RENATO ZERO-ZEROFOBIA, LP, 1977, ITALY
Patchy but occasionally insanely great disco absurdity with pronounced space disco tangents from this Jobriath-like character known for appearing onstage in a bird suit. This was sent to me by my old NY pal Tony a dog's age ago and I've mulled over the idea of posting it ever since, though the overt commercial angle of some of this dissuaded me before now. But then I listened to the cut La Trappola again last night and realized it'd be downright cruel to deprive kooks and aspiring hipsters the world over of such a mainline into the throbbing core essence of true blue cheese godhead. I'd be prepared to endorse this track from a hilltop with a megaphone if necessary. And I'm betting you will too, though It'll take the nasal equivalent of an enema to clear the phantom scent of amyl nitrate and sweat from your mental sensorium after a dip into this audio jacuzzi. And there is more of this sorta goodness strewn about elsewhere as on this thing as well, with Zero turning on some naked (and wonderful) Lucio Battisti emulation on "L'Ambulanza" and bursts of the most perfect synthetic Love Boat vibes imaginable on "Regina" for you aspiring Yacht Rockers with a hankering for deeper revelations.
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6 comments:
Thanks for posting this. I've always enjoyed your mutant disco gems. Please don't let the commercial aspect of the music deter you. And this might indeed be a commercial piece of music but it's awfully obscure.
lol. thanks brah.
Though considered disposable 'cash-in' novelty records at the time (for the most part), in my opinion, the seventies 'space-disco' genre contains within it some of the most interesting and radical 'takes' on the 'disco' genre.
It is a little like library records and soundtracks, their very immediacy and 'functionality' as a transient 'product' are the very elements that paradoxically give these records their longevity.
To expand on this theme, most of these novelty 'space disco' records either bombed at the time or they were not part of the logic of the record industry as a 'product' to hype into the charts and sell in large units (many library and soundtrack records from the seventies have their 'space disco' moments such as the Spatial & Co/Disco & Co albums to just scratch the surface) which freed them up to be more experimental rather than 'chart-driven' and that is why the music 'dates' better than many of the disco classics.
Another aspect of this is the "prog turned space disco" music that a few progressive rock artists made around 78/79 such as the 1978 'Planet Earth' album but thats another story!
I contribute for Overfitting Disco as 'saucer_people' and I love trawling through Mutant Sounds and Growing Bin and the like for strange electronic/prog/post-punk/library/soundtrack albums for tracks with a steady beat....most recently we have all been salivating over René Roussel’s 1980 'Rubriques' album on the French Editions Montparnasse 2000
http://overfitted.ddcr.biz/?p=6955
So as you can see we really value posts like this, so keep the mutant disco coming!
As for Renato Zero's 'Zerofobia' album, all I can say is huge thanks to your friend NY Tony for rescuing this from the memory hole...it is another jigsaw piece in the Italian genre splice of prog/disco (Simonetti, Farini and the other Goblin boys and Alberto Radius are the most obvious examples of this imaginary genre).
Two of the album stand-out tracks for me are the slightly demented cover of Supertramp's 1974 classic 'Dreamer' called "Sgualdrina" and of course "La Trappola" is just plain deranged and highly addictive (I have played it five times in a row just to soak up its 'otherness')....disco for DMT machine elves ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ6v8wwq0h0
Renato Zero Live medley with Italian Disco Diva & TV Star Raffaella Carrà. 2006 Part one.
Greetings from Argentina!
As italian, i can swear you that this album in italy it's a classic poppish trivial mainstream, the kind you're always deny to even haved looked at, just for keeping a musicality credibility with your friends. Anyway, wen I was eleven I was found of this album (besides Genesis, Cerrone and the Stones), and now after all these year by finding it here by surprise, I probably finally discovered why !
Cheers, Indomito
There's only a word to define this album: addictive.
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