Dedicated to KOTO an essential Italo Disco artist if there ever was one

Koto has left the stage. So I'm going to spoil you with more Koto then you ever thought existed.

Koto was quite the special Italo Disco artist. In fact his crossover appeal was such that Japanese War Game was even a favorite at the legendary Paradise Garage.

Koto was very experimental and prolific. He wasn't afraid to dip his hands into many pots. As you can see he even did plenty of covers.

One thing I do know is that I appreciated him and I'll bet you did too!

As per usual my download links are going to be in the messages section below. I no longer know how to keep my links live in my posts directly.

KOTO ITALO DISCO PIONEER, from Chinese Revenge in 1982 throughout

HUGE KOTO ZIP

Anfrando Maiola is the main component of classic Italo Disco act Koto. He was born in Parma, Italy in 1954 under the star sign Acquarius and married a German woman named Martina.



Beginning in 1982 with Chinese Revenge and continuing throughout the 80's, he released quite a few happy italo disco synthesizer ditties.

Whoever was responsible at his record companies, and he did bounce around to a couple made some great decisons on the graphics. Spacey and futuristic images that were fun to look at. He actually lost the rights to his recording name when it was sold to ZYX records Germany but he recently won the rights back.





I've stuffed some italo magic into this zip including Chinese Revenge, Japanese War Game, The Visitor, Jabdah and Mechanic Sense. Japanese War Game was the one I really grooved out on when clubbing in Rome in 1983.

In 1989, a German record label ZYX has bought rights to all Memory Records catalogue, including the rights to "KOTO" music and name.


In 1990 he released a very capable cover of the Kraftwerk classic Trans Europe Express. It's not so well known and surely after his italo disco peak but it works for me.

Jabdah in 1986 was another high-point again featuring campy italo disco sounds with spacey elaborated vocals. Something tells me that Anfrando was a bit Star Wars obsessed and most likely a trekkie too. You can get directly to my listing for Jabdah in my ebay store by clicking the title of this particularly blog entry.

Memory's 1987 release was a Koto mix. It's yet another italo disco medley.

Koto was asked in an interview what was his favorite italo disco artist and his favorite italo disco song. He said. "In the past I surely listened to italo disco music and I really like the voice of Tom Hooker, I also like Self Control and Dolce Vita but my preferred italian artist is Vasco Rossi with Vita Spericolata.
Visitors, Chinese Revenage, Jabdah etc. Each song is real masterpiece, but Visitors made so big success."

I love that he's modest too! I think that Koto is among the campiest of Italo Disco acts too. It's the perfect blend of cheese, full stop Velveeta, but it's not lacking in the boogie department either. His synthesizer genius has surely influenced a lot of the dance music that came out after his years of success.





Check him out now:
http://www.myspace.com/kotomaiola



Lately, Anfrando Maiola has won back the rights to "KOTO" name, but the music he produces in 2003 is far from synthdance genre, it's rather in Techno and Dance style.

If you appreciate my blog please click on the ads.  Click on the title of this post and it will bring you right to my ebay store, the italo disco section where I add things weekly.