De-Ja-Vu

The impact of Klein & MBO, aka : Italian Mario Boncaldo and New Yorker Tony Carrasco, and their foundational Italo / proto House 1982 classics 'Dirty Talk', 'Wonderful' and 'MBO Theme' have long been recognised on the underground, with the weight of those tracks felt most famously via the influence on New Orders' 'Blue Monday' (the biggest selling 12" of all time - not a record that's going to be broken any time soon).

De-Ja-Vu was the six track mini album that followed those two singles in 1982, originally released on the Italian Zanza label. The title track immediately starts to show what were other strings to the duo's proverbial bow, with a post punk guitar line riding low slung bass, before the poppy vocal comes in (and immediately raises the question of how much New Order's fellow Mancs, Inspiral Carpets', had been listening to this during the 1990 'This is How it Feels' sessions).

Paean to NY 'Big Apple' is crisp, electronic vocal disco that still manages to sound like nothing else that was around back then, and 'I Love You' drifts gets unapologetically wonky, as synth, vocal and funk guitar chops seem to drift in differing harmonic directions, making for a gleeful avant pop set closer.