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CMU Approved
Approved: Italians Do It Better – After Dark 2
By Aly Barchi | Published on Wednesday 12 June 2013
Despite this being an-all-expenses-spared kind of era for ‘the biz’, we seem to be drowning in more (legit) free music than ever before. Which makes the freebie no longer seem all that special. Though when one of those free gifts really does stand out – as Johnny Jewel and his Canada-based clique Italians Do It Better’s ‘After Dark 2’ mixtape does – it possibly feels all the more special as a result.
It says a lot for Jewel’s sway – if not, for his taste – that his label is the only one I can think of (and this is having spent half the day thinking of labels) to have as distinct a sonic ID. IDIB’s artists are, to a man, all classifiable via certain traits, all present en masse on ‘After Dark 2’ thanks to Chromatics, Glass Candy and Desire – by chance, all acts Jewel has had, and still has, dalliances with.
Paying sophisticate patronage to the star-spangled synth greats of the 1970s and 1980s, it literally heaves with breathy Italo-disco mythology; the ticking clock similes, steamy night drive OSTs and imagined tears by black light, unlacing a familiar groove with each slow orbit of the glitterball.
Tracklisting:
Glass Candy – Warm In The Winter
Desire – Tears From Heaven
Mirage – Let’s Kiss
Appaloosa – Fill The Blanks
Chromatics – Looking For Love
Symmetry – Heart Of Darkness
Chromatics – Camera
Twisted Wires – Half Lives
Glass Candy – The Possessed
Chromatics – Cherry
Glass Candy – Beautiful Object
Farah – Into Eternity
Appaloosa – Intimate
Mike Simonetti – The Magician
Glass Candy – Redheads Feel More Pain