14 August 2005


Up to about 1981, Giorgio Moroder was for some time the true king of Pop music, and his rule started with Love To Love You Baby, the first out of four albums that he released with Donna Summer and writing partner Pete Bellotte between 1975 and 1978.

This is where the extended mix was introduced for the first time. Sadly, to this day you won’t hear many Dance or Disco extended mixes that are as good as the 17 minute long ‘Love To Love You Baby’ that originally took up the whole A-Side of this record. Disco was truly born with this track and it is astonishing how it defined so many structural and arrangement related conventions that are still being applied in Dance music.

But let’s forget the technical sides, this song still sounds inventive, original and totally fresh. Unlike Kraftwerk that only used synthesizers (which in my opinion makes them sound dated now), most of Moroder’s work (at least in the 70’s or up to… mmm… 1981) included real instruments. In the song here, the drums, the percussion, the guitars, the bass, the string section, are all real and recorded live, with the keyboards playing a leading but confined role, not dissimilar to the synth work in Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ that was released at the same year.

Only Moroder doesn’t go for solos. His Keyboards lines are all beautifully orchestrated melodies that repeat themselves and let the arrangements around them develop. Not exactly a Progressive rock song, but still to a certain degree, the whole instrumental mid-section (the best bit of the song) sounds to me more like a disciplined Pop music jam, then a typical extended mix.

It was only with the last song on their fourth album together that Moroder, Bellotte and Summer truly completed their revolutionary Disco sound (the song is of course the synth heavy ‘I feel Love’), but what’s impressive here is that they created a new style of music, while basing it on existent foundations and using traditional instruments. You could say that they were just mixing together nearly every popular genre of the era ­ but not many artists are brave enough to do so, and very few lead in the process to the creation of a new genre.

© 2008 Pomleroy Records

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