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.
Championed early on by the Godfather of House Frankie Knuckles, Jamie Principle was responsible for a few of the most haunting and delightful early Chicago house records.
Donna Jones is Pussyfoot. She was formerly a member of the Australian act The New Seekers.
Her 1978 release on EMI Canada is a favorite of mine in the space disco cheese vein, Dancer Dance. PUSSYFOOT CLICK HERE
There were a few other releases using the Pussyfoot name and then under her own name but I have only heard one other one, Lay your love on the Line from 1979.
Indianapolis singer songwriter Paul Thomas took advantage of a gospel labels expansion into r and b and brought three great singles to Circle City Records as the Circle City Band. Each was picked up later by Becket Records too. For me they are the epitome of quality modern soul, funk, boogie. The best parts of disco being brought to the next level and into the freshly started 80's.
Magic the first single from 1983 was hot indeed, so hot that BET (Black Entertainment Television) chose it as it's theme song.
Back when Ebay bidders had more money to shell out this 12" often shot up well above $100.00 especially for the Promo on Circle City Band records. Now it gets about half that amount. "That MAGIC from the sparkle in your eyes makes me realize, I know that you're the only one for me. The true devotion from the feeling in your heart, means we'll never part, you know that I'm the only one you need. That MAGIC from the sparkle in your eyes makes me realize I know that you're the only one for me.
Hot baby. Hot baby. Girl you're makin' me hot baby. ALRIGHT!"
The follow-up from 1984 My Place is funkier and features vocoder which I personally have a deep weakness for. As do many a collector of Boogie and Electro. The lyrics are fun but not nearly as catchy and smart as Magic.
The 3rd single Party Lights (shake your body get loose) is probably my least favorite of the three. It is clearly more Electro and vocoder Funk in that Newcleus, Aleem kinda way. There is some very tasty sax work though. Paul Thomas also seems to channel his inner falsetto as he varies the pitch in his vocals on this track more then he had with the previous two. The chipmunky sounding retort "shake your body get loose" reminds me a lot of the Newcleus "wicky wicky wicky" which was very Electro hot in the same period.
I'd rate all three songs growers. They take repeated listens to really appreciate and personally I think all three kick some major ass!
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.
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.
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