Various Artists, Italo Disco – Essential Italian Disco Classics 1977-1985

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.