2014 - The Year Italo Came Back

Introduction by Rick Shithouse

Many would say Italo never left and has always been there; somewhere on the planet being loved and adored but I for one will always think of 2014 as the year Italo Disco really came back in the 80s inspired synth scene. Following on from the likes of Vincenzo Salvia, Batch Sound, Plaisance and Sam Haggblad in 2013 many purveyors of fine vintage synth sounds spread their wings on air Alitalia and basked in those warm Mediterranean waters while the sun energised those golden Italo melodies once more.

With the likes of Sunlover Records recent compilation giving a true home to this new love affair with those wonderful Italo sounds still ringing sweetly in my ears I took this opportunity to go even further a field to even more killer Italo synthscapes.

Courtesy of long time Synthetix.FM behind-the-scenes contributor Ricardo Jamiro I'm very pleased to present a look further east; deeper into Europe where the love of quality Italo rockin is being taken up by a much younger generation. Ricardo's been doing his research and come up with a bit of a spotlight on the Russian Italo scene that is producing some amazing music.


Russian Italo: A New Flavour For A Classic Recipe

By Ricardo Jamiro


Over the last few years the deep and defined influence of Italo-Disco has now been discovered and created in of all places - Russia. Primarily made by teenagers it is interesting to see that a genre that has never been "cool" or "trendy" be absorbed and reimagined by youngsters like SuperVox, Mr. Do Re Mi and Attack 41.

Although some of the music is derivative of Koto, Laserdance, Doctor's Cat and other Italo legends from the 80s they do seem to add a certain warmth, charm and a super-melodic element that the forefathers in the 1980's would be proud of.

Arguably the best of the bunch is Anton Vlasov who records under the name of SuperVox and has at least 17 albums of worthwhile material to plow through. Anton is obviously the Aphex Twin of Russian-Italo as you can easily see with all the glowing reviews and reverence heaped upon him, and has been supported by Synthetix.FM on a regular basis.

Obviously, a clandestine scene with no real exposure, it got me digging for more information about the magic teens behind these strange monikers and I now present some of my favourite tracks I've discovered during my many hours of pawing over soundcloud and cyrillic music sites where many a westerner would fear to click.

Here's my picks of what I've found thus far:

SuperVox - Video Shop




Olegris - A Part Of Energy (Extended Mix)



Mr. Do Re Mi - Hot Lemonade




VintageMusic - We Need A Little Harmony



Abbsynth - Galaxis



Cyber Attack - I Robot, My Name Is... 



Galspace Project - Night Fantasy 




Project A - Italo Party



You can download the discography of Project A here.

You can download the discography of SuperVox here.


All music is free to download, so please support these producers by following them where possible.