Purple Disco Machine
Exotica

It was the ominous day marking the start of mandatory testing for working and non-working citizens, to prove they didn’t have COVID-19, coincidentally matching the arrival of the Statue of Hell at the Quirinale. Thus, a mix of ultra-negativity already exacerbated the moral and social climate, trapping it in extremely low energy and negativity. October 15, 2021, turned into a page darker than even the most dreadful passages of Orwell’s 1984... Despite this orchestrated atmosphere of deterioration and pessimism, there were still groups or individuals who swam against the tide, both politically and socially, and even in seemingly trivial things like music, which strangely remained untouched by various powers.

One of these artists is Purple Disco Machine from Dresden. But first, let me make a long preface: unnoticed since 2012, he has been working as a DJ and had already released an entirely unnoticed album in 2017 entitled "Soulmatic," which already featured significant disco and funk sounds from the '70s and '80s, with some hints of the '90s. But it’s known that in the DJ music market, it was dominated by the "musically ignorant" DJs, and the release of an album with well-played and well-crafted disco tracks is seen as a threat. For decades, disco music had to be produced superficially, as mass-appeal anthems with raw arrangements, representing the worst of disco from 1988, especially from the year 2000 onwards... I'm not saying that there was nothing good afterwards, on the contrary, but the few positive examples like Jamiroquai, Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, etc., never became ‘trendy’ because most DJs are not great musicians and incapable of replicating those styles. Thus, they suppressed and hindered the few who wanted to imitate Jamiroquai, etc., and as in 1988, they imposed House music in discos and in the charts, whether it was good or bad, building a totalitarian power over the years where those daring to make Disco Music or Dance 80 were discriminated against, ignored, or unpromoted. Only a few could drill through this wall, and there DJs could not ignore records very similar (not identical) to the '70s-'80s like those of The Weeknd, Bruno Mars, or Daft Punk. But if you were a "small fish," your record was sidelined. And that’s what happened to Purple Disco Machine for years. The preface ends here.

October 15, 2021, the darkest day in Italy and Europe, but here PDM goes against the tide and releases, on the same day, a carefree, positive, out-of-fashion LP, 90% of TRUE DISCO MUSIC, not similar, but IDENTICAL, as if the musical (r)evolution from 1987 onwards had stopped, with some tracks also reminiscent of the '90s.

PDM doesn’t jokingly mimic Classic Disco, as do Hercules and Love Affair, Scissor Sisters, Lady Gaga, and other artists who have made LPs or singles with 70-80 disco sounds, but not 100%; maybe 50-80% with always a 20-50% of sounds or arrangements from 2000-2020 accompanying the old-school sounds. Often, like with Scissor Sisters, it’s presented glamorously or humorously, with a smile, in a humorous parody, almost to justify playing 70-80 sounds. And indeed, critics accepted this fake revival, using disco music but making sure a "modern" arrangement underlied it. Recently, however, artists like The Weeknd and Bruno Mars and mainly Daft Punk started to seriously make and play 70-80 funk and disco sounds, but if you entered any disco, most of the tracks were trash made by various DJs while Mars and TheWeeknD were rarities.

The arrival of COVID in 2020 turned devastating for discotheques from a business viewpoint. It was a social drama both for those working and going dancing. But for disco music, it was a salvation: DJs finally lost their power and dictatorship over what to play and produce in discos! The external social system, all focused on COVID, ignored the music. And it was a good thing because finally, Purple Disco Machine had equal opportunities to play, produce, and present his work to radios and record labels, without being preceded by others who lost their power. Following his wake, other projects like Kungs echo the old Disco.

And on April 8, 2020, the single Hypnotized was finally released, together with Sophie and the Giants, an unnoticed British group doing entirely different styles.

At first listen, it doesn’t sound like a current track; it seems pulled from an '80s revival program, resembling one of many Dance records from 1984. But then it was heard everywhere, and it becomes known it was not a forgotten old record but a brand new song, IDENTICAL not just similar to the '80s! No mimicking like the Scissor Sisters, on the contrary, PDM even makes an official video that looks made in 1984, complete with a guitar-style keyboard, fashionable in the '80s, and '80s special effects! And he’s proud of it, with not a single sound or arrangement from 2020.

And the track surpasses expectations, both in discos and sales!!!!!!! It hits the top spot in Italian and German hits and ranks high in Europe. The fake-music DJs are defeated; now everyone knows PDM.

PDM doesn’t stop, releasing other singles of real Disco Music, whether good or bad, they are TRUE disco music, and on October 15, 2021, he deals a slap to the imposed negatives and releases the album EXOTICA, about fifteen tracks all to dance to, carefree, light-hearted, but musically well done, well arranged, WELL SUNG, not the rubbish like 99% of disco records from the 2000s onwards!

WARNING: WE ARE NOT IN FRONT OF A MASTERPIECE, not even of the genre, I myself give 3 stars not 5! If it had come out, for example, in 1984, it could have ranked first or 300th place; we'll never know, but finally, it’s an album of disco songs, perfectly normal, well-played, that seems a masterpiece compared to the worst of the disco genre in recent decades.

This album is therefore historic for 2 reasons: PDM practically, and I add rightly, does not spit on but worse IGNORE most of what happened from 2000 onwards in disco. His music, returned (for now?) in fashion, demonstrates what came after was regression and not progress; his style is more modern and youthful than those that came and were imposed afterward.

The other reason is social, in the dark era we still live in, and on the day marking the start of testing and the arrival of the negative statue in Italy, such an album comes out, cheerful yet not silly. PDM creates opposite vibrations and has helped many, by listening to his music, to detach for a few hours from the extremely negative vibes of the period and better accept this regression of the middle class. Thousands of people have thanked him on social media precisely for this.

the tracklist is

1) Can’t get enough, a cheerful track vaguely reminiscent of late '90s pop-dance radio hits

2) At the Disko takes us to a late '90s style Disco a la Daft Punk, with the alien singing through the Vocoder under a bed of electronic piano and electronic samples

3) Fireworks was the summer 2021 hit, albeit a complex hit, reminiscent of the Italo-Disco 1983, especially the “Baby’s Gang” project, with the 13-year-olds’ choirs up front in the chorus

4) Don’t stop takes us directly to Electronic Disco 1982 on bases, much reminiscent of Italian-Canadian Bobby Orlando’s bass and percussion, while on vocals, it returns to female singing, in English, of the '90s Italo-Dance

5) Dopamine is the other success in the European Hits, mid-'80s electronic dance, very poppy

6) I Remember slows the rhythms, and rightly so, after 5 fast tracks, but even here much of the past is drawn from, always 80s electronically, not dance, but A.O.R.

7) Opposite of Crazy is a mid-tempo, sending memories as a base to “State of Independence” by Donna Summer from 1982, without her voice unfortunately but the singer nonetheless makes a synth-pop track sufficient

8) Hypnotized was one of the summer 2020 hits, a complex hit, italo-disco, seems taken from a Baby Records compilation from 1984

9) Loneliness is perhaps the best track, not too catchy but hypnotic and paradoxically the one the public will appreciate the least, here PDM collaborates with the talented Francesca Lombardo

10) Hands to the sky seems taken from a black-soul-r&B-funk radio from 1983, with a black singer reminiscent of various skilled singers of that genre, like Luther Vandross, Al Jarreau, or George Benson (singer version)

11) Money money returns to post-Disco around 79-81, thus also with some funky guitar, but missing brass. Let’s say a kind of Kool & the Gang from the golden commercial period but without their famous brass.

12) Playbox is pure italo-dance late '90s, despite keyboard riff samples from Sylvester (1984 Rock the Box) and even vocal part from “the Player” by First Choice 1974

13) Exotica along with Loneliness is the other track which seeks, besides catchiness, also a bit more in experimentation. Tribal rhythms at the start, then a dark electronic bass, then suddenly italo-disco keyboards countering, for a 3-min HI-NRG, with minimal vocal parts and returning to tribal at the end, even atmospheric, synthwave in the last seconds, although the chords are inspired by Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat

14) Wanna feel like a lover, PDM makes it seem composed in 1981-82 as a base, style Ray Parker Junior

In short, nothing new but new for the time.

Maybe in 2 years, nobody will talk about him, disco music will return to revival, but in the meantime, PDM has rekindled the desire to have fun, especially for the over 40s, and that's no small thing; music is art but also has social impact.