Releases by jollymusic

"It’s like one thousand records broken down into one," describes lanky Mario Pierro of the music he makes with fellow Roman Francesco de Bellis. Indeed this Italian duo spend an inordiante amount of time digging out ancient vinyl in secondhand emporiums. It was this hobby which caused the pair to land a regular half hour slot on a local radio show in 1998. Playing only second hand records from 60s, 70s and 80s they called the show ‘Around the world in 33rpm’ (in Italian, of course). Explains Mario: "It was a giant mixture of records that Francesco assembled on an old tape deck. Then we started taking these mad cassettes and putting them into a computer to add more effects. We wanted to explore the sound of broken needle or a guitar. Soon we started using samples and making music like that in Jolly Music." Mario met Francesco in 1995 through a University friend who wore a Front 242 T-shirt. Mario came from a tradtional music background, he was studying the subject, playing keyboards with jazz bands but also had a healthy interest in electronica. Francesco had been DJing since 1989 and was keen to make music. Together they formed the electronic outfit MAT101, a project they continue today. Despite their different backgrounds and appearances - there’s a foot in height between the two – Francesco and Mario are likeminded. Bizarrely they share the same birthday - 8 October 1975. It’s not just second hand vinyl that Jolly Music love. Francesco lives by Rome’s largest market and has a huge collection of vintage sunglasses. He loves soundtracks from Italy’s cinematic heyday, 60s stuff like the octopus horror flick Tentacle. Mario’s passion is buying the video games consoles he always wanted as a kid. Their basement studio is a shrine to the history of cool electronics. Mario: "We’re always searching through second hand newspapers because it’s difficult to find keyboards now that produce the same sound as the old ones. I think we have at least twelve." It’s no surprise they called an album track ‘Minimoog Dreaming’. A union of disco, electronica, acid house, film soundtracks and weird sounds played out on ancient keyboards, why did they call the music ‘jolly’? "You’ll find a lot of jolly hotels, jolly bars,jolly tyres for your car and jolly toys in Italy," explains Mario. "All the signs for these places come from the 70s and are a bit dusty and old fashioned. The influence and atmosphere we want to put in our records is the same as those signs - dusty, broken, cool." Is Jolly Music an exercise in chic nostalgia? Mario: "We’re not like "how beautiful is the past and today is shit." It’s more like the sounds are inside you from when you were a child and you keep them in mind. Jolly Music is a celebration. We’re assembling things from the past to make something new." A number of people have helped the assembly on their debut album, Jolly Bar. Kings of Convenience front man Erlend Øye asked Francesco and Mario to contribute to his forthcoming solo electro album. They ended up swapping a track with Erlend penning the lyrics for forthcoming single ‘Talco Uno’ – a cheeky satire on clubbing today and a surefire summer smash. For the record, Mario claims he’s taller than Erlend. A surprising choice is Sonya from Echobelly on the electro tinged ‘K-Fun’. Mario explains how her vocals filled the gaps "perfectly". Brit KT Tunstall delivers Bjork-style vocals to the calming ‘Reversi’ and Miss Kittin style stroppiness to the high energy electro disco of ‘Crociera’. While Adam Burke, a half Italian/half English friend of Francesco’s pays homage to 70s funk on ‘Fever New’. Production duties came from New Order, Chemical Brothers legend Steve Dub. "If you listen to the drums you can tell it’s him because it’s powerful," reveals Marco. While commerical house music loses support by the day and electro pop is exposed as a passing trend, Jolly Music defy instant categorisation. They may use a lot of samples but they don’t sound like the Avalanches. A gentler and craftier Daft Punk, their club-friendly creations are rewarding at home too. Have we unearthed the new Italian connection? We can only suggest that you tune in to their jolly world and find out for yourselves... Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.