Best Italy レコード& CD

Review: While this fabulous album may sound old - as if it was an obscure, jazz-funk-tinged Italian disco release from 1982 - it is in fact brand, spanking new, making it the first new LP of original material released by legendary Italian imprint Best Record in over four decades. Created by Raffaele 'Whodammy' Arcella and Cosimo Cosmo Mandorino, it offers the same kind of boundary-blurring fusion of early '80s boogie, electro, low-tempo Italo-disco, jazz-funk, disco, Afro-cosmic and colourful Balearic pop (with a few cheeky raps and spoken word vocal passages thrown in) as the Neopolitan albums of the early-to-mid 1980s that inspired them. It's a brilliant set all told - one that authentically pays tribute to their influences and inspirations while offering something genuinely new and exciting.

Review: Robert Cotter originally released Timeless in 1980, capturing the magic of the disco wave while it was still informed by a classic 70s studio approach before synths and drum machines become the dominant medium. The stand out track on the record is ‘Rock Me With Your Love’ - a timeless gem of get-down heat laid down by a crack team of players and captured by Ned Liben at Sundragon Studio in New York. If you’re always on the hunt for the fiercest jams from that era, you won’t be disappointed by what you find on this album of expansive, expressive tracks from an undeniably talented crew that missed out on wider recognition when their magnum opus was originally released more than 40 years ago.

Review: During the pre-Italo-disco era, many Italian musicians and producers made the move to New York after making their own surprisingly authentic-sounding disco records back home. There, they frequentlyworked with Black American singers to make singles and albums that were, curiously, then released in Italy rather than the U.S. New Jersey singer Robert Cotter's 1980 set, Timeless, is a particularly good example - especially as it's a fantastic collection of disco, disco-funk and dancefloor soul workouts. Reissued here for the first time, highlights of the five-track set include the infectious, stretched-out opener 'Rock Me With Your Love' - an under-played dancefloor classic - and the boogie-tinged disco shuffler 'Timeless'.

Review: A near-mythical release from the Italian composer/bassist/karate don Pino Presti, Shitan was a one-off project in 1977. Slow, pensive, full of tension and loaded with detailed cinematic elements, it still sounds forward-thinking today. No surprises that the original 12"s regularly go for hundreds. Madly the long version never made it to the original 12" so this is the first time the full five minute version has been available. As if a repress wasn't enough reason to jump on this!