House of Music
October 12, 2012 11:38 AM   Subscribe

In 1983 House of Music, the Italo disco label managed by and featuring Carlo Favilli & Stefano Zito released arguably one of the best 12"s of the genre: B.W.H. - Livin 'Up / Stop. Both tracks, Stop (Music Video of Helene, the actual track singer and wife of Stefano Zitto) and Livin' Up, had their importance cemented in 1999's Mixed up in the Hague Volume 1 & Volume 2[mp3] Italo mix compiled by I-f aka DJ Ferenc/Interr-Ference
posted by wcfields (6 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
OH man, I love this song.

Other seminal Italo tracks:

Charlie - Spacer Woman
Klein & MBO - Dirty Talk

Check out Sally Shapiro and Glass Candy for newer italo, too.
posted by dunkadunc at 1:21 PM on October 12, 2012 [1 favorite]




I love Stop so much... I would probably say that it's my favourite italo track. It's something about that crashing piano line - wonderfully emotive in itself, but also half way between disco and classic New York house, marking italo's true place as that missing link in dance music history. I think that's what I love about good italo, that it lends itself to so much recontextualisation - as pop music, as new wave, as late disco, as early house, as electro. If I ever meet I-F or any of the other Hague crew I definitely owe them a beer for their continued support (and rediscovery in many cases) of this timeless electronic dance music.

I dropped Stop in a mix here if anyone wants to check it out. In my mix I was trying to place it in amongst synthpop and italo with a dash of new beat (basically trying to keep a 108bpm beat running throughout). But like I said, the great thing about this track is that it would still sound fresh in different mixes. Perhaps in a moombahton mix, since it's the right bpm?
posted by iivix at 2:19 PM on October 12, 2012 [1 favorite]


Seconding Sally Shapiro too, essentially Annie (i.e. contemporary nu disco / electropop) meets Valerie Dore (classic italo), but also just timeless pop songs that really deserve a far larger audience than she seems to have.
posted by iivix at 2:23 PM on October 12, 2012


I need to check all this out. Thanks for posting it--italo disco is a genre I know very little about and would love to investigate.
posted by immlass at 9:32 AM on October 13, 2012


This post has garnered criminally few comments.
posted by dunkadunc at 7:44 PM on October 13, 2012 [2 favorites]


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