Party's and Records

Not done the whole record review thing for a while so its defo time to talk about some more rare and special synth orientated vinyl’s in a Skally Gonzo styleeeeeeeeeee. Also we got a propa cyber music extravaganza happening with some of the finest live acts including Silverclub who are one of Manchester’smost respected and long running synth bands, Tommy Walker 3 from the quality and respected Cyberdance label (Big ups to Ali Renault and Casionova)and Red Lasers own Ste Spandex the VHS hoarder / unique production talent. DJ support comes in the form of Me (Il Bosco), Pete Mangalore of Space Docking and Faktion who was recently abducted and replaced with a humanoid version of himself and the Disco Mums who are available as none of em are up the duff again as yet. For event details "CLICK HERE"

Before I start the vinyl bizznizz theres a couple of things I wanna mention. First I need to talk about Severo Lombardoni. 

(One of the many Disco Magic Logo's. I like this one cos it looks like the print you used to get on acid tabs)

Lombardoni was a DJ and producer and the man behind the huge Italian Label and distributer (And I mean massive and amazing) Disco Magic Records. This guy is partly responsible for pretty much every big Italian record ever made. He died last year there was little reaction due to his anonymity outside of the Italo Disco world. This is an official R.I P from Red Laser HQ.

R.I.P G

MadHatter

Next is a radio show that has to be checked. Every Saturday at midnight Manchester Soul and Boogie legend Andy Madhatter does a 2 hour music show of absolute quality which goes out live on 90.1 Peace FM. The recordings are available on Mixcloud and are not to be missed. Andy has been researching and collecting for years before I could even wipe my own arse and as a result his selections are of the highest standards and always an education. Click "HERE" For fukin loads of ace live recorded shows

So after diving into the snatch of the Red Laser vaults and having a good rummage I found some Gems that I instantly wanted to talk about. Here goes

Helen – Witch

Some Italo records really do blow my fukin bollocks off! This four four electro chest pumper released first on OUT records in 1983 then ZYX later that same year is something altogether unworldly. At the same time as Cybertron were making Clear, on the other side of the world a Mr Regazzoni was in his studio making what i consider the Italian version of the foundations of Electro / Electronic Pop. Yet Witch has gone without a jot of recognition for how ahead of its time it was and still is. There’s only one problem with this record. It costs a fortune! However you can get a pricey bootleg on the Dutch ‘Safety copy’ series. Run fast as it’s well worth the money. Just to finish, on the sleave notes the man Severo Lombardoni gets a production credit. Fukin dude. Stuck it on this Mixtape. Click on the Blue text - MDD MIX 089 . mixed By Il Bosco

 Ricardo Cioni – Fog

Yes! Analog drug soup is back on the menu! The production on this electro chugger is amazing. The track is so moody its long intro simmers until its depths reveal synthy chunks swirling upward from the deep and eventually they twist and dance in the discoid liquid. My greedy brain devours it all. I can’t get enough of this beautiful stuff. I project modular regurgitation into a wet neon lit gutter. I end up masturbating in the back of the police van. Bulimic music for not rights

 Motion – You and I

I remember being mesmerised by the synthetic warm feeling I would get from staring my nanas electro blag fireplace. The plastic mould of logs and ash with the red light bulbs inside that when heated turned the silver fans to create that trippy slow flicker effect.  This album only track is the musical equivalent of synthetic warmth. Its a crackling analogue boogie ballad thats great for getting the man made warm feeling (Warning! homo erotic inner gay coming out via creative writing). It’s sweet enough to get the ladies humming along yet weird and raw enough to keep the beards happy too.  The album "Gotta Keep Dancin" only ever seems to have ever been released by the Dutch re-issue label Rams Horn. ZYX and Rams Horn did put out original artists as well so i suppose its not much of a suprise that its only available here. Worth a few bob these days

 Hit Man - Future Times

Holy SHIT!!! Grab your phazers and run for the hills! Here comes the low slung analog boogie monster dragging its knuckles and kicking cans down Flick Bass Avenue.  The beats on this track are heavyweight which only add to the imagery of a dark and ever progressing beast. It is futuristic, murky and atmospheric like a light based art installation in a fembots vulva. Dank! For me personally, it’s the best track to come out of the exceptional Philly World Records. Real deal slo mo disco right here. 

 Placebo – Balek

Another album only cut. You can’t test this track for gravity. It’s got so much it would crush your instruments to the size of a photon. This shit was made in 1973!! And what’s more by a bunch of flakey white dudes in Belgium!!! Sometimes the facts behind a brilliant track can just enhance the magic. I never get bored of listening to this and the intro is possibly one of my favourites. Marc Moulin and his boys were an avant gard local weirdo movement that managed to break from the freeform traditions of Jazz and go steady, simple and subtle to create some of the best fusion music ever and Balek is the cream of their efforts. Legendary and ahead of its time by years

 Upfront – Infactuation (DuB)

Sometimes you just gotta get up and dance like a robot that’s on a magnesium binge. Its almost like the disco crashed but the result was so good it didn’t need a re-boot. Upfront kicked a forgettable A side vocal but made the right decision in making a dub version. This to me sounds timeless. Its simple electro house party vibe is perfect for bouncing the disco and when that piano kicks in toward the end it really takes it into orbit. Motherfukers gonna need an oil change after listening to this bastard Im tellin ya. Burns just as bright as the magnesium me and R2Gee2 were smoking last night. Peace!

 Starion – Another Dimension

The track that Starion gave me for Red Laser EP1. When I hear it It feels like some shit is about to go off in a neon cyber city somewhere. Part robot part human is readying himself for some racist abuse by prejudice robot purists in a world where anyone with flesh is persecuted by being made to stand up on monorail journeys and use ‘Humanoid only’ toilets as urinal biscuits can annoyingly erode the titanium skins the robot oppressors. If our mutant hero aint careful he could find himself hanging from a pressure vessel outlet vent like shoes on a telephone wire. Its tense, electronic and downright magical. Face melt factor 10

Necleus – Teknology

80’s electro odd balls Nucleus were leaders of the scene back in the early 80’s. They created Jam On It, which is a stone cold classic without a doubt, but some of their album only tracks are fantastic. This stripped down instrumental off their second album Space Is The Place is a mellow dancefloor cracker.  It’s a trippy electronic meltdown of synth pads and beats and stands the test of time because of its fantastic production and 80’s sci fi ethos. Quality retro bizznizz

 Flexxy – Ball Theme

Im a real sucker for those New Romantic Italo tracks. The ones that have really camp moments that have your bum hole body popping induced by awkward cringing. These are the sounds of Italo that Italo lovers embrace and Italo likers turn off. As with a lot of Italo records the vocal is just too ridiculous to ever play or take seriously. What the fuck were these people thinking! Too coked up to give a fuck I guess. But in true Italo fashion we are given the instrumental B-Side. The music and production is fantastic and is proper disco tackle. Pastel pink chinos, white shirt, powder blue suit jacket and white loafers (no socks obvs) at the ready. We going to Rimini you turds :D

Finally i was asked to do a mixtape for Italian DJ Blog Mischio Dischi Disco.com. I stuck loads of New Red Laser Records stuff that is unreleased plus loads of ace and rare italo and comsic shit. CLICK HERE for a good old listen

Anyways i gotta jet. Shit to do and all

Laters 

Il Bosco

More Red Laser Releases and Random Shit

Before I start any talk of music there are a couple of things I have to document that my bonce had Eureka moments about

First up – I was asked what book would be a good present for a 4 year old. Without even thinking i said “Anythin with robots or monkeys in” A few days later i was thinkin about why i said that. Then i realized ‘everyone’ likes robots and monkeys not just kids. Ok so why? And then i broke it down Gees.

Robots and monkeys are both intriguingly similar to humans but less boring. Monkeys are amusingly chaotic humans in their pre-historic state that do stuff that we hypocritically criticize them for like pissing on their mates, fuking anything that moves no matter the sex, masturbating for all to see, sniffing bum holes, eating things removed from the body, nicking stuff they cant use and ganging up for a bit of the old ultra violence.  At the opposite end of the scale robots are like nerdy amusingly organised humans in their futuristic state that do stuff we hypocritically criticize them for like not walking properly, being top at maths, not being able to run or swim, always calculating the odds of survival in a “Fuck Yeah” situation, being shit at fighting and not fucking anything cos robots are not sexually attractive therefore cant chat up birds very well. What makes both funny is that they are nearly but not quite us. Thats that cleared up

Next i need to know if theres already some kind of theory that says what we see at an atomic level e.g.  atoms and electrons and other really small shit is just the same as stuff at the other end of the scale e.g. galaxy’s, black holes, stars n stuff but depending in which direction you look it seems really small one way and massive the other making General Relativity and the Standard Model actually the same thing. 4D shit gees. Let me know

 So the Wet Play gang of crazies have WGFM #2 about to drop internationally. #1 is pretty much goneski and for a good reason. The shit is HOT!!! Well it’s the same for #2. Yeah so you only get 2 tracks on this one but the fukers are so large you won’t even be bothered. Money’s worth aint about how many tracks you get for your buck it’s how much quality init. I’d rather have two face melters than 20 ear graters anyday ar kid

Wet Play – Where Good Friends Meet #2

Metrodome – My Way

Who can take a vocal? Speed it up to fuck? Fuel it up with acid and go drop a boogie hook? The Metrodome caaaaaaaan. The Metrodome can cos he mixes it with love and makes yer ears feel goooood. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzp No shit if you aint down with this sound you need to un-learn what you have learned G. This is a proper face melter! Someone tell  Katie Piper to avoid listening to this track cos she’ll be back to square one!  If for some reason you get puzzled hearing the pitched vocal then go and listen to loads of early 90’s rave. The scnene was massively into this technique.  This is real dance floor disco music. 11 out of ten for my man Metrodome

Ste Spandex – Pardon My Length

Another discoid tape cruncher from Spandex the cassette collector . He’s been hoarding that shit to keep the production line working so theres currently a Scotch VHS drought in Manchester. Shit gets so hot in Spandexys studio we had to send the whole Ferguson Videostar to the mastering guy cos the track melted the eject button. Looped boogie disco bliss in Spandex’s undeniable style. This cat is the producer that just keeps on giving. The more he releases the better it gets and now he’s finally starting to get noticed worldwide. Theres no way lack of journalistic exposure is gonna hold back Spandex’s march on the underground. His production style is unique yet devastatingly effective.

These Wet Play cats also know how to throw a party. Theyz putting on an all out lazer warfare session with Mancunian underground institution Space Docking on September 20^th at Soup Kitchen in Manchester’s NQ. Serious underground sounds cookin up ya brain. "CLICK HERE" for event

We are releasing so much stuff in such a short period im not sure what CAT numbers we’re at anymore. Anyway Red Laser EP4 test press just came back too and fuckin WOW!!!!!!! This shit just gets heavier and heavier. Kid Machine and Starion have been working on their debut RL EP’s so this meant there was some room to fill on EP4 and we haven’t been let down. Heres the lowdown peeps

Tony Carrasco presents B.Funk feat Sally O – Who What Where When and Why? (Flemming Dalum Remix)

To say Tony Carrasco is a bit of an italo legend and is a fukin understatement . he is responsible for some of my favourite Italo records producing Klien & MBO, Ameresie, Flash 83, Gaz Nevada, Plastic Mode and BFunk. Then take Red Laser Man and Italo legend Flemming Dalum and stick him on the remix and POW!!!!! The result is one of the heaviest tracks on Red Laser to date. Its like ACR and ESG were thrown in the studio with nothing to eat except E’s. An absolute top draw track

Nick Smith – Neon

So the great thing about the label for me is the natural way things happen. For some reason i havnt had to deal with one knobhead yet which is rare in showbiz. Out of the intaweb blue comes Nick Smith based over in Leeds and responsible for the Clandestino parties with fellow top bloke / Dj producer Joe Morris. When i heard this track i could not believe I had got to it first. Then i realised there aint many organised vinyl labels out there so this is a golden time for people like me. This 8 minute acid chugger will blow the socks off tramp in January. Mindbendingly good

Leon x Leon – 1985

The French beer of choice. No sorry thats 1884. My man in Paris Leon x Leon is another guy who came to my attention through hanging out in the same virtual spaces. Again a pleasure to deal with due to the laid back attitude of people in the Italo and Disco circles. Leon x Leon hits the sunshine button with this steady and beautifully made sunset disco beatdown. It chugs hard, drops euphorically and then builds and builds to its hands in the air finish. 5 star neavuex discoteque  monsieur

Il Bosco (With Ste Spandex on piano) - Hard Shoulder

 Make a beat, drop some analog bassline, sprinkle with synth jizz and get Ste Spandex over to The Nest to jam the piano and hit the record button. Thats how we do it in Manchester yo. No computers were harmed in the making of this track. Cos we smashed them up when i started the label. Spandex works the same way as i do. All live Jams and overdubs. The result was 18 minute track that our mate James Holroyd edited to the 4 minutes of dancfloor Italo heaven. Team Laser in effect. High five init

OK TO WATCH FOR THE Pre orders – “CLICK HERE”

LATERS

Il Bosco

Red Laser EP3 and other stuff

After a frustrating gap in the release schedule, we are now ready to pump out EP’s and flood the market with italo electro and acid boogie belters. 

The Wet Play EP#1 is currently exclusively available from Piccadilly Records, a decision made by Red Laser executives to avoid getting a ‘crack’ of Wet Play’s Randy Marsh. Full international release due in the next few weeks. After Randy’s eggs boiled hard while on a crisis call he was presented with the dilemma of staying in Manchester and regretfully breaking some skulls or…….. heading to London!!!!  Things must have been bad because Marsh decided he’d better head south to Bulbville. There was the matter of a Full Beam social jam in the smoke but still! that’s extreme G

Wet Play # 1 available "HERE" from the blog

And "HERE" exclusively from Piccadilly Records

The Red Laser Family

From left to right - Matt Ward aka Kickin Pidgeon (Wet Play), Bob Dazzle, DJ Emerald (Disco Mums), Metrodome, Kid Machine, Starion, MC Kwasi, Il Bosco, Flemming Dalum, Ste Spandex, Randy Marsh, Matt Triggs, Sarah Bates

Also we managed to av a bit of a label night out down one of Manchester best kept secrets “The Social Service” A fantastic night in a mad venue with great people and finger buffet. Red Laser cousin James Holroyd, aka Begin, was guest DJing and set the disco on FIRE!! He also dropped the track ‘Dirty Girl’ on the TP of EP3 half way into the night and the floor went mad and I sneezed in my pants oooooooshhh!! But before we got off our heads we managed to get the crew together for a group shot. As you can see from the above photo from the night Flemming made it over from Denmark and Bob Dazzle returned from New York (Bald head in the window of the caravan) looking slightly gaunt and dishevelled. Looks like Gabba is making a comeback at the rooftop parties of Manhattan. Easy on the wizz Bobby! Metrodome popped in but had to get straight off because of his Zombyitus. As you can see in the picture popping his festival cherry at beathearder left him with a grey face and pink body. Weird! We also managed to tie the Disco Mums sign to a tree so we could rep the ladies that couldn’t get babysitters.

A top night was had till the early hours. James forgot he’d lent his girlfriends bike to Marsh and a burglary related panic ensued in the morn and my label partner and Fat City Recordings boss Matt Triggs managed to end up on the M60 again while walking home at 6am.  A spliff and a tin of Red Stripe aint much of a hitching tool bro.

Red Laser EP3 (Middle of picture) fits into the set nicely 

We also have the small matter of Red Laser EP3! Yes its finally fukin here!!  and it’s the best one yet! We got the artwork back from our special rizzo printing friends at Ditto and it looks great. This EP’s guest artwork is the creation of the man with the shortest fuse in showbiz (and I aint on about his widge) Full Beam & Wet Play’s Randy Marsh. Yes the artwork is fantastic but be careful showing the kids the inside poster. I only realised the full graphic detail when I flipped the bastard yesterday. 18’s only!

The tracks on EP3 are sick as fuck so lets start with...

Flemming Dalum and Il Bosco – Manctalo

The mysterious lord of Italo hooks up with “The most spherical cranium in entertainment” (A variation on “The roundest head in showbiz”) Il Bosco. Simple and dark bassline with haunting lasers creates the bubbling imagery of a journey through Manchester at night. Where are we heading? To the fukin disco mate. How we getting there? In my 10 year old Ford Focus with the fat system G. Why is underside all crumpled? Cos DJ Emerald beached it in Tib Street car park. Windows down on a summers night? No they’re broken you fuck

Kid Machine – Black Futura

Kid Machine rocks the quickest shit I ever heard him make with this Italo Electro Disco smasher. The title track to a film score that doesn’t exist. This Sci-Fi thriller gives bass line collectors there monies worth and the beats are heavy but my favourite thing about this recording is the glittering euphoric interludes that appear twice in the track and make the whole composition complete. His strongest stuff yet

Starion – Night Flanger

Yes Yes Yes Starion returns with another cosmic italo disco bubbler. And this is a different take of the one on his Soundcloud page! Make of the title what you will but for me personally it’s the soundtrack to a film set thousands of years in the future about a motherfukin pimpin robot called Night Flanger. He makes sure all those fembots flaps and undercarriages are maintained and well lubricated when he’s on a night out drinking diesel and smoking aluminium

Il Bosco – Dirty Girl

Dum dum dum dum da dum dum dum da dum dum dum. Da da dum dum dum dum da da da da da da da dum da dum dum dum. What can I say. Too hot to handle. Too cold to hold. Boogie electro funk jam from me. A chopped up rare as fuck record. Can you find out what it is? Probably. If you do and you how to contact the artist let me know. I tried but it’s so obscure we can’t find Mr T. And no.. not the plane fearing, neck metal collector from the A Team.

The pre order will be available from HERE very soon

Finally you can catch Red Laser artists Ste Spandex rocking a FULL LIVE SET at Manchester rave institution Wet Play at Kraak Gallery 3^rd August. And I will be DJIng from midnite till 1am having been requested to dig deep into the Red Laser studio vaults. Over the next few weeks the record collection will be given a full cavity search to get out any amazing music clinkers. Don’t stop till you touch the back of his teeth!! The night will also feature the Full Beam crew and Wet Play residents. It’s pretty much the best party in Manchester so don’t miss it

Full details and tickets "HERE"

OK thats me done. Laters

Il Bosco

Wet Play - Where Good Friends Meet #1

There aint no doubt that Manchester is as consistent at producing quality music as Liverpool is at producing single mothers. Every decade new and innovative bands and producers spill out of Manchester’s underground into the wider world turning something local into worldwide awareness. Recently it’s been a city that has refused to succumb to an ever narrowing corporate pop sound and buying culture by doggedly tying itself to the mast to weather the storms of change of the last 5 or so years. Now our record shops are still standing and local labels flourishing in a new dawn of music independence and ideals. A testament to any city is its open minded mix of people with an instinctive urge to hear something different to the utter shite pouring from the pipes of mainstream TV and radio. This attitude of the people coupled with the surge in local cottage industry micro labels is resulting in fantastic party’s and club nights around the city based on sheer talent and the solid support from the right kind of people

Wet Play, one of Manchester’s well established club nights and good friends, recently had the realisation that they weren’t just great DJ’s but also a bunch of well talented musicians, designers and drinkers and that something should be done about it!!  In steps Red Laser Records to assist with the first of the Wet Play “Where good friends meet” EP’s

Having a successful club night your bound to attract some top heads and the first EP is a mix of resident Ste Spandex’s work along with regular party goers Metrodome, Loge and Skanky Magic. 4 tracks of absolute boogie bump acid disco madness perfect for the dance floors at Wet Play and Red Laser Disco. The whole package is accompanied by designer and DJ Randy Marsh’s formidable artworks.

I was gonna type some spleil about each track but Wet Play resident Matt Ward aka Kickin Pidgeon already said everything I was going to say. Take it away Pidge!

First up is LOGE with 'E 180 Love' - a dazzling, hydraulic-

driven ride round west coast L.A come sunset. Keep those 

shades down low to reflect the neon beams this track fires 

from it's hardware driven body mechanics. Hear the fiery red

 sun melt into the square bass that simply repeats on and on....

Teleporting us straight into 5D is SKANKY MAGIC next 

with 'Skanky Magic'. Crazy use of spring reverbs, darting 

leads and anti-gravity sonics will have you bouncing all over 

inner space as you adjust to the hypnotic two-note buzz. 

Electric, mesmerizing and from another galaxy completely. 

It's blissful finale soaring through into the cosmos in a 

Technicolor haze.

METRODOME's '909 Lovin' is next. Precision built for 

setting dancefloors alight and with an arrangement that'll 

twist heads inside out. Just when you think this track's burnt 

out, another sick bassline sets the floor on fire again, 

accompanied by one of the maddest signature sounds since 

Terror Danjah;s gremlin. Pure Heat.

Finally we get Theo's Ugly edits and Jamal Moss's Members Only 

edits interpreted by a speed fuelled, level riding rogue from 

Manchester's underbelly. 'Edit 2 (2007 Version)' bumps and 

simmers uncontrollably, riding the sample like a bitch before 

dropping into tripped-out celestial disco chaos. If you thought only 

the Detroit and Chicago cats knew how to fuck an MPC hard, then 

STE SPANDEX has just brought home the bacon.

Thanks Marsh..... So there you have it. Great things are happening 

and the Wet Play lads are right in the thick of it. Not only is 

"Where Good Friends Meet #1" available Monday you can also 

come and see for yourself the full on madness of a Wet Play party 

happening on August 3rd at Kraak Gallery in Manchester's 

Northern Quarter. Ste Spandex will be dropping his live set which 

will be an absolute assault on the senses. Randy Marsh's social 

boogie jam Full Beam and its crew will be smashing out the cream 

of underground boogie. No Doubt Pidge will be Kickin as per. And i 

have had the honour of being asked to dig deep into the vinyl 

collection to take you on a journey from 12 - 1pm through the astral 

gridlined plains of my Red Laser World. 

Expect shit you aint heard before that will stay with you forever. 

For the Wet Play party on the 3rd "CLICK HERE"

For some dancing action from Wet Play residents "CLICK HERE"

For more on Wet Play's "Where Good Friends Meet #1" "CLICK HERE"

Il Bosco