Alexander Robotnick aka Maurizio Dami (A cool interview)

[MikkelBreiler]

Hej

Et interview igennem Apollojams mailing list.

On Thu, 04 Mar 2004 18:34:07 -0000, "wbmx1981" <Michael_J_Carmona@progressive.com> wrote:

>Alexander Robotnick
>Electro Revival
>
>Robotnick is a cult musician for the electro buffs who immerse
>themselves again in the Eighties production. Miss Kittin, Kiko, The
>Hacker and a wave of bootlegs (about twenty up to today including one
>from Carl Craig) paid their tribute during last months. Yet, at this
>juncture, the unpredictable Italian is back to business with some new
>productions and a surprising and totally new live act/DJ set?
>Robotnick aka Maurizio Dami made himself known in 1983 with a few
>Ital-electro ?disco singles such as Probl?mes d'Amour or Les Grands
>Voyages de l'Amour. Those tracks released during the very beginning
>of the electro-dance music would bring him a passing fame in Europe:
>the slightly trash exoticism of this middle-of-the-road popular song
>in French with a strong transalpine accent will make him a kind of
>electro Jacques Dutronc. Yet, very quickly, Robotnick lapses into
>theatre and audiovisual music and, in 1987 he made a complete change
>of direction taking over the register of world music. During years,
>Robotnick would cease to exist for the general public making endless
>collaborations on his own label Hot Elephant with African, Indian and
>Kurdish musicians.
>
>
>.... Interview about Italo-Disco
>
>1) Who do you think are the Italo Disco pioneers?
>
>After the enormous success that "Saturday Night Fever" (the movie)
>had in Italy, many Italian producers started to produce disco-music,
>somehow encouraged by the Italo-American feel the movie had. To many
>of them Disco music was a commercial alternative to the horrid
>Italian "light" music (that of Sanremo Music festival). And it was a
>big business too, targeting the world market not just the Italian
>one. But results turned out to be poor except for Imagination ,
>Giorgio Moroder, La Bionda brothers, Mike Francis (later) and few
>more.
>
>2) Do you think originally, this music was a pacier and more
>electronic version of disco music?
>
>Electronics was a great resource to Italian disco for the simple
>reason that in Italy there weren't as many talented musicians around
>as there were in U.S. studios, where excellent bass players and
>drummers -most of them coming from jazz and R & B - abounded.
>Therefore electronics was a necessity choice.
>
>3) Why do you think it was so popular in gay clubs?
>Do you think it's because gay clubs have often been at the forefront
>of new club music, or because it was and is simply great dance floor
>music? Or was it all just a coincidence?
>
>One of the major traits of the Gay culture is its strong sense of
>humour. This takes gays to love the most trashy and kitsch things on
>the one hand ( and I hope I don't belong to these) and the most
>innovative and least mainstream on the other ( and I do hope I belong
>to these latter).
>
>4) Do you think a lot of Italo Disco's trademarks - the use of
>musical elements like strings, the rich production values, the trippy
>synth sounds and the tructured use of 4/4 beats predated a lot of
>what would later happen in house and techno?
>
>House music was born in the USA, as a recovery and development of
>Disco music that had been declining in the early 80s.It got to Italy
>with three years delay at least. While DJs in Detroit played House
>music , Italian producers would still release romantic, old-style
>Disco music.
>
>5) Bearing in mind it had all these traits, would you agree it was
>the first electronic dance music?
>
>Maybe but it's not my personal experience. The Electronic dance I'd
>dance to at Tenax (a cutting edge club in Florence in the early 80s)
>was that of Human League, Depeche Mode, Heaven 17, Soft Cell,
>Eurythmics and German post-Space electronic music such as DAF's.
>
>6) Do you think that this was why early house DJs could relate to it
>and played it?
>
>No, they didn't, as far as I know. The first house DJs in Detroit and
>Chicago would play black music "a cappella" mixed with house-made
>tracks with drum-machines such as TR909 and electric pianos like DX7.
>Problemes d'Amour is an exception to that and anyway it was never
>labeled as Ital Disco. And in those days people wouldn't pay so much
>attention to defining music genres.
>
>7) Do you think that the best bits were taken from Italo by 80s synth
>pop artists and house producers / DJs and that this is why the music
>took a popularity nosedive in the 90s?
>
>When House music became popular in Italy, that was already 1987 and
>it was its second wave. Many productions had moved to the
>Netherlands. The buzzword was "new beat". It was a strongly ironical
>kind of music (enough to think of "Marina" recycled by its original
>performer who had made a hit of it in the 60s). This music was the
>trademark of a careless and desecrating generation ("Dov'? la
>festa?") openly breaking away from the dark generation ( the de-
>generation of Punk and New Wave generations ) that infested Europe
>int the mid 80s. This is when Italian dance starts becoming popular
>around the world not for its trashy exotism but rather for its
>quality. I'm thinking of one track in particular: Sueno Latino
>(instrumental version) that was the first track to undermine the
>Anglo-Saxon and Afro-American hegemony over Dance music.
>
>8) Someone recently said that the great irony about Italo is that
>there are more records in this vein coming out nowadays than ever
>before? Why do you think this is?
>
>Because in those days only the most trivial stuff would become
>popular and this discouraged the more innovative producers or obliged
>them to lower their quality level. Today, on the contrary, it's the
>most interesting things that period produced that ere being re-
>discovered.
>
>9) Do you think producers like I-F, Legowelt, Alden Tyrell, Daniel
>Wang, Bangkok Impact have succeeded in bringing this sound to a
>contemporary setting without merely making it sound like a copy of
>the older material?
>
>Yes, it's partly true. But maybe such DJs and producers have a much
>better insight into the underground productions of those days and
>it's to those that they relate.
>
>10) Many of the producers just mentioned were making this music
>before the advent of electroclash; given that it's melodic, funky and
>trippy, why didn' t Ital become big instead of its poor musical
>cousin, electroclash?
>
>I don't know if Electroclash is really poorer than Ital Disco, as you
>say. Furthermore it meets many youths' taste for a somewhat darker
>and harsher kind of dance music, but of a different harshness than
>Techno-hammer, rather in the wake of early 80s Punk and New Wave.
>
>11) Do you think the popularity of electroclash will help or make it
>easy for Italo to become popular?
>
>I think that Italo Disco as a definition is probably too ambiguous as
>it includes both the trashiest stuff produced in the 80s as well as
>some really cool and original tracks.
>
>12) Why are so many modern Italo producers Dutch?
>
>Because it's there and in the U.K. that the cult of Ital Disco
>developed in the days of Pirate radio stations broadcasting from The
>Channel. To them it sounded exotic and funny but, honestly, in other
>European countries it sounded like trash or like a late mimicing of
>American Disco music.
>
>13) Do you think nowadays, Ital has a more varied sound, or does it
>have much the same characteristics it used to?
>
>I hope that the Italo Disco that is becoming succesful today will be
>better than what became popular in the 80s.
>
>14) Is modern Italo impacting or having an influence on other styles -
> house, techno etc? What do you make of the influences it is having
>on the output of labels like Kompakt?
>
>The point is that people are probably tired of dancing to the same
>one measure groove that's endlessly repeated. Sure this is very
>effective, the closest you can get to tribal rhythm, it takes you
>easily into trance and makes you forget all trouble. But I think that
>the emotions you feel when you dance to a melody or a varied bass
>line have no equals. If by ItaloDisco you simply mean going back to
>dancing to "music" then welcome ? or if you are really keen on that ?
>welcome back Italo Disco !
>
>15) Legowelt's 'Disco Rout' was played by all types of DJs - from
>techno and house to trance. Why do you think this is? Is it because
>it's funky and mix friendly or simply a great tune? Are DJs also
>picking up on other Italo tracks?
>
>When a dance track becomes popular as an evergreen , that simply
>means it's a great Dance track that remains great all along the ages.
>This, in all modesty, I think was the case of Problemes d'Amour too.
>16) Do you think Ital will crossover or will it stay an underground
>sound? Do you think it should have crossover success?
>
>During 28 years of dance music there has been such a cluttering and
>layering of stuff that not even the best of music archeologists would
>ever make out whose what, what's revival and what's crossover. As a
>matter of facts, it's just a bunch of elements that keep coming back
>over and over again with but a few variations.
>
>17) Are there any good Italo clubs?
>Do you mean in Italy? It's like asking if there are good Yoga centres
>in India. Of course there are, but I don't know if they are the best.
>The most popular Italian clubs are probably in Ibiza.
>
>18) Finally, what are your 3 favourite Italo tracks ever?
>
>If we are talking about 80s Italo Disco :
>1) Survivor (Mike Francis)
>2) Tarzan Boy (Baltimora)
>3) No tengo Dinero (Righeira)
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>1 - Talk about your style and your sound evolution
>
>Good question! I've been asking myself the same thing foryears?
>fortunately my my fans seem to know better what my style is !
>What I hate is homologation, that's why I tend to ride on a side-
>trackomewhat from mainstream and market expectation, with obvious ly
>negative economic consequences for me. I like making the kind of
>music that I have in my mind with the equipment I have at hand
>because that's the only way I know not to miss the original idea. For
>some time I've worked in expensive studios to get a more professional
>sound but results were poor.
>
>2 - Italy dance-electronic culture scene: now and past!
>
>As to the past, for most of the 80s I couldn't really put up with
>Italian Disco . Except for a few cases, like Mike Francis, whose
>music I really admired although it was so distant from what I was
>doing, all the rest sounded like underdeveloped stuff to me. Maybe
>because the best of it , the more alternative stuff would hardly be
>heard on the national market and therefore wouldn't always reach my
>ears.
>The Dutch and the British seem to be much better documented about
>Italo-Disco which became a real myth for them .
>Since the coming of House music many things have changed and all
>along the 90s I've heard wondedrful stuff, sometimes quite ironical
>stuff as well a lot of crap coming from Italy.
>At present, world techno is so standardised that it's hard to express
>an opinion about it. Everything seems to sound alike and little
>innovative. I liked Omino Stanco a lot, I hope he's still around and
>kicking.
>
>3 - Tell us your last "Live set" experience
>
>As soon as I could afford a sufficiently powerful lap-top I set off
>to realise an old dream of mine.
>A DJ-set where I remix all the tracks I'm playing. This is something
>you can't do with vynil (which, I'm sorry to say I never quite liked,
>I prefer tapes). I always liked remixing famous tracks but I'd never
>found any use for that. (I don't do bootlegs). Now as a DJ I can do
>whatever I like with the music I play as long as I give the credits
>and require not to be recorded during live performance to avoid any
>use as bootleg. So I'm having a lot of fun. I now have a 4 hour DJ
>set of 80s and contemporary tracks, all of them personally remixed
>plus my own tracks that I sing live and some basis I play on.
>Wherever I did it , it's been greatly succesful!
>
>4 - Talk about DJs
>
>That's a thorny topic as I am myself a DJ now. Let's say that I
>didn't considered them much for a while. Now that I am a DJ myself, I
>understand it's no easy job.
>Anyway, I rarely danced in a club till the end of the night without
>getting bored after a while ?I mean good DJs are not many. Years ago
>I appreciated Farfa who, at a rave, took me to dance a kind of music
>I wouldn't normally care for.
>Then there's the whole issue of DJs as the new Bosses of the Music
>system. This is unfortunately the consequence of the devastation of
>the record market operated by digital technologies and the no-
>copyright movement. Musicians will most probably go back to being
>considered like servants. Their new masters will be the
>multinationals. Music will survive only as ads jingle. DJs will run
>this new (ancient) system.
>
>5 - How many bootleg/re-edit about "problemes d'amour" around the
>world?
>
>I know about 6 of them but there must be many more..
>
>6 - and version, remix?
>
>There are no real remix. Most people just cut the refrain out (which
>is, by the way, the only bit of the track I'm really proud of) and
>add a few sounds on the drums and bass-line. Carl Craig's remix is
>ridiculous, somewhat insulting in the title (problemz) and illegal
>too as he `s never paid a cent for it.
>The various "remix" that are around were made by me in the 80s.
>
>7 - Analog or Bit-Laptop?
>
>Both. I work on the computer but I sometimes import analogic stuff
>recorded on tape.
>
>8 - France and your life (lots of your music-trax french titles...)
>
>It's a love affair that dates back to my childhood, when I was crazy
>for French singers , from Edith Piaf to Gilbert Becaud but also
>including Francoise Ardit and Antoine. Furthermore I'm really
>hopeless with English and Italian doesn't really inspire me.
>French culture was fantastic in the 60s and 70s, then it collapsed
>but right now it seems to be shyly emerging again.
>
>9 - What do you think about the evolution of sound? Where do we go?
>
>We shouldn't forget that human senses are not perfect and have
>limited perceptive capacities. For instance, above a given acoustic
>pressure (exceeded by practically all clubs and concerts), the human
>ear can no longer exactly detect the pitch of notes. So that music is
>perceived as a sort of noise that is quite an advantage to bands wih
>poor singers and DJs who can't mix on the same tonality. It's a night
>when all cows are black. A very boring night. For instance I feel
>very frustrated as a DJ when I hear that often times some amazing
>effects I got by superimposing tracks on nearby tonalities are
>totally lost in clubs beacuse of too much loudness.
>As to the future, we need to bear in mind that all effects based on
>psycho-acoustics have been already lavishly used by today's music.
>Real breakthrough in sound is little likely to come. So we can only
>go back to deal with music, a rather exciting prospect for musicians.
>But, please, turn the volume down by a few dbs if you really want to
>enjoy it (the good music!).
>
>10 - Your Motto is ...
>
>The more you go for something , the further away you get from it
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Interview to Alexander Robotnick (20-02-98)
>
>How did the Alexander Robotnik track come about?
>
>In the 1983 the innovative feeling of the British Electro-Pop (Human
>league- Soft Cell- Dep?che mod) started to become exhausted, replaced
>from a patinate Pop and from a mannered Dark-Rock. During that period
>I was singin in Italian, I theorized a kind of dance-cabaret, I
>didn't have any money and I had bought a TR-808, a Roland Bass Line
>and a very cip synt : the Korg Mono-Poli. I met Giampiero Bigazzi,
>manager of Materiali Sonori, he told me that I could get money doing
>Disco-Music. It was easy to realize it and an ugly disk could easily
>sell up to 10,000 copies, he said . I started working immediatly . I
>had 2 problems: 1) I didn't speak English 2 I didn't listen to Disco-
>Music for more then 5 years. I chose to sing in French because I had
>a good accent and when I was young I loved French songs (Gilbert
>Becaud ecc). I was a musician with a jazz back-ground and I did'nt
>have any difficulty to write a disco-funky groove on the TR-808. The
>Roland Bass-line was an infernal machine and few people knew how to
>program it ( songs, not simple patterns, I mean). I was known as
>Bassline- magician. From what did I have influenced? From all the
>musicians that I loved until that moment (I was 33 years old! ) and
>above all from Wether Report, Kraftwork, Tolking Haeds, Yello and the
>British New Wave.
>
>I realized Probl?mes d' Amour in 2 days in a studio near to Florence.
>All the equipment was non-professional : Mixer and 16 tracks recorder
>Tascam, TR-808, 2 Basslines, Korg Mono-Poly. The only professional
>Synt was an Arp Quadra used for chord-pads. A Swiss friend of mine
>(Martine Michellod) sang the background vocals. The staff of
>Materiali Sonori fell in love with this song and they invented a new
>Label: "Fuzz Dance" for which I made other records (Mya and Mirror ,
>GMM ecc.ecc.).
>
>Do you feel like Problems D'Amour and the other tracks on Fuzz Dance
>wereahead of their time?
>
>Probl?mes of Amour was not considered in Italy (here in the disco-
>clubs you could still hear classical 70s Disco-Music), but an
>importer from Cicago bought 10,000 copies in few months of it. During
>the Midem of Cannes everybody looked for "Probl?mes of Amour" and
>MASO came to an agreement with SIRE. Few months late SIRE had bought
>from the WEA and everything stopped. "Fuzz Dance", the WEA
>compilation went out 2 years late; in the meantime I changed style
>and tastes.
>
>In that period people coming back from USA told me about a strange
>music that sounded like mine made by piano and drum machine. It
>started to dominate the Dance shene of Chicago, they said. It was
>called "house music". Like many Italians I mistaked house music for
>home music (like non professional music). It didn't arrive in Italy
>until '87. So "Probl?mes d'Amour" were ahead of his time
>

-breiler

[SLL]

uha da da, det er jo l?kre sager det her. Thanks Breiler

Mvh. SLL

[MikkelBreiler]

uha da da, det er jo l?kre sager det her. Thanks Breiler

Mvh. SLL

Ja, jeg t?nkte nok at det ville v?re et interessant indblik i musikken fra den anden side. Nu er det sm?t med interviews med Italo kunstner iforvejen s? det er rart at se et l?ngere et af slagsen.

-breiler

[SLL]

Hey Breiler,

Pr?v eventuelt at tjekke: http://www.italo-disco.net/

Han har lagt en ebook biografi op p? hans site vedr. Bobby Orlando & Pet Shop Boys. Jeg syntes det er ret godt

Mvh. SLL