Kano

The 1980 debut album from Italian producer/songwriter/musician trio Kano features a bold, brash and confident post-disco sound from the very start, the synthetic laser sounds and crisp beats of album opener “It’s A War” setting the scene for a 6-track space-bound extended vamp of an album. With only one track coming in at under 6 minutes and no ballads or mid-tempo songs this is a record created for discos and dancing. There are hints of Hammond organ, some guitar riffing and funky clavinet licks à la 70s disco and funk but there are also lots of synth sounds, sequenced riffs and vocoder-ed vocals, all underpinned by a relentless 4/4 pulse. Album closer “I’m Ready” is the track that’s particularly big on the Italo revival scene, a percolating piece of post-boogie synthetic disco complete with synth whooshes, vocoder and live bass. 

Kano is the sound of synthesiser technology meeting disco and in terms of instrumentation, its hybrid sound is the essence of early Italo. There’s plenty to like in this collection of carefully constructed, innocent-sounding space-party disco jams.