Ali Renault is one of my favourite producers working right now. Formerly one half of the ace Italo revivalists Heartbreak he has been building a reputation over the last few years with his solo techno-disco outings on labels like Moustache and Dissident, and now he has just dropped his excellent debut album for the London label Cyber Dance.

Renault’s heavily Italo-influenced sound is clean and crisp, but with a tangible sense of creeping dread, like that point on a night out when you notice the sun has come up and your high is beginning to wear off. It’s what might happen if you took the synths of Claudio Simonetti, slow them down to a warped ketamine crawl and lock them in a wardrobe with Michael Myers. It’s not nearly as hellish as that makes it sound - in a way it’s kind of comforting, like the knowledge that someday you are going to die. It’s no surprise to learn that Renault’s formative musical influences as a teenager were both metal and techno. 

“I like using old cheap hardware and I enjoy trying to evoke a dark mood with machines” he says.  Renault’s self-titled debut album is 8 tracks of what he describes as “detective-noir” and will appeal to fans of golden age John Carpenter, classic Detroit techno, Garth Merenghi re-runs and the darker side of Italo disco. This isn’t music designed to impress with tricks and technology, it has a cleanliness of form and a melodic richness that is unique and brilliant. You can download the excellent “Pagan Run” from the 20 Jazz Funk Greats blog at this link (highly recommended), and here’s a download of the track “Promises”, courtesy of Mixmag:
 

 
 
And here’s another album track, “Dignitas Machine”:
 

 
 
Ali Renault performs “Zombie Raffle” live at Magic Waves festival 2010:
 

 
Ali Renault can be purchased on vinyl from Juno and Beatport.

 
So buzzed was I by the reaction to my first Disco Argento mix (downloads maxed out on Soundcloud* - thanks guys!) that I decided to go digging through the vault of horror/disco cash-in records yet again to put together a follow-up. And so I give you… Disco Argento 2: The Sequel! As with most sequels, it feeds heavily off the original’s success while boldly pushing the concept into uncharted waters (the 1980s). I feel as if this time I got to truly express my vision, though it could be argued that I am over-indulging myself (twelve minutes of Pat Hodges?!).

I’m pretty chuffed to be able to put a few real gems on this mix - tracks like Stelvio Cipriani’s theme for Tentacles (actually called “Too Risky A Day For A Regatta”), Riz Ortolani’s energetic jazz-funk workout “Drinking Coco” from Cannibal Holocaust and the simply divine “New York One More Day” by Franisco DiMasi from the score for Lucio Fulci’s The New York Ripper (possibly the only passable excuse for that super sleazy film to exist). What is with these Italians and their fabulous soundtracks? It’s also the second appearance of the day for DM pal Matt Berry, heard here in his Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace guise as Todd Rivers, with an electrifying remix of his ode to thwarted passion “One Track Lover”. Here’s the tracklist in full:

NOSTROMO Alien
GOBLIN Tenebre
FABIO FRIZZI Zombi 2 (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters)
FRANCISCO DI MASI New York One More Day (Disco Beard edit)
ROBERT RODRIGUEZ Police Station Assault
RIZ ORTOLANI Il Corpo Di Linda
TODD RIVERS One Track Lover (Synthia Remix)
FAT BOYS Are You Ready For Freddy?
FRANCIS HAINES The Trioxin Theme (aka Return Of The Living Dead Theme)
JOHN CARPENTER & ALAN HOWARTH The Duke Arrives/Barricade/Snake dialog
PAT HODGES Fly By Night (Midnight Mix)
RIZ ORTOLANI Drinking Coco
STELVIO CIPRIANI Tentacoli (aka Tentacles)
THE CHAMP’S BOYS ORCHESTRA Tubular Bells (Cosmic Mix)
 

  Disco Argento 2: The Sequel! by theniallist
 
BONUS!
An excellent trailer re-edit by Orgasmo Sonore of Stelvio Cipriani’s Tentacoli:
 

 
*You can now download Disco Argento Vol 1 here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/eg1dcw

It gets my vote! When I was in Tokyo in the mid-1990s, there was a dance-floor craze for the soundtrack of Sesso Matto, a silly 70s Italian sex comedy starring Giancarlo Giannini and sexy screen siren Laura Antonelli (in multiple roles, as you can see in the video). I brought a copy home with me and it has occupied an honored position in my record collection ever since and is a front line choice for inclusion on most of my (coveted!) mixed CDs. The film? The film is nothing great, it’s just stupid and crude, but the soundtrack OMG is that soundtrack ever FUNKY! It’s an absolute revelation. Composer Armando Trovajoli’s memorable score featured funky keyboards, horn sections, Mini-Moogs, the sounds of a female in loud orgasmic bliss and bongo drums. What could be more perfect? It’s a weird and groovy pastiche of sounds that shouldn’t work together, but DO. It even has a Rossini number played on the Arp synthesizer, which is a close cousin of Popcorn (and so therefore, it’s awesome).

In 1977 West End Records put out a 12” disco mix of the title theme which was well known to New York DJs and heard in places like The Loft and Studio 54. Sesso Matto is part of hip hop’s DNA, heard in many of the earliest rap hits thanks to Grandmaster Flash’s frequent use of its several break beats (listen to the extended version here, you can totally hear it now in all kinds of early hip hop, can’t you?). A few years ago, Beat Records, the Italian label who first released the Sesso Matto soundtrack released an extended collectors version with over 30 minutes of additional music from Trovajoli.