Flora Pitrolo singles out music by Japan’s Yellow Magic Orchestra, Spain’s Finis Africae and Italy’s Liguria region to Glagow via JD Twitch.
Bionda E Lupo (which translates as ‘The Blonde & The Wolf’) is a collaborative effort between Dunkeltier of Rat Life and Macadam Mambo fame and his unnamed girlfriend. It sees the pair delve deep into the annals of European pop and electronic music, with Dunkeltier previously describing the project as a platform for ‘synth pop ballads, krauty wave and space disco. On the evidence of this first release, it certainly measures up in two out of those three categories, with no sign of the duo’s wave influences yet.
DJ Overdose’s Model Man project launched the Bordello A Parigi label back in 2011 and in the intervening years, it has become one of the most prolific and important labels in the revitalisation of Italo. Championing veterans like Fred Ventura and Flemming Dalum as well as newer artists like Machinegewehr and Ric Piccolo, Bordello A Parigi has enjoyed an enviable run of releases since that first Overdose record.
The Dutch electro veteran imparts “six underhanded secret music documents of Cold War espionage.”
Dutch label Bordello A Parigi moves into the album space with the release of Primo Contatto. The work of G-Machine, aka Italian producer Giovanni Damico, the album cover gives an indication of what kind of music to expect. Featuring a sports car reminiscent of the ill-fated Delorean models parked on the surface of a pink planet facing the earth, it paints a particularly garish but tongue in cheek vision of that very ‘80s obsession, futurism. The music that influences the album is in a similar mould and Damico mines the electro funk and Italo Disco of that period; reimagined for modern audiences, it now has a charmingly retro feel.
The Italian producer will debut his new project on Bordello A Parigi next month with the label’s first album.
After a brilliant run of singles in 2014, which included The Hasbeens, Antoni Maiovvi and Machinegewehr as well as the Riviera Disco series, Bordello a Parigi was always going to face a dilemma about what to release next. Even the most ardent Italo fan will eventually tire of limitless tear-jerking melodies and deliberately trite lyrics, and it appears that label owner Otto Kraanen has found a new muse in the shape of Infinity Night.
The Bordello juggernaut keeps on rolling and while most of us have put away our swim shorts and shades for another year, Riviera Disco Volume 3 shows that the label is happy to keep reliving those happy summer memories. This installment doesn’t have the kind of fist-pumping anthems that Bordello has been dropping with alarming regularity this year, but it does show that the label is adept at capturing many different moods.
It’s been a year full of Italo anthems, many of which have appeared on Bordello A Parigi – but is there a danger that the label is spreading itself too thinly? The Dutch label recently set up a house-focused sister operation called Bitter Moon, and as we reach the latter stages of 2014, the releases keep coming on the mother label. Following on from Carradine, there is a third installment of the excellent Riviera Disco series in the pipeline featuring the inimitable Fred Ventura. So can the label keep on landing the hammer blows?
Not content with providing a sprawling platform for Italo acts new and old with Bordello A Parigi, Otto Kraanen’s latest project is to launch a house music sub-label. Given his track record, it’s fair to assume that Bitter Moon will be a lovingly curated and tastefully packaged imprint and won’t add to the slew of two-dimensional nouveau deep house records begin released weekly.
The house-focused sister label will be introduced with a debut release featuring Credit 00, Skatebård and Wasted Gaze.
Void Vision appeared from the murky filigree of 2010 in which we kept getting great records from the States and wondered what on earth was happening over the Atlantic. You may even recall an article in the Guardian (!) attempting to figure out some sort of socio-cultural background to what appeared to be a New York-based revival of an extremely European death-drive. At the time Void Vision were just another duo from the Wierd scene. They released In Twenty Years on Blind Prophet – a strong, nightmarish tune – and disappeared back into the darkness they came from. After a forgettable split with Vice Device last year, it seems Void Vision – now a solo female artist, and swept up by the more muscular ways of Mannequin Records – might finally have her time.