Showing posts with label Italo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italo. Show all posts

Thursday, May 7, 2009

I get SPRUNG....

Spring has arrived, and with it light jackets, lime-infused ales, and impromptu taco cookouts.

Here in Chicago, the sun's return is met with appropriately orgiastic pagan ecstasy after the blighted winter months have all but crushed our spirits.

In short, it's time to bask in the Sound of Rimini*.  It's the musical equivalent of wine cooler.



I understand that in a way this is terrible.  Kasso's tropical, light-disco chiller wouldn't sound out place bumping out of the department store speakers in the khaki-and-teal aisles of Ross Dress For Less.  Nor would it jar you out of an afternoon reverie as you sit in a hot minivan back seat after a day of water-sliding the public pool.  That's why it's great.  It's the sound of mellow nostalgia, all wrapped up in a time capsule of TV-theme pianos and swaying palm fronds.

Here's some more deliciously sun-dazed Kasso.  


There's just something about a white piano on a beach.

*Rimini is a resort town on Italy's Adriatic coast.  We Italo like that.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Your new favorite song is somebody's old favorite song...

Have you two met?  Let me introduce you to Ken Laszlo (born Gianni Coraini).   Ken's nom-de-disco was apparently inspired by Victor Laszlo the Czech Resistance leader who's on the run from the nazis in the film Casablanca.  Ken apparently related to it because a disco singer like resistance fighter is hiding in plain sight: an anonymous voice on any number of pop tracks.  

Well, Ken likes phones, sunglasses, the color white,  "menicures," and feeling the groove.  I think you two have a lot in common:



 For extra fun, and to drive home the idea of the anonymous disco star, here's a television performance of Hey Hey Guy by a model who lip-synched as Ken Laszlo for live gigs.  This version includes the completely baffling phone conversation from the beginning of the track. 




Catch that? Here's a transcript:

Ken: "Hallo"
French guy: "Hallo, ??"
Ken: "Oh dear, you have phone"
French guy: "Yeah, hey guy, tell me about your menicure"
Ken: "I love you and feel the groove"
French guy: "Tell me about it, is it the true"
Ken: "It's true, yes, it's true"
French guy: "Don't fool out, it's dangerous"
Ken: "Don't worry, baby gold"
French guy: "Everything is same as all"
Ken: "Everything is the same"
French guy: "Oh, I love you"
Ken: "Me too"
French guy: "I love you"


"Oh dear, you have phone."  Thanks for noticing!