Ricardo Villalobos - Empirical House (2017)

The productions of Chilean minimal maestro Ricardo Vilalobos have always been a little more jazzy and funk-fuelled than many will admit, though these elements - alongside the brilliance of his South American inspired drum programming - have come to the fore in recent times. They're certainly in evidence across the four fine tracks that make up Empirical House. Check, for example, the looped double bass, slack-tuned kicks and snares and woozy vibraphone flourishes of opener "Widodo", or the undulating, almost tropical melody lines and glitchy, outer-space grooves of "Bakasecc". Best of all is the title track, an unflinchingly trippy, woozy and borderline Balearic chunk of minimal house brilliance.