If all you know of Italian dance music is Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte and Donna Summer's seminal "I Feel Love" from 1977, and the piano-driven pop house of 1989's "Ride on Time" by Black Box, then this compilation sets out to fill in the blanks. Selected by DJ/producer Stevie Kotey, these largely obscure disco nuggets perfectly capture the Italian dance style: camp, largely orchestral, meticulously arranged and produced, ferociously dumb in the lyric and hook department… and very, very funky. What Kotey's selections also prove is that Italo Disco is a more eclectic mini-genre than we dabblers might have imagined.

For example, Tullio De Piscopo's epic "E Fatto E Sorde! E? (Money Money)" takes its cue from early ’80s new wave, mixing a low-tempo beat, aggressive bass, pop-funk guitar, Oriental strings, Gypsy fiddles and sinister cackling into a sound that treads that quintessential Italian pop line between muso experiment and daft cheese. It could be a Frankie Goes to Hollywood outtake, and contrasts starkly with Piscopo's earlier "Flor De Coca," which is pure Silver Convention-style Euro-disco camp, all chanted hook and sunny orchestral swells. Number One Ensemble's "Wojtila 5: Disco Dance" is entirely about the gently churning Moroder-esque synth-percussion and tough-as-nails… read more »