A lot is talked about certain Italian discos during the late 70s and early 80s, Cosmic (with DJs Daniele Baldelli and TBC) and Typhoon (with DJ Beppe Loda) being the most well known. They were well known for playing a style called Afro, which starts at New York Disco as a reference point but diversifies into various other styles such as experimental electronic music, Brazilian music, jazz-funk and so on. Here is useful interview that went up on DJ History recently from the major record dealer on the Afro scene, Gianni Zuffa , which gives a great indication of the style of those DJs. Zuffa Interview

As Daniele Baldelli states in his Red Bull Academy session, there were more than just these two clubs in the scene. Another important club was Les Cigales in Bedizole, Brescia. Although amusingly Baldelli doesn’t remember the name of the place in the interview. When I met Baldelli last year it was certainly apparent that his memory for facts and figures isn’t the best, probably difficult when you have 80,000 records in you collection to try and remember.

Here is a link to an excellent mix from Les Cigales DJs Daniele and Meo which gives a nice indication of the sound of that club, somewhat less electronic and more disco-funky than Baldelli’s Comic style. Probably more closely related to the earlier style played by Baldelli and DJ Moz-Art at the Baia Degli Angeli.

Meo and Daniele at Les Cigales Mix

I saw Daniele from Les Cigales play last year in London supporting Beppe Loda. I was very impressed by his set then. His selection of records was outstanding and wide ranging in styles, but mixed very well too.

I also have some more mixes from other well known Afro DJs such as Moz-Art, Rubens, Beppe Loda and Fabrizio Fattori, which I’ll post up in the future.

DJ Daniele’s website: djdaniele.it (some nice photgraphic archives)