Italy, 1976: In a luxurious discotheque on the Italian Adriatic Coast, every weekend two American DJs called Bob and Tom play records that are just making history in their hometown NYC at the legendary Loft. Bob and Tom are resident DJs at the Baia Degli Angeli, a gigantic club with various floors, fountains, swimming pools and lots of glitz for the jet set. After the Baia closes due to a drug raid, Daniele Baldelli – inspired by the “Baia Sound” – starts DJing in a new club called Cosmic in Lazise.

Not only is he beat-mixing funk, soul and early disco, but Baldelli’s sytle is unique; songs are mixed perfectly in a superslow tempo of 80-105 BPM. Cosmic is like a wild LSD trip; Afro mixed with German electronics, percussion solos, Bolero with delay effects, 12”s on 33 instead of 45, 70s Krautrock, Industrial… This way of playing records is absolutely new, and Daniele gets quickly famous. A whole wave of DJs and clubs get inspired by his mixtapes, and soon the whole of northern Italy calls it “Cosmic Sound”.

Unlike Italodisco, Cosmic or “Afrofunky” was never exported broadly; it has always stayed a local party phenomenon. That’s one of the reasons why it wasn’t really exploited commercially yet like many other 1980s genres. Today producers such as Lindstrom, Prins Thomas and DJ Harvey have caught the spirit, and labels like Gomma or Eskimo are deeply inspired try to create dance tracks that have a similar atmosphere.

This compilation is a collection of the original music that was actually played at Discoteca Cosmic. It is playful, experimental, harmonic and most of all it is dance music. Take a trip back in time!