23 year old music student and part-time waiter Ricardo Tobar hails from the seaside
town of Viña del Mar in Chile, but is beginning to make waves across the world with
his loveable brand of intensely melodic electronic music.
His first vinyl calling card to be released into the world was his Agoria and James
Holden supported debut 12” 'El Sunset' on Border Community. The haunting, spinetingling
'El Sunset' came backed with the equally striking electronic-rock bombast of
the newgazey 'Made' and the cascading melodies of 'Tickets': a neat snapshot of
Ricardo's musical diversity. A second EP of music which you can dance to awaits
imminent release on Border Community in 2008, continuing Ricardo's mission to
fuse noisy genre-busters with heady, uplifting new-shoegaze.
Enviably unfettered by the minimal spell which has currently entranced the world's
dancefloors, Ricardo's own influences come from a less predictable place, joining
the unlikely dots between Goa trance and the UK shoegaze movement. Identifying a
common atmospheric feel in the two seemingly disparate genres and combining this
with his own overriding love of melody has given birth to Ricardo's own sound:
sometimes warm and fuzzy, sometimes devastating on the dancefloor, and always
intensely musical.
First dabbling in the world of music production aged 16, Ricardo's early explorations
in “nonsense trance music” gradually matured into the sophisticated blend we know
today after embarking on a course in sound engineering. Ricardo's own musical
tastes have also gradually evolved, from the in your face antics of Guns N Roses
and The Prodigy of his teenage years, through the indigenous Chilean Psy-trance
scene which first switched his ears into the electronic mode, to the psychedelic chill
and modern electronic composers that he listens to today.
Ricardo is a firm believer in the “You don't need money to make good music” school
of music production expounded by the band of bedroom computer punks who form
his Border Community labelmates. Thanks to the global nature of today's electronic
music scene, Ricardo and his trusty PC set up are able to put the hitherto littleknown
Viña del Mar on the musical map with their extraordinary homebrewed
production finesse.
Ricardo has also recently unveiled the obligatory matching live set, playing his first
gigs in his homeland of Chile in early 2008. The big leap across to the European club
scene comes in June, when Ricardo will be heading out on tour with his musical
benefactor James Holden, including appearances at the Border Community Sonar
week showcase at The Loft in Barcelona, and a special one-off We Love Border
Community party in the woods on the outskirts of Paris.
Also on the cards for 2008 are a new collaboration with a Spanish label, and a
suitably surprising remix of the forthcoming 'I Need Medicine' single for Ricardomain-
fan Fairmont. And with his unbridled enthusiasm, he is sure to go a long way.
