Gino Soccio - Face To Face (1982)

Artist:  Gino Soccio

Title:  Face To Face

Year:  1982

Format:  LP

Label:   Atlantic

Genre:   Electronic, Dance

Catalog#   ATL 50891

Gino Soccio is a Canadian disco record producer. His heritage is Italian.

He was one of the many disco producers who worked within euro disco style of the late 70's. His fourth album "Face To Face" is a sonically intriguing fusion of deep synthesizers and organic 4/4 drums all throughout- giving it a human touch. The soulful melodies that run throughout seasons these early 80's disco nuggets.

While things jump off to a solid start with "It's Alright" and "Dream On", the song that really does it is, "You Move Me" (one of the album highlights). While the other songs are in deep in the early 80's mode, "You Move Me" is a late 70's sounding disco soul track that sound like it could've been made by Chic. On the second half of the album , "Who Dunnit?" is a characterized by a stoned robotic bassline that can inspire hip hop break dancin- and is it me or does the guitar riff in the hook sound like Lipps Inc Funkytown. Nonetheless it's a nice sounding track. The centerpiece of the album to me is "Remember". "Remember" is a proto techno workout that leaped light years ahead of the pack as it laid down the ground work for electronica and acid house. It's influence can be heard to this day . I like the amount of musical depth that's contained in "Remember" in spite of the song being composed primarily by Keyboard. Not only is it a good electronic disco record, it's one that's distinctively groovy - instead of the banal emptiness you would hear in a lot of techno records today. Then there's "Look at Yourself". This is not a dance track but an experimental rock track with electronic elements. It's a nice record with a addictive guitar lick that holds it together .

Side one

1. It's Alright (7:37)    

2. Dream On (6:04)    

3. You Move Me (5:59)    

Side two

1. Who Dunnit? (5:54)    

2. Remember (6:32)    

3. Look at Yourself  (5:35)