Writing can be uplifting

A few months ago Red Laser designer in chief and resident boogie jammer Bob Dazzle was putting together the next edition of his sporadic fashion rag 'PickaPost' for mega respected Manchester clothing Juggernaut OiPolloi and asked me to contribute due to the abundant Italian related content within so i smashed out the below reviews of a small selection of some of my favourite Italo related vinyls. Apparently someone at GQ mag emailed their delight at my 'Skallygonzo' style of journalism. It could have been the CEO or the receptionist i'm not sure but that'l fukin do me  

Italo Disco is a genre that, when the surface is scratched, could take a lifetime to collect. Personally i have always been into a lot different styles and collect early 90's break hardcore and old skool, Hip Hop, Funk, Jazz, Library, Film Scores (Especially electronic and 80's horror), late 70's New Wave and reggae among other bits n bobs so this is just some of my favorite from my collection at its finest 

Nite Lite – Young Men

At Red Laser Disco we are all about paradoxes. Retro Future, Gay Sinister and top knob heads. Young Men has got this ethos encapsulated on vinyl. If you play the vocal version you may find your rectum imploding as the saccharin lyrics drive you up the cringe-o-meter. But when you flip it for the instrumental and pitch the fucker right down it’s a pure thud, blip, squelch, 

electro boogie, grid melter.

Fockewulf 190 – Gitano

Ultimate Italo goth-synth disco destroyer. If Analogothic was a scene this would be its anthem. The band look like extras from 80’s horror flick ‘The Hunger’. It’s sometimes hard to tell if the lead singers belching  vocals are in English or Italian and it don’t even matter. Highly prized in Italo circles. Unfortunatly not so revered in Salford

Kid Machine – Replicants E.P

NeoItalo leader Kid Machine has got Italo circles around Europe wiping the jizz off their bulbs with this beat heavy, dark wave, dance floor obliterator. Where is this producer of anthemic, ‘film score electro’ based I hear you cry? Berlin? Barcelona? Maybe the Dam? What about Paris even?..... WRONG.. The man’s in Wythenshaw mate. Manchester. And you better be careful stood round there with your autograph book ar kid

Evo – Din Don

Ahhh that’s better. The jolly side of Italo Disco. This electro pop rarity has some great Synth Bass production and laser lead jazz wanking at its finest. It is sweetly addictive and mega danceable and became my instant guilty pleasure amongst all the macho horror core flavours that have pulled me deep to into the bossom of 80’s Italo Disco. Only £300.00 for a 12 inch!! Time to rob your Nana

Kermesse – Mrs Moon

New Romantic edged synth bomb with a bass line that bounces like a rubber ball made from a melted down Casio. Similar vocal style to Fockewulf but sounds more like the voice is actually coming from the guys mouth rather than a bum hole with a ‘40 cigs a day’ smoking habit. Great dubbed out section in the middle is perfect for hash consumption. Mad rare too

Hypnotic Samba – Hypnotic Samba

The cruelly discarded brother of My Mines Hypnotic Tango, Hypnotic Samba bitterly twats any of its siblings followers on introduction. While Tango bubbles with trance like euphoria Hypnotic Samba delivers it’s stripped down analogue boot right to your bollocks with only brief rest bites of cheesy chorus to bring you out of the dark. Essential and cheap re issue available

Bandido’s Gang – Dance With Bandido’s Gang

What!! You say. People are making this genre today!!!  You better believe it baby and Cyberdance are leading the game in the UK. It must be hard being a label in London and keeping total bulb sniffs from jumping on your scene but these guys have managed it. This twelve is the bomb. My advise though. Stick Flemming Dalum's remix of Marinche on, pitch it down a few notches and kick back for an immense electronic chug disco experience

Black Angel – Change an Angel

Less ‘cold synth’ and more ‘disco heat’ with this belter on Il Discotto. Any half decent DJ knows if you get the girls dancing and the lads will follow. Me, I like to get the girls dancing and to see the lads fuck off. This is the right track for getting rid of testosterone fuelled bell ends. Its camp disco chug is un-digestible to most blokes and will have girls spinning on the floor. Fantastic stuff

Amnesie with the Nicolosi Family – Turas (Instrumental)

Nice beat ya cool. Heavy intro ya loving it. Then the bass line kicks like a trigger happy gangster with 8-bit Tommy Gun . It’s hard to imagine that this record will turn into an all out anthemic disco anthem with soaring vocals and slap bass guitar licks. I call it my lesbian magnet. Every time I play this record I end up surrounded gay women. A mix of camp and sinister at its finest. Mega Essential 

Il Bosco

Clubbed To Life

Recently I was invited to be on a panel of Manchester promoters to talk about ‘What makes a good club night’ and ‘What will make a good club in the future’. Unfortunately I missed It because on the same day, just before I was due to attend, I had organised to get as many of the Red Laser Crew together as possible for a photo so we could have some documentation of the gang while RLD is still in its infancy. It was also good to get some practice at making this sort of thing happen. It wasn’t a bad first attempt actually. The only person missing was Spandex and when he answered the phone it immediately became apparent he was at a party and still out from the night before                 “WOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDYYYYYYYYYYY !!!!!!  Where you at G? We goin drinkin in Chorlton before heading back to town ar ya comin?” *Note to self, Call Spandex every hour on the hour starting 2 days before a planned gathering to ensure instillation of request in Spandex memory bank.

                                 RLD Crew first Photo Shoot

                          Me and Ste Spandex still out and on one

Still – first shoot out of the way and only Spandex and Flemming not in the shot. Next will be the EP2 shot planned for Jan and only a visit from Peet Need and Savino and a life size cardboard cut out of Flemming needed. The good news from Denmark is there’s already a full size cut out of Flemming out there. The result of a DJ gig he could not attend so his friends had the cut out made, put it behind the decks and played his mix tape. *Note to self. Get an Il Bosco cardboard cut out made, post myself to gigs and forward soundcloud page to promoter. This should save on expensive travel costs and hotel bills while keeping rare and expensive vinyl’s in my studio and assisting damage limitation.

                                 Cardboard Flemming in action

Anyway back to the promoter forum I was supposed to attend. It’s probably better I am writing this rather than have battle to get a word in edgeways. Egotistical motor mouths generally make good promoters and I know that there would have been a few of them sat on that stage (minus me) trying to get there opinion across all at the same time. Sounds like a fukin nightmare.(See below a random lift related nightmare)

Before taking anyone’s opinion seriously on a subject a track record in said field must be apparent. What has Il Bosco done that gives him the right to parade his ego on stage and give enough credibility to air his opinions on the subject of promoting parties? Well here’s the fukin quicky – 1998 starts promoting small midweek gatherings for Fat City with mates Col o Tool and Brendan. 1999 promoting Fat City behemoth ‘Counter Culture’ also starts Manchester club Eyes Down with designers Jack Craol and Gawain Forster and DJ’s Kelvin Brown and good friend and deservedly well respected DJ Jon K - 2000 Started now legendary club Friends and Family with Fat City boss man Dave Walker with support from Fat City and GrandCentral crews. 2011 starts Red Laser Disco. 

                         Straight from the RLD team shot to a gig

I suppose up till Red laser I was mostly associated with Friends and Family. I spent six years promoting this weekly club event in Manchester. And this was before the internet got really going. 10’000 full colour flyers a month handed out and a 1000 of them packed, with a news letter, into envelopes by hand and wheeled down to the post office on a skateboard. Whatever the predominant colour of the flyer was the colour of my fingers for that whole month. Also 200 x A3 posters that were prepared using double sided sticky tape with military precision ready for the Oxford Rd ‘Bus Stop and take away run’ which was a 3 mile hike through student alley in the wind and rain (And sometimes in the sunshine).  

In those days the council had not yet initiated there zero tolerance on advertising on any free space available. Day would turn to night as you entered a bus stop. Cash machines would be framed with posters advertising a wide selection of Speed Garage nights with more emphasis on how cheap the fukin drinks were than how good their music was (that whole commercial garage scene was fukin repulsive) Yes, even I got caught up in the early noughties poster frenzy of Manchester and was involved in a couple of scraps with the Asian massive because of their excessive garage postering and posturing (I am certainly not a racist or have right wing opinions. For some reason Manchesters Speed garage scene was culturally Asian dominated). In sheer blindsided determination for them not to get the better of me I un-ethically paid an Oxford Rd homeless regular £20.00 so I could cover his shopping trolley in Friends and Family posters making him a walking billboard for a week. The shame.

                               Nice Random book cover image

These days the whole game is pretty much paperless. Great news for the environment, Shit news for printing business’. Also it seems every shop or fast food establishment in south Manchester has cottoned on to the lack of prime advertising space on the street and are now charging to rent A3 size spaces on their walls. #Cheeky fukin bastards. As for my opinion on the elements of what makes a club night stand out above the rest and give a chance of longevity are still the same and will never change. Absolute simple stuff. Debate not even needed.

1 – Good Sound system

2 – A space with personality or that can be personalized (the latter being essential)

3 – Creative visuals or lighting

3 – Your kind of people

4 – Drug Dealer

5 – Skilled DJ’s or Selectors

6 – Finally a promoter who is everywhere. At every decent club night. At every bar opening. Who doesn’t need sleep or food and who’s mouth is constantly moving while simultaneously posting whatever he or she is regurgitated onto various social networking sites.

So there you have it. Years in the game motherfucker

Il Bosco

December Gathering

In the not to distant future we have our December party. This will be a joint affair with Manchester’s Full Beam crew. Full Beam is a great social boogie night headed up by Randy Marsh of Wet Play and DJ Sonofapizzaman both who I have collaborated with DJ wise on previous occasions and most recently on an all out boogie war radio show currently being finished by Marsh (Get a move on G). Supporting the lads will be Metronome and Vince Texture (great alias). This intimate party on Dec 7^th is turning out to be a who’s who of Manchester’s Italo, Disco, Proto House and Boogie selectors. 

                             Red Laser Board Meeting

Kid Machine will be doing an exclusive live set. (Large puddles of drool in Holland and Belgium right now) Starion gets to exercise his abundant DJ skills (If a babysitter is available), Ste Spandex will no doubt tear a new fire door in Q Cavern as per usual (smash fails the dance floor never to) Boogie heartthrob Bob Dazzle will keep the ratio of men to women firmly in favour of the latter and The Disco Mums might as well be called Rent-A-Party (They could make people have a good time in Church!!) Without a doubt this will be one of the hottest parties in Manchester in December and not one person on the line-up from out of town. Who needs a two grand guest. Half the time the residents of Manchester club nights that put on expensive guests are better anyway!! (Check the random homo erotic sci fi book cover image. I call it 'Chrome Fist')

There’s no doubt that in the afternoon of Sat 8^th December I will be wishing I was this geezer below. Easy access for a bit of re-wiring "Red or Black?"   BOOOM!! Oh and my liver hates me. Well fuck you liver you’re workin overtime on the 7^th bitch

Anyways look below for the link bizznizz

Decembers Party ‘Red Laser and Full Beam Jizzmas special’ click link

http://www.facebook.com/events/263448677110457/?fref=ts

Red Laser Group

http://www.facebook.com/groups/218770714876732/?notif_t=group_r2j

Live Recoding from Red Laser Disco

http://soundcloud.com/christian-wood/crowhead-live-red-laser-disco

Il Bosco

Let's talk label

Seen as though this blog called Red Laser Records I better start talking about the record label rather than wittering on about the current revival of Manchester clubbing and my passion for daft retro imagery. (Check this book cover)

It’s funny how you can have an idea, blink, and the idea seems to be instantaneously nearing its chaotic fruition. If this was a snowballing metaphor it would be equivalent to rolling a hand sized snowball down a kids slide and in its short journey flying off at the bottom as an Indiana Joneseque runaway boulder 

It was only in the summer me and Matt Triggs had the conversation about re-issuing 80’s Italo gems on vinyl so DJ’s could have 4 amazing and very expensive Italo records on one wax at the cost of a couple of beers. Before I knew it I had 3 of Manchesters top producers on board (Ste Spandex, Starion and Kid Machine) and Mark Kid Machine had hooked me up with Savino DJ and DJ Peet Need who had made an amazing rework of obscure italo 7" I Am Your Master and Italo DJ legend King of the cut himself Mr Flemming Dalum. Not bad for a couple of months of 'networking' (I fuking hate that word). 

Most importantly the whole process has been a lot of fun. Don’t get me wrong, there has been bouts of stress and plenty of sacrifice’s, but without those challenges would not come the feelings of reward. If you’re a money orientated cunt you may have associated the word ‘Reward’ with financial gain (although money can come in really handy somtimes especially for feeding kids and general looking after the family ect). In this case reward refers to ‘Pride in a job well done’ and ‘The abundance of quality music and amazing people that this journey has brought me closer too’(Money orientated cunts can now start mopping their puke from the floor around them). If we were expecting to make any money out of pressing Vinyls we would have never of even started. Sheer love of music and records has brought these people together. This will no doubt shine through in the finished product. And i havn't even mentioned the attention to detail that design legend (In Manchester anyway) Eoin Macmanus has been applying to the artwork. That's another post 

Red Laser Records EP1 available 1^st Dec

Pre Order here

http://www.fatcityrecordings.com/site/release.php?rid=262

Listen to more forthcoming releases and artists on our Red Laser Records Soundcloud here

http://soundcloud.com/red-laser-records

Il Bosco

The Clubs Fight Back

So this weekend I was playing at one of Manchester’s better venues Soup Kitchen. Soup is definately one of the clubs leading the fight back against the onslaught of un creative, idealess, style devoid bar and club venues that have saturated and diluted Manchester’s Northern Quarter over the years. Once a haven for counter culture entrepreneur’s Northern Quarter slowly leaked clueless but likeable ‘in it for all the wrong reasons’ types which eventually led to a flooding of ‘annoying clueless cunts’. Venues like The Roadhouse, Cord and Night and Day had kept the scales from completely tipping into the shit  long enough for the emergence of some great venues with the right kind of people behind them. N2022, Kraak Gallery, Q Cavern and Soup Kitchen have given most Mancunian discoteque lovers a great sigh of relief and the vibe in Soup on Friday was fantastic. 

Here's me 'avin it' and Yoshi's flying fingers

Here's a generic Soup Kitchen shot

I was DJing from 12 – 3. When asked to do this I immediately got excited as its not often you get to play for so long in a venue with a great rep. If this was the usual shitty NQ bar where bulb sniffers ask for chart dubstep and Black eyed peas all night I would have rather burned my cock to a crisp using £150.00 of my own cash as fuel. Anyway fuck that fantasy for a minute. Soup Kitchen rocked. Its dark dirty raw brick walls and bass heavy soundsystem is the perfect setting for the sleazy analog sounds of 80’s Italo Disco, Boogie, NuDisco, Electro Chug, Acid and Deep House. The crowd was great and open minded and I only got mithered once by a girl who asked for something different because she thought i was ‘getting boring’ (Loui$ - Pink Footpath was playing at the time!!).

Loads of top heads in attendance including Manchesters Full Beam Boogie Cartel Randy Marsh, DJ Sonofapizzman and Vince Texture, Wet Play’s Ste Spandex and Kicking Pidgeon, Ashley Beadle and Vicky, Manchester oldest raver Jamie Rennie (Still fukin cooler than all the pre pubescent bum fluff strokers hangin round shit bars drinking snide foreign beers) and even Sam owner of Soup showed up for some serious afterbiz drinkys after his missus Lyndsey had been texting him from the dancefloor of what he was missing out on (Gimp)

Manchester alternative disco vibe is strong right now with great support from afore mentioned crews

Even got my end away when I rolled in at 7am back home!! (Told ya Lindsay ha ha)

Woke up the next afternoon with these beauty’s still running round my head. Click on the text for direct link to pleasure 

Il Bosco

Barbara York - Tonight (I like it pitched down a bit, Get Chuggy init)

Herbie - You Don't Love Me (Boooggggiiieee)

Image Addiction

I aint ever been into computers until i finally excepted that if your gonna run a record label and not give it a half arsed attempt thet you better learn how to utilise the web. This new me has now learned how to set up a blog, upload and download various shit and create worldwide awarness with only the odd bout of eye burn as a side effect.

As a result of being on the web more i started to see a lot more music, blogs and most of all images and when i set up the Red Laser Disco facebook group instead of posting the usual Youtube links i became obsessed with posting images. This inturn inspired other group members to do the same and it has now become kind of competative. Just like vinyl junkies keeping their best record shop spots a secret my fellow image hunters will keep there source of visual delights under wraps.

The best Red Laser related images generally give a futuristic but paradoxical feel of Future Retro just like the music we play in our club night 'Red Laser Disco'

Everybody posts music and these days it seems an obvious thing to do as you can access pretty much any tune you want online and post it for kudos. The sport of image digging is not very popular and requires thought, good taste and plenty of trial and error digging due to the un tapped nature of image hunting as a culture

IL BOSCO

A New Dawn

It starts with Gaz Nevada i suppose. Even though i had unwittingly bought and enjoyed 80’s italo records i had never looked and these records and used the information to dig deeper until Gaz Nevada's I.C Love Affair. I was instantly drawn to its juxaposing mix of camp disco and industrial appregiatted synth at a smokers tempo. Its only soon after that i had the realisation that Italo disco was a bottomless pit of music similar to the amount of Funk, Reggae, Soul and Hip Hop that is out there and was not just a passing fad but a huge industry in the 80’s

A few years after getting the Italo bug i was offered a good paying weekly gig at a trendy as fuck bar in Manchester off the back of my Fat City Records and Friends and Family reputation. It soon became apparent that the manager was not happy that my music tastes had changed over the years and instead of playing Funk, Soul and Hip Hop he was getting uncomfortably force fed Italo, Boogie and proto house sounds. The manager would ask annoying questions like “What about playing the Friends and Family vibe that you’re known for?” I'd bide some time by replying “Yeah OK i will bring that style next week” But I couldn’t bring myself to play music i wasn’t as interested in due to my burning pasion for all things SYNTHY!!

In a bid to please everyone the management called a meeting. Now I’ll be honest, the guy who managed the bar was a dick (Not Matt Lake. He’s ace), but i had just had a baby and needed the money desperately so I knew I was going to go along with whatever he said in the meeting. There was some talk of how they were not happy with the music and that they would be willing to give me a chance to get it sounding how they would like it.  Then I couldn’t believe my ears! They said they were going to give me an extra hundred quid a month and wanted me to bring in a guest DJ to play. We talk enthusiastically about getting well known local DJ’s to play their favourite party funk, hip hop and even classic pop records. We agreed we would call the night “Hooked on Classics” and the manager gave me the poster/ flyer designer’s number to give the agreed information too so he could get started on the promotional material immediately 
 

It was a big mistake giving me the designer’s number to pass on the information. The manager did not get what we had agreed on because when the designer answed the call for the flyer info i said without even thinking “Red Laser Disco – Italo, Boogie, Disco, Acid and Proto House Sounds” The flyers and posters turned up and nobody said a thing. Red Laser Disco is born. It still took them a year before they had the guts to sack me ha ha!!! 

Sacking me was the best thing as it gave me a kick up the arse to actually move the night and develop it into what it is today. Manchester’s best party for Italo Disco. Even though the night is not purist Italo and all styles of synthesised disco get played it’s defiantly the best place to hear and dance with like minded Italo lovers. The club night looks like the image below :D

As the scene grew and my italo vinyl buying reached scary levels and I was introduced to Magic Waves the radio show that plays out every Sunday on IFM hosted by Cyberdance Records bossman James Penrose and from there to the Friends of Magic waves Group set up by Mark Wilkinson aka Kid Machine. I was very surprised to find out Mark was living in Wythenshawe in Manchester which is like the estate from the film Gomorrah!!! Not what you would expect!! We met and he introduced me to Brady (Starion) who also lived in Manchester and both of these guys were making amazing italo. The best out there!! I decided I was going to plan and promote some big Red Laser Events so i inlisted the help of Fat City Recordings bossman and good friend Matt Triggs and we set about organising the Red Laser BBQ with the aim of putting on a great party and using the profit to start the record label which would showcase Manchesters electronic disco talent. We worked our arse off and my family went without luxuries so we could be where we are today. With the first release being pressed as I type this story.

Red Laser Disco and Records gets stronger with every party and the producers and residents list is turning out to be world class – Il Bosco, Kid Machine, Starion, Ste Spandex, Flemming Dalum, DJ Peet Need & Savino, The Disco Mums and Bob Dazzle

Let the fun begin

Click the link below for deep Italo action

Il Bosco Out

Il Bosco - Red Laser Disco Italo - Live All Vinyl Mixtape