Ricardo Villalobos — Minimal Techno & Microhouse DJRicardo Villalobos
Ricardo Villalobos is a Chilean-born German DJ and producer, born in 1970 in Santiago, whose family moved to Germany in 1973 after Augusto Pinochet seized power in Chile. He is best known for minimal techno and microhouse, genres in which he became one of the most influential figures of the 2000s.
He began playing music at parties for his own enjoyment while at university before turning to professional DJing in 1998, having founded the short-lived label Placid Flavour in 1993 and released his first record on Playhouse in 1994. He has since released on Perlon and [a:rpia:r] among other imprints, and in 2006 he played the Berlin Loveparade alongside Richie Hawtin and Luciano in front of roughly 300,000 people.
Resident Advisor named him its top DJ of the year at the close of 2007, 2008 and 2010, reflecting his standing within the minimal and microhouse scenes he helped define. His long-standing fandom for Depeche Mode, whose tours he followed around Europe as a young fan, has been cited as a formative influence on his listening and mixing sensibility, which continues to inform sets built on extended, textured grooves.