ZYX Germany Vinyl & CDs

Review: 49ers were the fivesome of Gianfranco Bortolotti, Luca Cittadini, Diego Leoni and Pieradis Rossini and vocalist Ann-Marie Smith and 1989's 'Touch Me' came as their second ever single after 'Die Walkure', which did comparatively less well in the charts. Ingenious of the association now often made between Italo house/disco and lewd sexuality, this was an early experiment in the style and came without vocals from Smith. Instead, it sampled Aretha Franklin's 'Rock-A-Lott' and Alisha Warren's 'Touch Me', producing a nebulously sexual sound, in which the samples songstresses are made to sound much... tenderer. For the more squeamish among us, there is of course an instrumental B-side.

Review: One of legendary filmmaker John Carpenter's few forays into electro-disco proper, 'Die Klapperschlange' is an instant throwback, the title theme from the 1981 sci-fi film Escape From New York. Everyone knows this melody, yet few could point to its origin, and that's likely due to the German release of the John Carpenter film being titled 'Die Klapperschlange' ('The Rattlesnake'). And yes, you heard us right: John Carpenter himself made this piece of music. A multi-talented man indeed, though he did work with fellow composer and sound designer Alan Howarth to add the finishing touches here. It's as if this track were made for the anarcho-discos of the future, its inherent darkness rendering it seemingly unassailable by the crumbling of society or public breakouts of violence depicted in the film. Plus, there's *that* unmistakable four-bar extension, in which a three-note hook has permanently wedged itself in our minds - wowee. And on this new release via ZYX, we've got two new alt-mixes and an outrun techno remix from Nomoo. Sweet!

Review: Produced by a quartet of experienced Italian producers, CRW's debut single 'I Feel Love' was a huge international dancefloor hit following its original release in 1998. Joining the dots between uplifting 90s trance, Eurodance and the colourful and saucer-eyed end of the superclub progressive house spectrum, it has been remixed countless times since. This EP brings together the best of those versions, flitting between melody-rich peak-time joy (the piano-sporting On Air and Red mixes), stomping trance muscularity (the J&R Mix), speed garage-influenced, bass-heavy Eurodance (the RAF Zone version), 21st century hard dance (the buzzing riffs and thickset grooves of DJ Isaac's recent revision) and atmospheric progressive trance (Karl8 and Andrea Monta's extended 'rework').

Review: A real doozy of an early Italo, proto-darkwave heater from Fred Ventura-led Fokewulf 190, bound to illicit dancefloor devastation any darn time of year. Straddling the boundary between the more uptempo chapters of Italo and the more austere permutations of synth pop, Fokewulf's timeless anthem lends itself well to DJ Tin Tin and Flemming Dalum's respectful but gently modernised remixes. If anything though, they cast the original in a more innovative light, with its sparse, classy drive.

Review: Italian singer Elena Ferretti was popular on the Italo and Eurobeat scene between the early '80s, produced by the likes of Giacomo Maiolini, Mauro Farina, Sergio Dall'Ora and Giancarlo Pasquini. One of her best known hits is the song "My World" (as Sophie). Here we have a reissue of Feretti's highly valued Italo classic (to those who know) in the form of "Witch" under the Helen alias - with which she used for half a dozen or so tracks in her career. A typically neon-lit Italo disco anthem of the timeless variety, with additional remixes by Centre Neptune chief Flemming Dalum and mad Aussie Hysteric - both of them giving the track a nice reshape for modern dancefloors.

Review: Germany's ZYX records picks of the reissue of Mauro Picotto hit Iguana. Perhaps the most famous Mauro composed track in his discography, many of the most important original remixes are gathered on this one 12"! Included, is the hard trance version with the Megavoices mix, the pulsating peak time version RAF and the anthemic Blank & Jones remix. The Megamind and Mas remixes should not be overlooked! Each version on here give you all the feels of this mega trance hit.