With the release of Piero Umiliani's 'Discomania (Jolly Mare Lifting)' Four Flies launched RELOVED, a vinyl series where contemporary DJs and producers rework tunes from Italian golden age soundtracks and library music.
The aim of the series is to spark a conversation between past, present and future, joining the dots between Italy's great film and library-music tradition and a global scene of forward-thinking producers - the names confirmed so far include Dengue Dengue Dengue, Free The Robots, Jolly Mare, Koralle (feat. Illa J), Fratelli Malibu, Mounika, Oké aka Deda, Luke Beats, Ollie Teeba of The Herbaliser
and Deca.
The releases are co-curated by fellow independent label Little Beat More - in their own words:
"We're giving new life to music from some of the greatest Italian composers of the past. It's all about sampling, and that's why we decided to involve not only electronic producers but also highly talented beat makers, and we decided to focus mostly on the 7-inch format which is so popular among hip hop lovers. It's a project with no boundaries. The producers and beat-makers involved come from all over the globe."
First in line is the single 'Autumn 2021' a rework by musician DJ and beat maker Free The Robots of the original track 'Autumn 2001' by Italian jazz pianist and electronic music pioneer Gianni Safred.
'Autumn 2001' comes from the 1978 Italian library LP Futuribile (The Life To Come), a retro-futuristic masterpiece by Gianni Safred, one of the great pioneers of Italian electronic music.
A jazz musician from Trieste, northern Italy, Safred at one point began making music with ''his electronic instruments'' (Minimoog, Polymoog, Arp Odissey, Arp Omni, Fender piano, Sequencer Roland, Space Echo Roland) in his own mini studio, eventually releasing three albums (now ultra-rare and highly sought-after). Futuribile, the second one, is an incredible electronic space-disco-jazz album, full of deep breaks and beats, along with dope overlapping synths, which often results in minimalistic proto-house tunes. A sound that takes you both back in time and forward into the future.
Chris Alfaro, aka Free the Robots, is a musician, beat maker and DJ known for his ability to jump in and out of different sonic worlds, creating a unique signature sound blending electronic, hip hop, jazz and psychedelia. His free-$owing imagination keep his productions constantly moving forward – away from robotic monotony, ultimately freeing the robots.
He is one of the pioneering artists to come out of LA's beat movement, the epicenter of which is the music venue Low End Theory, whose weekly showcase for uncut beat-driven tracks has been a launchpad for the success of prolific electronic artists such as Daedelus and Flying Lotus.
He continues on building his line up of original
recordings in unpredictable directions. The energy and technical skill behind his live performances have landed him a place among the greats, sharing stages with the likes of Flying Lotus, DJ Shadow and DJ Krush.
When we started planning the Reloved series, we immediately reached out to Free the Robots. Nothing made more sense than kicking off with one of the key figures of the West Coast experimental beats scene, a movement that has changed beat making globally, and forever.
Free The Robots says about the release: "The sounds used back in the '60s and '70s are partly where I model my own sound and many Italian bands from the era played a big role in the inspiration of my music. To add to the narrative is really just the continued preservation of classic sounds, re-told and flipped in my own way as a producer of this era. My take on Autumn 2001 was more a drum heavy, loopy and spaced out approach to the original song."