Groups like Doctors Cat, Koto, My Mine, Vicious Pink, Telex, Klein & MBO have always been some of my favorites.

Has anyone else heard them?


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<IMG SRC="http://www.retro80s.com/images/pacman.gif" border=0>
yazoo
www.Retro80s.com (http://www.retro80s.com)

I've never heard of any of these. Could you post a link to an example?

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80sXChange Homepage (http://www.80sxchange.com)

FLAAAAASHBAAACK!! Italo dance is still right up there with new romantic for me. Most of my favourite tracks falls into the Italo Dance genre. My top 5 would be:

1. Hypnotic Tango - My Mine
2. Angel Eyes - Lime
3. Another Life - Kano
4. Disco Band - Scotch
5. Talking To The Night - Brian Ice

Go find them on Napster, Sal. This is really interesting music for first time listeners. Anyone else have a Italo top 5??

-Flixfan

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Damn, I wish I could get here earlier. I was actually on napster this evening.. I will try to remember to come here and get these for my napster list. Thank you for the info!!

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80sXChange Homepage (http://www.80sxchange.com)

Originally posted by yazoo:
<STRONG>Groups like Doctors Cat, Koto, My Mine, Vicious Pink, Telex, Klein & MBO have always been some of my favorites.

Has anyone else heard them?

</STRONG>

Dug this one out from the deepest cellars...
<img src="wink.gif" border="0">

Italo Disco was very popular here in Germany around 1983 - 1988. Started with tracks like "Puttin´ On The Ritz" by Taco and "I Like Chopin" by Gazebo (some sources say both artists were collaborating, others that it was actually one artist under different pseudos).

Italo Disco can be best described as a mixture of Disco, Synthpop and an Italian music style called ´Canzone´(equal to ´Schlager´ in Germany). This style had also had it´s "Superstars" like Den Harrow (Harrow never sung one of "his" hits, he only gave his looks!) although this music was very artificial, mostly produced by Italian DJs. But, it was very infectious and catchy, and soon Italo Disco became a steady part of the German Top 40.

The ´recipe´ was always the same, but the songs had an amazing range in tempo and style. With the upcoming of House, Italo Disco faded from the charts and was nearly forgotten until the end of the 90s when a minority (also the same nostalgics you will find here <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> ) rediscovered it.
Most popular was a series released by ZYX Records, "Italo Boot Mix". Originally started as bootlegs done by DJs as white lables, it soon became regulary outputs. The volumes 7 and 8 made it in the German charts.

Well known and successful artists were:

Baltimora (Tarzan Boy)
Den Harrow (Bad Boy, Catch The Fox, Don´t Break My Heart)
Fun Fun (Happy Station)
Kano (Another Life)
Ken Laszlo (1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 , Tonight)
Koto (Japanese War Game, Jabdah)
Lee Marrow (Shanghai, Don´t Stop)
Max Him (Lady Fantasy, Japanese Girl)
Miko Mission (The World Is Mine, You Are My World)
P4F Propaganda For Frankie (P-Machinery / Relax)
Raf (Self Control [cover version of Laura Branigans hit])
Sabrina (Boys)
Sandy Marton (People From Ibiza, Exotic And Erotic)
Scotch (Disco Band, Take Me Up)
Spagna (Call Me)
Valerie Dore (The Night, Get Closer, It´s So Easy)
...and hundreds of other artists, too many to name them...

Well, the lyrics weren´t always the products of genies, but like I said...the grooves were very infectious. <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

<FONT COLOR="#6699cc" SIZE="1">[ July 17, 2001 08:48 AM: Message edited by: wavemaster ]</font>

Hey, what's this one Wavey?

P4F Propaganda For Frankie (Dr Mabuse / Relax)

Is that what I think it is? I remember Dr. Mabuse and of course everyone knows Relax. Did somebody mesh the two songs? I'd love to hear that.

I remember songs like Puttin' on the Ritz and I Like Chopin. Had no idea that they had a name for them. <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">

"Rainy days, never say goodbye..."

Thanks for the info.

Originally posted by Bogie:
<STRONG>Hey, what's this one Wavey?

P4F Propaganda For Frankie (Dr Mabuse / Relax)

Is that what I think it is? I remember Dr. Mabuse and of course everyone knows Relax. Did somebody mesh the two songs? I'd love to hear that.
</STRONG>

I can´t tell you who were the people behind P4F, but yes, they had merged both tracks into one. If you listen closely, you can make out that they had replayed it. It has become a well-sought rarity today.

Error from my side...it was P-Machinery, not Dr Mabuse. Sorry...will change that in my previous post <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> .

Aah, that makes sense. Those two songs are a little closer in pace. I would love to hear that. Must keep eyes open. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

I have to admit I never heard of this type of music but it sounds great. Taco and Kano are the only two I've actually heard. Taco went top 10 and Kano hit hot 100 in the states with "Can't hold back (your loving)" it went to #89 in 1982

ZYX Records was the main lable for Italo Disco here in Germany. They also had a dependance in the U.S., but I think they have closed it long time ago.

Too bad there´s no list of former releases available, but searching for this term in any search engine should provide you with a lot of private sites regarding this topic.

If you don´t want to spend the rest of your life hunting down this extremely rare 12" at any record markets, I would try out this:

AUDIOGALAXY (http://www.audiogalaxy.com/)

It works similar to Napster, you have to download a small program first and log in (small procedure, no stress). Tip: keep 25 files in your destination folder to get advantage of a free selectable number of similar downloads (up to 10). To prevent any loss of bandwidth by uploads, just take 25 small .mp3-files (like system sounds &gt;100 KB) and rename them in ascending order with unlikely names (e.g. 49hdfw3_01.mp3).
You can run this program in the background, it won´t eat up your system resources.

I have a bunch of import ZYX C.D.'s and the music is what I would call house music. Is it the same thing?

Originally posted by djdaffy1227:
<STRONG>I have a bunch of import ZYX C.D.'s and the music is what I would call house music. Is it the same thing?</STRONG>

Not quite, DJ...especially later Italo Disco releases had a touch of House, but you can´t compare it in general - it´s closer to Dancefloor/Euro Dance.

Scroll back to post no.5, I think I´ve explained it there roughly... <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

i love vicious pink, ever see a picture of them! they are SOOOO 80s!!! it's awesome. i never heard of those other bands though, are they also newwave?

~xistenza

Originally posted by xistenza:
<STRONG>i love vicious pink, ever see a picture of them! they are SOOOO 80s!!! it's awesome. i never heard of those other bands though, are they also newwave?

~xistenza</STRONG>

Hmmm...some tracks of this genre could surely pass as New Wave (in the European sense).
You might want to look for those artists to check for yourself:

My Mine "Hypnotic Tango"
Savage "Don´t Cry Tonight"
Video "Somebody"
Den Harrow "To Meet Me"
Grant Miller "Colder Than Ice"
Koto "Japanese War Game"

Hope you get along with this selection... <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

I have a monster selection of Italo-disco stuff. I will be more than happy to make a CD and send out (within the US) if anyone wants to listen to it. Just mail me!

Another great "Italo" track was Trans-X - Living on Video.

Pet Shop Boys started on ZYX Records. The Italo versions of One More Chance and West End Girls are interesting to say the least!

this may be slightly off topic and I know I should post this in another section but since we're discussing Italo Pop here, here goes. Doesnanybody here remember a song in which the chorus goes something like, 'tender is the night/and we are on the sunny side of life'. It's sung by a woman and they're also using part of the melody of ABBA's 'gimme, gimme, gimme.'

Originally posted by Flixfan:
<STRONG>
Another great "Italo" track was Trans-X - Living on Video.

Pet Shop Boys started on ZYX Records. The Italo versions of One More Chance and West End Girls are interesting to say the least!
</STRONG>

Yeah, Trans-X were just "put" into the Italo Disco genre although they were Canadians (I think). "Living On Video" was released by Polydor Records in Germany but appeared on many Italo Disco compilations.

"West End Girls" was not only distributed by ZYX, a German dancefloor lable (Rush? Street Heat?) had also released it.
Maybe it flopped the first time because the sound quality of those releases were very poor (audible distortions). This error even appeared on a CD compilation which featured the "Montreal" Mix...

I don't think it had to be Italian to fall into the Italo Disco genre. The guy singing in Kano's Another Life is from Finland. Lime are Canadians as well. Lots of other "Italo" artists were from Spain.

The unique thing about the ZYX productions of Pet Shop Boys is that they were released on different local labels. The West End Girls single was released by Unidisc in Canada as a double A-Side with Thompson Twins' Hold Me Now <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

The Montreal Mixes you mention weren't released until the early 90's. They were never part of the original ZYX releases. The only other Canadian ZYX release was released on Power Records in 1984. It became a hit when released in a new version in 1985 by EMI.

West End Girls was never released on other labels than ZYX and EMI in Germany.

-Mike

Originally posted by wavemaster:
<STRONG>ZYX Records was the main lable for Italo Disco here in Germany. They also had a dependance in the U.S., but I think they have closed it long time ago.

Too bad there´s no list of former releases available, but searching for this term in any search engine should provide you with a lot of private sites regarding this topic.

If you don´t want to spend the rest of your life hunting down this extremely rare 12" at any record markets, I would try out this:

AUDIOGALAXY (http://www.audiogalaxy.com/)

It works similar to Napster, you have to download a small program first and log in (small procedure, no stress). Tip: keep 25 files in your destination folder to get advantage of a free selectable number of similar downloads (up to 10). To prevent any loss of bandwidth by uploads, just take 25 small .mp3-files (like system sounds &gt;100 KB) and rename them in ascending order with unlikely names (e.g. 49hdfw3_01.mp3).
You can run this program in the background, it won´t eat up your system resources.</STRONG>

ever heard about `filesharing`?

yeah pete...but I don´t think it makes much sense for ppl who only owns a 56k (or slower) modem to keep up a large stack of files, as the search processes will eat up some bandwidth if the respective PC will be requested often. Plus, even the largest harddrive will be full one day, and unless you will put them all in the trashcan you will save it one day to a CD-R to free space for new dl´s again.

About the 25 files...this was a tip as a first so you can get the max numbers of downloads. It´s ridiculous IMHO that AG set up this barrier with V 0.606 - why should I dl 25 files first to get to the max, when you even can´t log in sometimes and if you´ve made it, it can take a very long time even with DSL?
If you have a flatrate it doesn´t matter, but for all the others it might save some money, that was the main reason why I suggested this.

ok. i forgot some people are paying for their internet connection. i´m using an isdn modem that´s not too fast, but if you download while you go to sleep it´s ok. i downloaded 4gb from audiogalaxy as well as i uploaded 3gb whithin a few weeks now.
for shure, the ag server is busy most of the time but i don´t know anything better.

Just got a UK import worth checking out for ItaloDisco fans. The band Stone Phazers' hit John Wayne sounds just like old ItaloDisco.