Forever in Electric Dreams: How Giorgio Moroder can Keep His Legacy Alive

In the most significant moment in Australian-Italian relations since…ever, disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder has teamed up with diminutive soapstar turned chanteuse Kylie Minogue on "Right Here, Right Now", a new single that plods along like a second rate Radio One, one week only C List nonplusser. While it's not the worst thing in the world - and it's certainly less noticeably shit than the incandescently shocking faux-Guetta we heard on previous singles "74 is the New 24" and "Giorgio's Theme" - it still bodes pretty badly for the iconic Italian stallion's upcoming album, his first since 1990's The Never Ending Story II (The Next Chapter). Giorgio, our Giorgio, what hath age done to you?

The faint sadness that clouds these releases stems from the uncomfortably unstoppable tectonic drift that occurs when artistic elder statesmen try their hand at firmly grasping the new. This creative rift opens further and further when the subject's previous work seemed forever unfuckwithable. Tracks like "Giorgio's Theme" remind us that, sadly, we all get old, dulled, all have our heads turned by the promise of potentially stretching our self-perceived vitality and youth a bit further, all think that recording a snoozy bit of inoffensive light entertainment show friendly disco-pop with a singer whose fame-flame has been flickering out steadily for a decade or so. We all hit retirement and spend a few years putzing around in the bungalow wearing out slippers and sofas before deciding to rope in Britney, Sia, and Charlie XCX to help out on our new album.

The thing is, if "Right Here, Right Now" were the work of another other pensioner we'd probably dole out a few half-hearted slaps on the back, toss off a few patronising platitudes and immediately delete the thing off iTunes. It wouldn't matter. It'd be another event that happens, literally just something else that has occurred on earth. But "Right Here, Right Now" isn't the work of a former supply teacher from Rochdale whose grandson sat him down with a cracked copy of Fruity Loops and never guessed what would happen next when this cute old man played with a Wasp synth preset. This is Giorgio Moroder! The same Giorgio Moroder responsible for "Get on the Funk Train", "From Here to Eternity", "E=MC²", the Scarface OST. This is the man who gave the world "I Feel Love" and "Chase". This isn't someone who should be remixing Coldplay. Or should he?

Should we begrudge him? After all, the world of electronic music, and the world at large, the world in general, owes this man something. His body of work has been absorbed into the shared consciousness of dancefloors all over the world. He's a revolutionary, a visionary. Can we really expect a producer of his age to change the world again? The heart says yes, the heart listens to his back catalogue and thrills at the thought of how futuristic it once was and still seems. But the head calmly denies that possibility, cooly rationalizes his decision to work with the people he's decided to work with.

Fuck the medicority that the head leads into. Let's briefly traverse into heartland. Let's imagine what Moroder could do if his electric dreams were fully aligned to ours.

Return to Soundtracks
Moroder's work on films as diverse as Scarface, The Neverending Story and American Gigolo puts him up there with the silver screen soundtracking greats. Rather than slotting together a collaboration heavy studio album, why not get the man from Urtijëi to splash his synthetic magic over 90 minutes of celluloid gold? Get him on the new Gaspar Noe joint.

Work with Todd Terje
As we've proven on THUMP before, everyone loves everyone's favourite beardy Norwegian purveyor of high end super shiny, synth-saturated sunshine disco, and it's evident that Todd's fond of splashing on a bit of Giorgio from time to time. It's quite likely that if you threw them in a studio together the resulting arpeggio would be so huge that the earth would implode.

Reunite with Sparks
Without exaggeration, No. 1 in Heaven is one of the most sublimely perfect albums ever released; a sumptuous, symphonic, gloriously compact and succinct set of ageless, timeless, gorgeous synthpop gems. Moroder never really found a more harmonic foil than the brothers Mael. Let's get the old gang back together and take us back to "La Dolce Vita"

Swap Britney for Kelela
Like Moroder's old muse Donna Summer, Kelela's proven that her vocals work best when combined with cutting edge, club ready electronics. Britney, despite the upfront bumper that was "Gimme More", isn't quite the diva that we need. Neither's Kelela, really, but at least she didn't release "Work Bitch".

Go Deep
Given that he's already had a go at crafting the kind of stadium-ready fizz that's so transfixed our American cousins, wouldn't it be nice if he turned his attention to our little island and turned his hand to the kind of zippily shuffling, bass heavy tunes that dominate both the charts and the clubs round here? Let's do a whip round to get him teaming up with Duke Dumont. Fuck it, an MK remix of "Right Here, Right Now" would suffice.

Follow Josh on Twitter: @bain3z