Jesolo, Italy

Can a dead scene be revived?

There's nothing more faddish than dance music, from the mash potato to electroclash, like lipstick on a young girl's lips, it hardly last the evening. But as they come and go, they sometimes come again.

Once upon a time, between new wave and dance music, there was a music genre called Italo Disco. While disco was dying a brutal death in the US and UK, European dance music soldiered on, with Italo Disco as one of their marching songs. The term basically included all non UK-based dance productions, the core of which were German and Italian groups, but it loosely extended to some Canadian ones. Italo Disco's popularity lasted less than a decade before fading, then it kept living on in Japan under the name Eurobeat and, in Italy, evolved into Italo House. But despite the scene going astray, in the 90s Italo Disco started reviving as a club cult.

To see Den Harrow, a former icon of Italo Disco, crying on national TV for being caught stealing some food in the prime time reality show Isola dei Famosi, must have been a pretty bad blow to the scene aficionados, but they can still dance the pain away. Italo Disco is probably done for, but it doesn't look anyone at Ed Banger was let in on the news. Witness the clubbing potential of the Venetian seaside colliding with the French record label – before it disappears in the maze of past disco fads. check out the Full Moon Party at the Muretto disco in Jesolo, a few meters away form the beach and deep inside this year's (potentially trashy) Eurosound.

Mission Report

The Full Moon Party has been one of the most representative events for this season of the new electronic music scene. We asked people and dj what they think about this kind of music, of its evolution and above all where it does come from. The feeling is that this new sounds is a cultural basin of different experiences and styles, a perpetuation of a variety of styles which arrived to their natural saturation point: hip-hop, house, disco, italo-disco, rock'n'roll. The suggestions are mixed both in the dj's choices and in the personal stories of people who liven up the dancefloor. What producers' and public's different backgrounds have in common is the notion of "party". Flashing colors and arms up to the sky are the answer to the minimal sounds, that in the past got clubbers used to looking down and acting quite antisocial. Any way you call it, nu rave, discorock, nu italo-disco, electroindie, it's evident that we're talking about a phenomenon not limited to music alone, which involves social, apparel and communication issues.

We talked with Bob Rifo about Bloody Beetroots and with Peaches, while Sebastian just slurred a "I have nothing to say".

I would add to the travel bag a copy of Pig Magazine, the latest Ed Banger Records' collection, colored RayBan and our old records' from the 80s, mostly hip-hop and rock'n'roll.
Alessandro Allegri, Carlo Alberto Dall'Amico