ExpatMichael's opinion of anything relating to disco, Italo disco, funk and boogie music. Promotion for my Ebay and Discogs stores which concentrate on the sale of Disco, Funk, Italo Disco, Hi NRG, New Wave, morning music, sleaze and anything pressed on vinyl. There's a link to my Ebay store on the bottom of the page, right under the counter widget. Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave comments. Follow my twitter and join the Disco Vinyl Fan Page on Facebook.
Originally based out of Rome her release came out on DJ Claudio Casilina's label Jumbo. Later she moved to the Cote d'Azur in France and became a fashion designer.
eagles in the night AN EAGLES ZIP EAGLES IN THE NIGHT HEARTBEAT FRED VENTURA LEAVE ME ALONE FRED VENTURA THE YEARS GO BY FRED VENTURA IMAGINE FRED VENTURA 1987 TIME RECORDS Body Heat Fockewulf 190 using the voice of Fred Ventura came out with Eagles in the Night by Dario Dell'Aere in 1985 on Market Records Italy. It is now one of the most coveted Italo Disco 12" in existence and in my opinion one of the very best. It is the epitome of Italo Disco kitsch. The male vocals are completely off and he seems to yell "oh wacky co-co" and then after when she sings "oh I will become an eagle that flies only in the night" and he comes back "Uh ho Uh ho." It is simply classic nonsensical Italo at it's best. Why would someone want to become an eagle that flies only in the night anyway?
I was trying to put my finger on what makes the sound of the music so unusual and then it dawned on me it sounds as if in the background they are playing a children's xylophone. Yet the synth work is top notch. Frank Tavaglione with the ultra rare 12" Tumidanda is also Fockewulf 190. Aliases in Italo Disco seem more common then they would be in a spy movie! Body Heat was their release from 1984 on Market Records. Ironically they wrote on the sleeve of the 12" that Dario Dell'Aere did the vocals but it was actually Fred Ventura (Federico Di Bonaventura).
The 12" cover art work by Tiziana Dell'Aere for Eagles in the Night is quite interesting too and probably ups the value as quite a few collectors I've come in contact with are quite partial to picture sleeves. Especially those who collect Italo Disco.
My love for Italo Disco came quite late in life. Because at the time going out in Rome in the 80's that's the music I heard in clubs and most nights it didn't seem quite so remarkable to me. But now considering how coveted and rare many of these tracks have become and then reading about how many of them had a strong influence on early house music and were staples on the legendary WBMX of Chicago, I realize that I really was quite fond of them after all. It's just that here in Italy in many cases they were simply Top 40 radio fodder so they seemed quite common.
But in the past decade I've become a rabid collector of Italo mp3's. I guess because I've already accumulated so many of the disco and morning music ones that I wanted to get. Also due to the fact that for several years Italo disco labels like il discotto, Memory, Time, Market, Baby and others were quite prolific it would be almost impossible to know the majority of the releases. Many fell by the wayside during that period and many others were licensed by ZYX records in Germany and those got promoted heavily even though in many cases they were not the best ones.
Italo Spanish vocalist Gary Low whose real name was Luis Romano Paris Belmont was born in Rome on June 7, 1954 he burst onto the italo disco scene with the hit You are a Danger for il Discotto records Italy in 1982. Produced by italo disco masters Pier Luigi Giomboni and Paul Micioni the record was an unexpected smash.
But I became a fan when I Want You was a smash, hitting #1 in both Italy and Spain and Top 10 in the U.K.. I was particularly drawn to his image he seemed so "out."
But we all know there was a lot of playing with sexual identity looks in the 80's. So was he or wasn't he? Who knows and does it even really matter?
All I know is that I bought my twelve inch maxi single of I Want You at the Corte Ingles in Plaza Catalunya in Barcelona and I played the hell out of it. One of his follow-up hits La Colegiala in 1984, actually a Peruvian cumbia was an even bigger hit and great fun too.
small Gary zip more Gary
By the mid 80's the hits disappeared though there were still a few releases up until the early 90's even.
There is nothing particularly special about Talk About by Phaeax but somehow by the same measure it features everything that is special about Italo Disco.
The vocals are god awful. So new wave set to a disco beat. But to me it's simply disco kitsch to the third power. The music sounds like it was devised in some madman's workshop. Sort of irritating, off-key and yet fabulous at the same time. Talk About instrumental
"Talk About, move on, move on, move on!"
As if all that weren't enough they threw in what sounds like a children's choir and a men's chorus going "la la la la." Which an English speaking person takes for granted but really increases a songs' catchiness in countries where English isn't spoken so well. Especially in 1983 well before internet and cell phones and twitter! Oh 1983 don't get me started. To be young and care-free on the dance-floors of Rome again. Italo Disco was bursting and booming and managing to be camp and synthesizer spacey at the same time. An italo disco fan was born and I didn't even realize it.
Jack's Project had three maxi single efforts in the mid 80's. The last of which was called Shy Shy Sugarman. Released in 1986 this German Ariola Records twelve inch is not particularly well known but undoubtably has the kind of sound that fits in very well with the Disco Vinyl blog feeling. versions of Sugarman here
I thank my dear Scottish friend Brian for calling it to my attention or it would have remained in that abyss of unknown Synth Pop, Italo style songs which have passed me by. I'd be the first to admit there were many because during the height of the italo disco era I was at university and listening to a lot of alternative music. I developed my passion for italo disco during my visits to Italy in those years and in my nights at the Roman discos. Most of those were in 1983 but there were more visits in 1984, 1985 and 1986 until I had a pretty long break and then moved to Rome. The D.C. clubs I went to in my university years played more Hi NRG then I would have liked, but a few Euro sounding records to break through.
Jack's Project also did a cover of the Hi NRG classic Wake up by Stop which had been released the year before. An insanely infectious ditty in any version!
But clearly by the time I moved to Rome it had been taken over by house music and the more Euro sounding dance sounds which owed nothing to Italo Disco and never hit me with the same passion. Hence I have dedicated my blog to earlier dance music which tickles my fancy more then what I was dancing to during my peak of clubbing in the early 90's.
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