Down the Rabbit Hole: Italo Disco
It makes perfect sense that eventually my musical journey would lead me to Italo Disco, specifically space disco. I mean i love dance music, specifically dance music that is heavy on synthesizers. My recent interest in italo disco started when i first heard Sally Shapiro, Glass Candy, and Chromatics’ take on the genre. Earlier this summer i was stuck in a dub phase, so it makes perfect sense that the transition from spaced out reggae to spaced out disco would be next.
Seems i’m not the only one, as italo disco, and underground disco is making a huge resurgence. You can read all about the history of italo disco, and it’s influences here (very interesting). A couple weeks ago i found myself at the record store trying to get into the genre a bit more, i was recommended to get a compilation called Milky Disco, which featured the likes of quiet village, lindstrom, morgan geist, luke vibert, Sally Shapiro, among others. I can highly recommend that compilation, which lead me to a 2004 compilation by Morgan Geist, Unclassics, that goes through a lot of underground disco songs from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. We’re not talking ABBA here, but more like Kraftwerk mixed with Daft Punk. Actually, the more i listen to this stuff the more i start to understand Daft Punk’s influences from this genre. It’s obvious.
This compilation brought me to I-F’s 1999 mix tape Mixed up in the Hague Volume 1, which according to wikipedia “has been cited by many, including Morgan Geist, as being the catalyst that brought renewed interest in Italo Disco.” And man is this some spaced out awesome stuff. In and In.
So anyways, i am making the jump into the rabbit hole…so bear with any repeated posts on the topic. Who knows how i’ll come out the other side…but hopefully i won’t be wearing any tight polyester.
Download Geist’s Unclasssics mix here.
Download Mixed up in the Hague Volume 1 here.
MP3’s:
Johan Agebjorn & Sally Shapiro – Spacer Woman from Mars (from Milky Disco)
Pluton and the Humanoids – World Invaders (from Unclassics)
Mr. Flagio – Take a Chance (from Mixed up in the Hague)
Related:
Tags: Uncategorized , chromatics , lindstrom , morgan geist , sally shapiro
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