london in a couple of weeks?

nooooo i'm gonna try to get in somehow though

yeah im really hoping i can get a ticket on the door :-/

i hadn't even heard of this dude four days ago! i haven't fallen so fast and hard for an artist in some time

yeah im really late too! i blame ilx

Had heard some of this guys stuff and wasn't really blown away but i'm listening to El Bandido now thanks to this thread, and...damn.

Ever since the RA podcast I've been waiting for one of the usual suspects to start the Nicolas Jaar Can Do No Wrong: Defend or Refute thread he no doubt deserves.

Finally decided to take matters into my own hands. Never started a thread before, been reading ILM since the very beginning.

kinda hott too

http://www.playgroundmag.net/img/doc/13564/thumbs/480.jpg

just heard that kasper bjørke remix - it's wonderful.

his remix of azari & iii's "into the night" is something else too

so how old is he now

20 i think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSp_2c96JtA

^^ you can dl that edits ep free from the resident advisor website btw

Love Nicolas Jaar. He's had an incredible few years. He wrote to me in 2007, sending a song called "Little Stone" (much more, um, folktronica? than his techno now, but still really excellent). He was 17 and calling himself "Nico" - and it was plausible to me he didn't realise there already a famous Nico. A couple years later, he's doing tracks like "John the Revelator" - and now he's a Mutek fixture, a Resident Advisor wunderkind, just making beautiful subtle new things. So happy for him.

the edits ep is nice but i wouldn't really recommend it as your entry point to him, don't think it showcases what makes him special as much as other stuff

which i guess is why it was given away free

Sean: repost?

My favorite of his remixes is still "Owe Me", which reminds me of early Matthew Herbert (the remixes on Secondhand Sounds). The staticky clicks and pops and the echoey handclap and the wobbly keyboard and the filtered vocals -- it's all just so choice. Then the surf comes in.

edits ep is all ive heard, it was nice but a bit. i mean i kinda like everything i've heard on w+l bc thats an aesthetic that appeals to me, but its a bit on the subtle end

His solo debut on Circus Company is breathtakingly good, in the same way that early dOP stuff was. my only complaint is that he samples "I Got A Woman" on one track, which i find a bit much. otherwise, i'd say it's a perfect record.

lol at that grateful dead edit

i'm glad that it seems he's branching out from Wolf + Lamb, because tbh, i pretty much dislike 90% of the output from those producers and that label. it's all very boring, imho.

Pretty sure he's on BeatsinSpace next week but can't find anything to back that up so perhaps I dreamt it.

that sounds plausible, bis is way into w+l

His father, the artist and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar,

Get the fuck out! This family is like a entity of genius.

I already regret the phrase "entity of genius." Nevertheless, the point still stands.

i'm glad that it seems he's branching out from Wolf + Lamb, because tbh, i pretty much dislike 90% of the output from those producers and that label. it's all very boring, imho.

― Honey, I squirted jizz all over the baby (the table is the table), Saturday, November 27, 2010 3:35 PM (55 minutes ago) Bookmark

I know most are going to disagree, but this is absolutely 100% OTM.

I saw him play live at Mutek last June. Very enjoyable, despite having an indoor set at 3PM playing to a mostly empty room. Expect it to be slow, too.

Here are "Little Stone" and "The Student" (mp3s).

Oh um er let's try that again:

"Little Stone" (4.6mb)
"The Student" (4mb)

I put "Angles" on a recent mixtape and got a good response...is there an album coming out soon?

early next year - http://www.datatransmission.co.uk/viewnews/6069/

+ like lex said there's also a label comp out in a week or two that he has a few songs on

Tim Sweeney's just confirmed he is on the show tomorrow night so I obviously wasn't dreaming.

Woah - WOUH is incredible, some kind of Studio/techno hybrid I didn't know I needed to hear.

find a lot of his stuff a little meh but el bandido and time for us are both pretty great.

I dunno, it feels a bit soon for everyone to get carried away but it seems like a bandwagon has started rolling around this dude very quickly indeed. Then again, he's working withing a style where people are predisposed to throw around words like 'genius' very easily.

I like WUOH and Time For Us and what he does to Flashy Flashy, but I listened to the Marks & Angles EP and it just sounded dreary rather than hypnotic. I kinda feel like post-Villalobos there's almost no element or style that feels too weird to throw into this kind of framework, and it has a kind of dulling effect. Materials is pretty good though. We'll see.

really like a lot of what i've heard, particularly el bandido, but the vocals on Marks & Angles EP are so flaccid and lazy sounding bleh

the new album sounds a lot like dOP, but less house-y and more jazzy.

mostly agree with matt xp. time for us is the best thing he's done by a mile i think. i would really really like to hear him work with a good vocalist. think i read an interview where he said as much also. maybe he does on some of the forthcoming stuff? not that the slo-mo treated thing can't work too... like marks/angles isn't amazing overall, but it seems like he's starting to get the vocals to mesh with the production in interesting ways.

and will he further explore marksist politics in dance music?

I think he sounds like Matias Aguayo, even thought it was him at first. He has some better ideas than him from time to time but I'll agree with karl: he should abstain from vocal duties.

Just listened to his Live At The Bunker podcast (WLP087) in the gym - more propulsive than the RA one; doing lots of the same layering and building tricks but not quite as show-offily (or maybe just in a less developed way, since it's so much older)

Album dropping in February:

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=12795

I am listening to it now (NB I have basically learned everything about him from this thread!), so far it's great and completely unconcerned by ~the dancefloor~ - there are a lot of moody pianos and a track that was like idk Barry Adamson crossed with microhouse or somesuch - I'm not really one for overstating the weather-appropriateness of music but 8am in a REALLY cold December is kind of where this is at I think

his beats in space is now up

completely unconcerned by ~the dancefloor~

I dunno, some people might consider this not necessarily a plus in house music.

oh clearly! NB a good chunk of it I would probly not describe as 'house music', also this is based on one listen on computer speakers lol

might have the chance to interview this fella soon. anyone got any questions for him?

Pom OTM. I've had a leaked version playing on repeat for the past week. A big leap forward from Psychic although I guess it has been eight years. There's also a noticeably good flow to this album. Top tier for sure.

yeah this is great, delightful balearic vibes

It's great, hot damn

This is fantastic. I'm absolutely baffled by the "meh" Pitchfork review that seems to think it isn't campy enough and also sounds too much like the first album?

Yes, that criticism seems way off. Also found it off to call Psychic a "normie pursuit" and a "dorm-room staple" .

It's def a different kind of beast. Personally prefer Psychic, but that's because it's v different.

Not sure where else to put this, but a couple years ago I went to MONA down in Hobart, Tasmania, one of the more amazing museum experiences I've ever had. Inside we saw an incredible multi-room installation exhibit that was profoundly memorable and impactful called The Divine Comedy. It was actually the work of Alfredo Jaar. Had no idea until recently. Just an incredibly talented family, and I dare say Alredo's got a better flair for the dramatic than Nico! If Australia ever opens their borders back up, it's worth it to check MONA out even just for this exhibit.

https://mona.net.au/stuff-to-do/the-divine-comedy

I’ve heard good things about that museum and was sad I couldn’t get to Hobart the one time (so far) that I visited Australia. But yeah Alfredo Jaar is pretty renowned artist and is in many collections around the world

Is it time for a Nico albums/eps poll?

(said while listening to A.A.L. 2012-2017, which is just a killer dance album and didn't even get much attention that I noticed)

Can I have a late pass . Loving the Pakistani vocalist Ali Sethi album Intiha from 2023 where he improvised ghazals over the electronic sounds of Nicolas Jaar.

Is it time for a Nico albums/eps poll?

Like a ballot poll? I feel he's still sort of in the middle of his prime and he's still releasing tunes though

what's good from the last few year? out of the loop.

s

Jaar reworked sounds from his 2020 album Telas for 2023's Initha album with Ali Sethi's vocals. Not sure what else he has recorded lately

The opening post in this thread is one of my favourites in all my many, many years of reading ILM. Love that potted bio

A good amount of the live-off-floor-in-studio-with-live-drummer-now-as-official-third-member takes on this Darkside album from last year are among my fave Nico productions I've heard: https://darkside.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-spiral-house

I guess it's 6 years old now, but he produced fka twig's 'Magdalena', which is a modern classic imo. I know lots of people were involved, but in an interview I heard she made it sound like the core team was her, Jaar, and the pianist who's on most tracks (Ethan P Flynn?).

I thought Arca had a big part producing that one too? Perhaps I'm confusing that with her earlier work

I think Arca just did some bits on the single (w/Future)

https://nicolasjaar.bandcamp.com/album/archivos-de-radio-piedras

2 hours of new music + 1.5 hour radio play. Sounded good on a first listen...

oh hell yeah

I just yelled out YES when I read that and freaked out my partner

That is an irresponsible amount of music

This is pretty damn awesome, at least the musical bits. There's a really good 60 minute album of sick experimental cumbia Nico style here, but the whole thing flows pretty well for such a long play

Loved the Radio Piedras release.

Darkside just released a single track: https://darkside.bandcamp.com/track/graucha-max

Which prompted me to check out Live at Spiral House (mentioned upthread) and holy shit that's awesome

I'm finding the Piedras material more digestible when broken up like this (I'd already made a playlist of just these tracks, but I guess the ordering is better here, too, or maybe I'm just more receptive to it right now): https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/nicolas-jaar-piedras-1-2/

Ok just catching up but this Piedras release is fantastic.

I feel like... these are basically the album he should have made from the get-go?

There's a new Darkside album out as of last week: Nothing. The band is now a trio with a drummer/percussionist.

Verdict so far it has retained the spaced out production, soft organic soundscape and genreless playfulness of the previous album. Which I thought was their first but isn't, I really need to listen to Psychic. It sounds more upbeat, goofy, varied and songy until the songs appropriate go to an exciting nowhere - the second part of Are You Tired ? Keep on Singing being a great example. The next song is called Graucha Max, let's find out where this goes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHaV1jvReYo
Darkside - Are you tired? Keep on singing

Let it be known that I'm having fun. They sounded like Skinny Puppy for a second just now.

Just okay so far; been listening since Thursday.

Second part after the Kourtesis-like American References lacks a bit of meat, but the first part was exciting

i need to spend more time with this but the vibes are nice but it feels a little slight?

I liked the "singles" better in context than on their own but I've only heard it once so far. Still hoping it grows on me since I really liked their last lp

Digging it, each Darkside album is more sinister than the last. I do miss some of the nü-Balearic vibes of the first record though.

I really need to listen to Psychic

you do! nothing comes close

caught them in 2014, one of the best shows I ever saw

I like this a lot. Not quite as good as the debut, but I like it more than Spiral. The "Hell Suite" is really good. The only thing that doesn't really work for me are the vocals on "Graucha Marx", otherwise I like all of it.

I'm the opposite - I find the first 2/3 pretty flawless but feel it closes a bit weakly with the Hell Suite and Sin el Sol. The two prev albums were pretty consistent start to finish so I'm now leaning on this one being a touch weaker purely because of this, otherwise the highs are as high as they've always had

Ok I’m obsessed with this record now

(I've heard Psychic in the meantime) Maybe it also appears slightly weaker because it's less of a statement by now, and more being playful with their sound and expanding the palette, without necessarily choosing a direction. It's a bit medleyish. I find it very satisfactory, while agreeing it's maybe a tad under the first two (very good) albums. This band scratches an itch.

i actually fucking love this darkside record, my favorite jaar thing in a minute. so playful

!!

Playful is right, so unexpectedly fun. Sure, you could say its a bit unfocused and messy, but I like the genre-jumping surprises (dub, funk, Harrington getting in some jam band moments, psychedelic folk). It flies by.

A little post-punk and industrial too, as a treat.

I've had this on repeat, it's been awhile since an album has gotten under my skin like that. Unexpected!

yeah, unexpected aoty for me. i was listening to a lot of early chem bros and basement jaxx before i heard this record and couldn't help but associate the fun jaar and harrington are having here with how fun those records are. no mood shift is off limits, but the effect is never, uh, jarring

cool remix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXTP3sReRYI

Yeah I adore this

on repeat

I love the drums on this new DARKSIDE album. "SLAU" > "S.N.C" gets me amped. The playfulness ivy mentioned reminds me of Avalanches...or James Brown...or something. Very funky record at times.