Kata - Fires In The Night

Kata - Fires In The Night (Italo-Disco 1985)

Not much to say because I'm running out for the night but I stumbled on this one today. Its fun!!

Rest in Peace Michael

Michael Jackson's music played a dominant role in my upbringing. My mother listened to "Off The Wall" in unhealthy doses and I even had a pair of zipper pants inspired by the Thriller era. Sadly his public personality had loomed large over his musical legacy in the last years of his life. But beyond the tabloids there was a lonely man who seemed to really want to heal the pain of the humanity and longed to be loved. He will be missed and remembered for the great songs he gave us.

Change and TransAtlantic Funk

Change - The Glow of Love

Luther Vandross' voice was perfect soul. Change was a pan-Atlantic collaboration between Italian producers Jacque Petrus and Mauro Malavasi, musicians Davide Romani, Paolo Gianolio and American vocalists Luther Vandross and Jocelyn Brown. There is a great bio and history of the story of Change on this website. Petrus went on to produce a lot of great funky tracks including more with Change.

Sandro Oliva

G.J. Lunhi - Acapulco Nights

Oh man I'm going crazy today with the posts but I have so much to give!

Sandro Oliva had a heavy hand in some amazing Italo titles. I already gave him a nod for his work on Ken Laszlo's Hey Hey Guy but I was excited to find his name on the label of Mark Tower's "You Aren't Fall in Love" and G.J. Lunghi's "Acapulco Nights." The list of titles that have been touched by this guy is long and he still is doing his thing.


Mark Tower - You Aren't Fall In Love (1983)

Mark Tower - You Aren't Fall in Love (download)

FlowChart - Ask the Boss

Flowchart - Ask The Boss

My attention had been drawn to ZYX Records recently after doing a discogs search for Flow Chart's "Go Ask the Boss," a disco drenched I tune from 1983. I was a little confused by their seemingly massive reach over Italo releases on discogs but a little more research realized that ZYX did a lot of compilations, best of, and re-releases over the years. So it turns out that "Ask the Boss" was originally released on Maximus. Well, Maximus delivered some serious funky disco cuts. And so my schizo post that was supposed to be a focused survey on a record label has descended into a random assorted selection of stuff.



Regardless of whether they released the originals, the list on ZYX's discogs page is a good sweeping survey of some of the greatest Italo tracks ever, as well as some more obscure ones. Just put some of those titles into youtube and let it rip.

Flowchart - Ask the Boss (download)

Delirium Records

Biba - Close To You (1983)


Barbara York - Tonight (1982)

Delirium Records had a handful of releases between 1981 and 1983 that really showcase a lot of the transition between disco and italo. There is a lot of disco influence in the catalog from those years, the production has a cool electro flair and the vocals are unique. Check out these few selections that have drummed up from Youtube, and explore more on your own.


Amin-Peck - Girls on Me (1982)

Sally Shapiro - New Italo

Sally Shapiro - Jackie Jackie

Sally Shapiro is doing some great things with the Italo sound these days with a new release "My Guilty Pleasure." Here are two songs off here new record and a Junior Boys Remix of 'Jackie' for your enjoyment. She is working with Swedish producer Johan Agebjorn who exhibits steady control over the production along with songwriter Roger Gunnarsson. Its good to hear some quality Italo coming out that sounds so fresh. Here is a free download of Miracle I found through Johan Agebjorn's site:

Sally Shapiro - Miracle (mp3 download)





Sally Shapiro - Jackie (Juniorboys Remix)

8 bit Computer Music

And now for something completely different. Some cool 8-bit music from Commodore 64 games including this sweet Robocop Commodore 64 loading music. Hearing some of these made me want to use some of these 8 bit sounds for myself. And lo the internet offered a solution.


The basic64 is a VST plug-in that will let you synthesize 8-bit sounds. It is a VST plugin so its not standalone. You will need audio software like FL Studio, Cubase, Nuendo, etc to run it.

Download it here

Gaznevada

Gaznevada - Special Agent Man

Gaznevada has me twisted with these releases from the early 80s. The Italian outfit recorded through the 1980s and has a consisntent sound of smooth synth disco. Follow up on them on their myspace page or check out member Marco Bongiovanni's website.

Bagarre

Bagarre - Lemonsweet

Sorry for the hiatus but things have been hectic. Here is a track from Italian group Bagarre that made some waves in the early 80s. I came across Lemonsweet on the Cybernetic Broadcasting Station Top 100 (now Intergalactic FM) but their song Dirty Love really speaks to me.


Bagarre - Dirty Love

Antonello Gabelli and Duke Lake

Duke Lake - Satisfaction, Love and Passion (1984)

I had a hard time finding substatial information about Duke Lake. "Satisfaction..." is a wonderful track and it opened me up to his other work which is pretty solid. Check out his first single "Do You" from 1983. Antonello Gabelli authored many of his tracks.



Duke Lake - Do You (1983)

Satisfaction, Love, and Passion - Duke Lake (download)

Marco Bresciani, Radiorama, and Saxophone

Saxophone - Souvenir (1984)

Download Souvenir - Saxophone


OMD - Souvenir (1981)

This beautiful cover of OMD's "Souvenir" was produced by Marco Bresciani. Here I have included it with OMD's original from 1981.

He also did some extensive recording with Radiorama, recording one of my favorites "Chance to Desire,." His other work with them included "Vampires," "Aliens," "Yeti," "Fire," "Bad Girls," and more. What a wonderful imagination. I got a little carried away because the videos for "Vampires" and "Aliens" were too much.


Radiorama - Chance To Desire (1985)


Radiorama - Vampires (1986)


Radiorama - Fire (1987)