Atelier Folie – No Rhyme, No Reason
#quotefromthe80s
No rhyme, no reason
No time, no season
No rhyme, no reason
This time, you're leavin'
#AtelierFolie #NoRhymeNoReason
The Italo-Disco trend proved to be an important support for the diffusion of the new sounds of the early 80s. In fact, at a time when technology was making new fascinating effects available, even relatively easy to obtain, it became essential to find diffusion circuits that did not place excessive entry barriers, as televisions probably could have done, even just for the limited time and space available. And for the same reason also the radios often became a non-optimal channel, even though the so-called private radios were emerging.
And so, in Italy in the early 80s, discos became an important channel of diffusion: when music was successful in discos, it was often cleared also in radio. Moreover, often the radio deejays also worked in discos, which naturally accelerated the diffusion.
In particular, in March 1983 there was a beautiful song that entered the charts and the history of Italo-Disco, with a very particular story. A story that begins in a private radio station in Milan, which was based in a crowded street near a shopping district. It was the period in which the various Radio Deejay, Radio Milano International, Radio 101 were being born, and there was another radio with an absolutely captivating name: Radio Peter Flowers.
If you’re wondering where they found this name, well, as it often happened, it was the name of the boss put in a vaguely English form. Among other things, the publisher Pietro Fioravanti, after graduating in architecture, had become famous in a quite different sector, because he had opened a very famous shoe shop, for which he had been the importer in Italy of some clothing that had enormous success in the 80s, first of all the famous “camperos” boots. The shop was called Peter Flowers, and we can say that the radio was also born to advertise the shop itself, and for a period it broadcast right from the back of the shop (and in an even earlier phase it broadcast from Fioravanti’s house).
Well, in the staff of Radio Peter Flowers there were two deejays who dared to make the big leap and went from the console to the stage, or rather, to electronic instruments, Gigi Farina and Franchino Rago, who took the stage name of Atelier Folie. Atelier Folie were undoubtedly inspired by that link between new wave and pop, and on March 8, 1983 they release their most famous song, No Rhyme, No Reason.
The song was a resounding success, and soon became even the opening tune of Discoring, the music show par excellence of Italian state television, and probably in those times still the most followed in Italy, even if it would soon be overwhelmed by the advent by Deejay Television and VideoMusic.
The song is very strong, and personally I think this is also the result of various inspirations, maybe even unaware, which however conditioned and guided the creation of this song somehow. The drums played by Franchino Rago can certainly recall another contemporary success, Blue Monday by New Order, while the voice altered with electronic effects may perhaps recall Robert Smith of The Cure, and more distantly also the initial sounds of Duran Duran in the new-romantic period, the days of Planet Earth, so to speak.
To be honest, the song did not even have a real video, and this, if you like, was a kind of certification of the Italo-Disco, often made with modest budgets, and above all designed precisely for the world of discos and not for television, that’s why the video became absolutely an optional. And if you really needed a video, you could take the scenes from a participation in some broadcast, perhaps at Discoring!
In short, No Rhyme, No Reason quickly became a real pillar of Italo-Disco in its purest, most electronic phase. After so many years the Atelier Folie still produce excellent music, and we Dinosaurs still feel an adrenaline rush when the electronic drums of this fabulous song begin!
Atelier Folie mentioned on Radio Peter Flowers page on Wikipedia (in italian)
Views: 1304