... if you love Alec R Costandinos or Cerrone, read this ..

[ashley]

.. back in 1979 Pepe Luis Soto ( who famously produced "Superman" for Celi Bee ) made an album for the Rice & Beans Orchestra called "Dante's Inferno" .. it never got released .. which is a shame, as it's nothing like their other recordings .. "Dante's Inferno" sounds like "Love in C Minor" crashed into "Romeo & Juliet" .. it really is that good, with some of the most beautiful string work I've ever heard .. it's like a missing Alec R Costandinos piece .. Anyway it's now been given an official CD issue on U.S. Get Disconnected Records & is available from Amazon & Juno ( listen to the sound clips on the Juno site ) .. I promise this is one purchase that will not disappoint .. a true disco gem .. Get Disconnected should get our full support for issuing rare & divine disco offerings like this ..
Rice and Beans Orchestra Dante's Inferno DiscoMusic.com

[Videoskooter]

Bon Appétit!

[SandraDee]

Wow that's good. I think it actually sounds like a cross between Celi Bee's 'Fly Me On The Wings Of Love' & Jon Davis's 'Love Magic'. Very 1979. & you're right, it's head & shoulders above other Rice & Beans stuff I've heard like 'Blue Danube Hustle' (cringe!).

[JussiK]

Now THIS is Disco. A Masterpiece. I'd pay anything to have this album on vinyl.

[ashley]

.. listen to clips on the following link:
RICE & BEANS ORCHESTRA - Dante's Inferno

[ashley]

.. hello SandraDee .. it seems you were perfectly correct .. not only was "Dante's Inferno" produced by the same team that made "Fly me on the wings of love" .. Celi Bee also performs on "Dante's Inferno" too .. although to these ears the entire album sounds like an early Cerrone project .. which is probably why the album was shelved .. by late '79 that whole LP length concept disco album ( of the Love & Kisses variety ) was becoming tiresome .. but had this been made just 2 years earlier, it would have been a monster ..

[SandraDee]

.. hello SandraDee .. it seems you were perfectly correct .. not only was "Dante's Inferno" produced by the same team that made "Fly me on the wings of love" .. Celi Bee also performs on "Dante's Inferno" too ..

Good to know my ears are still up to it!

[FunkyChris]

Nice track, ordered the cd last week

[Jimmy-Michaels]

Just to inform everyone (and im surprised no one has noticed that has it)...

This CD is horrendous in quality!!!! First off, it was BADLY transfered from the test pressing (clicks, pops, surface noise and an annoying turntable hum at times), and also, on the begining of Side 2..someone over there at "getdisconnected" bumps into the damn turntable causing a really bad "THUNK" noise that makes my damn subwoofer nearly blow up (and on headphones this sounds even worse than regular out loud play).

Find me a copy of the test pressing and i'll clean it up and transfer it right! I cant believe they actually put this lackluster and poor transfer out there for sale and didnt even bother to redo it! At least when Hot Productions was around their needle drops didnt contain any crap like this!

A real shame, cause it is a brilliantly done disco opera. Pretty much "Fly Me On The Wings Of Love" with diff lyrics and some aditional parts as how ive always looked at it (and yes, I had heard some of this before the getdisconnected defacing of the lp). Anyone know where the test press may lay for me to get a copy?

[ashley]

.. hello DJ Jimmy M .. maybe the transfer could have been a little better .. the stylus does drag at one point .. but the music is so wonderful, I would rather have this CD copy than nothing at all .. I purchase a lot of old vinyl on Musicstack, Gemm, E-Bay etc .. I listen to many scratchy old 70s tunes .. so for me, the quality is quite acceptable .. don't forget, this recording lay forgotten in a cupboard for almost 30 years .. it could easily have disappeared forever .. we are very fortunate to be given the opportunity to hear this masterpiece at all .. possibly the original master tapes were lost or destroyed? .. who knows what terrible & deteriorated state the acetate pressing was in, when located by Get Disconnected? .. I think they should be congratulated & supported for this project .. who knows what other disco treasures lay lost & forgotten? If "Dante's Inferno" sells .. and it should, it's brilliant .. maybe other gems will be unearthed & issued for our pleasure .. the world is a much better place for having "Dante's Inferno" sat in my CD rack, next to "Love in C Minor" & "Accidental lover" .. :icon_biggrin:

[Jimmy-Michaels]

.. hello DJ Jimmy M .. maybe the transfer could have been a little better .. the stylus does drag at one point .. but the music is so wonderful, I would rather have this CD copy than nothing at all .. I purchase a lot of old vinyl on Musicstack, Gemm, E-Bay etc .. I listen to many scratchy old 70s tunes .. so for me, the quality is quite acceptable .. don't forget, this recording lay forgotten in a cupboard for almost 30 years .. it could easily have disappeared forever .. we are very fortunate to be given the opportunity to hear this masterpiece at all .. possibly the original master tapes were lost or destroyed? .. who knows what terrible & deteriorated state the acetate pressing was in, when located by Get Disconnected? .. I think they should be congratulated & supported for this project .. who knows what other disco treasures lay lost & forgotten? If "Dante's Inferno" sells .. and it should, it's brilliant .. maybe other gems will be unearthed & issued for our pleasure .. the world is a much better place for having "Dante's Inferno" sat in my CD rack, next to "Love in C Minor" & "Accidental lover" .. :icon_biggrin:

The clicks and pops would be fine to me (as i could clean all that up), but that literaly careless bumping into the turntable..that's unaceptable and unfixable. I actually never knew this was unreleased till my good friend told me. I had heard this some years ago in Philly in the early 90s, so I just asumed it was a hard to find record. So with it have been floating around in Philly, the test press HAS to be out there somewhere. And if I ever find it..i'll pay for it for sure!

BTW, what CD is "Accidental Lover" on other than the 9 min edit on the Unidisc CD?

[ashley]

.. hello DJ Jimmy M .. There's a company, based in Mexico, that regularly sell the Love & Kisses CD on E-Bay .. all discs are A/D/D & apparently manufactured in Russia .. they are all digitally remastered & sound clean .. so far I've purchased the two Giorgio Moroder produced Three Degrees albums, the Dennis Parker album "Like an eagle", the Revalacion album "House of the rising sun", the Love & Kisses album & the 3 Roberta Kelly albums .. and they all sound superb, crisp & clean .. I'll send you the link when the company puts up another listing ..

[Jimmy-Michaels]

.. hello DJ Jimmy M .. There's a company, based in Mexico, that regularly sell the Love & Kisses CD on E-Bay .. all discs are A/D/D & apparently manufactured in Russia .. they are all digitally remastered & sound clean .. so far I've purchased the two Giorgio Moroder produced Three Degrees albums, the Dennis Parker album "Like an eagle", the Revalacion album "House of the rising sun", the Love & Kisses album & the 3 Roberta Kelly albums .. and they all sound superb, crisp & clean .. I'll send you the link when the company puts up another listing ..

Oh ok..im very familiar with those..they've just done what I already did a few years back..which was digitaly master the vinyl, clean it up etc. I was thinkin there was a legit rare CD somewhere out there LOL

I do know though that "How Much How Much I Love You" got a legit CD release back in 1989 on Unidisc..but it is VERY near impossible to find.

[ashley]

.. there is a seller in New York pushing digitally remastered copies of "How much I love you" .. for very little money .. and it's the full length 16 minute version too .. you probably know it, but here's the link:

LOVE & KISSES/HOW MUCH HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU PROMO CD NEW on eBay, also, CDs, Music (end time 27-Feb-08 19:21:26 GMT)

[BrunoRepublic]

.. hello DJ Jimmy M .. There's a company, based in Mexico, that regularly sell the Love & Kisses CD on E-Bay .. all discs are A/D/D

That's an outright lie. ADD would indicate that the albums were mixed down to digital, which obviously they were not. The "promo" bit is a (feeble) attempt to feign legitimacy. There are no real promo copies, since the albums are out-of-print and there is no release to promote.

These are needle-drops, maybe run through some noise-reduction plug-in to clear up some of the surface noise. Anyone who buys them is giving money to thieves. You might as well save some cash and just download the songs from your local P2P network, since it's every bit as (il)legal.

I wouldn't be surprised if these "promo" discs were made from MP3s anyway. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the Love And Kisses one was made from the restoration job I did of it a few years ago.

[BrunoRepublic]

I do know though that "How Much How Much I Love You" got a legit CD release back in 1989 on Unidisc..but it is VERY near impossible to find.

It's not the full album and it's not worth the money or effort. The material was dubbed from cassette.

[Videoskooter]

Ashley, like Graham points out: the Russian CD's are rip-offs! It's Grand Theft Costandinos!

The only legal output on CD is:

Alec Costandinos and The Syncophonic Orchestra Love and Kisses / Alec R. Costandinos and The Syncophonic Orchestra Greatest Hits DiscoMusic.com

AND THAT ONE IS RARE, VERY RARE!

And I doubt very much that the "How Much I Love You" CD is genuine. As far as I know Alec does not want to re-release his music! Didn't, doesn't, hasn't!

And that's a sad thing coz' I'm looking for this one: Tony Rallo "Holdin'On" and I've contacted Tony and even he is looking for a mint copy!!!!!!!

[BrunoRepublic]

And that's a sad thing coz' I'm looking for this one: Tony Rallo "Holdin'On" and I've contacted Tony and even he is looking for a mint copy!!!!!!!

I have two copies of this although neither are mint. I might be able to provide Tony with the next best thing though...

[Videoskooter]

Thx Graham, give me a few days to contact Tony again since he's still a very busy man. BTW, I know you're Canadian: do you speak French? Tony does :icon_lol: (not a big deal but it would be easier )

[BrunoRepublic]

Thx Graham, give me a few days to contact Tony again since he's still a very busy man. BTW, I know you're Canadian: do you speak French? Tony does :icon_lol: (not a big deal but it would be easier )

Nope. I only know one language. :(

[Videoskooter]

Oh yes,I forgot, it's probably only Québec. No problem, I'll manage.

But...getting back to Costandinos, our Jimmy M has made a little rmx of this 1,
The Pennine Radio Band Theme, anybody who has more info on that?

[Jimmy-Michaels]

This isnt Alec's stuff. I just included his name in the search cause it has simmaler sounds and folks who like Alec would apreciate this. It was made for a UK radio jingle promo package cart tape for Pennine Radio in the late 70s.

[Dr. Disco]

It's not the full album and it's not worth the money or effort. The material was dubbed from cassette.

Hi Graham,
I enjoy reading your posts and was curious if you knew any further details regarding Unidisc and their source material, specifically about the Costandinos Greatest Hits CD Unidisc had issued many years ago. I have that CD and it's okay but flawed. There isn't tape hiss, though I noticed on Romeo and Juliet that the hi-hat cymbals sound "dampened". On the other hand, I have a Carrie Lucas CD (Portrait of Carrie) from Unidisc which truly sounds like a crappy tape dub, complete with tape hiss and a very 'thin' sound.

(NOTE: I retracted my statement about the Unidisc Costandinos CD sounding pretty good. I just had a listen and forgot how weak "How Much How Much I Love You" sounds, as well as the distortion on "Accidental Lover".)

[Videoskooter]

This isnt Alec's stuff

LOL, that's why I wanted some more info. I was reluctant to make the Costandinos connection here because of the...voices. They sound different. But the rmx is excellent like always. I think it's about time the starZ DISCOver your talents

[ashley]

.. hello Graham & Videoskooter .. you have certainly given me plenty to think about .. :icon_confused: firstly, I had always presumed Tony Rallo & Costandinos were the same person .. just different pseudonyms .. by 1980 interest in the string driven LP length operatic disco epics was fading .. the last of the large-scale Costandinos productions had not sold well .. .. "Holding on" was deliberately different to the Love & Kisses / Romeo & Juliet projects .. a new name was created for a new sound .. even during his time at the disco peak Costandinos worked under a number of different names .. so tell me if I'm wrong .. I'd love to know .. :icon_confused: .. and how can you be sure these CDs from Russia are counterfeit? The discs & sleeves look very professional .. and even arrive in celophane wrapping .. Could a Russian label have obtained the copyright to some of this rare material? Could the copyright have been obtained at reduced cost in the knowledge these discs were only intended for sale in the east? The sound quality is superb .. sounding much better than many legitimate CD releases on Hot, Get Disconnected or Unidisc .. How is the casual record buyer expected to know the difference? Especially when the so-called offical releases often sound so poor in quality? Is there a small chance these Mexican / Russian discs are not bootlegs? I wouldn't want a charge of defamation & libel thrown at me .. those poor Russians get blamed for everything .. :icon_confused: .. and Videoskooter, you show us the 1 apparent legitimate CD of Costandinos material ( which I suspect consists of edited bits ) .. then tell us it's impossible to find .. out of print .. completely unavailable .. worth thousands of dollars .. ho hum .. small wonder buyers look to other sources to complete their CD collections .. :icon_confused: .. what choice do we have?