BIOS ATHENS - Italians Do it Better Showcase (USA)

w/ Glass Candy (Live) & Desire (Live) @ Mike Simonetti (DJ Set)

Bios, for the first time in Greece, presents the lable "Italians Do It Better", with live show by two of its basic groups, Glass Candy and Desire, as well as a DJ set by one of its founders, Mike Simonetti .

Italians Do It Better was founded in 2006 and was based in New Jersey and Portland USA setting the frame for the new electronic dance sound and new boundaries between wave and disco. Its founders Mike Simonetti and Johnny Jewel met in 2002 when the latter released in Troubleman Unlimited, Simonetti's indie rock label, his work with Glass Candy. Wishing to separate this new sound from the indie scene, they decided to establish in common a new label under the name "Italians Do It Better". With a more dance music orientation, they released a sometimes downbeat, retro synth but also colourful disco pop sound with distinguished sensual female vocals. More groups were soon added in the label, such as Chromatics, Farah, Professor Genius, Mirage and Lindstrom & Solale. All these led to IDIB's first release entitled “After Dark”, a collection that set the label as one of the most promising and dynamic dance lable worldwide.

www.myspace.com/italiansdoitbetterrecords

GLASS CANDY

Johnny Jewel and Ida No had been quietly helming a disco revolution for 10 years. But who were they ? Glass Candy have been described as distant and elusive which only adds to their magnetic mystique. The duo formed the band in the mid-1990s, with No providing vocals and Jewel providing guitar, synths, and general production. While their early work blends noise rock with electropop, their later work incorporates Italo disco. The band is known for evolving through the years, and experimenting with various musical genres. They have released a number of albums since the early 2000s incl. B/E/A/T/B/O/X and their most recent being 2008's Deep Gems. Their sound has been called ‘Italo’ and ‘smack disco’ and sees the dancefloor as a place of majesty and mysterious elegance, not the sweaty graveyard of ‘Agadoo’ and ‘The Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum)’. Partly due to Glass Candy’s classic songwriting and their archaic way of recording (Jewel only uses antique kit while No sings into a hand-held mic) much of ‘B/E/A/T/B/O/X’’s sound recalls Giorgio Moroder’s legendary work with Donna Summer. And, like Moroder, Jewel knows the best dance music has not only rhythm but edge and menace. ‘Digital Versicolor’ mixes ‘I Feel Love’ with the theme from John Carpenter’s Halloween while No intones her deadly nursery rhymelike lyrics over the top.

www.myspace.com/glasscandy

DESIRE

Desire’s music stands right on the line between indie pop and electronic dance music. Without making any promises to either camp, the group delivers plenty of lush melodies and hypnotic drums to keep everyone  hooked. Their debut album explores themes of hope and lost love. The result is a gorgeous collection of eight songs that embrace the innocence of youth, and the pain of heartbreak.

www.myspace.com/primitivedesire

MIKE SIMONETTI

Mike Simonetti, has got to be one of the most prominent tastemakers in “modern” disco !
Not only does he release some of the freshest disco around, he also has a superior taste when it comes to older disco sounds.

Mike is a man with a pretty unimpeachable cv, founder of the post-punk/noise label Troubleman Unlimited, started his dance-oriented Italians Do It Better imprint in 2006, as a means to foster the new Italo-disco leanings of former no-wavers like Glass Candy, Desire and Chromatics. Now, after the breakthrough After Dark compilation, IDIB is every bit the tastemaker Troubleman is. Its icy, mechanized sounds are an oddly perfect counterpoint to TMU's noise rock, and Simonetti the DJ is as much the genre hopscotcher as Simonetti the label honcho — his breadwinning Moroder/Bobby O disco segues fluidly into classic rock and esoteric dance.

www.myspace.com/troubleman

http://vivaitalians.blogspot.com