Swiss duo Klaus Johann Grobe‘s fourth album, and first in four years, is titled Io tu il loro, and reflects their relationship to their neighbors in the south, Italy. Translated, it means “I You Their,” though this record is their first primarily sung in English after four releases that were mostly in German. (They only need a record in French and Romansh to have fully represented all four of Switzerland’s official languages.) The music on Io tu il loro nods a little at their love of Italian pop music from the ’70s and ’80s, with soft-focus yacht rock, jazz and prog all coming together with KJG’s patented groove machine rhythm section. Listen below.
On that note, the band’s Sevi Landolt and Daniel Bachmann put together a list for us they titled “Italians Did It Better.” While that name references Johnny Jewel and Mike Simonetti’s influential Italo Disco label that has put out records by Chromatics, Glass Candy and more, KJG’s list features 10 Italian pop hits mostly from the ’70s (and one from the ’80s). Check out the band’s picks and listen to the playlist below.
Meanwhile, Klaus Johann Grobe have shared a video for “Bay of Love,” the penultimate track from Io tu il loro that features a little Italian and English. “‘Bay of Love’ is the song with the most schmaltz on io tu il loro,” the band admit, “but what can you do? It’s a nostalgic love song.” They add, “Between the lines however, it shows our love for the italian part of Switzerland, especially Lugano and all the wonderful culturally committed people there. So it was heartwarming to have the Lugano based Tatum Rush and Camilla Baumann shooting and editing the video.” The video has Daniel and Sevi up in the mountains at a chalet with a couple friends for a night of champagne, fondue, and tarot cards. You can watch that below.
KLAUS JOHANN GROBE – ITALIANS DID IT BETTER
We always had a strong love for Italian pop music. While, outside the nerd spectrum, it is mostly known for their kitschy romantic ballads. The Italians had such a distinctive sound during the 70s which shows in excellent recordings, adventurous arrangements and a warmth you otherwise only get in Brazilian records. Always close to the mellow side of prog, always superb musicianship, often gut wrenchingly dramatic or heartwarmingly beautiful, some of the records that came out during this period are something else. It almost seems that there were no boundaries and no fear between pop, jazz and classically trained musicians. Seriously, and we haven’t even talked about the Italian library or prog or jazz catalogue!
So here are 10 tracks that illustrate that distinctive Italian sound we love so much, all by more or less known artists that became or already were stars in their own country!
Ivan Fossati – “Canto Nuovo” (1973)
A lovely short track by then 22 year old Ivan Fossatti. Fragile yet so self-confident on production… listen to those flute and string arrangements… it’s perfection! The whole debut LP is a work of beauty.
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Mina – “Inibizioni Al Vento“ (1973)
Italian superstar Mina teams up with a young Pino Presti to find a smoky warm progressive pop sound which is so distinctively italian… drama, ballad, schmalz, beauty, warmth and a lot of space for the right things to happen!
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Alan Sorrenti – “Incrociando Il Sole” (1974)
An earlier work of Sorrenti when he was still doing progressive, folkish pop music. Far away from his later disco-pop hits (which are superb as well btw). The beautiful and dreamy band playing just embraces his falsetto voice perfectly… and then they drift away.
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Rosalino Cellamare (Ron) – “Colori, Forme, Voci E Odori” (1975)
Rosalino Cellamare (later famous as Ron) recorded this amazing record in 1975 but it never made it out the promo stage. Another one how italians were able to do it. Groove, mellowness, heavy drums, drama, exceptional arrangement details… this one hits hard.
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Rino Gaetano – “Sfiorivano Le Viole” (1976)
Simple yet so heartwarming. You know what you’re doing when the whole studio trickery is a weird delay organ which carries the whole song and makes it better than 95% of similar tunes. Also you get some free Italian schmaltz at the end!
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Lucio Battisti – “Amarsi Un Po” (1977)
Of course Battisti is a master of his craft, pretty much playing, producing and arranging huge parts of his work. Every of his records has mind blowing moments, sometimes it’s only 10 seconds in a song, sometimes whole tracks… it’s magic. So this is by today probably one of his most known tracks in the non italian streaming world, but hell, it doesn’t get any smoother, it doesn’t get any warmer.
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Umberto Balsamo – “Crepuscolo” (1978)
A proper glider. This has the American yacht rock sound in an Italian costume. Who else would phase out his rhodes so heavily so it makes your barbecue night a trip?
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Alberto Radius – “California Bill” (1979)
Alberto Radius is just crazy. So much stuff going on this LP but on “California Bill,” you have him late night cruising through the mellowness of experimental disco-prog-pop.
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Pino Daniele – “Chillo È Nu Buono Guaglione” (1979)
Another Italian superstar who was never afraid of trying different things. This short Brazilian flavored number starts to flirt with disco in between and adds some prog-ish breaks here and then. YES! It somehow stands out of his second LP which is quite an interesting piece of art as well.
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Lucio Dalla – “Toro” (1984)
Lucio Dalla is probably one of the most famous italian musicians up till this day and more known for his folk-rockish italian hymns. But he still thought it was a good idea to go all minimal balearic in the mid-’80s including vocoder and other small details which make this track far more deep than you could expect at first.