FRED VENTURA レコード& CD

Review: Lovin', freedom, passion... just three key ingredients make up the bare necessities of wellbeing, which must be secured before we venture into the endless subjectivities of human happiness. Crack this emotional code, and you're in for a good time, so say the Bordello A Parigi resident players Also Playable Mono (Rafal Lachmirowicz) and Fred Ventura. Teaming up for the first time for a blistering take on nu-glossy Italo disco - informed by the former's nascently needly version of the sound, and the latter's contrastingly classic post-punk come club education of the same - this insanely glittered plumper features Ventura feature on vocals through alternating takes on the present global condition, the A-sider marking a stark contrast to the A2 side's suddenly socially charged statement, 'System Breakdown On Wikileaks'. The B-side ventures veer vocoded, flipping the script onto two further, emphatic pleas for change.

Review: Given that Fred Ventura has been a mainstay of the Milan electronic underground since the late 1970s, we can't think of anyone better to curate a compilation of 'modern Italo-disco, synth-pop and house' from the Italian city's celebrated scene. Naturally, there are a couple of well-known names present - see the excellent contributions from Italoconnection and Italo-house veteran S-Tone Inc - but the majority of material comes from talented but lesser-known artists. It's these tracks that really set the pulse racing, particularly the Mono Han remix 2 version of Through Twelve's 'This Love' (a cheery deep synth-pop number with Ventura on vocals), the Patrick Cowley-esque thrills of Soul Boy ('B-Side') and the synth-wave swell of 'Il Vuoto' by Livio Fogli.