The La Bionda Brothers

updated links

Sicilian brothers Carmelo and Michelangelo La Bionda are known as the inventors of Italian Disco.  They began recording in 1973 but debuted even earlier as songwriters.  Their 1978 hit One for You, One for Me (a #9 pop hit in Italy) even managed to become a big pop hit in the U.K. among other countries.  That in addition to Deserts of Mars and Sandstorm are my favorite La Bionda tunes.

They went on to produce for other artists too.  Their seminal La Bionda album featured the influential disco hit Sandstorm.  It was covered by Darude in the 90's in a house version.  They also recorded as D.D. Sound and had other major disco hits including Cafe'.

In the 80's they worked on some soundtracks and with the Italian group Ricchi e Poveri.  Their collaboration with the dance duo Righeira in 1983 brought them their most famous hit Vamos a La Playa.  A huge record all over Europe.    The Bandido album  Fratelli La Bionda zip

I think that one of the main reasons I love La Bionda is that they seem to have a real sense of humor.  You could call it tongue in cheek disco.

Some of my favorite D.D. Sound (Disco Delivery Sound) songs are 1,2,3,4 Gimme Some More! Cafe and Hootchie Coochie. Their first album came out in 1977 and were quite active for two years.  The amazing single Disco Bass was a #6 hit in Italy in 1977 and 1,2,3,4 got to #6 in 1978.  4 DD Sound Albums

In 1985 they opened the music studio Logic in Milan and have had many huge stars such as Depeche Mode, Robert Palmer and Rihanna have recorded there.
ONLY LA BIONDA

I'm a little baffled by this one

It's not really Italo Disco.  I don't even think I like it.  But in a way it's sorta fun.

Being that it's an obscure Italian dance record I suppose it goes in line of what you'd expect from me. Up an' Away by The Mask Banana Records Italy 1980.

CHECK IT OUT

SENSITIVE DRIVING AND GIVE ME ITALO DISCO HEAVEN AND HOLY GRAILS

I'm gonna bring back this old post from 2010 and again from 2013 for those of you who didn't get a chance to download this masterpiece.


Gigi Vavassori, Salvatore Pileggi, Sergio Bonzanni are Sensitive. They created some of the most mysterious, melodic, synthesized, sheer Italo Disco magic of all time. I really can't be more enthusiastic about these tracks as they are for me the pinnacle of a genre I hold so dear.

I've only heard of two singles. The 1984 12" release on Gong Records Italy "Driving" and it's 1985 follow-up double A side follow-up on Sensation records Italy "Give Me" and "Don't Stop". At the risk of sounding banal I'm just going to let the music speak for itself.
a Sensitive zip
Driving
I sold a copy of Driving for a friend of mine who happened to have two. It stopped just sort of $600.00 in Ebay. I've actually seen copies go for near a grand. Imagine if someone had a sixth sense about this record and bought a hundred copies and kept them sealed in a box somewhere just waiting to unleash them!

In 2009 a previously unreleased version was released.  When I figure out which external HD I put it on I''ll refresh the link.

Kissing the Pink or K.T.P.

British new wave band Kissing the Pink were from London.  They had two successful periods.  The first was in 1983 when they had a string of hits in the U.K. and elsewhere including The Last Film and Mr. Blunt.  Big Man Restless was an underground dance hit that got play in clubs like Danceteria and The Pyramid in New York.

Their records sold moderately in the states as imports on Magnet records and they got a deal with Atlantic.

Then not much happened for them until 1985 when they shed a few members and sometimes billed themselves as K.T.P.  In 1986 One Step was a huge hit single around the world including Italy where it hit #2 though it didn't really happen for them in their home country and in the states as a pop record.  But as a dance remix it hit #5 in the U.S. and set them up for a successful follow-up single.  Never Too Late to Love You which charted but was nowhere near as massive.

But then the single Certain Things are Likely caught on a big way in the clubs.  It had some solid remixes and even made it to #1 on the U.S. dance charts.  I know it was a big record in D.C. where I did most off my clubbing that year.  In 1987 the record actually spent three weeks in the top spot making it one of the biggest dance records of the year.

They were unfortunately unable to capitalize on that success.  They faded into obscurity.  In 1993 the album SugarLand was released to little fanfare and later another jazzy album Hot Filth came out to even less success.

THEY HAVE A TUMBLR

THEY HAVE A WEBSITE

I remember them very favourably.  They are a great representative of the sound of the 80's spanning different genres and moods.

CHECK THEM OUT

Perhaps hearing more of their sound might make you want to support them by getting a CD or two or streaming them and watching their videos.

KIRLIAN CAMERA (THE FIRST DECADE)

I'm refreshing a couple links here.
a couple Kirlian Camera gems
HELDENPLATZ
ODYSSEY
ECLIPSE



Formed in 1980 in Parma, in the North of Italy, (think parmesan cheese), Kirlian Camera are at the forefront in the experimental synth sound. They are actually still together and releasing material from time to time. Their first gig was at an Italian Gay Pride party.

Considered the fathers of the Italian electronic music scene the group had a volatile career often spent fighting record labels that wanted to exploit their more commercial side. Blending new wave, dance, minimal, synth-pop, goth, and post-punk they were not easy to peg and they liked it that way.

The main member is Angelo Bergamini, the other members have changed over the years. Their first release was entitled Dawn in 1980 followed quickly by a self titled e.p. in 1981. Incidentally they were never big in Italy but very much appreciated abroad. They are now touring in support of a special 4 cd retrospective box set including just about all their releases.


I just sold my 1988 l.p. Eclipse (Das Schwarze Denkmal) to a very enthusiastic Dutch guy. It featured a more dark minimal sound then some of their earlier material which could have been more easily classified as Italo disco.

Angelo was also a member of Hipnosis who had a massive Italo disco hit with Pulstar which became a Top 10 pop hit around Europe. Anfrando Maiola (Koto) was also involved with this release. This Vangelis written tune is another of the all time classic italo disco releases. It can be found on the old site to download if I remember correctly.


Angelo remained active with Kirlian Camera despite his success with Hipnosis, 1983's 12" Communicate was released on the seminal italo disco label Memory Records and is in fact also an Italo Disco classic.


The 1983 l.p. featuring Edges and Communicate, It Doesn't Matter, Now is considered their best. It's moody to say the least and introspective and dark. We already know that I have a penchant for unusual English pronunciation. It was their most successful commercially too.


1984's big Kirlian release was Edges followed by 1985's Blue Room again they were able to come up with Italo Disco Classics.


They have been incredibly prolific averaging a new release every other year for the past thirty years. I'm attracted to the way they present themselves. But I have to admit I don't know a ton about their music.


By the 1990's their releases became more avantgarde and lesser known. So they are considered more of a cult type attraction in retrospect. Definitely highly collectible. Many of their releases fetch a pretty penny.





http://www.kirliancamera.com/

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The Pussy Cat Fans Club Cha Cha Italo Disco that purrs

An extremely rare and delicious specimen of the italo disco genre.  The Pussy Cat Fans Club was released in 1983 on the Discofamily label.

So many great italo records came out that luckily quite a few got overlooked back in the day.  That gives us the fortune of rediscovering them now.  MEOW!

CHA CHA

Here you can listen while your download is churning.

MY DOWNLOADS ARE ALL ON FILE FACTORY, WHY DON'T YOU JOIN TOO?

David Mancuso live at The Red Zone Italy

First of all I'd like to point out that the mp3 contained here is of a much lower quality then I would ordinarily share.  So if you're only consideration is high quality for possible use live then I suggest you don't download this.

So much has been written about David Mancuso and The Loft that I'm not going to bother to repeat much.  All you need to know is that Mancuso is disco legendary.  His parties preceded the disco era and were incredibly influential to the scene and the sound.  And even more exciting he has steadily spun from 1970 up to now.  You can still go to a Loft party, though they are only held 3 times a year in New York at this point.  And he does sometimes travel.

DAVID MANCUSO AT THE RED ZONE

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY GIORGIO MORODER

Hansjörg Moroder (Giorgio) was born in Ortisei, Italy a beautiful mountain village in South Tyrol, The Dolomites.  A place I love and have skied in.  It is the part of Italy where most people still speak German as it used to be the southern part of Austria years ago.

What can I even say about this man and not sound banal?  I mean he is the king, the God of electronic disco.  Those of us who adore disco owe so much to him.  His innovative style and his perseverance in pioneering with the synthesizer just means EVERYTHING.

And just to think that he really got his peak of fame over the age of 70 with his work with Daft Punk that brought him to such an audience that had never even been born when he was cranking them out during the disco era.  He actually claims to have been a fan of one of their earlier hits One More Time.

I thought it would be only right to spotlight one of his most important solo masterpieces.  The seminal 1977 electronic romp FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.  A record which was from the album of the same name and strangely enough was not even released on a 12 inch maxi single. Here I bring you 250 mb.'s of versions.  From more recent edits to the original versions.  SO MANY VERSIONS OF IT

Who else out of the disco era has three Oscars and three Grammys?  No one else that's who!

Giorgio's first output on vinyl was in 1965.  He often collaborated with lyricist Pete Bellotte.  They worked together on his biggest projects including of course Donna Summer.  I Feel Love is of course the definitive masterpiece of electronic disco as well as the incredible theme from Midnight Express "The Chase" released in 1978.  Not many know that Munich Machine was actually Giorgio Moroder under another name.  Their track Get on the Funk Train was a definitive Paradise Garage classic.  Under this moniker he also used a variety of great vocalists.  

Blondie's biggest hit, #1 of the year when it came out, was from the film American Gigolo, Call Me was of course a Giorgio Moroder collaboration.

He recently worked with Kelis and is in the process of working with Lana Del Rey who is just about my favorite current female vocalist.  So I'm pretty well chuffed about that.

Most recently he's been touring as a DJ and doing gigs.  Considering the popularity of EDM not a bad move.

Disco Bambina (a California girl who moved to Italy)

Heather Parisi was born in LA. in 1960 but she has been based in Italy since the seventies.  It used to be a big thing on Italian television to have an pretty American girl with pronunciation issues to be used as comic relief.  She took the role to it's highest power and was even able to translate it into a fairly successful recording career.  Disco Bambina/Blackout a double A side was actually a #1 hit in Italy and is even known in some other countries.  It has since become quite the collectible 12".

A HEATHER ZIP

Heather is still considered a successful showgirl and she also does choreography, working on Big Brother in addition to other projects.  As an Italian American living in Rome I guess I can relate to her a bit.  No matter how long I stay I will never speak Italian with the perfect Italian accent but I don't even try so I guess it doesn't matter.

I have not had the opportunity for this type of glamourous lifestyle.  I have settled for teaching Italians how to speak English.  It's not stressful and has allowed me to meet a lot of people in the past 15 years. I blog because I live in the past a lot, at least in my mind.  There was a time in the past when I was very clubby.  I've moved on and it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Robot with a Rose by Biss

Here's an extremely rare and unusual italo disco number.  It was released in 1982 on Dischi International Records.  Don't have much to say about it but the more of this kind of music I find the more I will feel joy in my life.

Robot with a Rose is quirky and it's oh so right.

LISTEN FOR YOURSELF