- The interweb knows many things but it doesn’t know if ‘Cosmo Vitelli’ is Cosmo Vitelli’s birth name or a pseudonym. Either way it’s a fucking great name for someone who makes automobile-obsessed electronic disco records. Cosmo fully lives up to his name with this latest offering from him and Julien Briffaz, as part of DFA’s ‘Death From Abroad’ series.
‘Babylon by Car’ is the uptempo side here, getting into the car theme with atmospheric clanks, car horns and chimes leading into one of those ‘driving fast at night’ kind of insistent rhythms. The track shifts from acidy squelches to smoother guitar licks and back again and constantly evokes images of well-groomed Italian men in sports coats driving their Lancias through mountain tunnels at speed. Which is all very modish, but also highly danceable, getting intense enough to make you spill your Prosecco towards the end.
The midtempo track on the B-side, however, is the real star here. ‘Tragedy Symphony’ sets out its stall with ambulance sirens and a chugging rhythm which mutates into a monster-truck of a riff, simultaneously euphoric and ominous, while camp-horror vocals intone “Sensations / Escape me / You rape me / I cry”. Cowbells and congas complete the picture as the track develops making this into that most priceless of records for the disco DJ—a track you can play at the end of your ‘slow’ set before you start playing the fast records. Or, to be honest, a great party tune for anyone.
TracklistA Babylon By Car
B Tragedy Symphony