there's a message in my alpha bits. it says oooooooo.

If you get the reference in the title, congratulations, here's your prize. If you didn't get it, you still get the prize. If you feel the prize is worthless, what are you doing here?

Now that that's out of the way...

I've never understood Italo Disco. Most of what I've heard hasn't been to my liking, but what I did like still seems weird. It feels like there is a lot of wholesale theft in Italo Disco records, covering songs, making medleys, sampling without permission. Sure, all of those things happen in just about every genre of music, but what I've seen of it in Italo Disco is pretty shameless with no attempts to hide it. Rip off Manuel Gottsching's E2-E4 and make Sueno Latino's self-titled single? Okay, pretty cool too. Make a million bootleg medleys of recent hits? Sometimes that's alright, sometimes it's not. Cover someone else's hits and give your "group" the same name as the one you're covering but in reverse? With a logo that perfectly copies the other group's but reversed? Mention a then-current "fad" in it that immediately dates it and implies it's the reason you're going to buy the record? Uh...

Those last three descriptors all point a finger directly at a "group" named oozaY. The faceless group, credited as produced by The Lenny Twins, a team with no other known credits to their name, had one record released, where they performed a soundalike medley of some of Yazoo's (Yaz if you're in the US) best known songs with some DJ scratching sounds thrown in for added measure. It seems like it got released several times in Europe, maybe because of easier copyright laws at the time. Why this happened, I don't know or understand. They found an Alison Moyet soundalike vocalist and the production is okay, though the speed isn't quite right because the original songs are all performed at different tempos. All in all, it's perfectly acceptable as an oddity, though it seems like a real bottom-feeder type of move on the part of the "group". Not that there haven't been constant bottom-feeding moves throughout the history of the music industry...

So, below you'll find links to all three tracks from oozaY's solitary 12", Scratching Situation, featuring a medley of Yazoo's State Farm, Situation and Don't Go, both with and without scratching sounds. There is also a bizarre "Phone Version" that features a brief conversation where a man tries to convince a woman who is having a bad day to go buy the oozaY record as it should make her feel better. It's an advertisement for the record the person playing it already owns. I just..., I don't get it. Sigh...

It's worth noting, the one truly outstanding part of this record is the version I bought is a beautifully marbled, multi-colored pressing. You can see what it looks like on it's Discogs reference page. It's a fairly inexpensive purchase if you want one for yourself. That said, why would you bother buying it after grabbing these mp3s? Seriously, if you really like this track, leave a comment as to why. It's perfectly okay, but I'd rather buy second hand copies of both Yazoo albums than a weird medley by some nobodies. In fact, I already bought second hand copies of both Yazoo albums, and the only reason I own this record is because I got it for a dollar and thought the pressing looked nice. I've bought a lot of records for reasons like that though, so no big deal I guess.

01 oozaY - Scratching Situation

02 oozaY - A Non Scratching Situation

03 oozaY - Phone Version

After my last post, I got a mention from Mr. Woodrow Phoenix about my inclusion of a track from DOOM. I was a little confused as I hadn't included anything from the dearly departed Mr. Dumile, though maybe he'd seen one of my earlier posts. Regardless, I decided to throw a track with the great DOOM into this post for Mr. Phoenix and your pleasures.

This is a bit of a proto-Danger Doom track, with production from Danger Mouse and a guest spot from DOOM on Prince Po's Social Distortion. I remember this version appearing online as a low quality free download around the release of Po's 2004 album, The Slickness, though this recording is taken from a 7" his label, Lex Records, released. The conversational samples on this version were replaced by a preacher's voice on the album version. I wish I knew why the sample was changed, as I prefer this version over the album mix.

If you want a copy of this one too, it doesn't seem terribly expensive either. R.I.P. DOOM, you are missed.

01 Prince Po - Social Distortion (feat. MF DOOM)

02 Prince Po - Social Distortion (Instrumental)

By the way, since I mentioned buying records for the covers or because the pressings looked cool, this is the first one that came to mind. The record is cool, but the artwork is AWESOME!