We receive ‘Hits & Trips’ by Ricardo JP in the middle of a week that’s rocking the moodiest weather possible and before hitting play we kind of hope that the music will indeed take us on a trip somewhere. Can’t hide the fact that we’re slightly afraid from the ‘hits’ part as honestly who’s not tired of posh and basic tunes that serve no other purpose but take over the music programs of radio and TV stations. Thankfully, the music on Ricardo’s ‘Hits & Trips’ is far from being shallow and mainstream. On the contrary, it carries a carefully and precisely measured touch of darkness, the right amount of punch electronic dance music should be purveying and being assembled in a 12-track album it’s of a sufficient length. ‘Hits & Trips’ will not leave you bored or exhausted but completely satisfied as in twelve tracks the author manages to indeed tell a story that we’ll be glad to follow up on in the future.

Before we take a closer look at the record let us tell you a bit more about the author. Ricardo JP is a 30-year-old composer hailing from Santiago, Chile. He’s been doing electronic music and sound design for around 15 years. Currently, he’s working as an independent producer whose works you’ll find in film, commercials and video games. Especially that last part of his biography is pretty evident on the record, at least influence-wise. While mostly gravitating around genres like house, EDM and techno with strong electro (pop) influence the music of JP conveys pretty dark and mysterious vibes. His approach to melodies and bass line sequences are closer to genres like EBM and industrial than to the more uplifting and positive specter of the dance music sound.

Our absolute favorites from the record are tracks like ‘Amusement Park at Night’, ‘Crimson Moonlight’, the raw bass-driven ‘Hot Air Balloon’ and without a doubt the absolutely banging ‘Lost Treasure’. If you take a closer look at their titles you might as well get an idea about why we loved those so much. They carry a strong video game soundtrack feel, you know just like the music of the golden age of 16 bit Sega Genesis brawlers like Streets of Rage. Other highlights of the record are the two final tracks. That’s pretty much where Ricardo breaks his own boundaries and explores a quite different side of his sound. While ‘Stoned Froggy’ sounds more like synth wave influenced hip hop the closer ‘When The Clock Strikes 12’ is a chilled out downtempo banger with a hypnotic synth sequence that without a doubt is the best way to finish an album – with a promise for new mysterious and mesmerizing musical return in the future.