For the 909originals crew, to hear the name Alexander Robotnick is to be transported back to the early 2000s and the Electric City nights at Dublin’s The Metropolitan and Traffic – magical evenings spent in the company of a true electronic music legend.
Now, some 40 years on from his breakthrough hit Problèmes D’amour, and with Robotnick himself (aka Maurizio Dami) now in his 70s, the Italo disco pioneer is returning with a new album, Simple Music, this coming December.
The eight-track album, set to be released on his own Hot Elephant Music imprint, is awash with the nuances that shaped Robotnick’s career – scything electro beats, arpeggiated rhythms and lush chord progressions. Virtual Empathy, the album’s fifth track, is a particularly blissful moment.
“Riffs and grooves are not endless, and when you are my age, you may have heard them already,” Robotnick says of the new album. “I am having more and more trouble finding interesting tracks for myself, so I felt the need to produce ‘simple’ music that generates genuine feelings in a music scene that can be averse to risk.”
It’s great to see the high prince of electro disco return to weave some more studio magic.
Alexander Robotnick – Simple Music is released on Hot Elephant Music on 2 December. More information can be found here.