Italian DJ Beppe Loda, pioneer of DJ culture and resident at Brescia's Typhoon club from 1980 to 1987, has been searching for sounds off the beaten path since his first gig in 1973. Playing to as many as 7,000 people a night, producing in excess of 200 mix tapes and pioneering the "italo synth" sound with his MC1 project (just reissued on Synthonic), he has just about done it all. His "Afro" style (also called "Cosmic" or "Cosmic Afro") is as disorienting, funky and inspiring now as it was then. Here are exerpts from an as-yet unfinished interview by Jeremy Campbell (special thanks to Fabio Falcomer for the tireless translation!).
JC: Where are you from?
BL: I was born and still reside in Manerbio, a town to the south of Brescia, near Lake Garda.
JC: What are your origins in music?
BL: My very first record dates back to 1970 when I was 13: a 45 of "Venus" by The Shocking Blue. My mother gave it to me along with a turntable. After that, I collected more 45s, but my first LP was "Live Peace in Toronto" by John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, followed by Santana "3", Ten Years After "Undead", and Rare Earth "In Concert". I can say that my musical influences were first beat music, then rock and blues (after I saw the Woodstock movie). These things, as well as my wife Patrizia, would be integral to the evolution of my musical tastes.
 At Le Cupole club in Manerbio, 1974 |
JC: When did you start DJing?
BL: My first "official" gig (I was already playing for friends) took place at the end of 1973 at the Kinky club in my hometown of Manerbio. Soon after, the birth and rise of the Typhoon club and becoming acquainted with two well-known local DJs would be crucial. These two guys (I still see them occasionally) were Mec Lamonti (who had a really roaring way to present the music) and Morris (who acquainted me with soul and funk and helped me rediscover Sly and The Family Stone, a group I had caught a glimpse of earlier, in the Woodstock movie).
As you surely know, at the time there was neither mixing nor beat matching. I had no mixer at all, just two buttons and when you pressed them, a sort of fade-out effect would result. DJs in clubs carried out their "job" as if they were on a radio, dealing directly with the public, playing tricks and introducing the tracks. It was all so friendly, so artless... so beautiful and free! Lamonti and Morris were real masters of DJing this way. The most important thing I learned from them was that being a DJ is a way to express one's personality. Later, this would lead me to what I consider the most important source of inspiration: the musical search.
 Copyright © Typhoon. All rights reserved. |
 |
JC: When did you start playing at Typhoon?
BL: I started to play there even before the opening, while it was changing from a cinema to club. I was the resident DJ there from the very beginning (it opened in December, 1980) until the closing (in September, 1987), with the exception of late 1984/early 1985, when I played at Cosmic, then at a club called Chicago, then Futura. By March 1985 though, I was back at Typhoon.
My short residence at Cosmic would be crucial to what people now call Cosmic music. It was at that time that (fellow Cosmic resident DJ) Daniele Baldelli's electronic style melded with my own Afro style (a term I came up with in 1979 while playing at Le Cupole).
Afro was meant as a sort of container for the potpourri of different music other DJs and I played—into which you could throw all music considered far from the mainstream. For example, I would mix a minimal track, a-la Philip Glass, into a Zaka Percussion track, or a Steve Reich track into an African chant, or again throw on Vangelis' Hypothesis over a drum track, or even Richard Wahnfried mixed into the Arpadys. Many DJs adopted this style and it delights me to no end, because it shows that my ideas about DJing and music have spread and been understood.
By 1982 this style had broken out at Typhoon thanks to my Afro tape series and the first Afro gathering (my idea, sponsored by Typhoon). Myself, DJs Ebreo, TBC (AKA Claudio Tosi Brandi) and Fari played to 7,000 people at the stadium in Gambara—those were the golden years indeed!
 |
 |
JC: It would be easy to describe some of your tapes as druggy or psychedelic. Were drugs a big part of the scene at Typhoon?
BL: Not so much. The owners also owned other important companies, therefore the club was carefully watched by the authorities. Unlike other clubs that were shut down due to illegal drug use, Typhoon was eventually closed for public order concerns. At the September 1987 finale there were almost 10,000 people, who, not allowed to enter, poured into the streets of Gambara (a town with a population of 4,000)—just imagine! Well...I won't deny the occasional spliff went around...
JC: Can you speak about the Afro style spreading outside of Italy?
BL: In Austria, the forerunners of Afro music were Navajo and Enne, who were regulars at Typhoon and Cosmic. Navajo started throwing parties in Innsbruck and North Tirol with many Italian DJs as guests. (If my memory doesn't fail, I was the first Italian DJ to play there.) Later, the musical phenomenon would wander around Bavaria in Germany, especially Munich and Augsburg.
JC: How much have you traveled to DJ and where?
I've been traveling a lot in Italy and abroad in recent years—both to DJ and to buy records. In July of this year I was asked to play in Stockholm by the Rymd-Discko crew (on the roof of the cultural centre building!) I've also been invited to play in New York, Chicago, and Detroit by this quite curious American DJ...Jeremy Campbell! (this interviewer—ed.) My baptism of fire will take place on August 19th at PS1 Warm Up—I'm so delighted! (Also thanks to Jason/DJ Spun from Rong Music for this great opportunity.)
 In action in the 80's |
 MC1 (Loda and Francesco Boscolo) at Electric Garden studios |
JC: How often do you play today? Is there anywhere you play regularly?
BL: Nowadays I play often in Italy, but I'm far from the New Afro or Cosmic music (as many Austrians and Germans call it these days). In recent years my taste for the funk/soul/disco of my roots has returned. I've been to Vienna and Linz recently, playing Soul and Funk 45s and digging for records with with DJs Scott and Enne. It took me back to the days when I used to play all those hard-to-find 45s and LPs—so beautiful.
I am without a residency at the moment but I hope have one again. This is the way to DJ like a king for me—the way my musical choices are most inspired and, most importantly, the way to build a strong relationship with the crowd. If you're a mobile DJ who plays at many clubs it's easy to start thinking of what you do as a job. You're inclined to play more "hits" instead of what you really feel—then you end up asking yourself, What would it have been like if you had played different songs in a different order? Okay, one night gigs aren't so bad, but it's totally different from a residency where the people love your music and you love the people.
JC: What about Memory Control One, your project with Francesco Boscolo?
BL: I leave it to Francesco to speak about this!
- "Our MC1 project is still alive and kicking after 22 years, the result of a long lasting friendship and overwhelming love for the music. (We are definitely not making records for the money!) We recorded some demos for an album that Beppe has recently found at his father's house. The second 12" is almost done. (Some arrangements still need to be finished and we are recording some alternate versions.)"