Cosmic Drag Daniele Baldelli

“Cosmic Drag”, the new longplayer by the legendary dj, remixer and producer Daniele Baldelli, is something more than just a heartfelt twisted dance album.

It is the essence of a music lover that swims in an ocean of sound since decades. Already in 1969 the Italian started spinning vinyl at the dawning of Djing - a time where he had no model to refer to and no mixing gear or listening device that helped him to find his very own way of spinning hot black wax.

While listening to the American djs Bob Day and Tom Sison at the legendary club Baia Degli Angeli in the early 1970ees. he understood what mixing means. Later he took over a residency at the so-called Italian “Studio 54” at the Adriatic cost and set its dancefloor on fire in order to sharpen his dj skills for a bigger mission to come.

When he changed the location 1979 and started a residency at the even

more legendary club Cosmic at Lake Laga, a place where avant-garde design and music should melt together to one big aesthetic blow, Baldelli started to free wheel and integrated a lot of Afro in his sets.

During his long spanning residency at Cosmic all music styles came together – from funky disco to electronic, reggae, fusion, rock, funk, Brasil or jazz. Baldelli wasn’t afraid in fusing them and his sets start to be famous for their eclectic meltdowns ranging from Ravel’s Bolero overlapping with a track by Africa Djola or an experimental piece by Steve Reich mixed together with a Malinke chant from New Guinea.

His experimental mixing style finally brought him stardom even thought he combined an extremely diverse range of genres, from European electronica and synth pop to African folk, Indian melodies, batucada, Kraftwerk, Fela Kuti and the German electronic sounds of SKY records - all often played at improper speed and mixed with effects and drum machines.

His worldly hypnotic sets that brought together the music of artists such as Killing Joke, The Incredible Bongo Band, Zaza, Chris And Cosey, Antena, Azymuth, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Yellowman finally fathered the cosmic sound - a highly influential musical movement that set itself apart from the Italo disco scene. Since then Baldelli’s record bag stayed eclectic and he still plays scintillating sets all over the world. His vinyl collection marks over 65.000 records and the essence of it paired with his long lasting dj experience can be felt in all his musical productions right up to his latest 12inch “Cosmic Drag” from last year. It functioned as a foretaste for an album that now sees the light of the day under the same name.

The longplayer contains of all four 12inch tracks plus eight more stimulating hypnotic tunes that have nothing in common with trends. Instead they create their very own ones. They all spread deepness with diversified melodies, chords and rhythms. You can feel Baldelli’s musical root Afro in tracks like “Chop and Roll”. You can feel electro vibes as well as techno driven grooves. Sometimes the funk hits you hard while in the next moment you get blown away by futuristic soundscapes.

What all arrangements have in common is a cosmic dust that melts playful with highflying synth lines and outer space tones. A truly weird mesmerising record that stays appealing while experimenting profoundly. It has been produced within six month and it is based on Baldelli’s very own musical ideas that he translated with a keyboardist into music.

“Most of my ideas emerge while travelling by train, driving my car to a club where I will perform and foremost when I devote myself to listen to my large vinyl collection” he explains about the inspiration for “Cosmic Drag”.

A statement that explains why his brand new tracks often built a bridge between careless funky seventies vibes, offish eighties coolness and the freedom of the nineties rave culture while landing fresh and unafraid in the present. The title of his album is both program and message for music that carries you away like a steam train into spheres where you forget yourself between irresistible rhythms and melodies. If your ears are into dance music that catches its targets with musicality try “Cosmic Drag” and become hooked.