- The ever reliable label Clone come up trumps again with this excellent compilation of mostly Italo disco and jackin’ house from the early to mid 1980s. The real gold is on the first half of the first CD and with brilliantly named artists like Oppenheimer Analysis, Gay Cat Park, Fockewulf 190, Knight Action and Los Angeles TF, how could it fail to be anything but amazing? These tracks are innocent-sounding, camp gems from a time when recording systems were more basic than today's calculators and being Euro was something to aspire to—without the irony. The best bits are Fockewulf 190's ‘Body Heat’, which is hip hop Italo overlaid with a chant in not-quite-there-yet English, and 'Devils Dancers', which is described quite accurately on Discogs as 'the best song The Human League never wrote'. Also included is 'Magical Body' which despite being familiar to many Italo fans deserves to be introduced to a new audience. The remainder of the first CD is prime chunks of macho ‘80s jack. It's the kind of stuff where the video would be a black guy with a dodgy moustache, Ray Bans and an oversized pastel jacket dancing in front of lots of bright flourescent colours. But instead of being embarrassing, the tracks retain their charm, punch and power.
The second CD, adequately mixed by Serge, Clone's owner, includes some tracks from the first (bit of a cop-out that—surely there are more classics out there?) along with more house/electro from the same period. Whilst a song like DX Days by Legowelt is great, it doesn't quite measure up to the unique appeal of the first selection. Having said that, though, this is definitely prime stuff and, a quarter of a century on, puts to shame a lot of electronic music being produced nowadays.
Tracklist01 Jackson Jones - Put Your Pants On
02 Trophy - Slow Flight
03 Knight Action - Single Girl
04 Fockewulf 190 - Body Heat
05 Oppenheimer Analysis - The Devil's Dancers
06 The Elect - I'm House
07 Los Angeles TF - Magical Body
08 Tyree - I'm Free
09 Fingers Inc and Robert Owens - I'm Strong
10 Mike Dunn - So Let It Be House
11 Mystic - House Girl
12 MD3 - Set Me Free
13 Gay Cat Park - I'm a Vocoder