STATE OF GRACE

State of Grace was a low key British trio that put out a few hot records and then sort of disappeared.

David Inglesfield had previously been a drummer in a new wave band. Pat Thomas was attending the London College of Fashion and was a mate of David's sister. Adrian Thomas was the other lead vocalist.

Their first release Walking the Rhythm was a flop but their follow-up was 1982's That's When We'll be Free became a Paradise Garage classic and was also heavily spun by Tony Humphries and David Mancuso shooting all the way up to #16 on the Billboard Disco Chart. It was licensed all over the world and found some success.

But to me their gem is their third single Touching the Time released on PRT records U.K.. "Oom pow pow ba um pa dum pow pow pow" yeah it sounds corny when you try to write it but just listen to how fierce it sounds. These cats can sing and the instrumentation is primo. To me it simply sounds classy. This is another track which epitomizes what's called Modern Soul and the bidders on Ebay go crazy for this one. I've seen it shoot over $200.00 many times. This is one of those songs that when I'm in the mood I will just put on replay and listen to 20x in a row and gets chills up my spine every time.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ttymmmj1myh

Their last single Hello Wintertime was released in 1984 and though not a bad song sort of went a bit too pop for my tastes. It doesn't have the impact of the two singles before it and it doesn't surprise me that they parted ways after it was released. Though it easily could have been a smash, it wasn't. So the record company had by then lost interest in them as none of their releases ever made much money. They never even got to release a full l.p.

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FIREFLY

Like a lot of coveted Italo Disco, Firefly records can be quite valuable nowadays. To many Americans they could be considered one hit wonders with their Emergency licensed dance hit Love (Is Gonna be on Your Side) which hit #3 on the Billboard Disco Chart. Their only showing on the U.S. dance chart. Incidentally the song is known by another name on their debut l.p. where it is called Love and Friendship. An earlier release Do it Dancin' is a 12" in my Ebay store. Click on the title of this blog to be taken to my auction for it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?nzvmxjotgbm

A1 Love And Friendship (6:09)
A2 Three Days Of Sweetness (4:20)
A3 Forget It (5:53)
B1 You Make Me Happy (5:08)
B2 It's Time To Say Goodbye (3:45)
B3 Why (5:05)
B4 Dreaming Again (5:00)

http://www.mediafire.com/?t1idojtyvvb

But they actually were quite fruitful, recording several full l.p.'s in the 80's, mostly for Mr. Disc Organization records Italy. Here is their second l.p. My Desire which came out just after Love (Is Gonna be on Your Side). It's one helluva tight production. They coined the term Boogie sometime after the disco era ended making the word disco a bad word. "Boogie" groups like this flourished. They held onto the disco sound while refining it and toning it down. I've also heard this sound referred to as Modern Soul.

I hear more S.O.S. Band and Level 42 here then Charlie, Spacer Woman or 'lectric workers Robot is Systematic so I find it more influenced by soul then Italo Disco, at least not the spacey kind. My favorite cut has to be You Can Lead Me. Get a load of the spicy piano, and those vocals by Crystal Davis who has sung back-up for Candi Staton, Venus Dodson and the incomparable Patrick Adams masterpiece Dazzle. Roland Leonard handled most of the lead vocals on the rest of the l.p. and again on the 3rd Firefly l.p. only to fade away into obscurity after.

"you can lead, lead me by the hand, don't you know your love has brought me high"
"you can lead, lead me by the hand, now's the time to share your love with...."

"I won't discuss your past, life goes on too fast and we just have no time"



The title cut My Desire and Our Trade is Life are also brilliant, and were released as a double A side 12". I'm into the sentiments here, and throughout this album. There's a lot of yearning and sex without ever going grope or filth.

A1 Our Trade Is Life
A2 Come Back
A3 You Can Lead Me
A4 My Desire (Studio)
B1 Don't Stop
B2 My Desire
B3 Danielle
B4 Let Me Come In Your Life

http://www.mediafire.com/?dhzzt4dzmny

The brainchild of Italian duo Maurizio Sangineto (The Creatures and Passengers) and Maurice Cavalieri (who under an alias was the aforementioned Charlie of "Spacer Woman," fame. Maurice was also Ago and Rainbow Team.
My Desire's music was recorded right where I live, in Rome, Italy at Studio TM while the vocals were recorded at Right Track Studios in New York City and it was mastered by the legendary Herb Powers. A name that is on countless labels of records I treasure.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mybdjtfyyzz

Spacer Woman is one of my ULTIMATE Italo Disco favorites.

The 3rd album is a lot more Synth Funk, Gino Soccio/Lime influenced. The first track Kiss Power is much better then the rest but like the first two it's a solid production.

A1 Kiss Power (5:10)
A2 Love Is Coming (5:15)
A3 With You (5:05)
A4 Give It To Me (5:00)
B1 Don't Be A Fool (5:12)
B2 I Just Want To Be Your Lover (5:11)
B3 Keep On (4:45)
B4 I Do Love You (4:47)

http://www.mediafire.com/?dylmmmjec3m

In 1992 a best of CD was released which leans heavily towards the material on My Desire. It has 8 tracks and then 5 more mixed together.

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I Love it by Trussel is PERFECTION

Trussel was a funk group from Petersburg, Virginia who first came to some fame as Evelyn King's touring band. Then they had one l.p. release in 1980 on Elektra Records. It featured the infectious disco throw-down Love Injection. But the real prize on it was I Love It. A few years back it was included on the superb cd series Azuli Presents, this one featuring Derrick L. Carter, Choice: A Collection of Classics. Since re-discovering it, it has been consistently one of my most played tracks in iTunes.

It is simply just not your typical disco or funk tune. Not even a dollop of cheese on this one. It's a veritable house party in itself. The production work by Fred Wesley, who formerly had collaborated with the Ike and Tina Turner Review, James Brown and Funkadelic is adventurous and far from commercial sounding. Around this time Fred Wesley also came out with a major Loft classic with his own House Party 12" on RSO records. It was featured on Nuphonic records Loft Classics Volume 2 compilation. But back to I Love It cause hot damn I just love it so much!

The breaks are on fire on this track. In fact by about five and a half minutes in it turns into a full-stop jazz funk jam session. The lead singer starts a frenzied insane scat and then the hook just repeats over and over:
I Love It
I Love Only You
I Love It
And The Things That You Do
I Love It
I Love Only You
I Love It
And The Things That You Do....That You Do....That You Do...That You Do

Truly a disco funk jazz odyssey. This love mantra just keeps repeating until it fades out but by then you should love it too.

Here grab it:
http://www.mediafire.com/?oawtc3hjzgw

http://www.mediafire.com/?jmmeejtmmyg

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Italo Disco from a few different perspectives

In my opinion there are two kinds of Italo Disco. The spacey, vocoder spruced, electronic type symbolized by classics like Robot is Systematic by 'Lectric Workers, Spacer Woman by Charlie and Cybernetic Love by Casco (DJ Salvatore Cusato) and the lite and airy high NRG tinged poppy type like Lunatic by Gazebo and You're my First, You're my Last by Linda Jo Rizzo.

http://www.mediafire.com/?u2of2lmmjaw

J.D. Jaber (GianLuca Bergonzi) seems to have been involved with both types. He was the engineer on Memory Records classics Japanese War Game by Koto and Do You by Duke Lake. As well as the vocalist on the more commercial sounding and cheerful Don't Stop Lovin' and Don't Wake Me Up.

Here you can download the 12" version of Don't Stop Lovin' from 1983 Baby Records.

http://www.mediafire.com/?uno1iyzhtcd


Below I have provided a link to a zip with both the original 1986 Memory 12" of Don't Wake Me Up along with the 1986 Swedish Remix on Beat Box records. Those Swedish remixes are quite cool and there are a lot of them. They remixed some major Italo Disco classics like Mirage by Scotch, Jabdah by Koto, Bad Boy by Den Harrow, Real Men by Tom Hooker and many many others. They also did some Freestyle remixes like Alisha's Stargazing and Italo House such as Don't You Love Me by the 49ers.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mznijllyzjn

We've heard me go on and on about Italo disco and 1983 before. But to know me is to know that I like to repeat for emphasis. To have a conversation with me can be frustrating. Every third line I say "what?" or "can you repeat that?" Way too many years of sitting on speakers at The Sound Factory or playing my music scary loud. But I'm just not feeling the hearing aid quite yet. The kind of Italo Disco in this post is just the sort of music I love to blast too.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zhymjyjhl5w

These are examples of the darker more spacey Italo. Two releases from 1982 from Italy, Robot is Systematic by 'lectric workers on Disco Magic Records and Robot is.... by Message from the Future on Blood records. Most likely my favorite of this style is Spacer Woman by Charlie which came out in 1983 on Mr. Disc records, Italy. All true classics of the genre they greatly influenced a lot of Italo that came out after them. WBMX in Chicago was an early sustainer of this type of italo disco and so it went on to have a great influence on early house music too.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mybdjtfyyzz

Here below I provide a link for Robot Is.... cause it's one of the hardest to find and above is Robot is Systematic. Hopefully you will enjoy this out there spaced out electronic lunacy as much as I do. I'd also like to give a shout out to the memory of CBS the cybernetic broadcast system because it brought a lot of this spacey stuff to my attention. I really miss listening to it on Sunday mornings as was a ritual for me for several years.

I was living in Rome in 1983 and out dancing many a night but I seem to remember much more clearly the campier Italo numbers like Disco King and Shine on Dance by Cararra, various dance records by Gary Low, like I Want You and the out and out Euro Disco of Paris Latino by Bandolero and No Controles by Ole' Ole'. But I may very well have danced to robot Italo and simply forgotten. Oh what i would give to get back some of those brain cells.

http://www.mediafire.com/?djl2nymibzj

Gigi Farina, Franco Rago, X. Monneret recorded as 'Lectric Workers, Atelier Folie, Decadance (2), Expansives, Message From Future, Wanexa and last but not least Cariocas. Now why they were inclined to use so many aliases if they weren't hiding from the authorities or on a spy mission I wouldn't know.

Regardless I'll have to thank them for their efforts. They are among my all time faves in the spacey italo disco genre. Batida released in 1983 on Proto records was a favorite of Cosmic Baldelli's and is another super synthy italo disco extraordinaire.

http://www.mediafire.com/?n1nxmgtgvxj

Kudos to the art director on this 12" too. It's like something right out of Marvel comics.

http://www.mediafire.com/?nvfymmd00kf

More posts on Italo Disco to come soon. I also have some goodies in earlier posts so don't miss out. As usual I invite you to drop by my Ebay store. If you click the link to the title of this post it will take you directly into ExpatMichael's vinyl shop.

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