Italo Disco

[Voyage]

I would like to know if anyone here likes Italo Disco stuff. Also do you think Italo was more undergound than High NRG in the 80s?

Voyage

[Masdefi]

On 2002-10-26 12:47, Voyage wrote:
I would like to know if anyone here likes Italo Disco stuff. Also do you think Italo was more undergound than High NRG in the 80s?

Voyage

There's a lot of different italo disco to say I like it. Some of this is really trash, some is quite nice. Mostly is very poor sound according to my taste... I can save just a short list of really interesting stuff. There has been also a lot of people that have nothing to do with disco (like Adriano celentano, Raffaella carra', Claudia Cardinale ---aaaarrrrgggghhhhhhh!!!!! :sad: )that (mystery of music) was anyway appreciated by someone. Where has teh taste gone?!?!
I would say Italo disco YES, but just a drop!!!

[Ysl]

Bonjour,

I'm a big fan of Italian Soul/Disco especially all Mauro Malavasi/Davide Romani songs and less know singer Mike Francis (He also worked with D.Romani and Paolo Gi-anolio from Change)

And let's not forget the Fulltime Label !

Italians did give to disco/soul something special not to find elswhere ...

Ysl

[Ysl]

Bonjour,

I'm a big fan of Italian Soul/Disco especially all Mauro Malavasi/Davide Romani songs and less know singer Mike Francis (He also worked with D.Romani and Paolo Gi-anolio from Change)

And let's not forget the Fulltime Label !

Italians did give to disco/soul something special not to find elswhere ...

Ysl

[sirius]

Dear Friends!
Certainly I like stuff from Malavasi or even
La Bionda, but at the early 80ies ItaloDisco
became more and more electronic, which was
sometimes very commercial. But the good thing
was, that Italy had never problems with
DiscoSound like the USA with endless Disco-
Sucks-Campaigns.
Cosmic Love & Kisses From SIRIUS & DARKTUNES

[Jimmy-Michaels]

Id say the Italo stuff was great in the late 70's/early 80's. One question though, why in the hell is Sylvester, Divine and Dead Or Alive (you all remember you spin me round like a record baby...lol) listed on this site of Italo music?? Just curious there. The sounds of Jaques Fred Petrus will always be my favorite Italo stuff, pure and great in the late 1970's.

DJ Jimmy M

[JussiK]

Do check out the Claudia Cardinale ( Sun..I Love You & Love Affair) and the Lucio Battisti (El Velero & Nessun Dolore)tracks, as quite contrary to what some people claim ( !), these are proud and powerful Disco titles and that's a fact. There's so much to be discovered in Italian vaults, from odd tasteless one-off wonders like Must's Sado Maso Disco to discoey movie soundtracks from the respected Ennio Morricone ( Aniatra All'Arancia ) to the criminally neglected Nico Fidenco (Emanuelle in America). And if you got a taste for gourmet cheese there's Marisa Mell, the late starlet and actual Star of the immortal cult fave Danger: Diabolik! by Mario Bava ( Lady O ), unknown American showgirl turned Italian tv celeb Heather Parisi (Disco Bambina, Ti Rockero)and of course the eternal, maternal Raffaella Carra ( Jogging, Black Cat, etc). And going back to Italian film music it really is so much better than American, once you get hooked into the cinemascope & technicolor bossa sounds of Piero Umiliani, Piero Picconi, Armando Trovaioli, Morricone and the rest there's no turning back.

[BrunoRepublic]

On 2002-10-28 02:03, JussiK wrote:
... from odd tasteless one-off wonders like Must's Sado Maso Disco...

I recently got the 12" of this. Nice cover and concept, but I found the track rather lacking overall.

[Voyage]

Last week I watched a movie that had all of it's music composed by Ennio Morricone. Awesome music I must say.

I really like the Italo sound of 1981-1986. It's very High NRG and full of rhytmn. Afterwards the sound got very much like stuff made around 1989-1990.

It's true that there were no movements against Italo Disco. But I think it really had it's boom in Europe and not very much in America. This maybe happened because at the time from what I've read there was the New Wave invasion happening.

Probably the only Italo tracks and stuff that were popular in America were: Dolce Vita by Ryan Paris, Color My Love by Fun Fun, and Happy Children by P. Lion. All three from either 1983 and 1984.

Voyage



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Voyage on 2002-10-28 09:17 ]</font>

[martinus]

Some italian tracks that i like:
Kasso: Kasso, an album with the hits "Walkman","Kasso","One more round","Brazilian dancer"
Kano:"Can't hold back (your loving)","Dance school","It's a war"
Klein & M.B.O.:"Dirty/More dirty talk","Wonderful"
Koto:"japanese wargames","Jabdah"
Boeing:"Dance to the beat"
Asso: "Don't stop"
Jimmy Ross:"First true love affair"

[Nano]

I remember Jimmy Ross, Pino D'Angio, Firefly, La Bionda, Kano and some others, most of them were one-hit wonders but now I'd like to listen to the full albums to catch some hidden gem...
Of course there are Fred Petrus & Mauro Malavasi and other producers, but from what I know they were in fact Italo-American and worked in the States. Ditto for Giorgio Moroder who established in Los Angeles to work as a producer and film scoremaker.
Raffaella Carr~{("~} was one of my first crushes when I was 12! :oops: Of course she made an album in Spanish and toured to win our market. "03-03-456", "Tanti auguri", that other one that went "aha-aha-en el amor todo es empezar/explota explotame expl~{(.~}/explota explota mi coraz~{(.~}n..." Really kitschy you know!? For disco lovers was a bit "greasy", more of a TV guilty pleasure than a dancefloor diva.

[Marcio**]

Hi Nano,
Raffaella Carra has a song ("California"), I think it is not so bad.
Sarr Band is very good. "Cafe" by D.D. Sound got the top 500.
The big problem is David Christie, is he French or Italian ?
Alexia ("uh la la la") is Italian (I guess).
Francesco Napoli sings in Italian, he does me good.
.

[Voyage]

Francesco Napoli has very good stuff like all of those Ballas he made which are mainly mixes/medleys of classic Italian songs from all time even the 60s and 70s and 80s.

Recently he had a big hit in Italy called "Lady Fantasy". This song is not the same as Max Him's 80s song.

Voyage

[Marcio**]

In 90's many artists from Italy turn up in Brazil like Double You (I like "She's Beautiful"), Alexia, Ann Lee, Corona, Gala (and others) but around 95/96 a girl called Wighfield did a big success singing "Another Day" and "Saturday Night", she has a pussy-cat voice very sexy and her songs has a piano's evolution very exciting.

.

[euroflash]

First, Bernie - THANK YOU for creating this Italo-Disco section on your great chat board. Much appreciated!

The term Italo Disco was first introduced by Bernhard Mikulski, the founder of ZYX Records, when 'The Best Of Italo Disco" series was released. When I use this term, I refer strictly to disco music produced in Italy, by Italian composers and artists. However, most people use it in broader terms to describe the dance music produced in Europe during the mid 80s.

In order to further explore the origin of Italo-Disco "...We have to go back to the end of the seventies, when DISCO in general was popular, even in the beginning of the eighties. The REAL DISCO-made-in-Italy following the meaning of the word, came from people like Fred Jacques Petrus ("Peter Jacques"), with his fellowmen responsible for so many productions for Little Macho Music (Goody Music, Speed, Renaissance, ....) It sounded more like the American disco-productions, but always with that special "melody"-touch, for which Italians are the CHAMPS !!!

For most people who paid attention to Italo Disco phenomena from the very beginning, the name ITALO-DISCO became more significant with productions like those from Klein & MBO, GARY LOW, BO BOSS; later followed by GAZEBO, RYAN PARIS, SCOTCH, P.LION, SAVAGE, etc.

Italo Disco.. never sounded quite right to the ear of any American clubber, let alone a DJ. This strange music had every attribute that can help a "new project" fail in America: the beat was too slow to become a popular dance rattler, the mood of the songs was too melancholy, very strong accents magnified often senseless lyrics, or lack thereof etc. etc... However, it gained an enormous popularity for a couple of years in Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia, especially in Japan.

It is all about percussion... Those over-arrangements, accents, melancholy style of the ROLAND JX-8 synths, and sounds created by Minimoog, Oberheim, Emulator II (all the instruments commonly used by Italians in the early 80's) have created something very unique and special in disco music history...

Many of the Italo tracks that appeared on previously posted top 100 list are strictly domestic affairs, keeping to their borders within Italy, and never seen the light of US disco clubs. I believe also that many of the late 70s/early 80s singles were actually quite regional. Most of the tracks are from North of the Po Valley in the richer and more industrialized section of Italy and from what I gather in the last few years of the 80s, were very difficult to find and buy in the south, even in Rome from independent mainstays like Claudio Donato's 'Goody Music' Record store.

All of the major labels tended to be Northern too. Time and Media in Brescia, Memory in Mantova (and now the location of Dave Rodgers ABeatC, SAIFAM in Verona, Expanded, first in Udine, then Bologna, to say nothing of Baby, Discomagic and all the distributors in Milan. The only ones I can think of in Rome are X-Energy, Discoclub/ACV and long dead Cat Music (the Mincioni's label) and Flying in Naples..."

For more italo disco stuff please visit EUROFLASH. Thanks for readin'

[Masdefi]

Do check out the Claudia Cardinale ( Sun..I Love You & Love Affair) and the Lucio Battisti (El Velero & Nessun Dolore)tracks, as quite contrary to what some people claim ( !), these are proud and powerful Disco titles and that's a fact. There's so much to be discovered in Italian vaults, from odd tasteless one-off wonders like Must's Sado Maso Disco to discoey movie soundtracks from the respected Ennio Morricone ( Aniatra All'Arancia ) to the criminally neglected Nico Fidenco (Emanuelle in America). And if you got a taste for gourmet cheese there's Marisa Mell, the late starlet and actual Star of the immortal cult fave Danger: Diabolik! by Mario Bava ( Lady O ), unknown American showgirl turned Italian tv celeb Heather Parisi (Disco Bambina, Ti Rockero)and of course the eternal, maternal Raffaella Carra ( Jogging, Black Cat, etc). And going back to Italian film music it really is so much better than American, once you get hooked into the cinemascope & technicolor bossa sounds of Piero Umiliani, Piero Picconi, Armando Trovaioli, Morricone and the rest there's no turning back.

Jussi, you've an excellent memory. But let me say that the artists you noticed have had a very low success in the italin disco scene. I can assure you no DJs would have never spinned Heather Parisi, because of immedeately empty of the dancefloor. Worst would have been with (the poor) Lucio battisti or -worst than worst- Raffaella Carra'. In Italy is pure trash, Raffaella is no more used, even in the baby-parties. :lol:
What do you think about BBQ band, Double Dee, Den Harrow, Mike Francis? Those are better....
Ciao

[Voyage]

I haven't heard Rafaella sing ever but I've seen her on TV as a show host on RAI TV called Che Sorpresa!. :D

Den Harrow did very good stuff. What do you think of Fun Fun?

Voyage

[JussiK]

Masdefi - I can well understand why you Italians would rather see the world embrace Armani, Prada, D&G, contemporary arthouse film directors, sports cars, opera divas, industrial designers or culinary delights than someone like Raffaella. When I enthused about her in Rome people looked at each other totally aghast and mortified - " no, nobody likes her here, she is horrible, please do not at any cost spin ANY of her records tonight, promise!!" I'm not saying she's not bad, of course she is. She's horrible by any conventional standards. But the truth is Rafu is also good trashy fun! And look at a rag such as CHI - that Raffaella look abounds there, the same glittering low cut dresses, hairdos, gestures and multiple layers of Rimmel on most of the media starlets of today. Plus Raffaella herself is still making appearances in those magazines herself, along with the rest of the old skool gang of Sydne Rome etc. Cheesy glamour is eternal.

- Lucio Battisti? I don't believe you've actually heard the long version of El Velero - that track is WICKED, mate, as the young of today put it! I've spinned it to clubbers in London who loved it. So if hardcore revellers like that 1976 track in the club capital of the world I think we can safely assume the record works.

Everyone more or less likes Mike Francis and the rest of the 80's output plus the 90's piano house ditties but those do not quite reach the impact, good or bad, of Heather of Raffaella.

[Italo Disco]

Hello,


I have a lots of italo videos and not only to send in ebay...
Look at:

that section:
"For Sale Or Trade"


Because I am an in italo fans!!!

[Masdefi]

Masdefi - I can well understand why you Italians would rather see the world embrace Armani, Prada, D&G, contemporary arthouse film directors, sports cars, opera divas, industrial designers or culinary delights than someone like Raffaella. When I enthused about her in Rome people looked at each other totally aghast and mortified - " no, nobody likes her here, she is horrible, please do not at any cost spin ANY of her records tonight, promise!!" I'm not saying she's not bad, of course she is. She's horrible by any conventional standards. But the truth is Rafu is also good trashy fun! And look at a rag such as CHI - that Raffaella look abounds there, the same glittering low cut dresses, hairdos, gestures and multiple layers of Rimmel on most of the media starlets of today. Plus Raffaella herself is still making appearances in those magazines herself, along with the rest of the old skool gang of Sydne Rome etc. Cheesy glamour is eternal.

- Lucio Battisti? I don't believe you've actually heard the long version of El Velero - that track is WICKED, mate, as the young of today put it! I've spinned it to clubbers in London who loved it. So if hardcore revellers like that 1976 track in the club capital of the world I think we can safely assume the record works.

Everyone more or less likes Mike Francis and the rest of the 80's output plus the 90's piano house ditties but those do not quite reach the impact, good or bad, of Heather of Raffaella.

Hi Jussi, I appreciate the italian fashion all over the world as Armani but i wouldn't never buy that because I found not so sane to spend €200 for a shirt, as example. But I can spend €100 for a rare 12"!!!!
I actually like Raffaella just for TV entertrainement, I was a fan when I had 10 years old... I still have in my collection some old 45 from Raffaella. I only say that I have never spinned Raffa, that's all. But I LOVE that you like Raffaella, that's a milestone in Italy TV scene and I like of course if someone likes stuff or people from my country.
I agree to you that actually noone exist with the same success as Raffa and Heather had when they come out! Ciao!!!

[Giovanni]

This is just to point out that nobody here ( :lol: ) in this thread but Euroflash exactly understand the meaning of italo-disco.

One thing are italian acts that may have released disco records (and my friend Jussi is the undisputed king of italian, as also world's, trash!! :D )

Other thing are those italian artists that released disco records, in the style of american disco, ie Malavasi etc, that we all here like (being Marteen the undisputed king of trivia about that :D )

Lastly, a different thing is italo disco, a term that refers to italian productions, made in Italy and released by italian labals in the mid 80s (mostly 83 to 87), whose musical features have been well described by Euroflash :D . These records were mostly done by djs turned "musicians" (!!!) with a very low budget and had a very regional diffusion even here in Italy. Only a few got mainstream success. Like it or not (I personally don't) the so called italo disco remains an important moment in he evolution of dance music, and some of those italo records are considered pivotal in the birth of house sound of Chicago.

[euroflash]

for your kind words and aknowledgement.

I met recently with a friend of mine a resident DJ from Chicago who is really keen on Electro stuff. He is about 15 years younger than me and was very enthusiastic when I played for him Charlie "Spacer Woman", Some Bizarre "Don't be afraid", Sun-La-Shan "Catch", Myxoma "Don't runaway", Delanua "Black breast", Expansives 'Life with you".. Does it ring the bell? All Italian productions of very early 80's. Along with Sharevari and Afrika Bambaata, these productions have created something pretty special and this ELECTRO sound is really hot at the moment in Holland and Germany, where 17-18 year old deejays mixing "the old" stuff and think that that retro sound is the best thing... ever.... I just wanted to add a few points towards the importance of italo-disco movement.

Ciao!

[midas]

im lookin for an artist and name of song.
its in italic, and its disco and i think from early 80.
now the lyrics i dont know I dont speak italic.
it might be spanish.
it has got funky bass, male vocals,
he goes like this.....
...balla...balla (i think that means dance)
and sometimes he sing/talks (almost rappin)
..strato fancsonaro....balla....balla,

any italo know what im talkin bout


____________
midas

you without me is like cornflex witout the milk,
its my world, you just a scirrel trying to get a nut.
-orange juice jones

[euroflash]

is my best guess - he did a series of medley "BALLA" part I & II. To be correct, Francesco is from Spain and worked with German producers Peter Columbus & CO, great shlager-meisters.. Hope this helps!!

[midas]

thanx friend, any link to mp3?

__________
midas

I stand up from the crowd and shout out loud
you are the one for me- _ -_____