8 Tracks: Of Turin Dancefloor Express
Earlier this week we premiered a track which hinted towards the release of a rather exciting project surfacing from Italy. I-Robots is the responsible culprit as he prepares to unveil a jam packed compilation full of reissued and reimagined italo disco records, many of which have been highly sought after for years. The tracklist could be regarded as a diggers goldmine, full of intrigue and forgotten gems. We promise you that it is pretty special indeed. Now seemed like a perfect time to catch up with I-Robots who has himself been collecting records and playing in clubs since the early 80's. Gianluca Pandullo perhaps isn't always praised with the acclaim which he deserves for his commitment to a sound which has now led him to release what will be one of the most important compilations of 2017. He guides us through Turin's dancefloor express…
Follow I-Robots on Facebook HERE. More details on the release can be found HERE.
Brilliant space disco from a mastertape of a true Italian disco pioneer… in fact Luigi “Svengile” Vengoni with his progressive rock &and jazz background could actually be considered an Italo icon based on his productions released around late 70’s and early 80s. No credits on the original album and singles but after a serious investigation i was able to put together all the musicians names that could surprise all the Italo collectors worldwide who will finally know all the connections of the Turin Italo disco. Drums & Percussion by Luis Atzori already a member of Circus 2000 cult Italian Prog. Rock band… If you are a fan of Arpadis, Black Devil, Rockets and Space this is an essential tune to collect…
Also Christophe Le Friant “Bob Sinclar” wanted a copy of the original 1977, 12″ when he was at my old place in Turin around 1995…
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Stratosferic Band - Splashdown (7" Version)Brilliant space disco from a mastertape of a true Italian disco pioneer… in fact Luigi “Svengile” Vengoni with his progressive rock &and jazz background could actually be considered an Italo icon based on his productions released around late 70’s and early 80s. No credits on the original album and singles but after a serious investigation i was able to put together all the musicians names that could surprise all the Italo collectors worldwide who will finally know all the connections of the Turin Italo disco. Drums & Percussion by Luis Atzori already a member of Circus 2000 cult Italian Prog. Rock band… If you are a fan of Arpadis, Black Devil, Rockets and Space this is an essential tune to collect…
Also Christophe Le Friant “Bob Sinclar” wanted a copy of the original 1977, 12″ when he was at my old place in Turin around 1995… -
Ben Norman - Got To Be (7" Version)Luigi Vengoni again here, originally released on the “Johnny Betty” label “Shirak”…. as mentioned already the “Svengile” icon had an unique position in the Turin and Italian scene from the early 70’s. His name is behind bands like Arti & Mestieri, Stratosferic Band, Mono Band, Make Up, Bryan Baker and many more… If you do really know Italo disco you could understand how much relevance these productions have… “Got To Be” vocals were produced by Silvia Grissi/Silvana Aliotta already a member of “Circus 2000″ together with Louis Atzori again here for drums & percussion. I found out that actually the longer version of the original 1980 12″ has a wrong faster speed than the original 7” so Opilec Music will release soon a “Svengile” 12″
including all the longer correct versions of Ben Norman, Stratosferic Band and Radiation. -
Oxid - Oxid Trail - Video DitObscure, weird, rock disco coming, as with “Stratosferic Band” from the “Ivo Lunardi” (r.i.p.) Turin label Voom Voom Music.
Nobody was able to tell me more about this production other than that it put together dark wave and rock disco.
Some of you will surely also love the B Side of this ultrarare 7″ that incl. “Bright Heron” tune, much funk oriented. -
Cometa Music Hall - Cometa Music HallI am really proud of this license exclusively allowed from the owner of the “Cometa” Discoteque located in Sale, Alessandria. This spacey disco tune was originally released as a club jingle. It is coming from an amazing 7″ released by Phantom Record exclusively for the club that showed on the cover how retro-futuristic the club was in the 70’s… The original 7″ was never distributed in the shops so this is why it is actually ultrarare… Actually the club is still in business with the exact same architecture from the mid 80’s (neon lights a gogo) keeping the original logo also for the contracts paper…
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Phaeax - Talk About (7" Version)One of the anthems of my youth, this tune was really popular in the early 80’s and also all the local radio stations were playing it at that time and it was also directly supported by Claudio Cecchetto. Executive production by Luciano Zucchet in 1983 for the Hot Point label that was also an important Turin Italo disco and cosmic sound records shop at that stage.
Phaeax was an unique and important Turin Italo disco band (together with Righeira of course) with a weird latin and new wave background, first steps of Massimo Gabutti the man behind Eiffel65. By the collaboration with the most popular Turin d.j. Sergio Flash and a member of “Bagarre” band Silvio “Puzzle” Puzzolu they released this cult Electro Wave Pop Disco tune. I had the original mastertape of this and while doing the license of it i had in my hand a demo tape of the band that incl. unreleased material that i still didn’t have the chance to check yet…. Promise i will… -
Jan Demis - PreludioOne of the rarest, hard to find and obscure Italo wave disco records from my area. It was impossible to get the mastertape or the original 12″ in mint condition. Officially and exclusively licensed it will later be released on vinyl incl. original version plus the I-Robots & Flemming Dalum reworks.
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Bagarre - Lemonsweet (1985 Album Version)Not the first version of it but an obscure version that came out 3 years later which kept the original new wave disco mood.
Bagarre is a studio project produced by people around the club Nepentha Turin in fact they also titled their first album with the name of a classic club “Circus”; but he title “Lemonsweet” and took the name from another Turin club located not far from Nepentha around the “Statuto Plaza” area where i was living from when i was 6 years old…
