This is a great compilation for historians and good-time seekers alike, complete with Kraftwerk-complimentary artwork. Opilec Music head I-Robots has spent a lot of time compiling this double-header, using his own collection and archives, and the labour of love is clearly time well spent. Turin has played a much bigger part in dance music history than people like me give it credit for, and over the course of 38 tracks I-Robots takes us from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again. Some of the tracks sound like they were made by kids with single-fingered keyboards, but that’s all part of the fun and the appeal. It almost seems churlish to pick out individual favourites, but Don Bernini’s ‘Whirlwind’ is particularly brilliant – but then so is Giulio Camarca & Trinidad’s ‘Birimbao’, which swings its hips with some vigour. Others of special note are Stratosferic Band’s ‘Splashdown’, which is great fun, Joe “Spitfire” Nicosia & C. Industria Musicale’s ‘Cobra Sound’, which is an instrumental gem, or the pretty far out ‘You + I?’ from Ego Neco and the Sintesi track ‘Tenax’, which is like an electronic response to the Gibson Brothers’ ‘Cuba’. A huge amount of fun for a history lesson! You won’t be sat down for long…
Ben Hogwood
5 out of 5
VARIOUS ARTISTS – I-ROBOTS PRESENTS TURIN DANCEFLOOR EXPRESS – OPILEC MUSIC
