Sunday, December 12, 2010

Gasfire - Is Our Life

I got into an Italo kick a few years back. Along the way my hunger was fed in little bites by the likes of the incredible 'Ago' and 'Tom Hooker' but, the pieces of real heat were few and far between. In every web posting, sound sample or needle drop the amount of crap I had to endure was massive. Most of the tracks to me where utter garbage. It made my research almost un-bearable. But, that one in 100th tune was simply new, unusual, and different on every level to me. Many of those rare finds were strangely funky. Italo combines so many great elements and was influenced by many different worlds.

The freshest part about Italo is it joins nu-wave, disco, and soul into one world. For example, during the same time in America nu-wave and R&B were worlds apart. Italians took these different influences and molded them together. The limits and parameters simply just didn't exist over there like they did here. Not to mention the huge, massive in fact, influence through the popular use of synthesisers. They pioneered that shit big time. Thank goodness for the Italians and their modified disco.

This particular catch by Gasfire only further proves this point. These cats are in converse shoes, performing on the street, and even have skateboards. Awesome. This song is like a hybrid of funk-punk, new wave and disco, all topped off with poorly pronounced English lyrics. That's a major appeal to Italo as well...hearing lyrics pronounced as only Italians can do it.
The synths and echo on the vocals make this a tasty cosmic offering as well. The best part of this is the breakdowns later in the song. All the different kooky sounds they mix up into it, All held together by this killer bass romp. I'm really hard pressed to think of a group that remotely sounds anything like them. Complete with fat synth bass and a mini sax solo. I bet you were wondering when that guy was gonna come in. Classic Italo genius and this is what going through a million horrible records is all about.
The tune chugs along morphing a few times breaking down into interesting little bits. Man, seriously! Take a listen to those sweet bridges with the sweeps! Freak-art-disco for sure. Kinda all over the place and plenty rewarding in a few different genres. Both sides of this unknown groups twelve inch are pretty good. I'll 'up' the other one at some time too. But, for now just enjoy the poor grammar that is "Is Our Life"....

Gasfire - Is Our Life

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