November 20, 2003
Italo Disco...
...has little to with Italy apparently. I had imagined this whole genre of Italian Disco which I was wholly ignorant of. I was missing out something terrible! It seems I have many of these tunes already and that the term refers to a period of dance music: "The fabulous middleground after discos staged death in the US and it's glorious worldwide revenge..." I'm both disappointed and delighted!
Today picked up the "A Secret History" Compilation which Kirk Degiorgio was thumbing a few posts back. It is the best produced Retro comp I have EVER come across (lavish thick card, gatefold sleeve, fat vinyl) and the line-up is great. The Liasons Dangereuses track, "Problemes D'Amour" and Material's "Secret Life" are superfluous to requirements (anthologised to death already/readily available) but apart from that AMAZING selektion.
The big surprise? Paul McCartney's "Temporary Secretary", you'll not believe it.
BUY! BUY! BUY!
Posted by Woebot at November 20, 2003 03:51 PMAmazon has a tiny taste:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000EWR6Q/qid=1069348074/sr=2-3/ref=sr_2_3/103-4574443-7087818
Damn Paul, never knew you had it in you, whoa.
Posted by: Abe at November 20, 2003 05:14 PMtemp secretery is off McCartney II, which was made in 1980. GGGreat Album. I've been listening to it nonstop this month.
Posted by: brad at November 20, 2003 11:43 PMThe flipside of Temporary Secretary, 'Secret Friend', is the one. The nearest reference point would be Arthur Russell or maybe Holger Czukay's Persian Love...available on the CD of McCartney II.
The best Italo comp around, for me, is I-F's 'Mixed-Up in the Hague': check it here:
http://www.d-i-r-t-y.com/medias/mix_i-f.ram
Not all Italian, but it gives you a good idea of the style.
Great Blog, by the way!
Posted by: Tim at November 21, 2003 09:43 AMpretty sure italo disco does have a lot to do with italy actually. there's only about 4 tracks on this comp that could be described as italo.
still looks like a decent album though, as you mention, a lot of the tracks (esp. Robotnick) have been reissued in many different guises recently.
check out the www.globaldarkness.com forums for a frightening glimpse into the world of the italo disco obsessive.
really enjoyed reading your site over the last few months.
Posted by: chris at November 21, 2003 12:02 PMHey thanks people!
I'm gonna get fixed up with those hot tips..
Italian? Not Italian? I'm still confused. Where's Dan Setzer when you need him? Ho uovo dappertutto la mia faccia!
Posted by: Matt at November 21, 2003 06:28 PMI'm here, I'm here! I've been busy, Metal Urbain just took over NYC for a bit and now I've finally got a new G5 and a cable modemso I'm here! Oh yeah, there is plenty of Italian Italian disco but some of the biggest Italian Disco records are from Canada. Make of that what you will! People site I-F's Mixed up at the Hague as THE italo-disco primer but that's just because it has a few, but really there's as much non italo, Patrick Cowley represents San Francisco, Pluton and the Humanoids' Space Invasion, which most think is Italo, is french canadian, etc etc. And I'd say you're right, Space's Magic Fly, later covered by the obviously french canadian Kebecelectrik as well as anothe frenchie, Cerrone were major influences on italo-disco, in that they were Space Disco. Also see Disco Circus by Martin Circus, 15 minutes of french funk. But that's a tangent. I'm supposed to put something together soon for a friend's site, will forward. Here's the cream of the crop of ITALIAN italo-disco, according to my tastes/whims, top o' the head, briefly from what I see as 3 period of italo, big orchestral morricone cinematic italo of 78-82, dark space electro italo of 82-84(the prime) and big pop new wave freestyle italo of 84-86:
Easy Going-Fear(Claudio Simonetti from Goblin, also produced Kasso which was big at the Paradise Garage and Vivien Vee, disco into New Wave. I-F covered this on the Parallax Corp record.
Macho-I'm a Man-Yes a cover of Steve Winwood(Cerrone did Give Me Some Lovin' as Kongas, I think) it's about 1,000 minutes long and terribly annoying, except for the break, which is longer then most songs, and is damn near amazing.
Black Devil Disco Club-very mysterious record, but very wonderful. I've only seen a copy once. Very prog, very dark, and somehow sounds like Black Dog. I think it's being reissued.
Charly-Spacer Woman-I've jumped from a more late 70s disco sound to the more typical electro sounding italo sound. This is rare and has been bootlegged. It's just perfect, sexy female vocals(or vocoders) + kraftwerk + gay disco ='s Italo-disco. This is on Mixed Up at the Hague, as is:
Mr. Flagio-Take a Chance-Two italian producers covering a Material/Nonah Hendryx track to suprising results. How suprising? This is perhaps the best 12" of all time! Italo disco was never as dry as the current electro-clash it inspired. Even I-F and Metro Area know to add on the congas and there's nothing wrong with real instruments as well. Vocoded vox mixed with real vox, a melancholy melody that cannot be beat.-
The sound of a lonely, but funky robot, only ever equalled by Man Parrish on the b-side Heatstroke(NY breakdance/electro and certain aspects of Paradise Garage/Loft Disco were very related to Italo, obviously) It's important to note that many us, primarily canadian and NY club labels were importing this stuff. Importe/12, Emergency(who prior and during Shannon's Let the Music Play proto freestyle era were mostly releasing Italo such as Kano, Bo Boss, etc, 25 West released Klein + MBO)
Also...Scotch-Penguin Invasion, pure proto-techno, Kano's I'm Ready and Holly Dolly(the model for Sharivari?) etc
Gaz Nevada-I.C. Love Affair-Just a personal fave, first heard on a deephousepage.com Ron Hardy mix from 1985. Don't tell me those gay black DJs weren't into this stuff!
Klein + MBO-Dirty Talk-an obvious choice but this is the big one. Huge in clubs all over the world, an influence on New Order, still played constantly in various mixes. The true test of italo lovers is...well it's not a test, but 90% of the vocals are just terrible. I-F left the vocals of this cut as well as Doctor's Cat's Feel the Drive off of Mixed Up at the Hague, I think the vocals add accessibility and a certain charm to the dancefloor.
Dharma-Plastic Doll-It worked both ways and NY club music and british New Wave seeped heavily into italo-disco, and the NY'ers played this stuff and maybe people thought it was freestyle music from queens. In any case most of the kids dancing in Bay Ridge and Jersey were Italian to begin with. Ok a few generations removed.
Fuzz Dance EP-Maurizio Damo produced 4 "act" sort of and they are all amazing, Alexander Robotnik's Problemes D'Amour appears as a Francois K. instrumental edit for the dancefloor and the other songs are pure Italo-New Wave Disco. When I found this record it felt like some kind of New Wave holy-grail, like damn, I found the best new wave record ever and no new wavers knew about it because it's an italian disco record. It also sounds like Madonna and Falco, but in a really really good way. It's on Sire, who knew what they were doing.
The mid 80s things got really big, like big production and big vocals and tacky as all get out but I'll drop two worthy tracks that are maybe the last really good italo records. I think around 86/87 it goes sour and comes back as the kind of eurodance that I don't want to hear anyone defending...
Fun Fun-Happy Station
Taffy-Midnight Radio-I mean, this is pretty damned cheesed out but I can't help but to love it. Who else loved it? Emergency in NY and Rhythm King in England. The same year they dropped Renegade Soundwave? My allegiances shift...
ok, I guess this will stand as some sort of rough draft.
Posted by: dan selzer at November 26, 2003 06:35 AMoh yeah, the versions of Robotnik's Problemes D'Amour that are on Fuzz Dance, Mixed Up at the Hague AND Disco Not Disco vol 2 are all instrumentals. Dudes, the vocal versions are AWESOME! This is what I'm talking about...
Posted by: dan selzer at November 26, 2003 06:47 AMthe version of problems d'amour on my copy of fuzz dance has vocals - male verse and female chorus, i love the mya and the mirror track too.
Another two italo records i personally really like are Q - the voice of Q, (sounds alot like metro area) and hypnotic - blade runner end theme - a quite beautiful version of the bladerunner theme on zyx.
Anyone need a copy of either 'Magic Fly' or 'Voice of Q'? can obtain orig. 12" if you want 'em....
It's true, 'Voice of Q' is very Metro Area- esque,
lots of 8ths as opposed to 16ths rhythmically- the handclaps etc. wouldn't be suprised to see a re-edit come along soon.
neil young's 'trans' album is quite the oddity. 'computer age' is the track. you wouldn't think he could be off key with a vocoder, but he still manages.
also 'esg' - 'moody' is prime ny, well punk funk, for lack of a better word.
Posted by: saulgoode at February 25, 2004 05:51 AMtaste these.....
art fine - dark silence
espionage - sound of breaking hearts
that thing - that thing
billy always
theo vaness -bad boy
trax - spain
patrick hernandez - born to be alive
i have set list for sale email me
Don't want to sound too controversial here, but the Black Devil record is truly awful. There's a reason its been such a rarity...A:Its just not that good and no one liked it at the time.. B: It's a 'roadblock'-esque parody.
I'm sorry but I just don't get what the fuss is about on this one..The 'Purple Flash' reissue on Environ is a much better example of a track WORTHY of reissue.