Bottin: I started playing keyboards in acid jazz bands when I was 13, in 1990. I released my first solo track in 1999 on Italian label Irma Records. It was a cocktail music tune, you know, in the fashion of Piero Piccioni or Piero Umiliani. Then I recorded an album on Irma called Chill Reception under the moniker Bluecat. It was an awkward mix of different styles: downtempo, broken beats, house. I guess I was very confused at the time. I was working full-time as a sound designer and music consultant in Fabrica (Benetton's research center).
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The inspiration is basically the music I've been hearing on Italian TV my whole life. You know, those lat-night movies shows with cheap horror films, Giallos, soft erotica. Also the pioneers of disco music in Italy: Celso Valli, Simonetti, Malavasi, the La Bionda brothers.I think these influences have always been in me, I just didn't know it on a rational level. It all came out since a good friend of mine, older and with a good record collection, gave me some of his records–mostly early Italo-disco and Italo-boogie.Who are your current favourite new artists?
I like Simone Fedi, Junji Masayama, Soft Rocks, Clap Rules, and Discodromo.What about recent finds in your "crate-digging"?
Popularia – Barra, on RCA Italy, 1985.
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Lately it has been mostly remixes. I think I have done ten already this year. I've done two remixes of Space (the legendary French band from whom Daft Punk stole their outfits) and I'm doing a cover version of the Theme from V, the TV series. Remixing is generally fun.How do you approach a remix?
Usually the artists trust me and allow me to do what I feel. Some other times people expect me to make their track similar to mine, and that rarely happens. When I do a remix I always try to focus on and highlight what I think are the most interesting but least developed parts of the original.I'm also starting my own re-edits label together with a mysterious partner in Rotterdam. And the Horror Disco LP will be out on Bear later this year. After that I'm doing a US tour in September and a couple of UK dates in October (London and Exalt Exalt! in Nottingham). Later I'll be going to Brazil and Australia at the beginning of 2010.Bottin - "Sciarando El Scuro"JOEL WRIGHT
