Chilean producer Vicente Sanfuentes is best known in his home country as one half of the MTV Latin America award-winning hiphop production duo Hermanos Brothers, though he’ certainly cultivated a healthy parallel presence in Chile’ dance scene DJing crunk, grime and reggaeton alongside regular collaborator Uwe “Atom Heart’s Schmidt. While Sanfuentes’ Original Hamster alter ego first surfaced back in 2003 with his debut Tigerbeat6 12” Ain’ Nuthin But A G4 Thang, in the meantime he’ been somewhat quiet in terms of his own releases, instead devoting his energies to remixes for the likes of Senor Coconut, Numbers, Com.A and Mike Shannon. This debut Original Hamster album describes itself as “marketing-inspired-distorted-hitech-electro’ and comes clad in a digipak sleeve designed by Flavio Bagioli that certainly echoes its overarching conceptual theme, complete with judicious deployment of vacuous corporate buzzwords (“Revolutionise vertical paradigms / Mesh magnetic experiences” being just a sample).
As for the music itself, it leans predominantly towards bright day-glo syth-laden electro and house with a distinctly cheesy pop edge, with themes of business and consumerism lurking just below the surface on many of the tracks here. The burbling electro-house reworking of Can’ “I Want More’ that opens proceedings sets out the template for corporate greed early in a manner that calls to mind DAT Politics’ playful eccentricism, particularly when pitched-up vocoders rise up atop the pneumatic-sounding programmed snares. “ABC1′ offers up a slice of slinky synth-heavy rnb that sits somewhere between Mocky’ cabaret leanings and Jimmy Edgar’ sharp-edged digifunk, while track titles such as “Your Ad Here’, “Marketshare’ and “Powerpoint’s clearly indicate where Sanfuentes’ head is really at. While it’s certainly fairly infectious and enjoyable stuff, there are points where the overuse of vocoders does start to wear a bit; particularly on the fairly limp cover of Talking Heads’ “Burning Down The House’ that unfortunately blights this otherwise strong collection. While Sanfuentes’ approach to peppy electro-pop might be a little too sweet for some, the inclusion of seven additional remixes as mp3s from Krikor, Kid606, Mike Shannon and Atom (listed here as “celebrity endorsements’) manage to throw some considerable more gritty curves into the mix.
Chris Downton
