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Monday, January 13, 2014

Italo Disco Classic TANTRA celso valli's crowning glory Hills of Katmandu

Though the output of the act Tantra was only between 1979 and 1982 the impact of their sound is nonetheless unforgettable.  Italian Disco Genius Celso Valli was the man responsible for so many acts but Tantra must be considered his crowning glory.
  The Hills of Katmandu is simply his Stairway to Heaven.  It first appeared in 1979 and then in various forms and remixes after that.  It's one of the crucial bridge tracks because it's not only disco and space disco but it's considered an early example of Hi NRG and a seminal Italo Disco masterpiece.  In the zips I've provided a variety of versions including a Hot Tracks edit and great remix by the Australian DJ Paul Goodyear, twelve inch versions, album versions and more.  http://www.filefactory.com/file/45a7lby5tvnb/zip2.zip 

Lest you might think that Tantra is a one song act it's simply not the case.  But the fact that Hills was able to fly all the way up to #2 on the Billboard Disco Charts in 1980 (the most transitional year of disco music) was definitely a feat to be considered.  

Get Happy and Ma-Cum-Ba had some happy dancers but then the genius Patrick Cowley got his hands on Hills of Katmandu and this extended the life of the classic even longer, not to mention the fact that a Spanish version was also recorded to satisfy worldwide demand. 

I couldn't resist posting this fab photo of Patrick in my city at the Colosseum.  To think that back then it was a major cruising spot and people could walk around in it even at night! 


If you'd like to explore the Celso Valli sound further I suggest you check out Macho, Passengers, and especially Azoto to name a few.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Fantastic post once more!
Thank you so much for all the different versions of that classic!

Except 'Wishbone' I didn't know any other song by Tantra. 'Get happy', Get ready...' and the Tarot suite are great, too.

Btw, there's a very good DC-rip of the Azoto album:
http://discoconnection.blogspot.kr/2013/11/post-426-azoto-1979-expanded-320kbps.html

Cheers from Seoul