I have heard over and over that Black Devil Disco Club doesn't live up to the hype. Whatever. On payday I bought the '28 After' and 'Devil In Dub' (you can check out the tracks at http://www.lorecordings.com) and I've had trouble listening to anything else. It's yet another take on Italo-disco, but is a uniquely messed up version of the genre. Every track seems to throw every possible squelchy/silly/Dr.Who analog synth sound into the mix, along with what sounds like malfunctioning vocoders, helium falsetto vocals, Moroder 16th note bounce basslines and skeletal disco beats. All without hitting the dreaded wall of cheese that makes buying Italo records hazardous. 'Devil In Dub' applies classic King-Tubby style Echo+Mute dub technique to strip down and further weirdify the already darkly weird originals.
Like I said, I like this a whole lot more than some people, so since Lo lets you hear the whole tracks, check it out. Eevolute's web label Eevo-Next has been a favorite of mine, to the point where I've bought the entire downloadable catalog. My latest purchase is Terrace's "City Sounds" EP, which has more than a few nods in the direction of Italo, but just as many towards Detroit. Solid beats and basslines, topped with swirling sad pads. It seems like Stefan Robbers' style hasn't evolved that much in the past 15 years, but for me that's not a bad thing. Instead of following the latest fads, he's stuck to his guns and evolved his compositional skills instead. It's as though each of the tracks on this CD could have been made in 1993 in terms of the superficial details of the sound and beats; but it's not as though the intervening years haven't happened. These are deep tracks, artfully arranged.
