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Rating: Irma Records played a very important role in the Italian electronic music scene.
Among its many merits, besides having released the first Italian chillout and trip-hop productions, it published the first CD by Montefiori Cocktail. The two Romagna twins, Francesco (arrangements and keyboards) and Federico Montefiori (winds and vocals), were the pioneers of the genre that was then called "easy-listening", later renamed "lounge", and today called nu-jazz or nu-something.
A genre that then matured under the manipulation of artists like Dimitri from Paris and the entire French scene (Gopher, Llorca, etc.), by Nicola Conte and a good part of the producers from Schema records. The atmospheres of the record hark back to the Seventies, to TV show themes, to commercials, and even to 90s dance.
Vintage sound yes, but with modern arrangements, with the ironic approach of those who don’t take themselves too seriously, instruments played over breakbeat, house, or jazzy bases. In this kaleidoscope, we find experiments like Gotan Project (on Bolero and not tango), the 80s Peroni commercial, the Star Trek theme, a version of "Quando, quando, quando" and various other gems. Even a dance classic from the past decade like "Gipsy woman" by Crystal Waters is restructured with arrangements halfway between bossa and Fausto Papetti.
Final note for "Anamaria", a hypnotic house track that greatly differs from the rest of the tracks. An hour not just of "easy listening", but especially "good listening".
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