A Detroit-influenced remix of an Italo disco classic.
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Donato Dozzy's lifelong love for dance music started when he heard a tape of the Barese DJ Maurizio Laurentaci. We're talking 1984, before Labyrinth, before Berlin, before his early residency at Rome's Brancaleone, even—back when Dozzy was just Donato. He seems fond of revisiting this time, having taken part in two standout synth pop projects in the last year alone. 4 M International's "Space Operator" doesn't feature on that tape—a mix of international hits, electro-funk and British synth pop—but it would have fit right in alongside Tulio De Piscopo's "Stop Bajon," another early crossover dance hit from Italy. With its musings on space exploration and a sound that straddles the line between epic and trippy, it's the kind of chuggy jam that should go down a treat with cosmic-inclined DJs.
Dozzy doesn't flip "Space Operator" as much as he reduces it to a sultry essence. Synths wash over a lone, woozy voice, which now utters the song's namesake from afar. Naming his version after the Detroit car company Cadillac, Dozzy hints at the direct influence of those proto-dance imports on the Motor City's airwaves and clubs, back when the genre that would make his career was just taking shape. In an age where cross-pollination happens instantly, this reshape of a cosmic gem illuminates the more serendipitous, organic roots of the Dozzy genealogy.