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Sign upBiographies and portraits of Italo Disco, synth-pop and adjacent artists.
74 articles newest first
January 1, 1987. On Central Television's New Year "Goluboy Ogonyok" broadcast, "Yagoda-Malina" ("Berry-Raspberry") is heard for the first time, performed by Valentina Legkostupova. Composer Vyacheslav Dobrynin, lyricist Mikhail Plyatskovsky: behind this hit stand two professionals of the Soviet estrada, not a "folk song" as karaoke booths often label it.
23 June 2022. Yura Shatunov dies. Over 30 years of solo career - eight albums, a rights trial and "Song of the Year". We break down the solo repertoire: "Detstvo" with three versions of authorship, "Klyanus", "A leto tsveta".
1996. Yura Shatunov, four years after the breakup of Laskovyy Mai, releases the album "Iskusstvennoe dykhanie" (Artificial Respiration) - ten hits in rave remixes. Release date: 1 January 1996, according to iTunes. The remixes were done by E. Rodionov at solaris station and V. Afanasyev at C&M Records.
1986, Orenburg. Sergei Kuznetsov returns home from the first performance of the group Laskovyy Mai - a New Year's concert at Boarding School No. 2. The next morning he picks up a red pen and writes the song "Belye rozy" (White Roses) in 15 minutes. Yura Shatunov, who will sing it, is 13 years old.
1989. The music video for "Belye rozy" (White Roses) airs on the TV programme Utrennyaya pochta (Morning Post) on Central Television - and within months Laskovyy Mai becomes a national sensation. Twenty years later, in 2009, a biographical film "Laskovyy Mai" will reignite interest in the songs.
1988, Orenburg. Sergei Kuznetsov, the music circle leader at Boarding School No. 2, brings several cassettes to the railway station kiosk - recordings of his pupil, 14-year-old Yura Shatunov. Among six songs on the tape is "Sedaya noch" (Grey Night), the sixth track of the album "Belye rozy" (White Roses), 6 minutes 14 seconds long.
In 1988 the Central Television editorial board refused Mikhail Boyarsky a slot in the all-Union “Song of the Year 1988” festival with his version of “Zelenoglazoe Taxi” - with the wording “very mournful, inexpressive, sleep-inducing”. A version with that verdict nonetheless attached itself to the song in mass perception, while the author's version, by composer Oleg Kvasha, stayed in the shade.
November 1987. Mikhail Boyarsky records “Zelenoglazoe Taxi” for a Melodiya long-play. The song was written by composer Oleg Kvasha to lyrics by Valery Panfilov and originally performed by Kvasha himself - but in mass memory it attached itself to Boyarsky. This is a case where a cover outgrew the original: the performer's version became the face of the song, while the author's version stayed with a narrow circle.
Frankfurt, Hamburg and Cologne forged the signature sound of German Eurodance. We break down the production teams, studios and 20 projects that defined the genre from Masterboy to Culture Beat.
Montreal in the early 1980s became one of the capitals of Hi-NRG: Lime, Trans-X and the French-English scene produced dozens of dance hits. We look at the studios, labels and key releases of Canadian electronic dance music.
The Cyber People project combined space-age synthesizers, mechanical vocals and the dance foundation of Italo Disco. We trace the group's history, the cult track "Polaris", and its link to spacesynth.
Late 70s - synth-pop appears in the USSR: Forum, Tekhnologiya, Secret, Kino. Then a golden age, a 90s decline and a comeback through Ploho, Molchat Doma and Peremotka.
1992-1996. Eurodance is born in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, then spreads across Europe. 30 groups clustered by country and production hub.
Mid-80s, Barcelona and Madrid. Blanco y Negro and Max Music license Italian hits, while local projects release their own Italo-disco. A map of the Spanish scene.
1983, Italy. Doctor's Cat releases “Feel the Drive” - a track collectors still open mixes with. Who hid behind this anonymous studio team and why the song outlived the era.
From Giorgio Moroder and Gary Numan to Anne Clark, Sandra and Philip Oakey: fifteen individual catalogues that reveal different forms of synth-pop, from minimalism to club pop.
1986: “Bioconstructor” plays at the Moscow Rock Laboratory. Zodiac from Riga, Alyans with “Na zare”, Electroclub with Tukhmanov - fifteen Soviet synth-pop recordings from 1980 to 1992. Polivoks, Aelita, tape albums and the Melodiya label.
October was a record month for Disco Magic. Here is what we did together:
141,645
plays in October
10,180
downloads in October
400
new listeners
9,200
plays in a single day - the October 24 record
×39
more visits from Google than in May
9
songs made on your requests
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