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Sign upNotes on music, craft, and the era
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1980. The Oberheim DMX - the second digital drum machine after the Linn LM-1. $2,895, 24 sounds on EPROM chips, swing - the feature that connected new wave and hip-hop. Twelve known recordings.
1980. Two drum machines launch simultaneously. The TR-808 at $1,195 generates sound through analog. The LM-1 at $5,500 plays samples. Why the 808 does not sound like the LM-1 - broken down at the physics of sound.
1983. Clan of Xymox, Wolfsheim, Deine Lakaien - three genres born in the same post-punk environment but diverging by rhythm, vocals and synthesiser. Fifteen verifiable examples.
1979-1984. Five years in which synth-pop and new wave travelled from a common root to two distinct genres. Comparison table, ten borderline tracks, a listener's test.
4 minutes 44 seconds. The Letniy Veterok remix by Disco Magic & valex77 of Kanikuly's song - EuroDisco arrangement, bass line, synth pads. A breakdown of how an Italo Disco remix is built.
1993. 2 Unlimited pushed No Limit to the top of the charts, and the genre got its name. Beyond the obvious names - Snap, Culture Beat, Haddaway - stood dozens of projects whose singles sold millions while producers hid behind studio walls.
5 May 1983: Righeira release "Vamos a la playa" in Spanish. The chorus is about the beach; the verses are about a nuclear bomb. #1 in Italy and Switzerland, #3 in Germany, 3 million copies. Writers, single versions and the nuclear subtext.
1974: Tom Moulton and Jose Rodriguez create the 12-inch single - a hybrid with a wide groove and maximum volume. A 7-inch holds 3 minutes; a 12-inch holds 9 minutes at 4-6 dB louder. Why Italo Disco lived on this format.
Autumn 1984: Giacomo Maiolini, 21, founds Time Records in Brescia. With the duo Farina-Crivellente - the label becomes one of the biggest in Italo Disco. Atrium, Albert One, Ken Laszlo. In 1988, the shift to Eurobeat for Japan.
December 1985: Silent Circle release "Touch in the Night" - #15 in Germany, 14 weeks in the chart. A West German trio: Tychsen, Breitung, Behrens. Producers Dietrich and Simons, label Blow Up. Ten tracks, charts and Russian popularity.
24 April 1956: Roberto Turatti is born in Milan. With Miki Chieregato he created Den Harrow - a project named after the Italian "denaro" (money). Stefano Zandri was the face, Tom Hooker the voice. An Italo-disco factory, 1983-1988.
January 1980: Hugh Padgham accidentally opens a talkback mic above Phil Collins's drums. Reverb is chopped by a gate after half a second. Gated reverb - the effect that defined the sound of the 80s. Processing scheme, AMS RMX16 and five imitation mistakes.
1978: the Prophet-5 at $3,950. 1983: the Yamaha DX7 at $1,995 - 200,000 sold. 1988: the Korg M1 at $1,800. In ten years the price dropped threefold while polyphony doubled. Three waves of 80s synthesizers - analog, digital and workstations.
1978: the Roland CR-78 - the first drum machine with a microprocessor. By 1980 two approaches: analog synthesis (TR-808, $1,195) and samples (Linn LM-1, $4,995). How 16 buttons in a row rewrote the rhythm of pop music - in plain words.
1977: Space releases "Magic Fly" - 12 million copies in a year. Space disco was born not on singles but on full-length records. Twelve albums from Space and Cerrone to Koto and Laserdance - a guide to the genre through the LP format.
How to distinguish synth-pop from any song with keyboards: twelve signs across arrangement, rhythm, voice and form, a 1977-1986 timeline and a test for borderline tracks.
1 October 1981 - Australian release. January 1983 - Billboard #1 for 4 weeks, UK #1 for 3 weeks. Greg Ham's flute line (F-G-F-E♭) - the track's most recognisable part. In 2010 the Federal Court called it an infringement of 1934's “Kookaburra”; in 2012 Ham was found dead in Melbourne.
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