Gloves, Konnor and Trilogy, remember those names, as they are our friends. Together they wrote a whooole bunch of excellent songs, released under different names, and I'm gonna post some of those over the next days. You have probably heard some of their stuff, especially their suuuper nice cover of 'Tequila', which they released as Bo Boss. You can actually hear some similarity in their production style, some synths, the way they program the beats, the bleepyness etc, which only adds to the goodness.

First is a monster release from 1982. It has their signature synth-diggadigga (I don't know how else to explain it, but you'll hear it), and is such a great and simple track. Somehow they manage to do songs that are hard and delicate at the same time. Kinda like icicles, these songs can kill you, but are also good for chilling out.

This song has so many layers of goodness, and the singing is really really really good, reminds me of Blue Night or even Steve Winwood. While the singer doesn't seem to want any love, he'll still get some from me for his "No no no not loooove" (plus the rhodes-y part is so nice, too). This track is simple, but still so layered. Mmm.

Trilogy - Not Love
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p.s. this was also pressed on blue vinyl, which today probably sells for a pair of lungs.

Brook Benton was a R&B, soul, gospel, and rock'n'roll (and disco) artist who wrote songs for Nat King Cole and others, and had a total of 49 Billboard chart hits, some of which you might have heard, like his most famous one, 'Rainy Night in Georgia'.

What I'm posting is not one of those hits, nevertheless it's one of my favorites. It's a cover of a song you've heard a trillion times before, but maybe not this version. The lush production was a standard for him, and his rich voice, the tremolo strings, the groove, the horns...it all makes you feel good.

Brook Benton - My Funny Valentine
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Lipseye released this one 12" in 1986. It's so smooth and super catchy, jolly with a hint of drama, like in the following words:

Let me take you by the hand,
Let me show you what to feel,
You're forgetting what life is,
And time is now on your side.

This was produced by Alessandro Novaga, the owner of D.I.D. Records, which released a whole bunch of brilliance. Novaga was also in Camaro's Gang and the awesome Cellophane. He's a clever guy.

This track has so many good things: the drama-stabs, the slap-bass, the bells.

Lipseye - Don't Worry
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This is one of those Italo songs where everything is done right, even the cover, which is weeeiiiiirrrd, but nice.

Tonic was a french band that was active between 1980 and '83. They only released four 7", and the song I'm posting is from their last one. I'm not sure what the band's members did before or after Tonic, but it's probably something good.

This is the A-side from the 1983 release, which I think is much better than the B-side.

Tonic - Pirates a Babord
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It's amazing just how *french* this track sounds. I like it.

Christine was one of my early Italo favorites. I had read about this song several times and spent forever trying to buy a copy, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I still don't own a copy, and I don't like it.

Anyways, this track is so great in so many levels. And it gets better everytime I hear it, and there's a good reason, as the guys behind did a shit load of other greats, almost too much to mention. They were together in Baltimora and Radiorama, and Naimy Hackett was in Klapto, and wrote stuff for Valerie Dore, Silver Pozzoli, Miko Mission, Novecento and Den Harrow to name a few. The other guy, Maurizio Bassi, produced F.R. David's 'Words' (my post), and worked with Hackett on Silver Pozzoli, etc.

You get my point. This is quality. I love how the track is kinda easy going, but the chorus always explodes with magic.

Christine - Dancing Hour
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p.s. sorry about the jump in the first chorus, I'm trying to fix it...

Update:

Christine - Dancing Hour (Kontrapunkt fix)
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Universal Robot Band was one of superproducer Patrick Adam's projects. (I talked about him before).

This track is from their LP 'Freak In The Light Of The Moon' from 1978. It starts off in a rather "normal" way with strings, bass, whatever, but the vocals kick in and it gets all groovy and lovely, with that suuuuuper delicious instrumental part at 3:27. It's just so freaky-deakily well produced!

Just like the Rewind track I posted before, this is done just like it should. So effortless, rolls so nicely, and is such a feelgood track.

Universal Robot Band - Dancin' Disco Party
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Rewind was a German Italo Disco band, and released two 12" in 1985.

To me, this is Italo Disco done like it should. Cheeky, fun, bouncey, dancey.

"Hey ho, don't you know,
that you better Pop & Go!
Hey ho, high & low,
that's why you should...
Pop Go!"

And I loooooooove the chorus!!! Oh Rosalie!!!

Rewind - Rosalie (Pop & Go!) (Extended version)
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Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft are probably better known as the easier to pronounce D.A.F. (The guys you see above are the two remaining members.)

They've done a whole lot of brilliant and different music since around 1979. Moved from screeming noise and experimental to electro to synthpop, and made this rather jolly and super-gay song in 1985.

Let's play
Let's play
Let's play
Let's play

It's all about the brotherhood of brothers, and playing, loving, and caring for your brother from a different father, or different mother. Together they can play, like brothers do.

It's so good and cheeky and brilliant and while its setup is somewhat simple, it's very different from their early grittier stuff, which was sometimes like dance-punk. Or D.A.F. punk.

D.A.F. - Brothers
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You have to see the video, with the brothers wiggling their hips in a tent in the desert.

Pyrolator is Kurt Dahlke, one of D.A.F.'s founding members, who left early to focus on his own music. He is one of my favorite artists, there are unbelievably many brilliant songs scattered over his releases, in many different styles.

You should buy whatever Pyrolator stuff you can find, here are two songs so you know why.

From 'Ausland' LP (1981):

Pyrolator - Max
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From 'Wonderland' LP (1984):

Pyrolator - Gespraech Mit Der Erde
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Kurt Dahlke also founded Ata Tak Records, which released D.A.F. and his own stuff. You can buy all the Pyrolator stuff there. He also blogs about his Tenori On.

Linda Martin won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1992, but not with the song I'm posting. Her right hand man through all her Eurovision Journey of Glory is no other than Seán Patrick Michael Sherrard, a/k/a Johnny Logan, three time winner, and ballad cruncher of the millenium. He wrote both of her entries, which probably makes him one of the most successful Eurovisioners ever living, and I'm proud that he was able to pick an artist name that is so different from his real name. What was wrong with Seán Sherrard, which btw he used for this particular track? Sounds electronic and nice. Or M. Sherrard, the disconnoisseur from Paris, Alabama?

This song came in 2nd in the 1984 Eurovision Song Contest, and is made up of everything good at that time. Well, if everything good refers to Abba, air travel, Star Wars string-covers, slap-bass, arpeggio, musicals, and extreme jolliness.

This is supreme cheese.

(...and sorry for the size of this image, it was the only one I could find. You'll get it thrice because of the size...)

Linda Martin - Terminal 3
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Woah. That chorus.

George Duke is not typical for the artists I'm usually posting here. He has an amazing background as a jazz-pianist and synthesizist, releasing solo stuff as well as working with Frank Zappa, Stevie Wonder, George Clinton, Dizzy Gillespie...the list goes on.
( Check his website for all the juice. ) A lot of his stuff is sambaesque bonga funk jazz, about sandy bitches (or beaches, I have bad hearing), with ooh's and aaahaaa's, wobbly guitars, and luke warm cocktails, but then there's this lil' gem, with all its slight oddities (which I wish the track had more of...)

This track actually reminds me a bit of Brian Auger's brilliant 'Night Train To Nowhere' (my post). Not that the songs sound that much alike musically: it's more that the singer has an authentic English accent, and the music is silky smooth and funky at the same time, without sounding overly jolly, and, what's more important, is good. (By no means is this the best track in the world, but the singing style always gets stuck in my head.) The part that I'm loving is how unbelievably smoothly the words in the first verses ooze out of this clearly super-relaxed singer. It's so so smooth.

Overall, this track sounds like a lot of other 1985 disco/funk/electro tracks from the same year even, especially the Fletch-ish windpipe synth sounds and the horny guitar, but the super-smoothness in the singing make this song wonderfully odd.

George Duke - Thief In The Night
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p.s. I can actually picture this track in a movie about a P.I. who's breaking into the curly blonde's beach trailer, and getting chased by her dog. A mixture of Lethal Weapon, Fletch and Night Eyes.

Glasses were probably brought up in a trailer, and let their emotions take control whenever they get the chance. This intro is probably one of the most dramatic to an Italo Disco song ever (the award for the most drama in all music ever made goes to Jon Anderson & Vangelis for 'I'll Find My Way Home'...)

But Glasses sure give it their best shot. I quote:

"My mother is crazy,
My father is lazy,
And my sister and my brother get me drunk."

And then:

"So I'm gonna steal somebody from a band."

...you what?

I wanted to post this mainly because of the lyrics. The song itself is okay, but I kinda stop listening after the first few verses and just stare into the abyss, thinking about what the guy just said.

Glasses - Crystals
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Of course Italo Disco has its super-fair share of weirdness in lyrics, but sometimes you hit the jackpot.

p.s. the link is working now...

L.E.B. Harmony only released one 7-track LP in 1978.

They were three French producers, who (under other names) also did some french pop, soul, and ballads (one of them wrote a song for Demis Roussos) and probably a lot else. I think L.E.B. Harmony is the only thing I've heard from any of these guys, but I'm buy-curious.

This track is awesome. Hammond-disco-synth-jam to the maxxx.

L.E.B. Harmony - Discorgan
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I was flipping through used vinyl when this glorious album cover said hello, and instantly I knew that there had to be a good song somewhere on it. I didn't recognize any names at first, but when I saw that Michael Cretu was credited for keyboards, I knew I had to have it. (plus it was only $3).

You might know the longhaired Romanian Michael Cretu better as Curly, the "mastermind" behind Enigma and all the other Monk-Wave stuff, but for the record he did actually release some quality stuff, like Sandra's 'Maria Magdalena' (which sounds awfully a lot like RAF's 'Self Control'. You can hear them combined in our first Italo-mix, fast forward to 6:30). But enough about him, let's talk about these folks:

Behold, Goombay Dance Band, in all their current glory.

At first I guessed that the band's music concept was similar to Boney M: Calypso-flavored Disco-Pop, them both being German and all, and when I saw this picture I figured the member-swapping was yet another Boney M thang. But hot damn, I'm pretty sure these babes are the ones on the cover. Up yours, Boney M!!!

( But, all love aside, I can't say I'm really loving this terrible faux-beach happening.
You can actually see the horizon through their bodies. Savin' some money on photo-editing, are we? )

'Land of Gold' was Goombay Dance Band's first of many LPs, released in 1980. The track I'm posting is from that album, and is one of their hits, in 1981 the single was no. 3 in Germany.

"They came 500 years ago,
They stole the gold of Mexico,
Killed the people one by one,
Only talking with their guns."

Regardless of age and beauty, the track I'm posting is amazing. It's about some rather evil dudes crossing rivers and deserts, fighting the Golden Dreams of Eldorado by torturing, killing and stealing, selling young mothers as slaves, and making a whole lotta babies cry. It's so dramatic and huuuuge! The best $3 I've spent, ever! And the guitar-rhythm is just like Iron Maiden, all horsey-galloping like, dudduru-dudduru, and it's irresistible for horse lovers like myself, who also like to dance.

Goombay Dance Band - Eldorado
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Sing with me: "Goooolden dreams of Eelldooraaadooo..."

Brian Eno. He's done everything, right?
Good: he invented Ambient (almost), is a super nice guy, wrote 'An Ending (Ascent)'.
Bad: Worked with U2 (ew!), which almost made me not like him anymore. But he's too good to not like.

And then there's this song, from a 5-track LP called 'Rarities', which was released in 1983 and contained songs previously released exclusively on a 11-album box set.

It's weird, cool, funky, dark, happy, and all over the genre-place. And we love that kind of stuff, remember?

Brian Eno - Strong Flashes Of Light
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p.s. The GEMM link is the only one pointing to a copy of 'Rarities'...
Now Music Stack does it, too.

It was after I heard (and liked) J.M. Band that I realized who were behind it, Luca Orioli and Romano Trevisani. The giveaway for me where actually the female vocals, which are the same as in another project of theirs, Sex Band. It's really no wonder how good this is, because the guys behind it are geniuses.

This tracks starts with some "Woo-Hah!" to get things going, then we're punched in the liver with beauty. A vocoder-sounding monkey? There's no point in talking about it; just listen.

J.M. Band - Computer Monkey
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There was actually a third guy involved in J.M. Band, but I have no idea who he is. He is a great man.

Here's a little overview of what the other guys have done:

It's kinda obvious that I love whatever Luca Orioli does, as I've posted so much of his stuff. He was a member of N.O.I.A. (my posts here and here), Gaznevada (my post), Gay Cat Park and their briiiiilliant 'I'm A Vocoder' (my post).

He was also a part of Local Boy, who released 'Thriller / Owner Of A Lonely Heart Medley', which is awesome.

Romano Trevisani played guitar and keyboard in a bunch of bands, and wrote, produced, arranged a whole bunch of brilliance. He was a part of Tabù D'Apache (my posts here and here), Cruisin' Gang's 'On The Beach' (my post), a bunch of Max Him releases including 'Japanese Girl', which is oh so lovely, Zeta's 'Eh-Ah-Oh' (which has a lovely bassline), and Flowchart, which was a boogie-ish Italo Disco band.

They've both done a bunch of other stuff, so if you like it, go and get it.

p.s. Sean Wolcott at Red Room posted Sex Band a while back. Check it.

Geoff Bastow produced his K.I.D. project in the early 80s. He had been a part of other projects before that, including working with Anthony Monn on Amanda Lear releases, and Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte (and Thor Baldursson) by playing guitar on a few Donna Summer releases, appearing on Munich Machine LPs, arranging and more. And he wrote a song on an Elton John album.

I really like his K.I.D. project. The songs are gooooood blend of Disco, Hi-NRG and Italo Disco, and the production is thick and juicy. Mm mm mmmm.

Here are two good ones:

"I wanna piece of the action,
it's driving me to distraction."

Released in 1982, and sounds rather timeless to me.

K.I.D. - I Wanna Piece Of The Action
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Released in 1981, it's a sweet Disco arpeggio-roller. I love the break at 2:21, and how the song slowly builds up again. Nice nice nice.

K.I.D. - Don't Stop
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I love how both of these tracks could've been produced any time after 1978. Timeless quality.

Kermesse is one of Aldo De Scalzi's many many beautifully brilliant projects. He is such an unbelievable producer. If I'd see him on the street (or in a house, or where ever) I'd probably kiss his shoes or something. No, I'd probably just stand there and get sweaty, and inside I'd be all like "Yo, mister Scalzi, you make magic!" or something deep.

Because, you know, that's exactly what he does: produces incredibly good music.

He's worked on Mr. Flagio's 'Take a Chance', one of the best songs in the world, and 'Get The Night', A.G.F.'s 'Loved By You' (get it here), Moments' 'The Station'...SO MUCH STUFF!!!

There's something so *right* about his songs. They sound so good. There sound so confident, like they know exactly why they sound the way they do, you know? Everything is so right. They all end up being my favorites, even though I only realize afterwards that they came from him.

"Moon,
Don't you feel me,
I'm your guest now,
I'm just walking on the...

...Moon,
Don't you hear me,
I'm your guest now,
I'm just talking to the...

...Moon..."

Just listen to this song. So f'in good. CAN YOU HEAR IT?

Kermesse - Mrs Moon (vocal version)
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This is a perfect song. Hot damn!