Italo Disco - Essential Italian Disco Classics 1977-1985

We Say...

Review by Garry Mullholland

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 three-note bass line, while Red Dragon Band’s magnificently weird "Let Me Be Your Radio (Part 1)" sounds like some wild soundclash between a gay Latin orchestra and a New York punk funk band.

"Let’s Disco Dance" by the cult favourite Peter Micioni and "The Line" by Hi-Fi Bros neatly sum up the appeal of the Italo Disco sub-genre: the music has enough jaw-dropping funk skill to please the most elitist dance nerd, while the lyrics and vocals are almost comically bad. It all makes for a music you’ll either adore or despise, depending on your attitude to the unique mixture of cynicism and innocence that has always driven post-disco dance music. On this evidence, Italian disco is the club scene’s equivalent of Guilty Pleasures.