212-226-5708

 

Subways:

B, D to Grand St.

J, M, Z to Bowery St.  

F, J, M, Z to Delancey-Essex Sts.

 

FREE!

 

Come, and let’s have fun!

 

[press picture to enlarge the flyier]

 

cool!

You're invited.

Read my reviews for previous nights: Nov. 11 and Oct. 21.

Read - next week - my review for the current party.

@ Fat Baby

Free. 7 PM.

112 Rivington St.
(between Ludlow & Essex)
New York City, USA
F train to Delancey St.
J, M or Z to Essex St.

DJs: Paco Bklyn DJ and AdoDisJock.

Come and have fun!

Daniel
New York

DJs:

AdoDisJock (Resident DJ)

Guest DJs:

- Brian Shelton
- Conrad Kaneshiro
- DJ Vinnie Campisi
- electrochris
- jeffrey
- SPECULATOR

@ Fat Baby

112 Rivington St.
(between Ludlow & Essex)
New York City, USA
F train to Delancey St.
J, M or Z to Essex St.


So, let's see:

It was nice; about 50-60 people; about the same number as last time.

Some danced, most preferred to socialize and listen to the music.

Still not easy to bring out people on a… SUNDAY evening, for a kind of music that currently is… NOT popular in the US.

The DJs – from rookies (electrochris, 1 yr. experience) to veterans DJ Vinnie Campisi / XM Radio (27 yrs. experience) - mixed records, CDs and MP3s.

Brian Shelton couldn't make because he got sick. Marco Tulio Thrash and Ben joined in the last minute as guest DJs.

Some songs that I remember:

Bobby O - I'm So Hot For You
Camaro's Gang - Fuerza Major
Closed - Living In Your Eyes
David Lyme - Bye Bye Mi Amor
Den Harrow - To Meet Me
Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence
Joe Yellow - I'm Your Lover
Klein & M.B.O. - Dirty Talk
Magazine 60 - Don Quichotte
Mozzart - Money
Patrick Cowley - Menergy
Radiorama – Aliens
Sex Shop Boys - Big Tits
Shy Rose - I Cry for You
Simona Sierra - Muchacho
Sparks - Beat the Clock
The Creatures - Believe In Yourself
The Twins - Face to Face
Wilson Ferguson - Show Me
Yazoo - Don't Go

And many, MANY more. A FESTIVAL of good songs! And EXCELLENT mixings.

We had a small, but very knowledgeable audience: DJs, record producers, promoters, other people in the industry or simply Italo fans.

AdoDisJock (Resident DJ)



jeffrey



DJ Vinnie Campisi / XM Radio



Conrad Kaneshiro



electrochris, but you can call him Chris



Will (aka SPECULATOR) and AdoDisJock



From left to right: DJ Vinnie Campisi, Ben, AdoDisJock, Marco Tulio Thrash, and Conrad Kaneshiro


The Italo Princesses



The Italo Princess with the Italo… Prince (?)



Some old and new friends:

.
The Roots Of Italo Disco (Euroflash)
http://www.euro-flash.net/italo.php

The History Of Italo Disco (Italo Disco's blog in My Space)
http://www.myspace.com/italodisco1

Italo disco (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo_disco

Talk:Italo disco (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Italo_disco

The Return of Italo Disco! (ishkur)
http://www.ishkur.com/articles/italodisco.php

Italo Disco (Global Darkness - Clearsound)
http://www.globaldarkness.com/articles/history_of_italo_disco.htm

Italo Disco: The Facts. (WOEBOT)
http://www.woebot.com/movabletype/archives/000039.html

Italo Disco History (I Love Italo Disco blog in My Space)
http://www.myspace.com/iloveitalodisco

ITALO STORY OF FINLAND (ITALOWORLD - ITALOGURU) [In English]
http://www.kolumbus.fi/italoguru/homepage.htm

La musica Italo Disco (Nino Baldan) [In Italian]
http://ninobaldan.altervista.org/italo.htm

Italo-Disco (laut.de) [In German]
http://www.laut.de/lautwerk/italodiskco/index.htm

Italo History (Italo Dance, Germany) [press Italo History in the left menu] [In German]
http://www.italodance.de/

Italo Disco History (Web DJs) [In German]
http://www.webdjsitalodisco.ch/index2.htm
.

Hey there,

Few days ago in my answer to the question:

WHY ITALO DISCO WAS NOT SUCCESSFUL IN THE US IN THE 80s?

I wrote:

And I also think that they, the US music industry decision makers, wanted to PROTECT Michael Jackson, and Madonna and Prince songs; domestic stuff that is.

Few days ago I bought the book: Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979 , by Tim Lawrence, and on page 257, I read:

By the end of 1979, Eurodisco had established itself as a force to be reckoned with. Built around a thudding four-four beat, futuristic synthesizers, and a penchant for grandiose conceptual themes, the genre had its own esthetic, and it also looked like it was selling more records than any other strand of disco.

Within the past year, imported disco record producers have literally taken the country by storm, resulting in fierce rivaltry among local record labels, which are reportedly bidding record prices for licensing rights to these viable new products.

Billboard reported in September:

ALTHOUGH SOME RECORD COMPANY EXECUTIVES ARE STILL RELUCTANT TO RECOGNIZE THE IMPACT IMPORTS ARE MAKING ON THE US MARKET BY STATING THAT THIS COUNTRY HAS THE BEST RHYTHM PLAYERS IN THE WORLD, AND WILL ALWAYS BE THE CENTER OF DANCE MUSIC, SUCCESSES OF SUCH FOREIGN GROUPS AS SILVER CONVENTION, CERRONE, LOVE & KISSES, MUNICH MACHINE AND GEORGIO [SIC] MORODER CANNOT BE IGNORED. [my upper cases]

See, I told you!

Daniel
New York

Last week, Thursday August 17, 10 PM, to be precise, NYC had the honor and pleasure to see and hear Mr. Alexander Robotnick, 80s electronic music pioneer.

The thing happened at Tribeca Grand Hotel in downtown Manhattan (New York City.) A HOTEL, you might ask? Yep, they did it in a section of hotels bar.

So kids, lets see what happened.

Around 11 PM, there was already a crowd of 300 people. Not bad for a Thursday night.

Anyway, the party - I.S.S. - was organized by Speculator, Jacques Renault, Kklovenhoof and Chase.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE CROWD:

Basically, the crowd was composed by 3 groups of people:

1. THE KNOWLEDGEABLE GANG. They knew each and every song Alex played. And they knew the lyrics to all the songs produced by Alex.

2. THE INDUSTRY PEOPLE: DJs, record collectors, promoters, producers, etc. I never saw in my life so many DJs in one room. Well, except for DJs conventions obviously. There were at least 20-25 that I know; for sure there were many more. That night was a special one and everybody wanted to be there.

3. MISC. These guys a very small minority - simply wanted to know what the heck electro music is and why Alex is so popular. Hopefully they found the answers.

OK, here we go: Jacques started warming up, then Speculator put a little more wood on the fire and then Mr. Maurizio Dami. What do you mean whos Maurizio Dami?? Thats Alexander Robotnicks real name, for those of you that didnt know.

So, what did he play?





 



Lemme see: A mix of 70s disco, 80s electro some Hi NRG and obviously Italo Disco. Nope, NO German Disco songs.

So, lets see what songs I remember:

A refreshing International Music System: Dancing Therapy

A gorgeous Free Enterprise: I Wanna Make It On My Own

An obscure Telex: Moscow Discow

A nice surprise Bobby O: She Has A Way

People went crazy when he played Trans X: Living on the Video (in fact it was the French version of the song, Vivre On Video)

Same reaction when he played Dead or Alive: You Spin Me Round. OMG what a song!

I went ballistic when he played Michael Prince: Dance Your Love Away. Well, me and a few dozen more.

A little more brit air: Small Town Boy, which I simply couldnt remember at 1 AM the groups name. Luckily, Maria, an Italian girl living in New York, and a 80s freak, told me immediately: Bronski Beat, baby. I looked at her thinking that when Jimmy Somerville sang the song in the 80s, probably she wasnt even born. But.

Well, thats about it, what I remember. Ill ask Mr. Robotnick for the complete playlist, and Ill post it later.

Oh, few things about Problemes damour.

When Alex was singing:

Aua! C'est le cri d'un robot souffrant d'amour, aua

The hard core fans responded: AUA!

Then Robotnick:

Aua! Même sans ses larmes il pleure toujours, aua

And the knowledgeable crowd: AUA!

Im sure you got the picture

That was such a nice interaction.

For mixing he used a laptop with Ableton software, which he says he likes more than Traktor.





 



Few more comments:

I met a lot of people; people I knew, and also new people, which, most of them, the next day became my virtual friends in MySpace.

Talking about MySpace; looks like today if you dont have a MySpace presence you are seen by the others like somehow retarded or something.

I met few guys who told me that they dont have a page in MySpace yet, but they are working on it. WORKING ON IT? It takes less than 1 minute, to do it, and you dont need to know HTML, CSS or JavaScript. Pleez people, dont find excuses for your laziness.

I met a guy from Kishinev (Moldavia, a former Russian republic) He knew A LOT about Italo Disco and EVERYTHING about German Disco.

I also met ITALECTRIC an Italian DJ residing in Berlin, but currently in New York for some gigs.

He tried to convince me that German Disco (Modern Talking, and the like) is a sub-genre of Italo Disco.

While I told him that I respect his opinion, I also told him that MY opinion is different, and I consider that both Italo Disco and German Disco as two sub-genres of 80s Electronic music.

BTW, hes not the first Italian that tells me that Dieter Bohlen is a sub-product of Italo Disco. Well, the Italians invented the term Euro Disco, to throw ALL the Italo / German Disco, Hi NRG, etc. produced outside of Italy. So, according to them, Modern Talking, Dead or Alive, Tapps and even Bobby O, are ALL EURO Disco. Which is VERY inaccurate.

BTW, Italy is also in EURO(pe) right?

Few seconds ago, I saw Modern Talkings biography in  Answers.com where I read MTs music belongs to Genre: Rock.

ROCK!? Hard, soft, medium or well-done? Disgusting!

You know what? My grandmother used to say:

IF YOU DONT KNOW, DONT OPEN YOUR MOUTH!

OK, back to nicer things.

Before, during and after the show I talked to Alex.

I was talking to a very modest and even humble guy. Always answering with a smile. Good vibes people. GOOD VIBES.

Did I mention that I took some pictures (400 ); Alex: DJing, singing, dancing, signing autographs, drinking a beer, etc Crowd pictures, etc.

At one moment we were 5 or 6 people taking pictures at the same time. Some with cameras, some with cells. Crazy! An army of photographers.

So, in conclusion:

Alexander Robotnick DJ:

Music selection: **** Only 4 stars because I was expecting from a 80s guy, stuff from the 80s. Well, he added some techno / house from early / mid 90s which honestly I didnt like very much. Me and some of my friends I talked to. I was expecting MUCH more Italo Disco songs. Most in the audience came for Italo, electro and less for techno / house.

Mixing abilities: ***** Excellent! Period!

Dancing abilities: ***** Super! He danced BETTER than most of the guys in the audience. And trust me, I know a thing or two about dancing. For a 50 (?) years old guy he dances damn well.




 

Events Location:

Sound ** VERY modest. Cant believe it! Im sure, many of my readers have better sound systems in their homes. There was a small technical problem during Alexs set, but was solved in 15 seconds.

Lights: * Well, you know for sure what 1 star means. I mean the lights were there, but there was nobody pressing the buttons.

Hotels event promoter: **** Very good. Active and helpful.

And finally:

Crowds satisfaction: ***** Everybody left around 2 PM, after Alexs set.

I only have 2 words to describe the night: A BLAST!

Thnx Alex Robot!

Come back whenever you can.

We love you!

Daniel
New York
 

Yep, electro heads, tomorrow Alexander Robotnick will be in town

See you at 10:00 PM, at

Tribeca Grand Hotel
2 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10013
Phone: 212 519-6600

Subways N or Q, down Canal St.

See also Alexander Robotnick DJ Set

Listen to some of his dj sets on the right menu, bellow the pictures.

Before going to see Alex Robot as a good friend of mine, t aka spacerobotlady call Mr. Robotnick - Ill go, at 8 PM, to see Maxx Klaxon with Marlene Mars at

169 Bar
169 East Broadway
F train to East Broadway

See ya!

Daniel
New York