Giorgio Moroder - From Here To Eternity... and back.

One of the most interesting releases of Giorgio Moroder: a great collection of some of the masterpieces.
On this page: The comment of Vince Aletti on the backcover.

Giorgio Moroder knows about the allure of the machine, the sensuality of synthesizers. Working in Munich and then Los Angeles at the end of the 1970`s, Morodder started a romance with technology that steamed up dance floors and sizzled air waves all over the world. His music with Donna Summer had already established Giorgio as on of the most influential producers of the period ("Love To Love You Baby," a collaboration with Pete Bellotte, defined Eurodisco - its pulse, scope, and fantasies - before the term was invented), but the synthesizer allowed him to step out of his time and space and zip through the e;ectronic future where we`re still reeling from the effects.
Moroder wasn`t the first to use studio high tech in the service of pop music - there`d already been a flurry of synth songs before his Summer stunner "I Feel Love" in 1977, and Kraftwerk`s "Trans-Europe Express," with its more austere man/machine rhythms, was one of that year`s landmark records. But Giorgio embraced technology with a warmth and intensity that set his work apart. He found the soul in the new machine and he turned it loose on the dance floor.

The music collected here was released under Giorgio`s name after his initial Summer success and emphasizes the producer`s involvement with and gradual immersion in synthesizer-based material at the height of disco. The earliest track, "I Wanna Funk With You Tonight" from 1976`s Knight in White Satin album, appears here as a footnote to his pre-electronic style. With male vocals and the usual fantasy female backup, "Funk" is a basic textbook of the elements of disco: crystalline strings shot through with horns, a percussion break (this one stuffed with vocals), and of course the thump-thump pulse. The following year, in "From Here To Eternity," a side-long suite from an album of the same name, the credits noted that "only electronic keyboards were used in this recording" - and Moroder played them all.

Conceptually, he was still in transition (theme and structure recalled Summer`s extended tracks), but Giorgio streamlined his sound with the synths, and the production buzzed along at an almost dizzyng pace, peaking in a vibrant rush. Typically, the lyrics were unremarkable, reduced to repeated phrases that melted into the background as the music swept along, but Moroder introduced electronically altered voices to keep the textures varied. And "Eternity" `s seamlessly linked segments are a fine example of his use of texture and movement to sustain the flow of a song (one section, unfortunately named "Utopia - Me Giorgio," suggests Philip Glass in its glowing, recurring patterns.)

"Evolution," a club classic from the Battlestar Galactica album (1978), takes this sustained approach to a more sophisticated level. Using synthesizers and some non-electronic instruments, Moroder and co-producer Harold Faltermeyer (whose "Axel F" theme from Beverly Hills Cop put him on the charts recently) create a rich, mysterious musical landscape in constant flux. By turns haunting, lovely, ominous, and playful, "Evolution" lopes along on its throbbing beat continuum for more than fifteen minutes without a stagnant second. The other instrumentals here, "The Case" (presented here in remixed form) from Midnight Express (1978) and "Valley of the Dolls" from Foxes (1980), are movie themes, the first one of Moroder`s best known pieces, the second nearly forgotten. Both take Giorgio`s dance electronics on atmospheric trips invigorating and vital enough to function outside the films they were designed for. "The Case" is still a marvel of tension and release but "Valley of the Dolls" is the real - surprisingly elegant considering its original context - and neither sounds a bit dated.

The remaining two tracks, "I Wanna Rock You" and "Oh What a Night," both from E=MC2 (1979) are more of their period. Working with Faltermeyer again, Moroder crafts and clean, sharp synth sound of undiminished brightness and energy.

Only the vocals, pitched to a Bee Gees high, date the cuts unnecessarily, but even these are nicely subverted by electronic processing to give them a contemporary cuttin edge.

Giorgio Moroder`s synth romance burned so hot at the end of the last decade that these tracks retain much heat. Forget the historical notations - this is not a package for nostalgia fans. Giorgio`s music remains as fresh and compelling as the moment in hit vinyl (take "Evolution" to any dance floor and prove it) and his collection is a tribute to the man and his machines - a continuing affair.