Spacesynth/Italo Disco

[andrewwerdna]

This is a very interesting genre. It goes way deeper than you'd expect for how weird it is and how little it is discussed among electronic music fans, but it's been around for a long time and it seems like die-hard enthusiasts have been churning out albums all along. I love it because it's very atmosphere-oriented. The atmosphere can be described as a sort of Flash Gordon style retrofuture pulp sci-fi vibe. It gets very campy sometimes, but I enjoy that aspect of it, puts me in a good mood and reminds me not to take things so seriously.

This website is a really good resource to learn about this genre: www.spacesynth.net/WhatIs

I recommend starting with this album as I think it has a very consistent atmospheric focus: Anosphere - Field of Mutants

[crystallogic13]

I somehow already had that page bookmarked but totally forgot about it and never found the time to go through it, not even this time again I'm afraid!! Thanx though of course!!

I like a lot of the various genres getting mixed in this, 80s , Synth, Electronic with early era vibes, Synthwave, so I will keep an eye on this.. Already listening to Anosphere, definitely enjoying listening from the first runthrough.. Thanx for the link..

I wanna note though that I think Italo Disco is a little bit separate from whatever Spacesynth includes (they collide I guess though) , since from what I recall remember and stuff Italo Disco is actually that, Italo Disco, which is gooooooood - great of course..

Famous example :



One of my favourite 80s of course and great for the approaching festivities !! Party time !! (Here in Greece we have Carnival festivities from now till 19 of Feb..)..

[andrewwerdna]

Well I'm far from an expert, but everything I've read about it says that spacesynth is a subgenre of italo disco in the same way that dungeon synth is a subgenre of black metal. I thought it was important to title this thread with both because a few years back somebody had started a "spacesynth" facebook group after a brief discussion about it in the DS group, but pretty much everyone assumed that just meant atmospheric space music made with synthesizers, so there was a lot of berlin school stuff, and that's not spacesynth at all. Spacesynth is a very specific style, which certainly won't be to everyone's taste in our community since it's still basically dance music and it's often very upbeat, but I think there's some who might love it.

But italo disco on its own is wonderful too, I'm always game to hear more of that. I like that Gary Low track but it has almost a samba sort of sound. I wouldn't guess that it was italo disco if I heard it out of context. It's a strange genre. Spacesynth is super specific and once you hear a few albums you immediately recognize it when you hear it, but italo disco is so broad. One of my few favorite mainstream pop songs is Laura Branigan - Self Control, but I just recently discovered that it's a cover from a italo disco artist:

[andrewwerdna]

Anyways, here are the two most important spacesynth albums:

[crystallogic13]

I will check them out too, thanx!! Nice for explaining the connection, appreciated!!

Btw, I was BLASTED that Self Control isn't Laura Branigan's !! Endless thanx for the information, one of the greatest 80s songs of course!! By the way, I wasn't familiar with Self Control for some reason back in my childhood in the 80s, BUT I (re?)discovered it in 2000something while playing Grand Theft Auto Vice City, it was in the Flash radiostation.. Sorry for the offtopic but if you wanna get huuuuuuge 80s fun, GTA's Vice City and Vice Stories Radio Stations are a must!! They should be on youtube!!

Nice thread again!

[andrewwerdna]

I don't know if this is technically spacesynth, but this is exactly the kind of atmosphere I look for in the genre.

[Alder]

There's a compilation called "Dirty Space Disco" that's an excellent "primer" collection of the spacier fringes of Italo disco.  Released in 2007, but all the music is late 70s - 80s.  Definitely more "space disco" than "space synth," but very interesting intersections between pop-dance music, space synths, and more experimental and noisey moments.  One of my party go-tos.

Info here:
www.d-i-r-t-y.com/dirty-space-disco/

I would definitely recommend getting ahold of a digital copy if you can find one.


Approximate youtube playlist:
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbyXrABBNiBMVBzojsWld_jLE4Z417vA_
(Most of the songs are different versions and/or lower quality than what appeared on the comp)

[curwenius]

Nice thread! Some years ago I made a research about synth genres and, among the many I found, spacesynth strongly caught my attention, despite being far from the usual dark DS atmosphere. It seems I wasn't the only one.

[emerge]

Cool thread, somehow I missed this earlier. I'm a huge italo freak, i'll post some favorites... 

Spacesynth was a subgenre as you mentioned, Koto, Laserdance, Droids, etc. There was a lot of stuff coming out of DE and NL in the mid-80's, including Spacesynth which was pioneered by Laserdance from NL and Koto from Italy. Droids was French and came out in the late 70's, more space disco than spacesynth. 

Among the purists, there's a distinct line that any non-Italian production is not Italo, but Euro-disco. Nowadays, there are so many new Italo-inspired artists going for the classic analog synth sound, it's not that simple anymore.

There were a ton of aliases and one-off studio projects, so it can be a tricky genre to follow. Over time you can pick out the sound of certain producers, typically most of their aliased projects are good too. Some of my favorites are Robyx, Raffaele Fiume, Rago & Farina, Marcello Catalano, Stefano Zito, Nicolosi brothers.

There are lots of gems out there, but sometimes you have to sift through a lot of junk to find them. I recommend mixes by I-F, Hysteric, and especially Flemming Dalum to hear a broad range and find what you like.

[Robert]

"Iceman" by I Signori Della Galassia, which was re-issued by Medical Records a few years back, is another great example of this kind of stuff. It exists in the weird overlap between Italo-Disco and prog. I love it.
medicalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/iceman-mr-020

[emerge]

Mar 28, 2018 9:09:29 GMT -5 Robert said:

"Iceman" by I Signori Della Galassia, which was re-issued by Medical Records a few years back, is another great example of this kind of stuff. It exists in the weird overlap between Italo-Disco and prog. I love it.
medicalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/iceman-mr-020

Iceman is a cool song, definitely an oddball that defies categorization. Here's a wild video from that band:




Thinking of Italian prog that overlaps with Italo-Disco, Goblin comes to mind, and Claudio Simonetti's Italo stuff. Capricorn, Kasso, College, etc.
These songs both have more of an electro edge, which makes sense considering it was 1982-83.

[emerge]

This is an interesting one, a Belgian synth-pop band with italo styled production.

[emerge]

Here's one for thekeeper , an italo artist doing their best DM impression



There were other Italian wave bands like Neon and Kirlian Camera that flirted with italo, but here's one of the better examples of dark/cold wave influenced italo:


Ok, one more in this vein.

[thekeeper]

Apr 16, 2018 8:55:23 GMT -5 emerge said:

Here's one for thekeeper , an italo artist doing their best DM impression

This is so derivative but wow is the chorus catchy, haha.

[emerge]

Apr 16, 2018 9:22:13 GMT -5 thekeeper said:

Apr 16, 2018 8:55:23 GMT -5 emerge said:

Here's one for thekeeper , an italo artist doing their best DM impression

This is so derivative but wow is the chorus catchy, haha.

Yes indeed! DM must have inspired hundreds of copycat artists in their heyday. It's ironic how their debut was so reviled by the music media back then.