Headphone Highlights: Daniele Baldelli
Daniele Baldelli, the self-titled ‘oldest DJ in Italy’, is the founding father of the Cosmic disco sound. Hailing from the town of Cattolica in Northern Italy, Daniele made his DJ debut at 17 at local clubs before graduating to the seminal Baia Degli Angeli, a glamorous VIP club whose DJ booth was in a glass elevator. This led to Daniele’s long residency at the Cosmic club by Lake Garda that opened in Italy in 1979. Baldelli’s influence continues until today, thanks to his DJ appearances around the world, and compilations such as Cosmic – The Original or Baia Degli Angeli 1977-1978. We asked him for a sneak peak into some of the formative tracks that have shaped his work, and that he has loved throughout the years. You can listen to the audio version over at RBMA Radio.
Ladies and gentlemen, here’s for you the oldest DJ in Italy, Daniele Baldelli. 60 years old, 42 years as a DJ. And now I introduce to you some tracks that influence my music style.
Harry Thumann “Underwater” (Baby Records)
First, we’re going to hear Harry Thumann, “Underwater”. It’s very important for the cosmic scene in Italy, it’s very particular because I play 33 instead of 45. [Link is at original speed. For Baldelli’s version, listen to the audio version on RBMA Radio. -ed] This was something, in Italy, we have done a lot of times – maybe because we don’t really understand the words, so we don’t care about if the voice is really like Mickey Mouse. So, maybe this could happen also in Italy. But Harry Thumann is no problem because it’s only an instrumental version.
Maybe a lot of you have listened to these tracks from my tapes that everybody downloaded from the web. [laughs] The tapes from Cosmic – Cosmic was a club in Italy where I worked from ’79 til ’84. ’79 was mostly disco and funk because I was coming from Baia Degli Angeli. Then, in 1980, something really changed in my mind because I started to listen not only to disco and funk and rhythm & blues and black music, but I started to listen to everything about – dark punk, jazz, electronics – and this made inside of me a big change. You have to think about I was DJing at that time, but there was no internet, no magazine, so I have done everything by myself because I couldn’t listen to other DJs, so I didn’t know what the other people [were] doing. So, I am very proud of this because everybody now called me to make gigs, and this means that I played together in one gig electronics, funk, jazz, reggae – much reggae, 45 instead of 33 [laughs] – and so on.
Richard Wahnfried “Time Actor” (Innovative Communication)
This track, for people that love the cosmic sound, is really a must. It’s Richard Wahnfried and the name is “Time Actor”. It’s a track that’s seven, nine minutes long, and when I used to play this track I mixed on maybe another ten or 20 records, just for a few seconds, without a sample keyboard or without all the machines that everybody can have now. I was doing everything handmade.
Some years ago, I have made two books with CDs inside. This book contained two CDs, one mixed and one unmixed. So, I requested a lot of licenses, but Depeche Mode didn’t give me the license, so I couldn’t put this track “Shout!”, that also I play 33 instead of 45. [Link is at original speed. For Baldelli’s version, listen to the audio version on RBMA Radio. -ed] Maybe for this, they don’t give me the license, but I don’t know. [laughs]
Daniele Baldelli & Marco Dionigi “Cosmic Eagle Fly” (Quantistic Division)
This track “Cosmic Eagle Fly” I have done with my friend Marco Dionigi, another DJ from Italy. This is a project that you can find only on Juno Download, and this track is very nice to me because it speaks about cosmic, and it’s an electronic one – slow, 110 bpm. You must listen now.
John Forde “Don’t You Know Who Did It” (Sidewalk)
This is famous for me because I was playing in Baia Degli Angeli in ’77, ’78, and this is also my particular track. It’s difficult for me to speak about the tracks because it’s only something that I feel. It’s something that my instinct – as [for] everybody, I think. If you like the music, you like; if you don’t like, you don’t like. So, that’s why.
Weather Report “Boogie Woogie Waltz” (Columbia)
The most important for me is not the tracks for the club, Weather Report with Joe Zawinul, the boss of the band. Sweetnighter is very good to listen to when you are at home, alone, not much light. No drink, please. No smoke, please. Just listening. That’s really a trip.
Cat Stevens “Was Dog A Doughnut?” (A&M Records)
This is Cat Stevens, from the album Izitso, the track “Was Dog A Doughnut?”. Strange track because Cat Stevens usually makes songs with important text. This is the only one, I think, the only one [that’s] instrumental, and it’s very low, 100 bpm, and was really nice [for] my set in Cosmic Club in Italy.
Passport “Ju-Ju-Man” (Atco Records)
Another group that I like very much is Passport. My favourite track is “Ju-Ju-Man”. It had a very good impact for me, and I bought all the albums. “Ju-Ju-Man” is the favourite one, but also “Locomotive” and some others are really, really nice. You must buy all the records of Passport. You must have in your collection. My collection is 60,000 records. Ask me. [laughs] When I discovered this group, Passport, they really had a sound so different from all the music I was listening [to] at the time. Something like fusion jazz and electronics together.
Daniele Baldelli “Sakso Rava” (Mediane)
This version is only on vinyl. I like it very much, it’s something like funk and jazz together, and I like the saxophone player. “Sasko Rava” means in Esperanto language ‘wonderful saxophone’.
Daniele Baldelli & DJ Rocca “Complotto Geometrico” (Nang Records)
Last track is “Complotto Geometrico”. I am not able to translate it for you, [laughs] you can see by yourself in your vocabulary. ‘Complotto’ is something bad, ‘geometrico’ is something geometric, by the school. I don’t know the meaning of this title, but I like the track. I have made [it] with my friend DJ Rocca, and this you can find you in the album Podalirius on Nang Records from the UK.
