It was one of the strange paradoxes of the disco era that two of the giants – two of the people whose innovations were so breathtaking that you can segment music as it existed before them and how it exists after, two whose work is being constantly re-discovered, re-worked, re-edited and (to put it nicely) re-appropriated – were never themselves DJs.
The first of course is the most famous non-DJ of disco, Tom Moulton. The second is Giorgio Moroder.
No more. Red Bull Music Academy has announced a slew of amazing engagements planned for their New York 2013 series running April 28th through May 31st, including the debut of Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings audio/video installation, a “bass music” jam with Chicago’s DJ Funk, Rashad and DJ Spinn and DFA Records’ 12th anniversary.
But none is more historic as the announcement that Don Giorgio will be performing his “first ever live DJ set” (perhaps another was pre-recorded?). Details are apparently TBA.
It’s appropriate that Eno and Giorgio are appearing on the same program, if not in the same room. One of few people who recognized the massive tectonic slip brought about by Giorgio’s wonderful machines and Donna Summer’s inimitable psychosexual vocal contortions, Eno’s enthusiasm for Moroder is recounted in the liner notes by David Bowie for one of my favorite Eno-produced albums, Sound + Vision:
Eno came running in and said, “I have heard the sound of the future.” … He said, “This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.” Which was more or less right.
That single, of course, was I Feel Love.
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