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.

 
You can have your Krautrock. Give me Italo disco!

Vivien Vee was discovered by Italian keyboard player Claudio Simonetti in 1978 when she 18 years old. Simonetti who composed the monolithic electronic score for George Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead and played in the legendary Italian cult band Goblin achieved his biggest commercial success with Ms. Vee. The chemistry was cooking.

In my opinion Simonetti is every bit as good as Giorgio Moroder and in the soundtrack work he did for Dario Argento created something far darker, more atmospheric and to me more satisfying than Moroder. But I like the gothic stuff.

“Higher” is straight ahead Italo disco. But the zombies-on-meth head-jerking of the back up dancers (the only way to stop them is to shoot them in the head) propels the video into the realm of the ridiculously sublime. “Blue Disease,” which appears after the jump has an edgier Goblinesque feel that will probably resonate with German rock enthusiasts.
 

 
“Blue Disease” after the jump…