italo sounds from the 80s

80s italo disco

2 cd compilation! cd1 unmixed, cd2 mixed

incl. tracks von armin van buuren, tiesto und paul van dyk

trance mixed by two heroes !

mixed & compiled by niels van gough & groove delicious

brise records in the mixÉ label honcho helmut dubnitzky with a first class selected dj mixÉ best of brise records tracksÉ

beim stöbern in den kisten von plattenläden fand dj babatr inspiration in platten von labels wie italian style production, ur, dance street technoland und zyx. diese einflüsse, zusammen mit afro-venezolanischen trommeln und karibischer tanzmusik, inspirierten baba zu einer neuen form der tanzmusik, die später als raptor house bekannt werden sollte.

2021 reissue, originall released 1991 on zyx

this is amazing, don t sleep on it. 11 cuts of pure madness from prr! prr! gang

when i first stumbled across mix tapes out of hamburgs seminal front club (with klaus stockhausen and boris dlugosch at the helm) during the glorious and carefree early days of the popularized internet, there were certain tracks on them that struck a chord. in fact there was one specifically, i couldnt stop listening to. the mixture of an infectious bass line, a super sharp snare, music and harmony vocal snippets, happy claps and synths lines that evoked pictures of a convertible going down a coastline, and - to top it all off - a tribal chant, was irresistible. after some intensive track-id-hunting pre-shazam, i found out that the heaven-sent hymn was music by an act called syncbeat. originally released in 1984 during the craze that was called uk electro via street sounds resp. streetwave and later licensed to german omnivore zyx records. a joint venture between the electro-funk mastermind,dj pioneer and edit maestro greg wilson as well as manchester musicians martin jackson & andy connell, it is exactly that type of dance track that eludes any classification - as you can see from my description above. or to cite greg wilson himself from one of his essays on the subject of uk electro: the track that received the best response was music by syncbeat, which was full of good vibes and could have easily been re-vamped down the line as a house track.

in 1988 axodry released the maxi 12inch single you on zyx records/combeat. influenced by depeche mode, gary numan and john foxx, the duo crafted high impact industrial, synth pop and electronic body music. their basic set up for recording at rahens home studio was a moog rouge, roland sh-101, teisco synthesizer, linn drum and fricke sequencer. ra/hen performed dramatic vocals, which tell of a lost love found in dreams. included here are the beauty & the beat mix and the beasty dub mix from the 1988 single. on the flip is the razormaid remix, performed by art maharg and joseph watt, that originally appeared on the welcome to the technodrome compilation in 1989. also included is mechanic, originally released in 1991 as the b-side for their final single losing you

limited edition lp!
ironic? no, it’s dead serious: sally shapiro keeps on dreaming of barbie and ken. sometimes good things come to those who wait, as is the case with sally shapiro. one shouldn’t really imagine the bashful swede from göteborg, who never performs live, setting a new trend for turning down lucrative offers. and the thought that she is working on something hip, is most likely even a little eerie for her. after all, she s just into something, which she’s been doing since her childhood in the 1980s — singing songs in the style of her idol sandra (”maria magdalena“). if she hadn’t met her companion johan agebjörn, who despite his musical socialization with techno in the 1990s has been deep into italo disco for the past few years and is a collector of zyx records, sally’s passion for synthi songs and fairy-like female vocals would have remained private. however, johan was screwing together some italo-style songs when he asked sally (whose voice he’d only heard from a previous christmas party karaoke) if she would improvise on his soft keyboard tunes, their collaboration was a done deal.
subsequent to their first releases on the labels diskokaine and permanent vacation, sally shapiro suddenly found herself in the midst of the ultra-hip neo/italo-disco movement, which is especially big in scandinavia. why of all things on the northern peninsula, where one traditionally listens to black metal and indie rock played with legs spread apart, the peculiar, yet sunny disco music became such an export hit, stays one of the mysteries of the pop business. it’s a fact, though, that next to internationally celebrated norwegian neodisco-heroes lindström, prins thomas and todd terje, the lovely sally has become the scandinavian disco-act in the mean time.

finally the new release of chaps & rolay is here. a lot of people looks for this record. its played by many djs at big parties. the track family affairs is compilated by zyx music for hardstyle sessions 9.