X-Visitors

This track really swings! Its hard not to listen to this without moving your body to the back beat. San Francisco Bay Area funksters, X-Visitors put this one out in 1983 on Dancing Bear Records. The main synth melody is just molasses-thick, the dissonant cowbell, monotone rap and soulful crooning on this one all combine for a shoulder-shuffling number.

I'm a Vocoder

What would electronic music be without the robotic timbre of vocoded vocals? Now that auto-tune and a renewal of interest in vocoder use are prevailing in popular music it is always important to take a look back at how the vocoder was used in the 1970s and early 80s. To hear it in these earlier tracks is to see how an innovative technology was used to define genres that at their foundation enforced a science fiction element within the music. Today our daily life is the stuff of science fiction and thus the sound of the vocoder no longer represents the same elements of space and the future that it once did. Not only has the unique nature of the vocoder changed over the years but its harder to get the body and volume out of today's digital vocoders and software emulators that you had with the old analog devices.

Check out Gay Cat Park's homage to this wonderful instrument, circa 1982.

Hollywood Seven

Many people fall prey to the allure of fame and fortune. Its hard not to when we are immersed in a pop- crazed, mass media culture that seems to place the highest value on the cult of personality. Alides Hidding's 1980 disco tragedy Hollywood Seven is a lesson in the drawbacks to the dream of stardom, sung in a story format and driven by percussive brass and dramatic chord stabs. This one came on in the car today and I had to get it up immediately.

X-Visitors

This track really swings! Its hard not to listen to this without moving your body to the back beat. San Francisco Bay Area funksters, X-Visitors put this one out in 1983. The murky bass and monotone vocals on this one
X-Visitors - The Planet Doesn't Mind

Camomilla

Queen of the Night and Indian Reservation were featured on Camomilla's 1985 12-inch "Queen of the Night" on Magnum. Queen of the Night really typifies the Italo sound of the mid 1980s, thick accented female vocals and a melodic, ear-worm synth lead that wiggles into your brain. Indian Reservation is the story of a lonely Native American girl looking for a love. Its a little more nuanced and erratic, with a chunky bass, percolating rhythms, and sustained electric piano that give it a darker feel. Both fun tracks. Enjoy!

Dancing Therapy

International Music System put out this infectious number in 1984 on Emergency Records. The melody of the chorus and thick synthesizer pads truly has healing qualities. What else can you expect from Maurice Cavalieri and Gino Stefani, the geniuses behind Spacer Woman?

Vam Cyborg

Some Spanish electro from 1983 for my re-entry into the trenches of Italobot. I have been spending a lot more time getting back into my instrument at the unfortunate expense of my drum machines and keeping this blog up to date. So to make it up for you I'll get a few extra songs up today. This one from Vam Cyborg is driven by some great minimal arpeggios and has a fun breakdown with heavy breathing and whooping, vocoder chords.