Dirty Talk by Klein & M.B.O., produced for the Italian Zanza label by Tony Carrasco in 198
Dirty Talk by Klein & M.B.O., produced for the Italian Zanza label by Tony Carrasco in 1982. Its introductory giggle was one signature, of course, but Carrasco, who'd DJed in New York frequently, gave the track a hypnotic quality that's a clear precursor of the minimal Chicago house sound.
Dirty Talk can be found on Perfect Beats vol 1:
1. Planet Rock - Afrika Bambaataa
2. Play At Your Own Risk - Planet Patrol
3. Don't Go - Yaz
4. The Mexican - Jellybean
5. Bostich - Yello
6. Trans Europe Express - Kraftwerk
7. Numbers/Computer World - The Perfect Beats Volume 1
8. Numbers/Computer World - The Perfect Beats Vol.1
9. Don't Make Me Wait - Peech Boys
10. Just An Illusion - Imagination
11. Starchild - Level 42
12. A Little Bit Of Jazz - Nick Straker Band
13. Dirty Talk - Klein
14. Love Money - T.W. Funkmasters
ITALO DISCO
Italo disco is a very wide term that refers to various types of European disco and pop-styled dance music, that evolved during the early 1980s in Italy, Germany, Spain and other parts of Europe. Italo Disco music has a distinct, futuristic and spacey sound which was created using synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders. During the 1980s, the term "Italo-disco" used in Europe to describe all the non UK-based dance productions, including some Canadian ones. In the UK and the USA, Italo-disco was virtually unknown to the mainstream consumer and existed only underground.
Terminology
The name 'italo disco' originates from the Italo Boot Mix series, created in 1983 by Bernhard Mikulski, the founder of German-based, ZYX Music - a megamix featuring Italian and German produced European disco music. Prior to 1983, the genre was simply referred to as 'disco music' from Europe. The presenters of the Italian music show "Discoring" (produced by RAI), usually refered to the italian productions of what later would became "italo disco" as "Rock Electronico" and "Balandi Discoteka". This first version of Italo Disco, sounded like a tempo down version of Space Disco, a short lived Eurodisco instrumental style, with futuristic sound FX and lyrics heavily influenced by David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars band
Technically speaking, Italo Disco was simply the 80s version of Eurodisco. The term 'Euro Disco' today, refers to all disco music produced in Europe during the 70s and the 80s. But during the 1980s, this term used to describe the 1970s and early 1980s European disco productions, especially those from Germany (Boney M, Eruption, Dschinghis Khan, etc).
In the mid 80s, the Stock Aitken Waterman team , created on the UK, a commercial music genre, labelled as "Eurobeat". Those first hits (Dead or Alive, Bananarama, Jason Donovan, Sonia, Kylie Minogue, etc) were heavily based on how "Italo-disco" sounded to the Brits. From the UK, those Eurobeat Hits end up on USA and helped the evolution of New York's "Freestyle". In USA, eurobeat marketed as Hi-NRG.
The same term, Eurobeat, used in Japan (around 1987) to describe all the Italo-Disco and Eurobeat imports. Italo-Disco became very successfull in Japan and when the 80s Eurodisco ended and the music switched to Eurohouse and New Beat, "Super Eurobeat" created on Japan as the successor of italo disco. During the 90s, another spinoff successor appeared, called Eurobeat Flash. Super Eurobeat and Eurobeat flash are virtual unknown outside Japan.
During the 90s, discopolo created in Poland based on the "italo disco" sound.
Italo-Disco (in the German Variation of Dieter Bohlen) also continued until the early 00s in Russia.
History
1975-1981
Italian producer and keyboardist Giorgio Moroder began to experiment with electronic synthesizers, and creating loops and synth-hooks using Moog and Korg synths. Italian producers were influenced by film soundtracks that used new electronic drums, such as "Assault On Precinct 13". An Italian music group, Goblin, began creating electronic-themed soundtracks for Dario Argento's Italian horror films. Giorgio Moroder's first LP "From Here To Eternity", and then "Chase" established him as a popular hitmakers. At the same time, the French producer, Jean-Marc Cerrone released a series of albums such as "Supernature" and "Love In C Minor".
Lucrethia & The Azoto 14,008 releases the "Dance Skinsation LP" to help jumpstart the Vedette Records label - leading the way for Italians to produce disco music. In 1978, La Bionda recorded an early Italo Disco song: "One For You, One For Me". In 1978, Black Devil, from France released the "Disco Club LP", which used beautiful harmonies and synthesizers. "Disco Fizz" by Azoto (working without the Lucrethia syntax) appeared in 1980, alongside Tantra's "The Hills Of Katmandu" release. Both artists being Italian and leaning further away from the traditional disco beat and more towards a faster drumbeat using a drum machine, would later be known as two more pioneers of what would become Italo Disco! On the newly-formed Discomagic Records label, Sylvi Foster created "Love Dawn" and "If You Are Master" while Delanua recorded "Flood". Kano recorded songs such as "I'm Ready" and "Holly Dolly". in 1980, La Bionda had a hit entitled, "I Wanna Be Your Lover".
1982
Discomagic Records and Il Discotto Productions created many sub-labels, each with their own distinguishable sounds. On Il Discotto, Jo Jo created a track entitled, "Mind Games", which fused R&B, electro, and disco. Gary Low released his first single, "You Are A Danger" which used both synthesizer and piano. Discomagic was beginning a long catalogue of records such as "How Many Fill" by Delanua, "The Garden" and "Robot Is Systematic" by 'Lectric Workers, and the club hit "Hookey" by Sylvi Foster. ll Discotto Productions had a hit with "Tequila" by Bo Boss. Other songs of note are Capricorn's electro dance song "I Need Love" and "Plastic Doll" by Dharma.
On Zanza Records, Klein & M.B.O. release "Dirty Talk", and Pink Project debuts with "Disco Project" a cover version of Pink Floyd's, "Another Brick In The Wall", which had chart success in 1982 in Europe. Mito released "Droid" on Zanza Records. Koto's first release, "Chinese Revenge", was very spacey disco song. Bob Salton's "Starknight" becomes a high energy Italo Disco hit. "Coda" by Amin Peck starts a long list of hits. The Twins debut with "Face To Face - Heart To Heart" and would be back in 1983 with two more big singles (more on them later). Electro fused to Italo Disco in 1982 in songs such as "Bad Passion" by Steel Mind, which used robotic-sounding vocals. Marzio Dance released hits such as "The Adventure" and "Rap-O-Hush". Franco Rago and Giorgio Farina released "Life With You" by Expansives and produced "The Man From Colours" by Wanexa.
1983
Mr. Disco Organization (a sub-label of Full Time Records) released "Spacer Woman" by Charlie. The House Of Music label's B.W.H. released a double single entitled, "Stop" / "Livin' Up" and "A Dog In The Night" by Mr. Master. Two songs that used vocoders included "Cybernetic Love" by Casco and "Take A Chance" by Mr. Flagio. Il Discotto was the home of Doctor's Cat and their debut song, "Feel The Drive". Also on the same label was the first release by Brand Image entitled, "Are You Loving?" On the Italian Records label, Gaznevada releases "I.C. Love Affair" and N.O.I.A. releases "Stranger In A Strange Land" . On the Fly Music label, "Shaker Shake" by Time is released.
Samoa Park debuts with an Italo Disco version of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" project. Ryan Paris creates the happy piano-esque tune called "Dolce Vita" which topped European charts. Tommy Bow's "Dance Tonight" and Felli's "Diamond In The Night" were two of Discomagic's big songs of 1983. However, one of Discomagic's best releases was "Orient Express" by Wish Key. Gary Low released a single, "I Want You", and Gazebo had a string of European chart hits with "Masterpiece", "I Like Chopin", and "Lunatic".
At American Disco Records, Scotch released "Penguin's Invasion" and P. Lion releases "Happy Children", two songs which top the European charts. Finzy Kontini releases "Cha Cha Cha", a tropical melody with an Italo Disco sound. "Hey D.J. (Give Me A Lot Of Music)" by B. Rose. Camaro's Gang release "Fuerza Major" and "Ali Shuffle" while Kano returns to top the charts with a major hit entitled, "Another Life". The amateur Danse Records label had the song "Come On Closer" by Pineapples with Douglas Roop, an American vocalist. Memory Records released Hipnosis ("Pulstar" and "Oxygene") and Baby's Gang ("Happy Song", and "Don't Stop Lovin'" by J.D. Jaber.
"Incantations" by G.A.N.G. on the Discomagic label, and "Suicidal" and "Anxiety" by Amin Peck became popular in 1983. These 8-10 minute tracks used many instruments and channeled layers. "Run Away" by International Music System becomes a well known song as a result of some very deep, dark beats. "You ... See" by Helicon - used male/female combo vocals, which is uncommon for an Italo song.
The Creatures released "Believe In Yourself" and The Twins and had two popular songs "Ballet Dancer" and "Not The Loving Kind". Righeira released "No Tengo Dinero" and "Vamos A La Playa", two Italian vocal songs that both European charts. Other big hits in 1983 included, "Young Man" by Nite Lite, "Communicate" by Kirlian Camera, "Voice (In The Night)" by Martinelli, "Hypnotic Tango" by My Mine, and "Magical Body" by Los Angeles T.F. In a category of his own, Den Harrow debuts with "To Meet Me" and "A Taste Of Love".
Some of the bigger labels began to make waves in Germany, Netherlands, and throughout the rest of Europe (with England as an exception), eventually finding their way to the ZYX label in Germany. This record label did a lot of third-party licensing for the German market. ZYX had enough songs licensed to their label that one of their producers/deejay's created two short megamixes using Italian disco songs. The mix was named, "Italo Boot Mix Volume 1" and it featured artists such as Mr. Flagio, Time, Doctor's Cat, Samoa Park, and Brand Image. This mix was the first outreach of pure Italo-disco music in new markets. Soon after the first "Italo Boot Mix" was released, European began referring to disco music from Italy as Italo Disco.
1984
Fockewulf 190 paves the way with "Gitano" and "Body Heat", two of the most respected Italo songs ever. The Italian men behind Fockewulf 190 made one more song using the alius of Frank Tavaglione called "Tumidanda". The original 12" features both an English and Italian version, which was very uncommon. Using the voice of Fred Ventura and the production values on Market Records, the Fockewulf 190 group recorded "Eagles In The Night" by Dario Dell'Aere.
Fockewulf 190's four productions were all on limited release in 1984. Fred Ventura had a hit with "The Years (Go By)" and it's featured in an Italo Boot Mix, making it an even bigger hit in Germany. International Music System, released a party song called "Dancing Therapy". Memory Records' hits of the year included Ken Laszlo's,"Hey Hey Guy" and "Tonight" and by Cyber People's "Void Vision" and "Polaris". The Peecker Melody label, a sub-label of Il Discotto provided three hits in 1984: "Your Fun" by Modem, "Driving" by Sensitive, and "Running Straight" by Amin Peck. "I Wish" by Bolero became a hit all over Europe, and "Self Control" by the late Laura Branigan was popular.
The song "Souvenir" which was originally released by OMD was then covered by a handful of Italian artists including Nicky & Nicky and Saxophone. By 1984, Italo Disco's output was very high, which many new songs arriving each month at the local record shops throughout Italy and Europe, particularly Netherlands and Germany. "Clouds" by Angie is a great female Italo hit. "Magic Carillon" by Rose is another female vocal classic, often considered to be the best Italo song ever. Fake debuts with a sexy vintage disco styled song that keeps many elements of Italo Disco.
In 1984, "The Years (Go By" by Fred Ventura becomes a lead track on one of the Italo Boot Mixes and also a top chart hit all over Europe. Il Discotto's big hit was "Hot Stuff" by Image. Discomagic's big hit was "Play Boy" by Venise - another female vocal song with a great electro/drum beat combo. However, the big Italo song of 1984 (from a true fans standpoint) would be "Catch" by Sun-La-Shan. Scotch released "Disco Band", a major hit in Germany. Miko Mission released two songs in a row, "The World Is You" and "How Old Are You?".
1985
Brand Image returns to the Italo scene in 1985 with "Love In A Summer Night" helping jumpstart the infamous Time Records label. Magika has a hit on Time Records with "I Know Magika". Italo Disco began having major saturation of the market, peaking in 1984 and 1985. Creating an Italo Disco song was very easy and inexpensive cheap for the DJs to produce, and many of the biggest producers from the big labels would start sub-labels.
One producer might make 100's of songs a year, and the same vocalists would appear on songs across many sub-labels, being the secret vocalist. Rose, Ken Laszlo, Fred Ventura, Eddy Huntington, Den Harrow, Joe Yellow, and Albert One would become the major contributors to this rapid movement of new songs being produced. For example, "Spanis Run" by Jaco is actually the voice of Ken Laszlo, famous for his smash hit "Hey Hey Guy". It is confusing because the genre was very tightknit yet so quickly evolving. 1985's hits included "Forever And A Day" by 93rd Super Bowl, Fake's "Brick" and a b-side called "Another Brick", "Dial My Number" by R. Bais, and "Baby On Fire" by Ottomix & P.K. Siegel.
1986
Italo Disco began to decline as new genres surfaced. High Energy music in Germany, fuelled by Modern Talking, Bad Boys Blue, C.C. Catch, and Silent Circle began to conquer the charts. At the same time, traditional Italo disco beats begin to sound "old fashioned" when compared to the new speedy drum machine beats on a Roland TR 808 or 909. This is when Garage House, Acid House, Chicago House, House, Acid, Eurodance, and any form of the true 130 BPM would begin to take over the dance scene. It had all been developing slowly since 1982 when Italo Disco first surfaced. The beat used in clubs sped up and the bassline in club music became louder.
In 1986, Italo disco reached the US, and two songs actually became minor hits there, categorized in the New Wave genre: "Boom Boom Boom (Let's Go Back To My Room)" by Paul Lekakis and "Tarzan Boy" by Baltimora, which was released in 1985 but became an American hit in 1986. With Eurodance it was "Mr. Vain" by Culture Beat. For Italo Dance, it was "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65. It was around this time that Radiorama became a major player in the Italo scene. They would get their own label and release a major, major song called "Aliens" in the end of 1986. Alan Barry, Aleph, Alphatown, and many other Italo artists start experimenting with a faster BPM. Slowly, the BPM began to speed up into the 130's and 140's. Time Records becomes the leader in the industry at this point, with A Beat C and Asia Records following right behind.
The Italo Boot mixes became popular in Germany and others parts of Europe that weren't able to access all the Italo releases. Italo Boot Mixes were megamixes from the ZYX label, featuring 10-15 songs per mix, usually split into 2 parts each. They usually featured the biggest Italo songs of the time and were quite popular in Germany, where many made the top charts for many weeks.
[edit] Evolved and inter-related genres
Italo disco evolved into Eurobeat in the late 80's, though some of the producers still produced European dance tunes to cater to their own country (Eurobeat music is sold only in Japan due to the Para Para culture there). During the latter half of the 80's, Italo Disco began fading away and many Eurobeat has become a staple in the Japanese music market in which the Italians are still producing songs in 2007. The evolving sound of eurobeat involves a much higher BPM as well as more rapid synth-lines and much faster vocals. The genre itself upped the BPM in the late 80's all the way into the 2000s. And in recent years, the BPM of some (not all) has vaguely slowed back down, though the slowed down tunes still had that "bursting with energy" sound that distinguished eurobeat music. The two most famous labels of this genre include A-Beat-C Records and Hi-NRG Attack. 2 record labels that produced Italo Disco in the past, S.A.I.F.A.M. and Time, now produce Eurobeat music for Japan.
The other style of music that italo disco evolved into during the latter half of the 80's is italo house that also fused with other parts of Europe to eventually lead to house music. Italo disco artists began experimenting with harder beats and the "house" sound, eventually causing italo disco to sound outdated and not nearly as exciting compared to the likes of these new sounds.
The German variation of Italo disco is known as discofox. In Poland, a variation called disco polo appearead during the early 90s. It was characterized by an emphasis on melody, exaggerated overproduction, and a more earnest approach to the themes of love; examples may be found in the works of Modern Talking, Fancy, Bad Boys Blue, Joy, and Lian Ross. This music can also be labeled as Euro Disco, and to America Italo Disco (America named all non American Hi-NRG dance tunes Italo Disco).
Also during the mid-1980s spacesynth developed as a sub-genre of Space Disco / italo disco music. This style was focused mainly in Scandinavia, particularly the Netherlands and was mostly instrumental and focused more on space sounds than the earlier pop-oriented songs, as exemplified by the sounds of Koto, Proxyon, Rofo, Cyber People, Hipnosis, and Laserdance.
Revival, 1993-- (electro)
Italo disco developed a cult following in the early 1990s, and electro releases in 1993 by I-F, in 1998 by Legowelt and Tobias Bernstrup, and in 2000 by Jeans Team, Bangkok Impact, and Hong Kong Counterfeit were among those that fuelled renewed interest. I-F's 2000 Italo-cum-electro mix Mixed Up in the Hague was equally important to the reintroduction of the genre.
As of 2005 several online radio stations stream the genre and underground clubs are playing the records widely again. Its renewed popularity is inspiring re-releases and new mixes on many of the record labels that released the genre initially. ZYX records has released many new CD mixes since 2000. Labels like Panama Records and Radius Records have gone through great lengths to find the original artists of obscure italo tracks for re-release on vinyl.
The German group I-Robots has released several mixes incorporating obscure Italo disco tracks, and in 2006 released a German-language cover of Charlie's "Spacer Woman" called "Spacer Frau." Death Disco Radio began broadcasting in 2006 playing Italodisco, Eurodisco, italodance and other related Italo disco genres
related terms below:
Acid House Downtempo House Techno
Ambient Drum 'n' Bass IDM Trance
Big Beat Electro Jungle Tribal
Breakbeat Garage Progressive Trip Hop
Disco Hard House
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