Last night Aneet and Louisa led us to Hoxton to see the Italians Do It Better night at Cargo. First up were Desire – all amazing heartfelt disco with bleeps and beats – then, after some wine in the garden, we saw headliners and long term Chef favourites, Glasscandy. Johnny Jewel’s trademark thick bass started and we were in for a party set from beginning to end. Rolling Down The Hills had beautiful booms and Geto Boys with Ida No’s unmistakable vocal wooooos went down a treat. A great night. Chef’s Kiss!

Bon, c’est vrai, cela fait quelques mois que je n’ai rien posté…non pas que je n’ai pas assisté à plein de concerts méritant le détour mais rien de vraiment nouveau à raconter, des dessins certes mais pas grand chose à dire…Et puis le dernier week end d’octobre arrive et là c’est la grosse baffe, les deux soirées qui ne peuvent pas se passer d’une chronique.

Commençons donc par la venue du label Italians do it better au social club le vendredi soir…

Arrivés très tôt, nous devons nous farcir les premiers DJ (dont je n’ai pas retenu le nom mais l’un des deux ressemble comme deux gouttes d’eau à Gérard Blanc) qui nous gratifient d’une entrée en matière désuète (de vieux tubes disco) et assez facile qui transforme pour un temps le club en endroit kitch, limite ringard …Cela dit c’est parfait pour looser sur les canapés tout en discutant autour de quelques verres sans prêter attention à la musique…

L’arrivée de Mike Simonetti aux platines change complètement la donne et ce sont vite bombes sur bombes qui s’enchaînent trahissant le bon goût évident du boss du label. Mine de rien le club se remplit vite et l’ambiance initiale digne d’un dancing disco de province au bord de la faillite tourne vite au défilé de hypeux et autres animaux de nuit avides de danse. On voit de tout au social club et c’est bien pour cela qu’on l’aime.

Mine de rien la soirée est bien lancée et le public bien chaud accueille Desire avec curiosité autour de 1h00 du mat. Le concert débute sur une note étonnante puisque que le groupe nous gratifie d’une très bonne reprise d’oxygène de Diane dufresnes (normal, ils sont canadiens). Me faire aimer une telle bouse relevant de l’exploit, c’est avec un sourire jusqu’aux oreilles que j’attends la suite…et là énorme claque ! Comment ne pas tomber sous le charme de la voix hypnotisante de Megan Louise, surfant sur les nappes électroniques lancinantes typiques du label ?…il suffit d’écouter un titre aussi parfait que “under your spell” pour se rendre compte de la qualité de ce groupe . L’alchimie du disque se retrouve complètement en live et tout le set n’est qu’enchainement de perles musicales. Collé juste devant la scène, à moins d’un mètre des artistes et tenant ma copine dans les bras, je ferme les yeux et me balance doucement de gauche à droite…je suis bien…

Alors que le public est resté très calme (trop) sur Desire (peut être est-ce dû à l’attitude quelque peu introvertie de la chanteuse qui avait l’air bien intimidée d’être su scène), il se déchaîne sur Glass Candy, tête d’affiche de cette soirée. Pourtant, les deux premiers titres sont une catastrophe, sans doute pas encore chauffée (ou un peu bourrée, il est déjà presque 3 heures) c’est avec une vraie voix de casserole qu’elle nous massacre Beatific…Tout le monde semble s’en foutre et les collants à paillette sur de minces jambes longilignes semblent suffire au bonheur des d’jeuns cools (mais pas vraiment mélomanes) en transe devant l’artiste… De mon coté c’est plutôt la déception donc et, malgré de très nets progrès tout au long de la prestation et un statut de disco queen incontestable, je garderai quand même un (tout) petit arrière goût d’insatisfaction une fois sorti du club.

Quand même, c’était une super soirée.

http://www.myspace.com/twistedwiress

This one’s been out for a while but was feeling it the other day. Self described in Espanol as “Voces hipnóticas y sintetizadores contra totalitarismos. Música para replicantes perseguidos a muerte por blade runners.” Which I would translate as Hypnotic voices and synthesizers against totalitarians. Music for the persecuted replicants who have died because of Blade Runners. You might be able to listen to it on Last.fm. Out on http://www.myspace.com/italiansdoitbetterrecords
Photo: Brooklyn Vegan

As with so many of my recent favourites, I found out about Liquid Vega thanks to the ever-fantastic FACT Magazine. The band were available for an email interview, so that’s where the quotes come from. Looking forward to some proper releases from these guys. (PS: now you see where my header image comes from. )

LIQUID VEGA

MEMBERS: Vincent Gomes (music/vocals), Genevieve Duprie (vocals/music)
FORMATION: Paris, 2008.
FOR FANS OF: Glass Candy, The xx, The Cure.
CHECK OUT: Tracks streaming at the band’s Myspace page.
WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/liquidvega

Liquid Vega are the very definition of enigmatic. An unsigned duo who claim to be “from London via various other places” and who met at a party in Paris, they are still to release a note of music through official channels and yet they are already the subject of a raft of glowing articles in some well-respected organs, online and in print. And here we are, joining in. But believe us when we say that we would leave well alone if we weren’t completely smitten with their delicate yet darkly erotic sound, a blend of Disintegration-era Cure’s dramatic sweep and the sinister glamour of the excellent Italians Do It Better label – Chromatics, Glass Candy, Desire. Vincent and Genevieve call it “ghost disco”, and we honestly couldn’t put it better ourselves.

“We mean a certain kind of music that is of the night, that’s almost translucent, where you’re not sure what exists through what you’ve heard,” they explain. It’s hard to pin down what exactly is so intoxicating about this band, but more than the songwriting, the atmosphere is key – teardrops on the dancefloor, a slow dance in the moonlight, the sweet ache of longing. “To have that elusive something is crucial, we think. But there is a longing in the music that results from our relationship. We’d be lost without it.” The precise nature of that relationship is ambiguous – they say that they initially “got talking over spilt wine, records and kisses in the night,” and they claim that they are mainly inspired by “each other,” but this isn’t the kind of band where you need or want all the biographical details. Maybe it’s best if they remain unknowable, floating in the ether, haunting our dreams.

This week definitely seems like it will be a nice long relaxing one. Monday started off very laid back. I have been in the mood all day for Glass Candy. I gave in and popped it on to my record player.

I got to see Glass Candy live at Coachella ‘09. The show was amazing. Glass Candy, for those of you who don’t know, is another dyamic duo. This one is fronted by Ida No and Johnny Jewel and are from Portland, Oregon. Ida No has been said to have the sound of Nico. Their sound is very distinct. That of Itallian Disco or Italo Disco.

Enough of the fucking history lesson. Obviously if you are here you love the band or stumbled upon some great gem of theirs. This is my recommendation for the week! I love them and well you can too.

I can fall asleep to this….

-ZF

On 10 october 2009 a new club will be born: Libertine Supersport. It is the new club by Renaud Deru & Lorenzo Serra, the guys behind Dirty Dancing. They’re leaving Mirano to start a fresh new concept at K-Nal (the venue where they already held their Summer Club parties).

The spirit of the new Brussels club is a liberal one, hence the name, anything is possible and everyone is welcome. But the most important aspect of a nightclub (for us) is ofcourse the music! The resident team is divided into 2 categories Libertine & Supersport, the first one is more disco-orientated, the latter is more mainroom house & electro-orientated. The Libertine dj’s maison are: Andy Faisca, Mustang, Dirk (Smile), Guy-Ohm, L-fêtes, Rick Shiver and Rob & Zoopsie, the Supersport resident dj’s are: Compuphonic, Jean Montevideo, Cosy Mozzy, Cook-E & Matik, Kid Strike, Mickey, So’Lex and Wirspielen.

On October the 24th the new club will welcome the Italians Do It Better family: Glass Candy, Desire and Mike Simonetti, so that will be certainly something to look out for! And the week after DFA’s Shit Robot will perform at Libertine. Other names yet confirmed are: Tensnake & Einmusik (14/11), Still Going & Jacques Renault (21/11), Vincenzo & Renaissance Man (28/11).

The first details about the new club look extremely interesting. A good resident team in combination with a bunch of quality international guests, that’s what we can expect from Libertine Supersport! But Libertine is not the only club in Belgium with an excellent taste of music, the calendar of Spark, the saturday nights at Antwerps finest: Café Capital look absolutely fabulous as well, and certainly for us because we will be playing there 2 times this autumn.

This Saturday, the 19th, Spark welcomes Âme, the week after Michael Reinboth from Compost Records will perform at Capital. And in October they’ll have following guests: Blackjoy on the 3th of October, Mugwump a week after, the 17th of October Boy 8 Bit and last but certainly not least Motor City Drum Ensemble on the 24th!

We (King & Cousin) will do the warming up for Mugwump on the 10th of october and also on the 14th of november for no one less than Dixon, labelhead of  Innervisions!

Well, Whitney Houston is back out of the gutter. And fittingly her newest single sounds like something she could have hammered out 30 years ago. This is a good thing. Mike Simonetti (head honcho of Italians Do It Better) has done an edit:

“hello. here is an edit of the new Whitney Houston single for
the kids out there. Originally done for Australia, its been
getting requests so here it is for everyone to share…” – MS

Whitney Houston – Million Dollar Bill (Mike Simonetti Edit)

One of my favorite artists at the moment: Nite Jewel on Italians Do It Better. Super slow, raw and sexy.
-Shingo

What Did He Say – Nite Jewel (from the Mixtape UK)

Well after weeks and years of activity I have finally decided that I am going to start regularly updating Another Catastrophe again.

 In the past year I have moved from Brighton to The Netherlands, and in the rush of settling in/finding a job/etc, this blog got pretty neglected. 

To start off with here is a round-up of free music that can be found scattered across the web.

 Italians Do It Better have a download link for the track Desire, an outtake from there recent album ii here.

Canadian noise/skronk/no-wave revialists AIDS Wolf have a download version of a recent tour only tape up on their blog.

Lefse Records (home of hyped to death, pitchfork-beloved, ‘chillwave’ group Neon Indian) have  a free label sampler for download (featuring the aforementioned group) here.

 WFMU’s Free Music Archive is stuffed full of great stuff ranging from Lucky Dragons to Foot Village.

Finally, Jean Michel Basquiat and Michael Holman’s early 80s, NY-based noise band (latterly featuring Vincent Gallo) have a bunch of tracks up here . 

One of my favorite Dj´s is Mike Simonetti. Head honcho of IDIB and my favorite no for his technical abilities, but rather his selector skills. I´m always looking forward to a new Mike Simonetti mix, and here it is. A mix recorded for Australian Triple-J Radio to promote his recent Australian tour.

Blurb:
“hello. here is a mix i did for Australian radio Triple J. It aired a few weeks ago and i am curious how it went over since it is not your typical techno/electro fare. Plus it was done in one take due to time constraints…This mix was made entirely of Disconet 12″s. Everytrack was either an exclusive Disconet edit or previously unreleased track altogether. there are a few tracks that were only released as a Disconet 12″. Most of these are of the Italo/boogie variety since I didntdo an Italo mix in a while and you know- boogie is very cool at the moment.”
MS

Mike Simonetti – Australia Mix

A compilation like this has been a long time coming. In 1997, Holland-based DJ/producer I-F basically invented electroclash with his underground dance hit “Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass”. Two years later, he helped catalyze the ongoing Italo-disco revival with one of the genre’s most essential compilations, Mixed Up in the Hague, Vol. 1, a DJ mix that pulled together defining cuts like Mr. Flagio’s vocoder-fronted “Take a Chance” and Klein & MBO’s “Blue Monday”-influencing “Dirty Talk”. Since then, other DJ mixes such as Morgan Geist’s Unclassics have kept vintage Italo on turntables, while I-F’s Italo-focused Cybernetic Broadcasting System has deepened the canon for real devotees.

2007 may be remembered in some circles for its dance-rock hybrids: Klaxons and Justice, “nu rave” and “blog house,” each ably filling in for the dance-punk and electroclash of previous trend cycles. But it’s also a year when significant numbers of contemporary artists have embraced Italo’s Giorgio Moroder-styled synth arpeggios and brought them into the new millennium. Sweden’s Sally Shapiro and Cloetta Paris are breathing new life into the wispy synth-pop of Italo singer Valerie Dore, while the UK’s Kathy Diamond is making beardo synth-pop with producer Maurice Fulton. The enigmatic Black Devil Disco Club’s 28 After could’ve been made any time in the past 30 years. In the icy winter afterglow of Shapiro’s Disco Romance, Portland, Ore. acts Glass Candy and Chromatics helped keep Pitchfork HQ’s Italo love aflame with their first releases for Italians Do It Better, a new label from Troubleman Unlimited founder Mike Simonetti. Viva Italia.

On After Dark, the fledgling imprint assembles mostly vinyl-only or previously unreleased tracks by its current roster, which also includes Farah, Mirage, and Professor Genius. Produced in substantial part by Glass Candy guitarist Johnny Jewel, the comp is practically a Mixed Up in the Hague for present-day Italo, only with the darker ambiance its title implies. Where its precursor could at times play up Italo’s proclivity for cheese (once experienced in the U.S. via minor Eurodisco hits by the likes of Falco and Taco), this album wisely eschews ironic winks and kitsch-for-kitsch’s sake. Shapiro might find an indie pop romance in Italo, but After Dark lovingly re-imagines the style as retro-futurist noir– a sleek soundtrack to lives of moral ambiguity in post-urban shadows.

The best tracks on the compilation embody that eerie slant on the old Italo throb/pulse without letting an air of minor-key reflection lapse into air quotes. On the extended 12″ version of Chromatics’ “In the City”, the crackle of vinyl, distant synth swoops, skeletal drum patter, and singer Ruth Radelet’s narcoticized murmurs about “midnight workers” and a “concrete river” evokes rain hitting sidewalks. Glass Candy’s Italo coming-out, “I Always Say Yes”, is conspicuously absent, but their hazy “Rolling Down the Hills (Spring Demo)” opens the disc with horns and singer Ida No’s deadly cold vocal presence.

After Dark’s other acts approach the compilation’s dusky Italo aesthetic from similar perspectives. New Jersey-based Professor Genius homes in on the dystopian synth work of Vangelis and the upbeat expressiveness of Alexander Robotnick on instrumentals “La Grotta (Demo)” and album-closing “Pegaso”. The vocoder makes its sole appearances on two tracks by Italy’s Mirage (“Lady Operator”, “Lake of Dreams”), but Mirage uses the instrument to enhance singer Julius’ alienation, not to dish cheap nostalgic thrills. Texas-based Farah keep up the metronomic beats and analog cascades, but “Dancing Girls (Suite 304 Demo)” adds a section sung in Persian, while the spoken-word monologue of “Law of Life” sounds like a scripture reading from a church of the damned. It’s one of the few moments on After Dark that seems stilted as much as reverent.

For plenty more reverence, look to the album’s cover versions. Though occasionally distracting, After Dark’s updates of older compositions are good signposts: Glass Candy’s relatively direct take on Kraftwerk’s essential 1981 “Computer Love”, or a lavishly orchestrated rendition of Paris-based Eurodisco group Belle Epoque’s 1977 “Miss Broadway” (later sampled by rapper Special Ed on 1990’s “Come On, Let’s Move It”). Not quite a cover, but Mirage’s remix of Indeep’s 1982 classic “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” adds evocative Italo synths to the original’s spare, post-disco bass line and early hip-hop vocals.

In addition, both Glass Candy and Chromatics cover songs by ex-DNA member Robin Crutchfield’s Dark Day, particularly suiting Glass Candy’s shift from no-wave to disco. A tinny analog synth rotates through slight arpeggio variations without giving way to a shift in mood on Glass Candy’s cover of “The Chameleon”, haunted by suicide and unnamed attackers. The steady snare thwack and detached atmospherics on Chromatics’ version of the catchy “Hands in the Dark” suggest Chromatics’ MySpace quote– “Night Drive”– fits them even better than it does Jan Hammer riffer Kavinsky’s recent “Testarossa Nightdrive”, though here it’s surely a drive headed toward despair.

So there it is: Italo survived electroclash. And the recent explosion of Italo disco-inspired acts culminating (for now) in After Dark probably suggests the style will survive current indie-dance trends as well. In an interview for Australia’s Rave Magazine, Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford (who produced the latest releases by Klaxons and Arctic Monkeys) says of his own dance-pop outfit’s swooning single “I Believe”: “We’ve been getting into loads of slow, dreamy disco stuff– the Emperor Machine, and a pair of bands in particular called Chromatics and Glass Candy– and it partly came about like that.” Just don’t look for Justice to follow suit quite yet.

The sensational disco pop label Italians Do It Better have a new release out. It ain´t Italian though, but it rather comes from a French person who thrives under the moniker of Premier Rang. It´s understated Balearic disco at its best, so Balearic in fact that another track, ZOE ET HEINE, is featured on the new addition in the Cosmic Balearic Beats series, out now on Eskimo Records. The track featured here was just released on 12″ from Italians Do It Better, and should be bought.

A shake of the ET beard to Boozie Sioux for alerting me to these two fucking great cover versions.

First up, we have Chromatics covering Kate Bush. Deceptive, this one. You might not think they change much from the original. You’d be wrong.

Next, we have Glass Candy covering Kraftwerk. See comments above, and triplicate.

1. Fitz Carraldo – Black Cat
2. Runaway – The Poltergeist
3. Nicolas Stefan – Closer
4. Precious System – The Voice Of Planet Love (Dixon Edit)
5. Alexis Le-Tan & Jess – Space Oddities Vol. 2
6. Supersonic Lovers – Motor City Blues
7. Solange – Robots Are Un-American
8. Tom Trago – Brothers Of String (Yuro Trago Remix)
9. Cosmic Rave - Cosmic Rave
10. Leon feat. Corrina Joseph – I Follow You (Deetron’s Springtime Leaves Remix)

Glass Candy

Beatbox(Italians Do it Better 2007)

http://www.mediafire.com/?02y9fmh6iwb

Man, it took awhile to swallow my pride and earnestly accept the fact that Glass Candy were no longer the pretentious art-punk mess that released a series of occasionally great, but mostly horrid series of singles and albums. There always was something intriguing about them in theory, but the reality was that you had a fetching vocalist and interesting guitarist who listened to a few too many no-wave albums and decided to meld them with Blondie’s Parallel Lines. It was a mess, albeit one which kind of made you wonder what could be if this unlikely synthesis could be pulled off. It’s probably for the best that they decided to soldier onwards in a different direction and aim for a surprisingly successful marriage of Italo disco, Kraftwerk, new wave, John Carpenter soundtracks and and the hypnotic, but elegant repetition of Cluster. Yeah, the Cluster comparison is a stretch, but I’ll be damned if Beatbox doesn’t put me near that same head nodding zone as their more energetic orbits. On one hand, it’s just as disposable as any number of early 80s one-hit wonders, but Johnny Jewel’s instrumentation is a subtle, but unsettling take on early 80s disco that provides a perfect stage for vocalist Ida No’s blank vocals.

It’s fitting that I first heard Beatbox after listening to their labelmates Chromatics via their Night Drive album. Night Drive is an even more narcoleptic take on Italo Disco and krautrock as it relies mostly on longer instrumental passages and even sleepier vocals. What crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s between the two bands was the involvement of Johnny Jewel who has a innate knack for repetitive, hypnotic foundations for a suitably unemotional vocalist. The result is two bands adept at perfecting the synthesis of “ice queen” and a subdued, yet sensual wash of synthesizers.

Despite its occasional bouts of exuberance, Beatbox is an album suited for late night drives after the party ended long after common sense should have ended it. It conjures images of 3am sojourns down lonely highways when you fixate on the road ahead and ponder your existence. It’s a siren song to inaction, not dancing even when Jewel picks up the pace. Even then, it’s a disco in the center of a K-hole where all tones are grey and drab no matter how hard the band tries to pick up the pace. Beatbox is a danceable intertia at its most lively; a soundtrack to a party on its last legs at its most mellow.

14 free mp3’s to download!!

This is the first time I’ve actually sat down and gone through all of the stuff that’s been sent to us over the past few months. There has been an absolute ton of stuff – I think I downloaded around 80+ tunes! So without further ado – here’s part one of The Grand Catch Up. Now, some of these are pretty average but it’s worth flicking through them as there are some gooduns knocking around in there.  

Codebreaker - Follow Me (The Outrunners remix)

Codebreaker – Follow Me (Bottin remix)

Master Shortie - Dead End (Don Diablo knows you like it hard remix)

On Horse - Camp Out (Mansion Remix)

Soul II Soul - Back To Life (remix by The Rules)

The Rules - Sybilance

Don Diablo VS The Roots - The Seed 3.0

Math The Band - Tour De Friends

Afghan Raiders - Admiral’s Doorbell

Jogger - Nice Tights (Nosaj Thing Remix)

Jogger – Nice Tights (Grahm Zilla Remix)

Jogger - Nice Tights (Mexicans with guns remix)

Phoenix - 1901 (Afghan Raiders remix)

Afghan Raiders - Morphine Dream

I’d just like to say sorry to all of the bands, producers, managers and agencies that sent tunes to us. I would love to have done a single post for all of you with your pics and links etc but as there are so many tracks here that I simply don’t have the time to do so. Once all of these are up we will keep on top of our emails and take a good look at everything we’re sent. Also, for those who have sent us stuff and don’t see it up here – sorry again. Not all tunes/emails would download (probably my internet playing up) and as there were so many I didn’t wait around to try and see what was wrong – I just skipped to the next email.

Anyway – Keep the tunes coming boys and girls – we’re getting on top of it now so you could soon see your stuff up on WANARB!

HazMat

i’d pay forty dollars to see deastro.  remember tame impala? italians do do it better. and pas chic chic are amazing.

deastro – toxic crusaders

nite jewel – all out of order

pas chic chic – vous comprenez pourquoi

tame impala -  sundown syndrome

-bv-

The Italians Do It Better family is getting bigger again. The New Jersey based label runned by Mike Simonetti just released two more 12 inches and a full album. The 12 inches are from the hand of Premier Rang & Solange. The former is a new signing, the latter is a re-release of the Il Discotto classic ‘Robots Are Un-American’ from 1984. As an extra you’ll get a Dub version by Bottin on the B-side, who was responsible for the best IDIB release of the year so far with ‘No Static’. Both 12 inch records are limited to 750 copies worldwide, so don’t sleep on this. The Full album which is called ‘II’ is from the hand of Desire, a new project by Johnny Jewel from Chromatics and Glass Candy. Very promissing stuff, you can hear a few songs on their myspace-page.

To End this post we’ve got a video from Glass Candy’s Digital Versicolor for you:

Dicen que la noche en Nueva York resurge de sus cenizas. Si es que alguna vez ardió del todo, claro. Lo que sí es cierto es que últimamente nos llegan ecos de la ciudad de los rascacielos en forma de sellos chulos y bastante cool, la mayoría con la voluntad de interferir en el contexto clubber sin perder de vista el esplendoroso pasado. Muchos son los que se alimentan de neo y cosmic disco, psicodelia y proto-house con producciones de nuevo cuño alineadas con las nuevas tecnologías para que el resultados sea de lo más trendy. El de Mike Simonetti, sin ir más lejos, es el que más lo peta. Puedes chequear sus sets, novedades y charts a través de su más que completo blog –en el que Simonetti se lo pasa bomba con esos sets promocionales colgados sin tracklist para que sus aficionados, que tienen algo de nerds de todo lo que suene a retro, se rasquen la cabeza y se pregunten por éste o aquél tema desconocido–.

Italians Do It Better, cuenta con un elenco de artistas que empieza a rodar en clubs de ese y este lado del charco, con cositas destacables todavía publicadas en plástico, cómo no, de gente como Professor Genius o Invisible Conga People –con su referencia “Cable Dazed / Weird Pains” del año pasado entre mis favoritas de toda la discografía del sello–. Entre sus nuevos fichajes tenemos que rendir cuenta de estos Desire que estos días están presentando su álbum de debut “II” con el productor Johnny Level haciendo de director de orquesta y convirtiéndose de nuevo en el ejecutor en estudio de los sueños húmedos de Simonetti. No por nada, el mismo Adam Miller, su verdadero nombre, encabeza otros de los grupos estrella del sello, Glass Candy y Chromatics. Desire, de hecho, es un remedo de otros grupos, ya que la vocalista, y teclista Megan Louise también forma parte de Montreal, y Nat Sahlstrom, bajista, estuvo también en Chromatics. El que nos ocupa hoy es un proyecto de slow disco de lo más emotivo que podría ser la banda sonora de un cabaret nocturno para almas en vela. Producción bien cuidada con un pie en lo retro y con otro en los beats de nuevo cuño que recogen el testigo de la hornada electroclash, una especie de post-new romantics –explota ramalazos y trucos de italo azucarado de mediados de los 80– que seguro que conforman el ojito derecho de un Simonetti al que le va lo que está de moda una barbaridad.

También diría que le ponen más los ochentas europeos que los norteamericanos. El hilo artístico del sello conserva un no sé qué de la nocturnidad de los setenta, pero con un toque clashy y superficial muy de la década en que Madonna saltó a la palestra. Todas las producciones parece estar facturadas con el viejo continente como punto de mira, algo que muy pocos sellos de la costa este norteamericana han tenido en cuenta tradicionalmente (y menos con la discoteca como contexto). Mike estará satisfecho, sí. Ha puesto una nueva piedra para convertir a su sello en una especie de nuevo Zé Records de principios del siglo XXI. Por lo menos ha conseguido que cada mes estemos atentos a su última salida al mercado.

Es interesante observar como dos bandas que se dan la mano (y otras partes del cuerpo, pues las vocalistas, según la rumorología indie, son pareja) como Chromatics y Glass Candy han corrido una especie de vida paralela: sus primeros trabajos lindaban el hardcore, el noise, los drones y un día se levantaron y decidieron que lo suyo iba a ser el disco, la new wave, el prototecnopop y el italo. Y no, sinceramente, no tengo ni la más remota idea de qué fue lo que se les pasó por la cabeza cuando decidieron colgar las guitarras y acarrear la cacharrería sintética.

La historia de Glass Candy se remonta a 1996, cuando Ida No, oriunda de Vancouver, y Johnny Jewel, de Austin, comienzan a definir su trabajo como “drónico y extraño”. Tras varios exitosos singles y un par de discos interesantes, Jewel funda el que actualmente es el sello más a tener en cuenta en esto del pop electrónico: Italians Do It Better. Con una clara referencia al italodisco en el propio nombre, el bueno de Jewel se empeña en actualizar un género tan denostado como sorprendentemente reivindicado ahora por muchos que otrora seguro habrían tachado de hortera, complaciente, facilón y burdo. Esa mezcla de la cadencia disco de Chic con los arpegios y riffs de teclado, pianitos y soniquetes populistas del tecnopop que siempre se relacionó más con el rellano beodo de la pista, que como instrumento de avance o de calidad. Ahora el italo esta de moda: Lindstrøm saca un disco monumental (que tan sólo contiene tres cortes, como poseído por las formas de los adalides del progresismo) y canciones como “Hypnotic Tango” de My Mine son pinchadas día sí, día también en los clubes de moda.

Glass Candy, editan su particular opus italo-siniestro-nuevaolero, no es el típico artefacto de grupo con carrera dilatada, cuya casa de discos pretende exprimir hasta el paroxismo para que sigan pariendo huevos de oro hasta que, o bien huyan a un mejor postor, o bien se vaya cada uno a casita. Aunque hay temas que el aficionado al caramelo de plástico conoce de sobra, el resto no es, ni por asomo, relleno. Hay oscuridad, hay brillo, hay lugar para el baile anestesiado; Ida No sigue empeñada en no-cantar con una cadencia deliciosa (que puede asustar a los acostumbrados de las divas tecnopop… Pero expriman las escuchas, merece la pena), y Jewel agota y ensancha los recursos del teclado analógico, pues en Glass Candy el software no aparece por ningún lado. O eso al menos es lo que dicen ellos. Y yo me lo creo. Una delicia vintage en la que, os lo juro, se puede escuchar incluso el crepitar de la aguja sobre el disco.