Influences: Discodromo

One of our all time favourite italo disco songs. Here you can hear some of our early influences: pompous medieval-like arpeggios, synth melodies so haunting that just italians with their melodramatic songwriting could come up with, intergalactic romance sung with glacial aplomb by the one and only Dora Carofiglio. She was the singer of many of the best italo songs (Valerie Dore, Funky Family, Answering Service “Call Me Mr. Telephone” to name few), usually working together with her husband and his brother, the Nicolosi’s siblings responsible for the music and production.

Cocktail d’Amore was the closing song of a TV show called Tilt which was aired in 1979 by the main national channel in Italy. It was the first show which was entirely focused on the nightlife and its clubbing scene. It took place in an imaginary discotheque. The song is about going to a club where nationality isn’t important, looking for something to love that can last for a moment or forever. It’s an ode to love, respect and inclusiveness, values for which we stand for so it was a pretty easy choice to borrow that title for our Berlin monthly party 7 years ago, this September.

Maurizio Arcieri and Christina Moser were one of the most forward thinking band in Italy since the mid 70’s. They were pioneers on post punk, new wave, experimental electronic music. Black Silk Stocking, We R, Many Kisses, Cathode Mamma are all great songs but we chose Miami. The song was way ahead of its time (1982), reminiscent of Chris and Cosey and the video is pretty cool. Like Chris & Cosey, Christina and Maurizio were a long time couple also outside their artistic personas, fact that always made them like them even more! A friend who knew them told us that their major label sent them in a loft in the Lower East Side for 2 months to record one of their album but instead they spent all their advance money throwing crazy parties every night and ending up recording the LP in the last few days of their stay. Another one is that a promoter friend of ours contacted them in the late ’00 to perform with them asking, as only condition, to have full open bar for that night without even wanting a performing fee. How can you not love them?

John Waters is an absolute genius and a guru for what we are concerned. His movies (along with his theater pieces, books, lectures etc) are outrageous, fun and subversive. If you aren’t familiar with him, this is an introductory commentary on the timeless Pink Flamingo starring the famous scene with the divinely Divine eating dog shit.

The early Pedro Almodóvar was like a Spanish John Waters having a lot of fun during the post-Franco movida madrileña. All his first movies are worth checking, this is a concert scene from his first one called Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón where you can see Pedro himself and Fabio performing a pretty bad ass no-wave druggy number.

Who is the most fabulous one here? Hard to choose! Bowies beautifully sings at the beginning of the video but the fun part starts at 2’40.

This version of Alive came out on their debut album Homework in 1997 but the original version called Alive New Wave Final Mix (even though it was actually the first version), came out in ’94, when i was 16 yo and giovanni 15. Separate from each other, that was the year when we both started going out, discovering electronic music and dancing the night away. This track is one of the key tracks that soundtracked our epiphany as dance music lovers.

The 90’s were years in which video clips were brought to a complete different level. Directors like Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham and our fave Michel Gondry came up with brilliant, twisted ideas realized with the latest technology of that time, very inspirational stuff. Sugar Water is directed by Gondry and has a split screen with 2 “one take” shoot going opposte directions (one forwards, one backwards) until they meet mid-song and they roll swaps each to another 2 “one take” shoot. Everything is so perfectly synchronized that when you think how he did it you ended up just with a big headache. Just look when she sings about the black cat and a black cat appears in one side and goes to the other side through a little hole in the wall at 2’50… so good!