- Jorge González has a lengthy cross-current musical history, but I'm not sure any of his previous projects will prepare listeners for the greasy lothario pop of Los Updates' debut, First If You Please. Known best as the singer for Chile's legendary rock band Los Prisioneros, he may not be a techno novice—he teamed with Dandy Jack in the Gonzalo Martinez project in the late '90s and featured on both a Sieg Über Die Sonne full-length in 2001 and a Chica and the Folder album two years later—but after anchoring the middle stretch of Villalobos' fabulous Fabric mix last year with Ricardo's version of his "4 Wheel Drive" and this debut album with Loreto Otero as Los Updates taking the claim as Cadenza's first artist full-length, there are a different set of eyes on him now.
For the most part, First If You Please is a bizarre, often demented record that has trouble finding the proper balance between wry sexual hyperbole and crude sheetspeak. His productions capture the sunstroke brand of minimal that make them a good fit for Cadenza—a meld of colorful synth tones, click-n-pop beats, gentle acoustic elements and heavily-processed electronics that add up to a swaying, high-alcohol form of dehydration (in the best way). But González's lyrics—think a polyester-clad Nôze with thicker chest hair—too often distract from the gentle ingenuity of his own backdrops. "My Soulmate and I," for example, debases its cathedral warmth with vulgar bed-chatter: "my soulmate and I having sex...Let me kiss your little pussy / Until the juice gets down." Similarly, "Sexual Madness" pulls the listener away from a clattering dubby backdrop by devolving into more "kinky journey" lines.
It's a welcome relief then, on "Charlie Hold On," when González repeats utterances and phrases more as structural coloring than as the focus, giving the production the space it needs to envelop his audience. "Inviting You Here" is a classic Cadenza effort at disorientation, with scattered splats of texture, pulpy bass drops and a beat that owes more to dubstep than techno, and "Some Pictures of You" mixes flaxen flecks of acoustic guitar, long strands of noise and echoed vocal shards into a sparse but engulfing tropical pop song. Both "4 Wheel Drive" and "It's Getting Late"—remixed in turn for Villalobos' and Luciano's Fabric mixes—are here in their original form. Each is a more traditional example of new-evening electropop than their better-known versions though.
Of course, these remixes are, for better or worse, the elephant in the room in any discussion of First If You Please. There's a second remix EP due soon and plans to collect the vinyl releases onto a CD. My advice: Unless you're looking for a twilight soundtrack for your deep-shag sunken living room, maybe it's best to wait.
Tracklist01. 4 Wheel Drive
02. My Soulmate and I
03. Some Pictures of You
04. I Don’t Feel Like Coming Home
05. Sexual Madness
06. Inviting You Here
07. It’s Getting Late
08. Charlie Hold On