Retro/Grade is made up of Serge Santiago and Tom Neville, two great kings in the music industry. Since 2005, Santiago and Neville have been slowly developing and cooking up of what is to be described as a “career-defining album”. Their inspiration is taken from a period between disco and house (basically their sound is like the modern day Italo-Disco). Retro/Grade’s newest single “Zoid” contains an emotion that constantly builds and builds, quite epic. This will be released in November on vinyl only; look out for it at Juno. This track samples Automat’s “Droid”, a classic 1978 Italo track.
[Sorry folks, Zoid had to be removed]
And as promised, the sample lifted from “Zoid” (which is the Cecile Edit):
MP3: Automat – Droid (Cecile Edit)
EDIT: How could I forget Creative Use’s “Are You Jeff Vader” edit??:
MP3: Creative Use – Are You Jeff Vader?
Retro/Grade also released a huge relived italo-banging dancefloor track prior to Zoid titled “Moda”, which samples Amin-Peck’s “Coda”. This release has received support from the likes of Erol Alkan, Simian Mobile Disco, A-Trak, Riton, etc.etc. Buy the Moda vinyl at Juno.
MP3: Retro/Grade – Moda
And the sample:
MP3: Amin-Peck – Coda
Just on another note, a huge huge banger for 2009 was Erol Alkan & Boys Noize’s “Waves” – such a killer track. Not really falling under this Italo post is this next track but however, it does sample an Italo track! – and also an oldie. The main tune is sampled from Albion’s (Albion Venables) ”Space Time Continuum”, which was released on the Ambassador’s Reception label. The dinstinctive drums is sampled from Sparks‘ “Beat the Clock”. Waves was out on Boys Noize Recs.
MP3: Erol Alkan & Boys Noize – Waves
MP3: Albion – Space Time Continuum
MP3: Sparks – Beat the Clock (Long Remix)
What, no mention of the simple yet effective edit of Droid by Creative Use?!
Ah ah, when I saw the pic on ffffound I immediatly thought that it’ll end up here. Great post btw
Oh my god that Zoid track is fucking money
There’s another italo hit sampled in ‘Waves’ too… the bassline’s lifted from ‘Fear’ by Easy Going
http://www.facebook.com/pages/RetroGrade/184410334772
[...] Get the original over at Waves At Night. [...]
thank you so much for IDing these samples. I really like Italo Disco, and it surprises so many times when it turns out a song I like has deeper roots. I like the originals better anyway.