An Italo Disco collection, by Chris Flatline April 2007

Here's the track listing and some notes on a compilation I made for a couple of friends not familiar with the music we play at Future Brain. It's not a definitive history of synthesizer disco, more of a (mostly) chronological compilation based on what songs I have in my collection and what I could fit onto a CD. (As it is, I had to do a couple of early fade-outs on CD 3.) Obviously my own personal taste played a part as well. I'm no particular authority on disco music, so notes here are mostly my opinions and guesses, gathered from various snippets of things I've read (which are probably just general opinion themselves and not historical fact.) However, just by getting thirty-odd songs and arranging them chronologically, you do get a clear feeling of progression.

CD1 (1977-1982)

1. Giorgio Moroder - From Here to Eternity (Italy, 1977)

There wasn't really anyone else I could have started with was there? I'm not familiar with any Moroder material earlier than this other than the 1975 album Einzelgänger, which I would say is more of a 'traditional' electronic/experimental album, although a lot of the time it still based around repeating rhythms.

All the songs on CD 1 are, I think, a mixture of either electronic bands making disco style songs, or disco bands starting to make heavy use of synthesizers.

2. Space - Magic Fly (France, 1977)

Another obvious choice, but essential really, although it was apparently ridiculed at the time. Interestingly a big chunk of these songs are French, the next three actually if you count French Canada as France.

3. Cerrone - Supernature (France, 1977)

This guy is pretty much as respected as Giorgio Moroder in disco circles. Supernature would be a straight disco/funk track but has tons of synth playing and, as far as I can tell, is about genetic engineering gone wrong. Sci Fi and synthesizers make it proto Italo in my book. It's a bit of an epic at ten minutes.

4. Black Devil - No Regrets (France, 1978)

Written by a couple of composers of library music, this was very obscure at the time but has grown in notoriety. All the tracks on the Disco Club album are like variations on a theme – they all have pretty much the same (not quite in-time) drum loop, bongo playing, synths, spooky vocals and bizarre kind of 'tribal' sound. If you found a disco deep inside the jungle, this is what they would be dancing to. Quite similar in sound to the early Giorgio Moroder material but much darker. Black Devil Disco Club is the recent reincarnation of the group and their album 28 After is also pretty amazing.

5. Gino Soccio - The Visitors/Les Visiteurs (Canada, 1978)

It's funny – at this end of the scale the songs are actually very competent pieces of composition – as opposed to the almost punk-like non-musician approach to Italo of the eighties. I suppose these guys are proper disco/funk musicians, dabbling with electronics. I love this song, it's surprisingly fast and has a kind of Hi-NRG feel to it, about ten years early. More on that towards the end of the CD.

6. Telex - Moskow Diskow (Belgium, 1979)

I really should get hold of some more Telex – they strike me as a more tongue-in-cheek version of Kraftwerk… I only realised what the chorus to this song is while I was making the compilation. I originally thought it was something like 'Must go Disco, Moskow Diskow…' but it's actually just 'Miskow Doskow – Moskow Diskow'… nonsense! So here, what with the train sounds, robot singing and everything, they appear to be doing a kind of mechanical-disco piss-take, of course making an amazing proto-everything song in the process.

7. The Immortals - Ultimate Warlord (Canada, 1979)

Just a cool cosmic-disco song. Very kind of, 'traditional' disco sounding if you think about it, but transported into space by it's bizarre lyrics, pitch-shifted chorus and grand sounding brass sounds (synthesized? Not sure.)

8. La Bionda - I Wanna Be Your Lover (Italy, 1980)

Back to Italy again. This is a funny song that doesn't sound quite like anything else collected here. Without fail every time I listen to it I get this image of two guys with moustaches in a little bubble spaceship, bobbing up and down to the bass line… a little while later the girl seen in the visor of one of the Space-men in the Magic Fly video floats past singing the chorus…

9. Azoto - Exalt-Exalt (Italy, 1980) 10. Kano - It's A War (Italy, 1980)

Now I think this is about the time Disco was ceremoniously killed off in America and the focus shifts to Europe. Exalt-Exalt could, again, have been a fairly 'normal' disco song, but has quite a jerky robotic rhythm to it, lots of nice synthesizer solo-ing and they're singing about spaceships again, or something, God knows.

Kano went on to be a big eighties Italo Disco group with a different singer and more of a 'yuppie-funk' sound – It's a War is from their first album, which again, is a mixture of the usual disco sound, heading in a more synth orientated direction. This is a bit of an epic too, lots of 'funky clavi' (as it used to be called on an old Yamaha keyboard of mine) and a big widdly-woo synth solo towards the end.

11. Bobby O - She Has A Way (USA, 1982)
12. Patrick Cowley - Megatron Man (USA, 1981)

I'm not entirely sure why, but here we jump over to America for some reason. Both these guys went on to produce other artists – Bobby Orlando with The Flirts and Patrick Cowley with Sylvester. These are both examples of an early Hi-NRG-type style (I think that mostly took off as it's own genre towards the end of the eighties – think Stock Aitken and Waterman… aaargh) which I think has something to do with the gay scene - I know that was pretty much the only place in America where this stuff was accepted after the whole 'Disco Sucks' thing. With Patrick Cowley, it was a toss-up between Megatron Man and Menergy, but the point of this compilation isn't really to be a homo-fest. I love Menergy but it does seem to be taking the piss out of itself slightly – whereas Megatron Man takes the same elements, puts them in a spaceship and sets off at Warp 9, like a super-charged Magic Fly. Patrick Cowley also did an amazing fifteen-minute mix of I Feel Love.

CD2 (1983)

This is the good shit. You'll notice that bar a couple of exceptions all these tracks are from Italy in 1983 – the 'golden year' for Italo. These songs, while obviously not a definitive list, are pretty much the core of Italo – they don't sound quite like anything else. This is the CD you play to anyone who doubts the validity/credibility of Italo. I like to think the cool minimalism you hear is a natural result of combining the levels of musicianship and technology available. Just like Punk Rock. Synthesizers, sequencers and so on were right on that edge between big wooden studio-filling monstrosities and the cheaper, more user-friendly machines of the 80s.

Some Italo Disco histories state that a mixture of a bad exchange rate between the Lira and the Dollar, plus the fact that people in the US just stopped making disco records led to a need for home-grown disco in Italy/Europe. The cheapest and easiest way to do this was with synthesizers. I think the robotic sound of a lot of Italo is partly due to that phenomenon in most early electronic pop music (in whatever genre), where they tend to have futuristic themes just because it seems a bit of a novelty to have entirely synthesized songs. The other factor, suggested in one of these Italo histories is that the original producers weren't really musicians and played everything one fingered, even slowing the tempo to be able to play accurately, then speeding the tape back up. Whatever the reason, this music doesn't sound quite like anything before or since.

1. Charlie - Spacer Woman (Italy, 1983)

This totally knocked me over the first time I heard it. It somehow manages to be slightly cheesy yet eerie at the same time. It really stands out from the other tracks here, it doesn't really sound like disco but it does have that same stripped down spacious sound (no pun intended) as the rest of them.

2. Hipnosis - Blade Runner (End Title) (Italy, 1983)

Hipnosis were one of the earliest examples of what was eventually called 'spacesynth' – basically a mostly instrumental sub-genre of Italo apparently meant to sound like 'the soundtrack to futuristic space battles'… exciting eh? Artists like Laserdance, Cyber People and Koto (who appears on the next CD). Most hits by Hipnosis were covers of synthesizer classics – Oxygene by Jean Michel Jarre, and Pulstar and Blade Runner by Vangelis. I first heard this on an I-f mix CD and I assumed it was new, not twenty-odd years old! It's impressively minimal.

3. Steel Mind - Bad Passion (inst. version) (Italy, 1982)

This comes from the recent-ish I-Robots compilation (as does Spacer Woman actually) that contained impressively rare songs – but only the instrumental versions! This is one of my pet hates with the current state of Italo representation in clubs – part of the reason for starting the Future Brain parties – why do people not have the guts to play these songs in all their glory? The slightly off-kilter lyrics are half the appeal of Italo! This song is still amazing as a dub version though. Very slow as well, like quite a few of these tracks.

4. Night Moves - Trans-Dance (UK, 1983)

This is actually not even vaguely Italian but I think it fits in. I gather this band was made up of two people, one of whom worked with Gary Numan in some way – not that this sounds anything like Gary Numan, in fact I really can't think of anything else from the UK that sounds like this.

5. International Music System - Run Away (Italy, 1983)
6. Casco - Cybernetic Love (Italy, 1983)
7. Mr Flagio - Take A Chance (Italy, 1983)

I might have given the impression that I think all Italo is pretty amateur-sounding – these three totally disprove that; they are exercises in simple but effective song construction.  I have said to people in the past that Take A Chance is the best pure Italo song ever, now having heard more I'd say one of the best. These are quite similar, they have those same quite flat-sounding drums – but I think the melody is the important thing here. In fact that is what annoys me about modern Italo-esque electro – it's all thump thump and endlessly looping hooks. There's a real organic feel to these songs, even the sequencers and arpeggiators don't sound as rigid as they would today and you can really hear the guy actually playing the lead line. You don't need a deafening kick drum to get people moving. Another quote from somewhere – "The X-Factor in Italian music is having too much melody", although I think that applies more to the stuff on CD3. Anyway, if this CD represents the core of Italo, then these three songs represents the very centre of the Italo style – again, these are only a selection, there are lots of cool songs out there.

8. 'Lectric Workers - Robot is Systematic (Italy, 1983)

Another one from the I-Robots compilation, this one actually has the vocals intact… some kind of advert for a robot?? Makes me feel like I'm hurtling down a space wormhole intergalactic time corridor of some sort.

Yeah you know one of those things.

9. N.O.I.A. - The Rule to Survive (Italy, 1983)

Most of the artists represented here only ever had one or maybe two 12"s released, but N.O.I.A. have many singles and two or three albums I think. Apparently they used to be a rock band. Not that any of these songs really sound generic, but N.O.I.A. have a very individual sound, not to mention the singer's weird voice. Ersatz Audio (Adult.'s label) released a compilation of their early material from 1978-82, which has more of a cold-wave/minimal-wave type sound, also very good.

10. My Mine - Hypnotic Tango (Italy, 1983)

"Hypnotic… TANGO – TANGO - TANGO!" Another one that had the lyrics left off when it featured on all the Hoxton compilations. I mean, to be honest you can see why, they are a bit bizarre but after a couple of listens I think it just sounds really pretty. Musically, another very sparse arrangement (really nice delayed bass line) even though we are now moving more in a pop-orientated direction. Believe it or not Bananarama recently covered this song (the chorus at least).

11. O'Gar - Playback Fantasy (Italy, 1983)

We're almost starting to sound like synth-pop here, but it still has those Italo drums and that sliding bass line is amazing. I imagine the weird guy on the record cover singing this song. So far, this is the most obvious example of that heavily accented English that Italo is known for… no obvious slip us with the grammar though. Again, an advert for something… a radio station this time? I don't know… I don't think anyone's paying attention. Also the first example on this compilation, I think, of a song sounding particularly European – not just the fact that the chorus isn't sung in English, something in the melody too… maybe it's just me.

12. Wish Key - Orient Express (Italy, 1983)

Another train song! I never hear this on mixes or hear it mentioned anywhere so I don't know whether it's rare or what – I found it on a ZYX records compilation in the gay section of HMV. (Yes there is a gay section.) I love it; it's one of my favourites. Totally ridiculous lyrics, strange rhythm in the words of the chorus as well – "I'm changing all my life, just leaving by Orient Express!" Amazing synth-tom drum rolls. Brilliant little keyboard hooks all the way through. Track down the video on YouTube it's amazing – looks like it was filmed at the end of their living room.

13. Pineapples featuring Douglas Roop - Come On Closer (Italy/US, 1983)

Now I've said this is Italy/US as Douglas Roop is an American singer. I don't know if it's the fact that for once they have an English speaker singing English lyrics but this is one of a couple of songs that I can't believe never made it into the charts here (or maybe it did???) I can imagine this has probably had a house remix but God, do I not want to hear it, this version is perfect. It sounds a little like a Canadian band called Lime who I couldn't fit onto CD 3, although Come on Closer is better in my opinion so you aren't missing anything.

CD3 (1983 onwards)

Okay now this is where you will have to bear with me. We are now moving away from what is strictly Italo Disco – I would say these songs are more just synthesized pop music. A more accurate term might be post-Italo Pop or something but anyway – when you talk about Italo Disco, like it or not it is the general opinion that you are talking about this later stuff as well. And anyway – these songs are the reason we are doing Future Brain… they take some getting into but if you're anything like me then you will just become addicted. It's like British 80s culture turned sideways and fired into a parallel dimension. And there's so much of it! Some of the songs are utter crap of course but most are amazing.

Werhay! What the hell's going on here?! Give it a minute to get past the verse, then it starts making sense… kind of. Nice synth solo, then suddenly it's back into slap-bass-on-a-pogo-stick insanity. This comes from Amin Peck's first 12" - all three songs on it are … odd. Clearly they are trying to write a pop song but it doesn't sound like they've had much practice. They also seem to have too many ideas as this song goes through about three changes before, out of the blue, turning into what almost sounds like early Chicago House… which is good because I had to leave off Doctor's Cat – Feel the Drive and Klein & MBO – Dirty Talk, both of which also have that proto-House feel.

2. Brand Image - Are You Loving? (Italy, 1983)

Bit of an odd choice but I wanted to have this one here as it's halfway between the minimal stuff on CD 2 and the pop stuff on the rest of this CD. And it's just a bit strange. Very nice breakdown in the last third but overall it's a bit slow... bizarre.

3. The Creatures - Believe in Yourself (Italy, 1983)

Another one that I think is just a brilliant pop song and could have been a hit here.  Reminds me a little of Freeze (remember AEIOU?) Nothing to do with Siouxie Sioux by the way.

4.The Twins - Ballet Dancer (Germany, 1983)

Some Germans… only non-Italian group here. I think the verses on this are totally cool – up there with Don't You Want Me by The Human League, unfortunately I still can't get used to the chorus. Oh well. He sounds like he's saying 'Belly Dancer' doesn't he?

5. Gazebo - Lunatic (Italy, 1983)
6. Miko Mission - The World is You (edit) (Italy, 1984)
7. Valerie Dore - It's So Easy (edit) (Italy, 1985)

Here we take a bit of a turn, I wanted to put on some of the slower songs. 'Love' songs I suppose.

Gazebo could have been a genius – he manages to pull off some nice touches in his songs, but sooner or later he puts his big cheesy foot in it. Sometimes he makes it to the chorus ok, but here I think he goes splat as soon as he opens his mouth. The use of a real violin and piano is nice here and if you can stomach it the whole thing is pretty funny and kind of endearing. I mean, personally, I can listen to Hall & Oates if I'm in the mood for a laugh. The other good thing with this song is the lyrics – "You're like Nostradamus, but you're not as famous" – I'm sorry but whether English is your first language or not that is inexcusable!

Now, Miko Mission scares me but I felt he needed to be represented here. Give it a couple of listens – it isn't just cheesy, it's really weird. Again, it has quite a 'Euro' (Eurovision?) feel to it, which isn't actually that common, whether or not these bands were trying to sound American or English I don't know. He's a great one for lyrics too – "The World Is You"… really? Is it? Another good one is "Oh, how old are you? Where is your harbour?" Pardon? Are you being rude? This end of the Italo Disco spectrum is a bit of an acquired taste and this isn't even the worst example. Try Silver Pozzoli.

Valerie Dore is a bit of an Italo legend. She apparently has the 'best voice' in Italo Disco. She certainly has the highest. Like Den Harrow and other Italo superstars she wasn't actually a real person – the woman singing the song is actually called Dora Caraflaggio (???) and she also did the voice for a few other 'artists'. The fact that she could (i) sing and (ii) speak English was helpful you see. Later Valerie Dore material was actually written and performed by completely different people. It's So Easy, along with Get Closer and The Night are the classics and to be honest they all sound pretty much the same. She can get a bit sickly sweet sometimes but overall I think this song is quite nice, if not quite on par with Laura Branigan, which is the nearest American artist I can think of. In fact, what am I talking about - Self Control was originally by an Italo band – Raff. See, Italo rules the world.

8. Fun Fun - Happy Station (Italy, 1983)

Another train song! I only just realised what a popular subject trains are in Italo. Weird.

9. Ken Lazslo - Hey Hey Guy (Italy, 1984)
10. Fancy - Slice Me Nice (Italy, 1984)

As I said earlier, I've not included much in the way of gay disco but you can trace a line from Patrick Cowley/Bobby O through songs like these and onto Hi-NRG. 'Slice Me Nice' indeed. Some more choice lyrics – "My heart is beating to the rhythm of love, I need your body like cold hands need a glove." Really searching for a rhyme there, wasn't he? And "I'm like a cake that wants to be baked, I'm like a pie made for hungry guys." Brilliant tune though.

11. Koto - Jabdah (Italy, 1986)

I really wanted to put some Laserdance on here as well but I just didn't have space, so here's a short edit of Jabdah by Koto, to represent spacesynth. Sounds a bit like a game show or sideways-scrolling spaceship video game… maybe that's the point. I love the sleeve artwork for these bands - they always look like the covers for bad sci-fi novels.

12. Scotch - Delirio Mind (Italy, 1984)

"I've seen warriors and showers // Up and down the mountain // And many broken papers // Yellowed with an age // I've seen it, I believe it // Between the great mud // I've touched it, I've smelt it // It's really loathsome // I hate, rock your face // Only way, Delirio Mind." Enough said.

13. Radiorama - Aliens (Italy, 1986)

Yes, that is 'Aliens' they're singing. Some of the weirdest pronunciation ever here, I think. Another good line is "With their sticky faces and laser, we're in danger." Look out for it. Joking aside, I love this song to bits. It's just a harmless cheesy pop song but you just don't get this kind of stuff anywhere else. I love the over-the-top synth-brass and orchestra hits. Another thing worth noting is that they make use of the "Oh-Ah-Oh", a common device in Italo composition. The most famous use of this was in Tarzan Boy by Baltimora – the one Italo song that actually made it over here… unfortunately.

14. Silent Circle - Touch in the Night (Italy, 1985)

Just a brilliant synth-pop song, as simple as that. I still get shivers when the vocoder comes in towards the end.

15. Angie Care - Your Mind (Italy, 1984)

16. Den Harrow - Future Brain (Italy, 1985)

The Anthem. As I said in another Future Brain blog -

"It's an emotive, powerful diatribe against the tyranny of modern technology and its power over man, evinced by the machine's inability to really love someone, at least when compared to such a hunk of manliness as Den himself.

I think that's what it's about anyway. Richie (DJ1982) had a theory it was about donating sperm. 

Basically it sums up the point of our night - the naff sci fi theme, the high camp, the full on space disco sound, perhaps a slight naivety but definitely a load of enthusiasm."

 - Fin -