Italians do it better! Fourteen tracks of dancefloor-filling modernism!
Happy January folks! It's often said to be the longest, darkest, most miserable of all the months. Especially if you're a meat-eating alcoholic feeling societal pressure to give up the things you love most. (Not a reference to myself I should stress!) None of us should be giving up the joys of new music however, so it's comforting to find that January is offering up some brilliant new releases for us to seek out, listen to, and perhaps even buy.
Top of my listening pile at the moment is this cracking dancefloor filling soul album released by an Italian Mod collective called Piaggio Soul Combination. It's the group's third full-length album following Italian Boogaloo (2017) and This Is The Piaggio Soul Combination (2019) and is released on January 28th. Here in the UK we're inclined to think that the creation of the mod movement is a uniquely British thing. Or maybe just an English thing, centred on London or the south-east. It should be stressed though that the movement soaked up influences from other cultures - American soul, jazz and R&B, Italian scooters and tailoring, and a forward thinking approach to fashion in general, inspired in no small part by that of post-war mainland Europe.
It's fitting then that this album features input from Italy, the UK, and America - The band themselves formed in Pisa, Italy. Featured vocalist Lakeetra Knowles was brought up in Arkansas, USA. And the album's producer is none other than Andy Lewis, a name that will be familiar to fans of Paul Weller, Fay Hallam, and British soul music in general.
Over the course of the album's 14 tracks we journey through Northern soul stompers, latin-flavoured boogaloo, and sophisticated toe-tappers. All very groovy, all infectious and most importantly all very uplifting. Perfect for lifting one's spirits and shifting those damn January blues. It will also make you want to get up and dance. With this in mind the album is available on a very DJ-friendly physical format, a gatefold double 12" 45rpm set. Perfect for spinning at your local vinyl-only all-nighter.
The current line-up is: Lakeetra Knowles (lead vocals), Marco Piaggesi (lead & backing vocals, organ, piano, mellotron), Michele Malasoma (drums & timbales), Gio Renzo Baccelli (percussion), Saverio Grasselli (guitar), Michelangelo Pardini (bass), Andrea Milano (alto sax), Manuel Vanni & Cesare Errico (tenor sax), Gaspare Vinto (baritone sax).