I am SOOO digging this whole Italo disco phenomenon thats been heavily inspiring some of favourite new artists so far this year! Unfamiliar with the genre? Well heres a brief tutorial...
Mainly a niche genre, Italo was basically a more accessible form of electronic disco. It refrained from the cold and mechanical sound of the German futurists as well as the more arty farty avante garde stuff being produced by the French experimentalists. Early artists associated with the genre originated in Italy but the genre soon spread across mainland Europe and dominated the clubbing landscape all through the eighties. The most direct influence on the genre was of course legendary Italian producer/handle-bar moustache aficionado Giorgio Moroder, who gave Italo it's distinctive sound with his patented "galloping synth" arpeggiation technique which revolutionized the traditional disco sound from horns, strings and electric bass into a more edgy, buzzing synth pop sound as a result of using extremely limited analogue equipment with no polyphony. Primarily a producer, his most notable collaborations include Blondie,Donna Summer, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury amongst others though he did produce a number of solo records and scored many films including "Midnight Express" and "American Gigolo".
ZYX records was the main record label / promoter of this new wave of disco and was responsible for pretty much most of the Italo output of the era! It is still considered to be the most successful dance label in existance.
Of course none of this stopped the music from being insanely camp all the same! But that was, and still is, part of it's inherant charm, particularly the insistance by it's mainly foreign artists on singing in English, thereby producing unintentionally funny, thick accented lyrics...
Today's Italo inspired nu-disco is far more credible obviously, although some of it is a little less dancy and a little more chilled out than it's ancestors. In fact some of its quite romantic and pretty! The basic retro feel is still there though - Here are some of my fave tracks of the genre, old & new, that are clogging up my iPod's 25 most played list...
International Music System - Dancing Therapy
Anoraak - Nightdrive With You
Heartbreak - We're Back
Donna Summer - I Feel Love (Radio Edit)
Sunday 28 December 2008
Italians Do It Better.
She is Marina, and we are the Diamonds.
Yknow, I generally dont go for the folksy, Kate Bush style singer-songwriter shite that does the rounds these days but recently i had to sit up and take notice of a certain Marina and the Diamonds. It was actually upon the recommendation of Little Boots on her forum that i took this leap of faith and im glad i did! I wasn't overly impressed with early demos i will admit, but with the lush production on new single "Obsessions" (previously "We've Got Obsessions")released on Neon Gold Records in Febuary, i was immediately enamoured...
...Here is the video. Try to pay attention til the end - its very pretty...
Marina & The Diamonds, "Obsessions" from Neon Gold Records on Vimeo.
Tuesday 23 December 2008
FINALLY!!
Finally, after what seemed like eons, my copy of the "Arecibo EP" by Little Boots arrived through the bleedin' post! There were manufacturing problems apparently. Still, never have I appreciated the aesthetic beauty of a 12" more than I have with this record... *drools*
Anyhoo, as if I couldn't salivate enough, Bootsy is FINALLY releasing something outside of iTunes US! The forthcoming "Little Boots EP" will be released (according to my iTunes pre-order thingy) on 2nd of January and appears to feature the radio edit of Stuck on Repeat (the jury is still out on this one - its grown on me though...), a piano tenorian version of Meddle (awesome!!) and her gorgeous version of the Freddie Mercury track Love Kills which you can listen to on her myspace & all that jazz.
Typical innit? You wait for one Little Boots EP to show up and 2 come along at once...
In the meantime, just though I'd post this genius little mini mix Bootsy did for the Annie Mac show on Radio One a few weeks back and that I've had on repeat since. Only Bootsy could make Madonna and Haddaway seem effortlessly cool next to the likes of Fake Blood and Fan Death!
Little Boots - Automatic Lovers MiniMix
Friday 19 December 2008
50% Gray
Here's an animated short that I saw years ago and have never forgotten about. It was a nominee for a 'Best Short Animated Film' Oscar and was shown at the Sundance film festival.
Directed by Ruairi Robinson
Wednesday 17 December 2008
Story of Hair - Unsteady (Acoustic)
Here's a track I can't stop listening to. Its an acoustic version of the track 'Unsteady' from Story of Hair's debut album 'Cheap Rate'. Video courtesy of Off The Cuff Recordings.
They play Whelans on January 3rd. Doors at 8pm.
Sunday 14 December 2008
Oh, and another thing...
Thank CHRIST Eoghan didn't win X Factor earlier this evening...
it would have been the end of music.
*shudder*
The New Sins - The New Song!
Anyone who is a fan of New Young Pony Club will be aware that while front woman Tahita Bulmer and her brand of 80's-Madonna-on-acid stage craft gets the crowd pumping, it is sultry keyboardist Lou Hayter's effortless stage presence that really gets the hormones pumping, particularly if you happen to be a guy!
What you may not be aware of is her own effortless sexy and cool side project The New Sins who released a single way back in Febuary of this year by the name of "It Doesn't Work Like That" , a kind of chilled out "fuck you" to an ex boyfriend (you don't get many of those do you?). Well after what seems like AGES, the 'Sins have a brought out a new track called "Feeling Have Changed", another chilled out "fuck you" to an ex boyfriend, but even better! Here is the video...
...As you can clearly see, Lou Hayter is bloody hot. Bring on the hot album I say!
Wednesday 10 December 2008
Big Brother is watching Little Boots.
If you're anyting like me (e.g; an electro saturated pop whore) you will understand my further growing obsession with the future alt. pop princess that is Victoria Hesketh aka Little Boots. I first discovered her way back in July via Popjustice when they featured her sublime 7 minute opus that is "Stuck on Repeat" in their highly influential "Song of the Day" section, and rightly so. It is the electro song I wish I had written and she is the popstar I always wanted to be... If I didn't think she was so feckin' fantastic I'd hate her! Anyhoo their has been some speculation of the Little Boots forum recently about whether the below video is in fact the official video for Stuck on Repeat or merely an unofficial teaser doing the rounds in order to whip those of us who have fallen under Hesketh's spell into a frenzy of excitement! The vid is a bit creepy though. Have a little look yourself & tell us what you think...
Reasons Why This Might Be The Official Video
- The "Arecibo" EP featuring the first official release of Stuck on Repeat was only just released last month so this could be the accompanying promo.
- It has Little Boots herself in it so therefore she must be involved in it in some way...
- ...Unless there was actually just some dude following her around, keeping her under constant surveillance through a series of hidden cameras in her flat and editing all the footage together to make a downright creepy fan video to show to the world...
- ...eew.
- She has brown hair in the video and any fool knows that she is currently rocking the platinum blonde look and has been for some time now...
- ...Unless she is wearing a wig.
- I need to get out more.
Tuesday 9 December 2008
Metric - Emily Haines Interview
As you will probably find out if you continue to read the blog, I am a huge 'Metric' fan. So when I found out they'll be releasing a new album in the new year I was suitably excited. This video has been up for a while but I thought i'd put it up anyway. The new tune 'Help I'm Alive' certainly holds up in its stripped down acoustic version and the taster of the full song in the end (which you can now hear in its entirety on youtube/hypemachine).
Bring on 2009!
Monday 8 December 2008
Men and Music
Today was not a good day in college. I pretty much bombed my xmas accounting exam this morning (who examines people on accounting at xmas for christ's sake??sorry Jesus...) which I could just about handle until some wanker REALLY got in under my tits (not literally). The Games soc were havin a nice lil xmas party in the chapel which is our general student hang out area wit sweeties & coke & various games & such including guitar hero. I was just observing some loser I vaguely knew from the student union meetings playing a Slipknot song. He then commented to his friend how it was harder to play it on guitar hero than it was to play it for real& mentioned somethin about the picking style. I merely smiled and laughed sympathetically, saying I had had similar problems myself with the ol' guitar hero to which he rather snottily replied "yeah but that doesn't mean you know what I'm talking about" & then walked off.
It sounds like I'm overreacting I know but something about his manner really got to me. The thing is, anybody who knows me well enough knows I am obsessed with music & often have an encyclopedic knowledge at times depending on the sub category, so the one thing I really cannot STAND is people patronizing me and insinuating that I know less than I do, particularly if its coming from a guy. Heres a tip fellas, DONT patronize women about these things. You think it makes you look like the big shot but it doesn't. It simply shows that you are so insecure about women knowing more than you that you feel the need to put them down to make yourself feel good.
That is all.
Chris Is The Hat
Roysh so Chris kinda stole my thunder by nabbing the first ever post on our brand spanking new blog we just set up (even though twas MY idea) but sure i cant hold that against him since he did the difficult part(actually converting the blog from a twinkle in my imagination to an actual tunnel of wonder through cyberspace... wow i sound like im on drugs here.) so hats off to Chris!
Look out for future posts from me once I learn how to upload mp3s! Hours of fun!!
*half an hour later* ooh! its happened...
So heres a track called Gabbi by the criminally underrated Cowboy X, the band that sound too good to be an Irish band. Expect more posts about how effing amazing these guys are in the near future...
Cowboy X - Gabbi
Sunday 7 December 2008
The Amazing Few - Russian Girls
This song has been stuck in my head for several days recently so I thought I'd post it.
Directed by Séamas Hanly
The Amazing Few - Russian Girls
Ticketmaster, What a Pile of Wankers
Ok, first proper post so it may as well be a rant.
Basically I bought tickets to go see Born Ruffians in Whelan's on Friday November 14th. The gig was cancelled and I was emailed saying I would be refunded the money for the tickets (I bought them online with Laser) within 5-10 working days. That was about a week before the gig. It has now been over a month, I have called Ticketmaster twice and there is still no money in my account.
I've been using ticketmaster for years and have never had a problem. I had occasionally heard about people having issues before but usually it was resolved reasonably quickly. For me this is a big problem for two reasons. Firstly, I have generally have no money so money back would be nice. Secondly, and this is the worst for me, is that Ticketmaster have a monopoly on tickets in Ireland (Yes we have WAV but that just covers small gigs in Whelans and The Village). This means that even though I'm annoyed over the fact that they have essentially taken my money and given me nothing in return, unless I stop going to gigs there is no other other choice than to keep buying from Ticketmaster.
I don't know if anyone else feels the same but we really need someone to step up, take on the behemoth that is ticketmaster and provide another way of getting tickets.
Rant over.
So This Is The Internet...
After much hmmm-ing and hah-ing I finally got pressed into setting up one of these here blogs with my good friend Sally.
In an exercise of pure narcissism we have decided that the world needs to know about what things we like so there will be music, movies and other stuff...but mostly music...
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