Disclaimer: Due to laziness and a lack of ability to articulate my thoughts and feelings this post may be all over the place, it may jump from past to present tense, please READ ON, it is for your own good. Intro For the last few years it has always been there, waiting for me... we have finally met and infatuation has set in, i love you italo disco. Everything that is not Italo Disco is just a cheap imitation of your greatness. Yes exaggeration is taking place.. right now, in this very moment, there is nothing greater. Everything new and good these days that i like I can see how it is influenced by this, it is the source.
How I came to know Italo Disco Early this year I was browsing a last.fm forum (this one) and I came upon a post by safesurfer, here is the most important part of his post:
The CBS Top 100 2005. Top 100 as voted by fans of online radio Cybernetic Broadcasting Systems. 100 of the best electronic tracks from late 70s to today. And all very obscure! Since i'm in a happy and loving mood today i'll give you the link of your life:
Well there it is, your express highway to a far more interesting taste in electronic music. If you don't like any of this you simply don't have anything to do in this genre, period.
So I downloaded the TOP 100 of 2005 and loved it, I briefly listened to a few songs here and there never really focusing on one as there was 100 to sort through. Every now and then I would find a song in the list that blew my mind.
Jump to last week, hang on a sec how can u jump back into the past.. thats some back to the future type shit right there. Anyway, last week i absolutely fell head over heels in love with this song "Fockewulf 190 - Gitano"... i played this amazing song over and over and over and over, my love for it only grew. This led me to go back and listen to other songs from the 2005 CBS Top 100. And then i started finding other absolute gems, like "Crazy Gang - Every Sunday", "Sissy - Queen Of Discoteque" and "Peppermint Lounge - Perfect High".
Then last saturday I decide to download the top 100 of 2004 to see what other songs i had missed out on. Today something in my head burst, some synapses fused together and saw a connection, they had located the source of all that is correct. A classic case of "when the student is ready, the teacher appears". Pleasure went through the roof, it was as if nothing else mattered and that I had to know more, more, more. I searched google for song lyrics, i search google images for "italo disco", soaking up every relevant piece of information, i searched myspace finding some great resources. It happened like that, for the last 4 hours i have been doing nothing but research and listening to italo disco. This will be my new obsession i can sense this right now. I feel 15 years old again where Basketball consumed my existence, posters plastered on walls, basketball cards, bball at lunch, taping nba games.. etc etc.. As a kid when i got into something, i really got into it.. Im feeling like this will be the same kinda thing, its a natural reaction. Total devotion, all or nothing. No effort wasted. All other music right now pales in comparison, nothing creates the feelings, excitement sheer delight that i am experiencing with my new love, italo disco. It is times like this i wish i worked in a store where i got to play music so i could play italo disco out loud and bless the ears of all shop goers.
I am still very much a newby in the ways of Italo disco and related genres so to a person knowledgeable on this subject excuse my perhaps uninformed enthusiasm. Also anyone interested in Italo Disco, please contact me and let me know everything i need to know about this amazing music. Songs mentioned in here may not actually be italo disco, if they are not please forgive.
This kid knows the feeling of italo disco
A little bit of background knowledge (taken from this myspace page):
Italo Disco Europe never experienced "Disco sucks" phenomenon and Funk & Disco remained at the height of its popularity. Many FM radio stations had Disco-focused shows on the air, featuring mostly top-chart hits. Another important reason for the speedy development of Italo Disco in Europe was purely economic. In the early 80s US dollar was traded too high against Italian lira. Records imported from US were expensive. Main music importers were forced to drastically reduce orders for imports and refocused their business on the local productions. Discomagic, Lombardoni, IL Discotto and many other record labels were born from the main Disco music importers out of sheer economic necessity. Italian productions began to flood European music market and it was difficult to find any US imports in Italian record shops.
Most of the Italo-Disco records were produced by studio session men, mainly keyboardists, or Dee Jays-turned-musicians who had little or no skill of playing musical instruments. Their sole assets were only their ears and uncanny feel for dance music. That was the time when many Italian Dee Jays started to experiment with synthesizers and electronic drum machines, playing keyboards slowly with just one finger and then elevating the speed with computers.
Italo Disco was all about percussion. The classic Italo sound was created only by keyboards. The rhythm section is totally electronic. The voice is used only as an instrument, in order to complete the melody. Most of the songs were very simplistic in structure, but infectious melodies, with catchy hooks, and always in 4/4. The "classic" synthesizer sound heard on Italian tracks was created by ROLAND JX-8P, Roland Juno 60 and Roland Juno 106, Yamaha DX7, ARP Odyssey, Roland TR 808 drum machine, Simmons Drums (electronic, but played live), Minimoog, Oberheim, Linndrum, and sampler Emulator II. This sound is very unique and special in dance music history.
It was Bernhard Mikulski, the late founder of ZYX Records, Germany, who coined the ubiquitous term "Italo Disco" in 1984. The name caught on with the fans and it was destined to describe perhaps the most misunderstood and under-appreciated genre of electronic dance music. Regrettably, lyrics played a minor role in Italo Disco songs. Many Italian Dee Jays-turned-singers couldn't really speak English at all, therefore you can often hear voices being manipulated by computers or using a vocoder with overdubs. Lyrics in Italo Disco were often just outright gibberish. I am not asserting that a dance song must reach a high mark in poetry, but it certainly helps if you could sing along. "…A perfect example where the melody is amazing and the lyrics are awful is in the song "Love In Your Eyes" by Gazebo. Could be as pop perfect a song you'll ever hear, however, "You are just a damn sequencer/Digital Delay" would not go down in history amongst the most beautiful or meaningful lyrics ever written." In spite of all those obvious limitations, Italo Disco became enormously popular in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia, and especially in Japan.
Giorgio Moroder
Download MP3's Italo Disco MP3's - these songs started my obsession with Italo Disco. (uploaded to yousendit, these links are valid for 7 days from time of posting)
If you like what you hear, all these posted mp3's were from the CBS Top 100 2005, download the entire top 100 - 2005 here: http://www.elektrosonik.com/cbstop100/
Radio Cybernetic Broadcasting System - http://www.cybernetic-broadcasting.net/ (This radio station plays the most rare tracks and the most unknown disco, from the 80's as well as recent tracks, both disco and electro[clash])
- Everyone has the right to be ugly, but some people abuse the privilege - To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer - shame of sex? we can change it - I was strongest when I laughed at my weakness - You have to decide... - Profanity is the one language all programmers know best
And lastly my favourite: - In the land of the skunks he who has half a nose is king
Far out... So I don't have much money these days now that I'm not living at home any more. This Saturday at Fowlers Live im seeing the presets, yessssss!. And what did they have to do but bring out these two awesome tee shirts. The presets bring out the raddest designs ever! they are so art, this is why i love them. I'm not going to have money for ages now but at times like these when one is faced with masterpieces such as these in teeshirt form one cannot refuse, logic goes out the window, money is insignificant i tell myself. I think i like the black one better but the white one is also really good, may have to get both. Can't wait. I was re-assessing if I should use the word rad today and I thought to myself, I have never heard a black person say the word rad, its such a white thing to say, then again i am white. Stupid back and forth, for and against head conversations.
The other day I climbed on top of the MYER centre ()- Adelaide and started doing this really awesome dancing, you should have seen me, i was amazing to watch. Here are some crowd reactions that a photographer friend of mine was bright enough to capture.
The Adelaide crowd cannot believe their eyes, a story they will no doubt tell their grandchildren.
Look at the sheer intense delight i have brought this fertile young lady, my dancing often has this effect on women.
You can't help but feel excited for these lucky people.
A Homeless brought back to reality, the power of dance.
A lucky man is seen here capturing what is probably the most amazing spectacle ever witnessed upon by an Austalian audience, He will be able to retire to Byron Bay now if he wishes to sell this picture on ebay, lucky man.
Last night I had a thought about how cool it would be if we could get some implant that showed percentage statistics on various things. So say you are eating an apple and this brain implant then displays in your vision the percentage of apple left to eat. 17%. This would be great having this implant as say next time you went to eat an apple the figure 17% would be in your head and you could try for 16% next time or something stupid like that. Having an actual figure percentage to measure things would be so handy.
Percentage of apple left to eat
Percentage of real boob left on Pamela Anderson's rack
If i could be bothered making this post good i would have also done a picture of soft butter that says 25% real butter then a scanned percentage of 7% butter, A photo of a group of teenagers in a mall and done a "percentage of emo" in a person, or "likely percentage this person has a myspace page". Or some famous person, who most people like but is really full of shit could of done a picture and scan of his face saying 97% bullshit.
Hurry up technology, when will you advance enough to catch up to with extraordinary imaginative abilities. Brain mod's, lets go.
OMG! MySpace Now Has it's own Instant Messaging Client!!! Lol
I installed this tonight and it is pretty cool. It has a good, clean, easy to use interface. There are no annoying tabs on the side as in msn. It will show you when you get a new myspace message. The only bummer is that it doesn't automatically import your friends from your myspace friends list, you have to browse to a website and add them from there. This is however pretty simple and pain free. So far none of my mySpace friends are online (of the 49 that I chose to add). Im guessing that no one really knows about this yet, however it should not take too long before myspace whores, pimple faced pukes, emo kids, bedroom bands and the like catch on and use this thing. Pretty cool.
For the longest time I have wanted an app that lets me batch rename a directory of files. I always thought that there had to be apps out there but I never got around to looking for them, until tonight i came across this great app from a feed link. It's called Rename Master and it a FREE utility for renaming large groups of files with a few clicks. Anyone that has worked with websites, file archives, or collections of music, videos, or pictures has probably spent way too much time renaming hundreds of files.
Also you may want to note that windows can actually batch rename a group of files. This can be done by selecting a group of files and hitting F2 (or right-click "rename"). Windows however does not give you the options of rename naming convention and will rename files by adding a (1), (2) etc after each file, which if you are renaming a whole bunch of images for the web is not too handy.
Windows Live™ Messenger Beta is now publicly available to download and use. I installed it just before and it's ok, the interface looks a little different but it is still pretty much the same old msn we know. Not an absolute "must get now" download but its still okay. I cannot however work out how to view my contacts Avatars in the Messenger panel. Any ideas?
All of these things I found out about from feeds i subscribe to...If you don't use a feed reader (i use bloglines) and subscribe to feeds, you are sorely missing out!! I pitty your uninformed existence.
I'm really, really looking forward to the new ¡Forward, Russia! album "Give Me A Wall" which is being released tomorrow! I have tried looking to see if has been leaken online but no luck :( I really like ¡Forward, Russia! I really like ¡Forward, Russia! Elektrica.. uh Elektrica Letrika.
Also am listening to the song "We Share Our Mothers Health" from the new knife album, it is really something else, something else. I just finally found some tracks by Les Savy Fav, Les Savy Fav online and what im hearing so far is very nice indeed, very nice indeed. The Rove repeat, the rove repeat, yes its funnier the second time. *insert blank faced msn emoticon here*.
Happy Mothers Day Mum! Yay! Yay for Mothers worlwide, caring souls, give so much, ask so little, understanding, nice. Thanks for saying my new shirt looked nice mum. I know your honest with your clothes appraisals, if you think something stinks you will tell me, so thanks for saying it was nice.
Sorry for shit photo, was taken with camera phone in low light bedroom
Ive wanted a shirt that looks like this for a while now (see post on the Return of the 90's) and yesterday whilst walking in the city, Sara spotted one in Daily Grind!! woooooo... thanks Sara, you're the best. My oldest brother Justin payed me out today at the cafe asking why i was wearing flanel with a "what are you wearing that for" look. Haha.. like..noooooooo! its not flanel, its kool ok.. koooool.
My room is so uninspiring. It is a den of apathy where what should be, is not and what is, is ignored.
I started making a new song yesterday, its 80's sounding and its still needs a lot of work. I don't know what to call it and i don't know what the vocals should sound like but here it is if you want to listen to it. It's 2.59MB according to windows. Its encoded at 192kbps cos thats the bit rate i like to listen to mp3's at. Download New Song
Sometimes i get in a frame of mind where everything someone says is taken literally and seriously and context and delivery is processed later. So a joke will be processed as literal and my response will be .. yeah.. or something as i realise.. oh. that was just a joke, oops.
I'm poor this week i have no cash because i spent money on my shirt and a Pharaohs cd. I need to attach my new car rego sticker on my car but cannot be bothered walking out to my car to stick it on. I'm telling you my room is a den of apathy that i don't wish on anyone. Les Savy Fav - Yawn Yawn Yawn.
I like breaking things down to their core, from the source. Then when looking at other stuff seeing if something shares a similar core and if i like that too or not, things which share the same source or underlying value, motif etc etc i hold dear and so i have built up a few keywords from which most of the things i enjoy seem to derive from.
Blah blah, i used to have a pen pal who lived in NSW called Levi, he used to write about himself all the time in his pen pal letters so i stopped replying. Pen Pal.
Theres a new Last.fm/Audioscrobbler program that can be tested. Its in Beta stage and all you have to do is go here: http://www.last.fm/group/Audioscrobbler%2BBeta and join the group, then download the app. It's pretty cool, it shows you how long until the current song your playing will submit. It shows album art, a brief artist description and maybe my favourite feature, similar artists. Get into it brats.
One of my favourite Police Academy characters was Zed (Police Academy 2-4) that guy who could'nt control his emotional states and talked funny. That guy ruled(s)!
Read this post, more specifically read the comments to this post. Warning its long, but very good and thought provoking. I currently have 12 tabs open in firefox with other links and things to check out just from reading this post and comments:
Often I am compelled to learn about something in particular. Suddenly a current theme or topic will come at me from all directions, tv, conversations, blogs and when a certain theme appears to be bombarding me I think there must be something to it.
Current themes im picking up are: socialism, fascism, democracy etc. Different perspectives on how and why people lean towards left vs right etc etc.
The Valentinos I first heard The Valentinos when browsing someones myspace page, they had "Man With a Gun" playing. From first listen, I was hooked, managed to find a few tracks on limewire, "Sell Yourself" and "Man With a Gun". Very cool 5 piece from Sydney. Their EP was recorded in 2 days and was produced by none other than Kim Moyes from the Presets!
mp3's Limewire search will return "Man With a Gun" and "Sell Yourself" Pharaohs I first heard Adelaide band "Pharaohs" last night at transmission when dj ross played "Keelhaul". Its one of those songs that starts and you immediately know its going to be good, great bass riff from the start, really good vocals.. then the chorus comes along and knocks you on your ass. The chorus is amazing, it has been going through my head all today. Listen to this song now, "Keelhaul". The chorus is brilliant, excellent bass, fast stoppy starty drums. "Broken Arm" is a good song also.
Damn Arms I first heard about Melbourne Band "Damn Arms" from my friend Karl when he saw them support the international noise conspiracy, his exact words were:
"DUDE! I saw this WICKED WICKED band support them - 'Damn Arms,' have you heard of them? I don't know if they are Adelaide but they were so freakin' awesome. They sound like Test Icicles!!! It was full-on. If they are Adealide then, without a doubt they are the BEST BAND ON THE SCENE. You should have heard them, they were pretty unreal. The syth sounds were so good."
Armed with their myspace url from karl i proceeded to check them out and ill be damned if these guys arent brilliant. <-- yep my artist descriptions need a lot of work. I like bands who are the total package and these guys are just that! Must see video clip for "test pattern"!!, fast, exciting, SYNTHS!! etc etc. Their song "Test Pattern" starts as every NOW sounding band should, with a fat bass line, then in come the synths and perfect matching of lead guitar, they pretty much had me at 0:15. The song continues, out go the synths the drums getting really fast then into the maniac chorus mix of melodic synth, lead, fast drumming brilliant mix.
I bought my ticket today online for the Adelaide show (fowlers live) where they are supporting the pieces of shit who call themselves "Something For Kate". I have something for kate, an empty beer glass and its aimed at your face. Me and Karl are going to leave when SFK sufakate come onto the scene. However, to see Damn Arms play will be well worth my $28.30. Listen to "Test Pattern", "Please Pass Me My Anti-Robotics"
Come, take a seat. For it is my seat and from it you will see what I see right now in 360 vision. I turned around on my work chair and took photo's of everything around me with my camera phone and stuck it together into an image and 360 flash animation.
Click to enlarge Image
Some days I feel like blogging more than usual, today is one of those days.
Caption 1. "On the one hand I can see where you're coming from Greg, on the other hand, you are NOTHING in my eyes!!!, I am CEO of this company and I don't give a rats about you and your crazy wild eyed "ideas". Change, we fear change. Take your college education and get the hell outta my sight you little punk."
Caption 2. "This is the finest wine we stock sir. What's that, you can't see it? Well OF COURSE you can't see it. All fine wines get transparent when at their peak, don't you know anything?"
Caption 3. "Mmmkay, so I just place my hand a little lower so it touches my crotch then rub, right? ahhhhhhh"
Caption 4. "Care to dance Super Intendant?"
Ok so my captions are lame, the characters are lame, THE CHARACTERS ARE LAME!!!!
Submit your captions to me via comments, if you can be bothered which u probably can't.
3 Overweight Middle Aged Woman Sitting in a McDonalds Cafe talking. A Middle Aged man with a tidy haircut and neat appearance walks in wearing short running shorts, head band, tank top and running shoes. The 3 Overweight woman glance in his direction then look away quickly and get back to their Blueberry Muffins and Latte. The woman sitting furthest away has a heart attack and dies.
safesurfer, here is the most important part of his post:
)- Adelaide and started doing this really awesome dancing, you should have seen me, i was amazing to watch. Here are some crowd reactions that a photographer friend of mine was bright enough to capture.
