Italians Do It Better.

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)