Italo Disco RFI

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Dan, you just made my day! I LOVED Mixed Up in the Hague Vol. 1, and kept hearing that there was going to be a Vol. 2. I eventually forgot about it, but now I know where to find it. Thanks!

― Jeff Sumner (Jeff Sumner), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:28 (twenty-two years ago)

when did Vol. 1 come out? A while back, right? I haven't been paying attention to I-F in a while.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:35 (twenty-two years ago)

everybody needs la bionda's "wanna be your lover." your life is only operating at half speed without it, seriously.

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:37 (twenty-two years ago)

everybody needs la bionda's "wanna be your lover." your life is only operating at half speed without it, seriously.

I'll second that.
"Cybernetic Love" by Casco, "We Just" by Moses and "Mister Game" by Klapto also rule.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Has anyone heard that deruggio or whatever mix cdr they are selling at Other Music? I have a copy of it but haven't really listened to it. I have no idea about italo and was wondering whether it was represenative of a certain school, etc.

― Magic City (ano ano), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

La Bionda did the soundtrack for "Super Fuzz" with Terence Hill and Ernest Borgnine, which is pretty great.

― jazz odysseus, Tuesday, 27 April 2004 15:57 (twenty-two years ago)

has anyone heard "waiting for the heaven" by brand image? later-period italo (i.e. more hi-NRG sounding), 10 minutes, totally epic and great.

there was a period of one week or so last month where i only downloaded italo tracks. it was wonderful.

― joseph (joseph), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 16:12 (twenty-two years ago)

other favorites:
answering service - "call me mr. telephone"
baby's gang + denise - "disco maniac"
katy gray - "hold me tight"
brian martin - "sex tonight"
fun fun - "happy station"
advance - "take me to the top"
clio + kay - "keep on dancing"
ris feat. celeste - "love-n-music"

― joseph (joseph), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 16:17 (twenty-two years ago)

DJ TLR is your man for mixes, the guy that runs the Creme Organisation, I can't fault his selection and he's breath-takingly proficient on the decks. He swipes a record out of his bag, syncs it up, scratches it in and then tweaks it into the mix using the levels - all in the time it'd takes me to start thinking about which track should go next.

― nick.K (nick.K), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

A whole thread and still no mention of Trans-X "Living on video"! How can that be? Certainly one of my favo Italo disco tracks.

I also like:

Fancy "Bolero" (veerrry cheesy, but fun)
Company B "Fascinated"
Fun fun "Colour my love" / "Baila bolero" (both pretty obvious, but I hadn't seen them mentioned).
La bionda "One for you, one for me"

The Casco track is brilliant! Couldn't believe it had been made back in the 80s...

Over here in the Netherlands, we had the Italo Dance Classics 1 to 4, which contained some of the tracks mentioned in this thread...

― Rudolf (Rudolf), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, and how about Baltimora's "Tarzan boy"?

― Rudolf (Rudolf), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, "tarzan boy" is immortal. still gets mainstream radio play today, too (my friend actually called me on saturday to tell me she heard it blasting from some guy's car).

― joseph (joseph), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 16:37 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, Casco.. but Tarzan Boy doesn't work as Italo for me, it makes me think of John Hughes films and being miserable in the 80s.

― nick.K (nick.K), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

MIxed Up in the Hague 1 came out in 2000. There was an original CD pressing, with artwork and everything, and Kims and Other carried it. That and his Space Invaders are Smoking Grass hold a great deal or responsibility for much of what's happened in dance and electronic music since, more then just a revival of interest in old Il Disc releases.

I'm listening to the 3 part Bootleg DJ Cafe mix by I-F right now...fantastic.

ok, here are 3 favorites of mine that always "get the party started" right, they all feature a mix of early 80s italo and electro-funk and all feature women saying motivational things about dancing:

Digital Emotion-Get Up, Do You Wanna Funk
D.F. & Pam-On the Beat
X Ray Connection-Get Ready(special freak mix)

note there is no question mark after the first title. Because with a beat like that, it's a rhetorical question.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

and above I meant Tonight by Symeron.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 16:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah - it's as good an introduction as any. Alec D(eRuggiero) knows his Italo.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 17:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I have "Portrait of a Dead Girl" and "The Man from Pack." Wish I had bought the other stuff back then, too.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 18:33 (twenty-two years ago)

may stop by apt tonight post-"new" music-thon at Town Hall. Gilles is a great DJ as well, most of the time(except when he plays too much EBM...)

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 21:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Alec D will be spinning Italo there tonight, too!

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 21:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I know, thats what the "as well" implies!

there are many schools and sounds of italo, ranging from 77 to 87 or so, the hippest stuff being around 82/83, depending on yr taste. We'll see what Alec D's got!

NY's real italo luminary was Generic Costume's Kevin Carney, but he moved to LA, I think.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 21:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I've just returned(early.) DJs were all great as expected and Alec D even blessed me with a copy of his mix which opens with a recent obsession of mine(first heard from Morgan Geist years ago...props where props are due) Miss Broadway by Belle Epoque. My prediction? We've all tired of the excellent proto-techno vocoder electro italo that is finally getting comped and re-released, and are stretching the boundaries to the earlier more organic stuff (see the Black Devil Disco Club) and the later big pop stuff (see Magazine 60's Don Quixote)

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 04:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I heart the big pop stuff, the stuff that's a whisker away from being really corny europop, but is just a bit too ballsy and over-the-top to qualify:

Cyber People - "Void vision"
Koto - "Dragon's legend", "Chinese revenge" and "Japanese war game"
Kano - "Another lover"
Ken Laszlo - "Hey hey guy" (which is really actually fucking twisted lyrically)
Radiorama - "Desire"
Scotch - "Delirio mind"

'84-'86 style. All bombast and drama. Like if you take all the strings-y bits and overblown 20-minute concept EPs from disco (that were never part of any trendy revival) and execute them with synthesisers and sci-fi, you get this type of italo.

The tasteful stuff is all well and good and fine for indie-rock revivalists but italo can also be like the happy hardcore of disco.

― Jacob (Jacob), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 06:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Another Lover is ace!

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 07:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Mito - Droid (amazing, sounds like Morricone gone disco)

― snowballing, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 08:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Here's another vote for the Cybernetic Broadcasting System over at http://www.cbs.nu/ - they play a load of fantastic old electro-disco stuff on their radio thing.

― steve w, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 11:16 (twenty-two years ago)

my mid 80s big drum faves are

Video feat. Buckelew-Hey Boy (as opposed to Video's Hey Girl)
Taffy-I Love My Radio (midnight radio)
Fun Fun-Happy Station

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 16:45 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm listening to the cbs radio stream right now. they're playing pretty tony's jam the box.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

if you look at the c-b-s site, you'll see much of the music is streamed from mp3s supplied by pappawheelie, esp. if you're hearing miami bass, classic disco or proto-freestyle stuff.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

and check out the last of the 4 sponsors with a little web-banner, of course...

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 17:20 (twenty-two years ago)

ronan the guy out of selecta records has an italo disco mix doing the rounds,its a good laugh,i dont know the guy personally but judging from the amount of people who have the mix he must be banging out copies to all and sundry

― robin (robin), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 23:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Great thread! I downloaded Mixed up in The Hague yesterday and am really curious about it (haven't yet listened). I live in The Hague and had seen the cd in the library, but I got fooled by the cover, which looked extremely amateuristic. Will look if they have volume 2 as well...

― Rudolf (Rudolf), Thursday, 29 April 2004 07:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I love that ridiculous drum roll (well, kind of drum roll) in "hey hey guy" to bits :-)

― Rudolf (Rudolf), Thursday, 29 April 2004 07:04 (twenty-two years ago)

three months pass...

Anyone know anything about a group called Bingo (or "the Amazing Bingo Band")? I just got this 12" from '79 by them: "Dragster" b/w "Power Music." It's outstanding.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 03:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I recommend the absolutely essential "Club 80's Italia" (from french label Wagram) compilation.

― daavid (daavid), Wednesday, 25 August 2004 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

A real must...
Giorgio Moroder - From Here to Eternity.
It rocks - pardon, it 'italodiscoes'! :)

― f*lippo, Wednesday, 25 August 2004 23:30 (twenty-one years ago)

four months pass...

RONAN

if you're there, the track I was talking about a while back, I found it out, remember I mentioned about an italo track with a phone ringing in it and thought it was one of the great tracks ever:

ken lazslo, 'hey hey guy'

― cºzen (Cozen), Sunday, 26 December 2004 22:48 (twenty-one years ago)

valerie dore's arthurian song cycle, the legend!

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 27 December 2004 00:15 (twenty-one years ago)

kay franzes' "i work the weekend" is one of my favorite tracks right now.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 27 December 2004 00:21 (twenty-one years ago)

valerie dore's arthurian song cycle, the legend!

i LOVE "lancelot"! and i'm encouraged that the rest of her medieval stuff is great too :)

oh by the way, anyone who has ever posted to this thread needs to check out http://disco80.ru IMMEDIATELY - it's all in russian but if you feel around for awhile you'll find a link to full clips of italo disco music videos that are simly indescribable. i highly recommend the dschinghis khan performances and scotch's "mirage (la luna)" video as well (a melange of all the cheesiest possible '80s video techniques).

― joseph (joseph), Monday, 27 December 2004 05:25 (twenty-one years ago)

by the way, despite having seen all these videos, i'm still not convinced that the people who performed/sang these songs are anything other than big-haired european robots.

― joseph (joseph), Monday, 27 December 2004 05:27 (twenty-one years ago)

seven months pass...

REVIVE! I just got a hold of (thru EBAY) a 3 hr. DVD-R comp of Italo videos
and performances that melted my brain after watching about 1/2 hour.
Mostly the poppier stuff, like Fun Fun/Magazine 60/My Mine/Den Harrow, but
so so incredible.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 23:46 (twenty years ago)

feel free to bring me a copy!

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 28 July 2005 00:12 (twenty years ago)

You got a DVd burner, senor?

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 28 July 2005 00:20 (twenty years ago)

yes I do.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 28 July 2005 00:24 (twenty years ago)

four weeks pass...

can anyone else get these videos to work? because i cant :(

― minna (minna), Saturday, 27 August 2005 03:39 (twenty years ago)

― PaulB, Saturday, 27 August 2005 03:59 (twenty years ago)

Try this torrent for low risk Italo electro...

― js (honestengine), Saturday, 27 August 2005 04:26 (twenty years ago)

OK, they're very obvious, but I can't see them mentioned anywhere on the thread, and they ARE stupendous:

Charlie - Spacerwoman
Lectric Workers - Robot is Systematic

― baboon2004 (baboon2004), Saturday, 27 August 2005 21:49 (twenty years ago)

Nice to see this thread coming back! Getting more and more of the stuff posted above.

My favo track at the mo is: Torrevado "Living in the shuttle"
The guy's English is just hysterical!

LIIIIVIIIING IN DA SHAAAATLLE!

Radiorama are also great for poor English. Check their "Aliens". They make it sound like "AHHHHLIENS".

also, I got a video of this Italo-piss take:

Zlad! "Elektronik supersonik"

I don't know who this guy really is, but it's fucking brilliant!

― Rudolf (Rudolf), Sunday, 28 August 2005 11:06 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...

I just got this gem in from Amazon. I can't even get to the second disc cause the first one is so good. "Don't Wake Me Up" by J.D. Jaber may be my favorite Italo track of all time for this week.

― matt2 (matt2), Monday, 13 February 2006 17:22 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 109 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

This afternoon I'm checking out these Italo videos - mainly ordinary-looking folk lip-synching on some TV show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mceq3eUWh7Y&list=PLAA551ED1687D4093

Excellent compendium of retro hair and fashion and being Italy, there are no apologies for excessive hair mousse!

For an Italian-American, it's like a dream journey to some super-Italian shamelessly frothy world.

― SCOTTISH PEOPLE ONLY (I M Losted), Friday, 23 January 2015 21:25 (eleven years ago)

one month passes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmxXIS2ot8w&feature=youtu.be

― the late great, Friday, 13 March 2015 07:54 (eleven years ago)

one year passes...

i haven't found a lot of decent "subreddit" about music and this is one of em https://www.reddit.com/r/italodisco
it's active but not too much and most of the recommendations are interesting /new to me , like this one

https://youtu.be/XP-GSfC1ePc

also, man, these guys in general... they had a knack to find off beat names for their act.

― Sébastien, Monday, 29 August 2016 16:48 (nine years ago)

four months pass...

To my surprise I made some new Italo discoveries. I wrongly thought I exhausted this genre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HTzbUku42Q

RUINS - Fire!

― larry appleton, Saturday, 21 January 2017 02:00 (nine years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi73wlMaJOE

Blackways - New Life

― larry appleton, Saturday, 21 January 2017 02:01 (nine years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A72wR9g8-Hs

Diana Est - Tenax

― larry appleton, Saturday, 21 January 2017 02:01 (nine years ago)

I love the instrumentals to Diana Est's Tenax and Le Louvre. pretty classic.

Music For Us by Blackway also rocks.

― Michael F Gill, Saturday, 21 January 2017 02:42 (nine years ago)

I'll have to check out the instrumentals. Here's another good one, it's French, but close enough to my American sensibilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=866Jzm6bahM

― larry appleton, Saturday, 21 January 2017 06:08 (nine years ago)

my "latest" finds: a balearic italo masterpiece, much better than "Witch"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfFcvlqRrHQ

and this cover of the Jethro Tull Classic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyqbTz6l57w

― M.C., Saturday, 21 January 2017 09:42 (nine years ago)

and this, which is German but could be italo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlGFU3BsAAs

― M.C., Saturday, 21 January 2017 09:54 (nine years ago)

That Angela is great, never heard it before. Always preferred "Zanzibar" over "Witch" too.

Also good by Plastic Betrand: Stop Ou Encore

― Michael F Gill, Saturday, 21 January 2017 22:13 (nine years ago)

GAY CAT DISCO

― increasingly bonkers (rushomancy), Sunday, 22 January 2017 00:04 (nine years ago)

nine months pass...

apologies if this has been posted before, it's quite wonderful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBI4v-F0jpY

sound quality is bad, sorry

― brimstead, Wednesday, 1 November 2017 03:39 (eight years ago)

that's "din don" by EXO

― brimstead, Wednesday, 1 November 2017 03:39 (eight years ago)

A Classic!

― Michael F Gill, Wednesday, 1 November 2017 19:32 (eight years ago)

two months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0ZE3SaKjXI

https://clone.nl/item48884.html

― oder doch?, Sunday, 7 January 2018 09:11 (eight years ago)

that Expansives track is so great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZvEp-fpjEY

― (the blues version in his Broadway show) (crüt), Sunday, 7 January 2018 09:31 (eight years ago)

three months pass...

I was just about to come here to post the Expansives track. So awesome

― skip, Monday, 30 April 2018 06:20 (eight years ago)

Might fit in better in a Cosmic Disco thread but these videos are lush:

http://www.electronicbeats.net/the-feed/italy-discos-abandoned/

― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 10 May 2018 15:45 (eight years ago)

two months pass...

I’ve been playing Check-Up Twins all day.

https://youtu.be/HAVzIZYge_k

― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Sunday, 29 July 2018 21:06 (seven years ago)

two years pass...

Gucci (yes, that Gucci) and Frieze collaborate on an italo disco fantasy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp7pE0k5BBQ

"The film imagines a universe where mid ’80s New York runs riot for the latest italo releases and Campari fountains are installed by Presidential decree. It presents the genre in all its glamour and artifice, celebrating its anonymous stars who sang in borrowed English under invented American names."

― skip, Monday, 14 September 2020 14:56 (five years ago)

whoah

― dan selzer, Monday, 14 September 2020 20:56 (five years ago)

four years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTjSa1YBqPc

only came across this spicy flamencitalo banger this week, what an intro, what a subsequent beat/subsequent life.

― LocalGarda, Sunday, 25 May 2025 12:16 (one year ago)

‘let’s play sexy games’ is an all-time italo track name

― flopson, Sunday, 25 May 2025 15:30 (one year ago)

play sexy games, win sexy prizes

― Reggaeton Sax (NickB), Monday, 26 May 2025 07:33 (one year ago)

with sexy results

― LocalGarda, Monday, 26 May 2025 09:06 (one year ago)

one year passes...

Just heard this recent Italo track on the trailer for the documentary "The Siege of Paradise. Grabbed me instantly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqHe34eo4bg

― daavid, Friday, 5 June 2026 13:16 (six days ago)

A local Italian restaurant was playing this track the other night, which depressed me to no end - we're at the point where AI can just generate unlimited Italo slop.

― Siegbran, Sunday, 7 June 2026 15:33 (four days ago)

We're also at the point where every track with a kickdrum is labelled Deep House, but that's another thing.

― Siegbran, Sunday, 7 June 2026 15:38 (four days ago)

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