You don't have to listen to Freddy K's "Devo Andare" to know it's an Italian rave anthem. You can just read the comments on YouTube, which, in addition to things like "LEGGENDA" and "disco immortale," include the recurring phrase "che ricordi—"what memories." Freddy K, born Alessio Armeni, was a linchpin of Italy's rave scene in the '90s, playing marathon sets at afterhours parties and for hours each night on his radio show, Virus. Since then, he worked on the Italian labels Elettronica Romana and, with the late Max_M, M_Rec. Currently based in Berlin, he's reemerging as a DJ—he recently put in an 11-hour closing set at Berghain. Now, 20 years since it first came out, he's rereleased his biggest classic. "In the beginning this track was a joke during a crazy moment of my life," he wrote. "Now it is time to repress and prepare a new version to play."
The original "Devo Andare" has a demented energy that would only make sense on the most crazed dance floors. This is thanks less to its brutal drums than to its weirdly cheery bassline and delirious vocal lead, which sounds a bit like an Italian Karl Hyde repeating a line that translates roughly to "I have to go, I have to go, I cannot wait, I have to go." The two remixes are by Armeni and the Key Vinyl artist PVS, who take similar approaches, turning that vocal into a blurry, nightmarish loop and burying it in vicious locomotive rhythms—PVS's thick and heavy, Armeni's more strobing and hypnotic. Both trade the rave alarm skuzz of the original for the spacey gloom of modern techno, and in doing so lose a bit of what made "Devo Andare" so special. With their raw power, though, they just about do the original justice.
The original "Devo Andare" has a demented energy that would only make sense on the most crazed dance floors. This is thanks less to its brutal drums than to its weirdly cheery bassline and delirious vocal lead, which sounds a bit like an Italian Karl Hyde repeating a line that translates roughly to "I have to go, I have to go, I cannot wait, I have to go." The two remixes are by Armeni and the Key Vinyl artist PVS, who take similar approaches, turning that vocal into a blurry, nightmarish loop and burying it in vicious locomotive rhythms—PVS's thick and heavy, Armeni's more strobing and hypnotic. Both trade the rave alarm skuzz of the original for the spacey gloom of modern techno, and in doing so lose a bit of what made "Devo Andare" so special. With their raw power, though, they just about do the original justice.
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Published /
Thu / 29 Jun 2017 -
Words /
Will Lynch -
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Tracklist /
A1 Devo Andare (XXX 2017)
B1 Devo Andare (PVS Rework)
B2 Devo Andare (Original Mix 1997)
Central
All
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