The term Italo Disco is often misleading, throwing an umbrella over two related but distinct continuities in European electronic dance music of the 1980s. One trajectory is populated by groups like La Bionda and Baby’s Gang, danceable pop with a largely electronic palette. The songs are upbeat and high-energy with ABBA-esque singalong choruses and a self-consciously synthetic production style that that evokes the pleasures of a technological age. On the other track are purer, more abstract productions following directly from the application of Kraftwerk-ian techniques to the language of the 12” white label disco edit. While the former group traded on their personality in live TV performances, the latter were generally faceless; shadowy production teams creating utilitarian dance singles for DJs, avoiding the trappings of pop stardom. While these two distinct subgenres sometimes shared personnel, and exerted an unmistakable influence on each other, it was the latter that crossed the Atlantic and influenced a generation of American producers responsible for developing techno and acid house. Adding confusion is the fact that the current Italo revival— typified by Johnny Jewel and the Italians Do It Better label — seems to crib freely from both of these historically distinct movements, balancing pop structure with the minimalism and experimentation of Italo producers like Amin Peck and Mito.
What no one seems to have accomplished thus far is a revival of that pure, abstract side of Italo, before it morphed into new wave and Hi-NRG, before it became ensnared with the high cheese of Eurovision. If anyone reading this cares to take a stab at a true Italo revival, here is an ideal starting point: the 1982 single “New Life” by Blackway, a production team consisting of Moon Records label honcho Stefano Zito along with Carlo Favilli and the great Salvatore Cusato (pictured above) of “Cybernetic Love” fame. Blackway was an ephemeral project, producing only three songs. Adding those three together with the two songs by B.W.H. and the single track by Mr. Master (two subsequent projects involving the same personnel), and you don’t even have enough for a whole album. All of the singles are exceedingly rare, none more so than “New Life,” released in a small pressing in 1982, backed with the similar “Follow Me,” in a generic sleeve that emphasized the faceless utilitarianism of dance music in the age of intelligent machines.
“New Life” is Future Shock in motion, a restlessly propulsive groove with an unmistakably dystopian purview that nonetheless urges progress: “The way is long/ The life is short/ Now is the time/ Go go go.” With a galaxy of weird, low-budget audio tricks, the track variously evokes a rocket launch, a nuclear explosion, a Geiger counter, and a lasergun shootout in a space station. The heavily vocodered vocals are spoke-sung in broken English, like a lot of Italo Disco, but they still manage to be spooky and profound. As a production team, the trio were definitely working on a shoestring budget, with rudimentary versions of recording and sequencing technologies that are now widely available for cheap or free, resulting in an unorthodox mix of high-tech and low-fidelity. Paradoxically, these shortcoming have ensured that the track still sounds fresh today. More than a few contemporary producers (Actress, Laurel Halo, etc.) have returned to this habit of mixing hi- and lo-fi elements together to evoke a whole range of affective (a)temporal sensations. More examples of the increasingly common tendency to fetishize the unintentional “excess” of vintage music. Contemporary resonance aside, it’s hard to deny the effectiveness of “New Life,” both as a dance record and as a pristine artifact of a futurist bent in EDM that has continued until today.
