another recent fave, love the unexpected cut-up bits:Lois & Lane - Turn on the Nighthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJn00XELgYI
― donna rouge, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 14:05 (one year ago) link
Tanya – Darladi-Ladada is a favorite. I think I bought it thinking it was the italo Tanya.
― dan selzer, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 14:21 (one year ago) link
some longtime favorites that were on my italo/hi-nrg mix posted not too long ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBhz07DUTM4
Bobby O:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOvEWc0C4bk
― dan selzer, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 14:22 (one year ago) link
more bobby o:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WhSjFpXjGg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH8JkoRYO88
― dan selzer, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 14:24 (one year ago) link
Just catching up here after my last thread. The Lauren Grey track is a huge huge favourite – it also still sounds great pitched all the way down as well.
Sounds like I need to get some records up.
A few other favourite Hi-NRG tracks I like to play off the top of my head
Dave Storrs – Dancing On The PlanetPamala Stanley – I Don't Want To Talk About ItTwo Sisters – DestinyTapps - Don't Pretend To Know
― Chewshabadoo, Thursday, 8 June 2023 13:13 (one year ago) link
*Sounds like I need to get some recordings up
― Chewshabadoo, Thursday, 8 June 2023 13:14 (one year ago) link
It's not that I don't like hi-nrg vocals, obv that's part of the charm. But I think some of these would do good with an edit. A lot of the vocal melodies are too triumphant and happy or something for me. I'm generally anti-edit, and more italo vocals than a lot of the types of DJs who won't, and I have a long history of railing against disco edits for removing vocals....but some of these tracks and some others I was listening to last night, just killer aggressive arpeggiated synth stuff that gives way to cheesier chorus. Again, not that there's anything WRONG with that! Just that I'd like to play some of these without it.
― dan selzer, Thursday, 8 June 2023 13:49 (one year ago) link
i predict a year or so from now ppl are going to be looking for a hi-nrg thread that doesn’t have hi-nrg in the title!
― the late great, Thursday, 8 June 2023 13:50 (one year ago) link
Feels like an untapped scene to edit, though I think Justin Van Der Volgen had an edit ep with something that was hi-nrg I think.
― dan selzer, Thursday, 8 June 2023 13:51 (one year ago) link
https://myrulesrecords.bandcamp.com/album/i-need-a-man-living-in-harmony-justin-van-der-volgen-edits
for sure.
― dan selzer, Thursday, 8 June 2023 13:52 (one year ago) link
i agree Dan. i've done a few myself. Here's one of Roni Griffith's Desire. i actually love the vocal version but also wanted an instrumental. Bobby O goodness.
https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/EYghkpy87n
this is maybe my all time favourite Hi NRG track -
Sylve - I've Only got you to Blame
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4v8T4pkJrg
― stirmonster, Thursday, 8 June 2023 14:05 (one year ago) link
Awesome. Has anybody had a longer career with more records making the same song over and over again and having them all rule as much as Bobby O?
My two favorite Bobby O's, Roni Griffith's Spys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4h_YAw3Nkc
and the way too unheralded Love On Video by the New York Models, one of my all time faves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqERpetQkH4
― dan selzer, Thursday, 8 June 2023 15:22 (one year ago) link
Can I just mention one more song here, one that is cheap and easy to find and everybody has it but never gets played? Even though it's a totally perfect song that just fell through some cracks?
Man Parrish's Heatstroke. B-Side to Hip-Hop Be Bop. Maybe because it wasn't electro/hip-hop people ignored it? It's absolutely proto-hi-nrg, vocoder robot love song with amazing latin disco freestyle drum breakdown with italo bassline.
Why isn't this song in the upper tier pantheon of music?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhnJF45l1Fo
― dan selzer, Thursday, 8 June 2023 15:28 (one year ago) link
^^^ hell yeah
― broken breakbeat (sleeve), Thursday, 8 June 2023 15:42 (one year ago) link
whlle on that topic, great interview:
https://walkonthewildsidenyc.substack.com/p/man-parrish?fbclid=IwAR00K40UYzzS3-o6wCbxPjZ7BkaNap6GlrgJjjsInoZWxH_0ReAZ4ES5AfM
― dan selzer, Thursday, 8 June 2023 18:35 (one year ago) link
i recently got rid of that EP. i have a "hip hop be bop" on another comp, "man made" is pretty good, but i'm not really into the rest of it
it did occur to me as i was listening that "heatstroke" is pretty unusual, although to my ears it sounded more like one of those really bad post-ubiquity roy ayers disco tracks. maybe this was because i had just picked "fever" and "you send me" out of the dollar bin, and was still in shock from how awful "take me out to the ballpark" and a few other tracks were
what makes it hi-nrg? i have to admit i don't really know anything about hi-nrg except i generally don't enjoy it
― the late great, Thursday, 8 June 2023 18:51 (one year ago) link
that interview's great
― mh, Thursday, 8 June 2023 19:19 (one year ago) link
what makes it hi-nrg?
octave basslines, high tempo, lack of funk.
― stirmonster, Thursday, 8 June 2023 19:30 (one year ago) link
IIRC “Heatstroke” was originally written for a gay porn movie. It was an A-side in the UK in 1983, and it slotted fine into the gay club music of the time.
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 8 June 2023 19:41 (one year ago) link
you sure you're hearing Heatstroke? It's not an EP, just the 12" of Hip Hop/Heatstroke. And Heatstroke is extended. And glorious.
― dan selzer, Thursday, 8 June 2023 19:54 (one year ago) link
Yes, definitely. This was the 1983 12 inch that I bought at the time; it wasn’t a B-side to Hip Hop Be Bop here (I’d already bought that as a Dutch Ramshorn import). https://www.discogs.com/release/105387-Man-Parrish-Heatstroke-LP-Version-cw-Man-Made-LP-Version
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 8 June 2023 20:21 (one year ago) link
Oh sorry, you were replying to tlg!
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 8 June 2023 20:24 (one year ago) link
Wow that Sylve track is quite gorgeous.
― Chewshabadoo, Thursday, 8 June 2023 21:11 (one year ago) link
yeah i'm hearing heatstroke. what i'm calling an EP, discogs calls an album!!
https://www.discogs.com/release/20044-Man-Parrish-Man-Parrish
^^ that's what i got rid of. the entire b-side is ... not my thing
― the late great, Thursday, 8 June 2023 21:13 (one year ago) link
poor sylve. at least she made an incredible song from the heartbreak. sylve he probably wasn't that great anyway, trust.
― ꙮ (map), Thursday, 8 June 2023 21:17 (one year ago) link
xp oh! maybe what i heard is a different mix? i see yours is labeled "club mix" (didn't listen) and i see there's a "disconet mix" also. i'll have to compare
― the late great, Thursday, 8 June 2023 21:17 (one year ago) link
^^
Bobby O is problematic I have heard, but got damn if both those tracks are not complete all time bangers.
― Chewshabadoo, Thursday, 8 June 2023 21:27 (one year ago) link
he is a master of cowbells
― brimstead, Thursday, 8 June 2023 22:04 (one year ago) link
i’m dumb, i think i was confusing it with “together again”
― the late great, Friday, 9 June 2023 00:44 (one year ago) link
Heatstroke club mix, b-side of Hip Hop Be Bop, that's all you need to know.
i def consider that yellow covered one an LP.
― dan selzer, Friday, 9 June 2023 00:51 (one year ago) link
Bobby O made homophobic statements. Talk about not knowing your audience.
or collaborators.
― dan selzer, Friday, 9 June 2023 00:52 (one year ago) link
or influences.
is “i feel love” hi nrg?
― the late great, Friday, 9 June 2023 01:26 (one year ago) link
also if hi-nrg does not equal eurodisco (selzer, 2023) where / how do we draw the line?
― the late great, Friday, 9 June 2023 01:30 (one year ago) link
polite request to keep it fun itt thanks
― ꙮ (map), Friday, 9 June 2023 01:33 (one year ago) link
What's not fun?
I Feel Love is proto hi nrg. It's also prot space disco and proto techno and proto new wave and proto everything that's been done since.
When I said that about eurodisco I think I meant eurobeat. The eurodisco thread I think had some talk about stuff like Modern Talking or like, the mid 80s post-italo cheesy european dance pop.
But I'd say euro-disco is a big umbrella term that includes basically any late 70s disco from europe, space disco, cosmic disco etc etc. Doesn't always have the high tempos of hi-nrg. Beyond that I'd just say I know hi-nrg when I hear it. This description from wiki is good "The rhythm is characterized by an energetic, staccato, sequenced synthesizer sound of octave basslines"
There's a lot of crossover with italo and I think you can easily call a lot of italo hi-nrg, if it's fast, frenetic, has happier more pop vocals perhaps. So it depends on era and location. San Francisco hi-nrg is one thing, coming earlier, more live and analog it's more closely related to disco I'd think. Ian Levine style UK hi-nrg is later, is another thing.
― dan selzer, Friday, 9 June 2023 14:20 (one year ago) link
hi nrg is a feeling
― the late great, Friday, 9 June 2023 14:21 (one year ago) link
yo I got a "real" DJ gig!
a guy I have known forever who plays in local bands has been coming to my restaurant sets, he texted the other day to see if I want to do a set after his band plays at a local arcade/bar/dance club
― broken breakbeat (sleeve), Friday, 9 June 2023 14:27 (one year ago) link
sweet!
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Friday, 9 June 2023 14:34 (one year ago) link
nice!!
― the late great, Friday, 9 June 2023 14:46 (one year ago) link
that's great sleeve!! hope it goes excellently for you
― Xii, Friday, 9 June 2023 16:22 (one year ago) link
prob gonna lead with this banger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro9gCn7yBI0
― broken breakbeat (sleeve), Friday, 9 June 2023 16:40 (one year ago) link
(thanks all!)
― broken breakbeat (sleeve), Friday, 9 June 2023 16:41 (one year ago) link
personally don't love genre nit-picking but you guys are turning it into a cool and interesting conversation so ignore me please!
― ꙮ (map), Friday, 9 June 2023 16:51 (one year ago) link
i'll admit to (maybe) having been guilty of that in the past, but trust that here i'm just asking questions, because i've never really been clear on what constitutes hi-nrg
i also think that ppl get very weird when supposed "genre nit-picking" happens. but we're not going to pretend that genres don't exist, are we? or that (other, non-ilx) people don't invest time and energy in deciding which genres they like and which genres they don't?
so for me, what you call "genre nit-picking" is actually not an exercise in trying to rigidly define what constitutes a certain genre. or, at least, that's not the *end goal*. instead i think it's useful to think about these things as if they're rigid (even though we know they're not!) as an analytical exercise, in order to figure out precisely what's *wrong* with those rigid definitions, and to maybe discover things about genres and songs that we may miss if we just accept received understandings of genres (whether broad or specific)
― the late great, Friday, 9 June 2023 17:42 (one year ago) link