Raf Coney

The production on Raf Coney's "She's Mine" is pretty epic. The opening saxophone and piano set the stage for an elaborate production. The vocals are understated and an acquired taste but after a few listens this track rapidly becomes an ear worm. The piano refrain with the sax will have you craving another listen. Hiss Records released this one in 1983, they have a small catalog but there are some great tracks in there.

Joe Ericson - Take Your Time

"Take Your Time" is a full bodied, live production that stretches beyond the normal sequenced drums and synthesizers. The delayed female vocals, synth stabs and slap bass keep the energy rolling through this number. Layered by imporvised synth leads and rapid drum pattern changes "Take Your Time" is a drawn-out dance jam. Fun and funky!

Jo Jo - Mind Games

Here is a classic cut from 1982. Underground, rare and lo-fi "Mind Games" is another gem from Italy's Il Discotto Productions. Not too much info about this one but the vocals and instrumental are top notch.

Giani Velcreaux - Blubbermouth

I have always meant for Italobot to be a platform for sharing music, from the past and today. I have had a lot of great track submissions and plan on featuring many of them here in the near future.

That being said I have also intended to use Italobot as to showcase my own musical adventures. At the risk of turning this space into a tool for self-promotion I have decided to start uploading my own tracks (on the rare occasion that I think they are done or at least as finished as they are going to get). I am sure many of the musicians and artists who visit this site can sympathize with the difficulty an artist/musician has in letting go of a project, saying "That's enough!" Being a perfectionist I would as soon let all these tracks stay in obscurity, digitally festering on hard-drives and soon to be unreadable CD-Rs.

Perfectionism aside its good to let go of a project eventually and let it prosper or fail in the interwebs. "Blubbermouth" is both relaxing, cerebral, and anxious, inspired by many of the sounds you hear on Italobot. In the near future I will be releasing this along with a few other tracks on an EP. Stay tuned.

Giani Velcreaux - Blubbermouth

Quando Quango - Love Tempo

Manchester's Factory put out this synth pop number in 1983 by Quando Quango. Its a bubbly track that grooves on and on.

Quando Quango - Love Tempo

Valery Allington and Sangy

This track is a classic, embodying the best mix of electronic disco and soulful R&B crooning. Vallery Allington's "Stop" sees Sangy behind the console, crafting what could be called, italo, disco or proto-House, but the vocals and sparse arrangement on this track make it fit easily into a mix of any of the above genres and more. Maybe that's why its so popular. In 1986 she cut a track called "Let's Make It," a rocking, industrial number (also produced by Sangy) that is a departure from the early 80s funk.

Musix Records featured a lot of Maurizio Sangineto's (aka Sangy) work with Armed Gang, James Kahn, and more. He teamed up with Maurice Cavalieri to release a few tracks as 'Firefly' that will forver grace disco mixes. These two were monsters in the late 70s and early 80s putting out some of the most sought after and precious tracks of the genre. I profiled both of their work earlier on italobot. Check it out if you don't know.

Italobot Podcast 10 - Foggy Summer

Italobot Podcast 10: Foggy Summer

01. International Music System - Dancing Therapy
02. Yellow Magic Orchestra - Behind the Mask
03. O'Gar - Playback Fantasy
04. Joe Kris - You'll Dance
05. Xalan - I Only Move for Money
06. Barry Mason - Together
07. Nexus - Stand Up
08. Capricorn - Maybe No
09. Diana Est - Le Louvre
10. Vinise - Play Boy
11. Marzio Dance - The Adventure

Summer passed us by out here in San Francisco, but I guess that's okay because I had some time inside to make some music and listen to tracks. I had a lot of fun with this one and I hope you do too!

Click here to download the mix.

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Mirage

Another classic from 1983, Louise Freeman's "Mirage" has a funky stuttering synth rhyhtm and subtle vocals that have made this a much sought after record. This one has the fingerprints of one Paolo Micioni whose work I have review here before. A great track from one of the greatest years in Italo Disco.

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.