Moana Pozzi was a former pornographic actor, television personality and politician from Italy. She also tried her hand at singing, and this lost treasure, lovingly reissued by Cinedelic Records, offers some well-done Italo-Disco, funk, and a cheesy-but-fun vibe.
I realized I didn’t have many records from Togo listed on the blog, so, going down the rabbit hole, I found this curious compilation on TogoPop Records. It sounds NOTHING like what I was expecting. If anything, the artists on this compilation sound more like they were influenced by French 1980s Cold Wave and Italo Disco. It’s a weird record, and brilliant for it.
I have something of a love-hate relationship with the city of Naples in Italy, but what always left a big impression on me was the quality of the music coming out of the city of all genres.
This particular single is a reissue by Periodica Records of an ultra-rare disco classic recorded by Tonino Balsamo, and has made the rounds as a bootleg before finally being reissued in pristine sound. From the label’s Bandcamp site:
“One of the rarest and most requested Neapolitan track around. Originally recorded in 1983 at the Rico Sound studios, the budget made available was not managed well by the artistic crew (money wasted on women, dinners and night clubs …) and it was not enough to be able to produce an LP on vinyl and only very few copies were produced on cassette. Occasionally some promotional vinyl copies appeared in flea markets, probably intended for radio stations of the time but to date neither the label nor the author remember ever having distributed or authorized this press. There are also counterfeit copies circulating through private-to-private sales channels. It was not easy to track down Tonino, namesake of his uncle Antonio Balsamo, master flautist of great fame, and it’s with great pleasure that we can finally announce, almost 40 years after its creation, the official release of “Sta Guagliona Mo Ddà” enriched by an instrumental version plus an unpublished variation on the original theme – “Voglie ‘E Mare” – written by keyboardist Enzo Anoldo in the early 90s.”