The Magickal Childe was recorded in studios
in London, Oslo, Rome and Reykjavik and reflects Leo's diverse DJ style
as well his roots in Italy's early house scene.
From the 70s funk infused "American Hero" to the trance of
"Mega Therion", to the tribal beats of "Evil Dildo"
this album will appeal to all lovers of deep dance music. And silly
song titles.
Leo Young Bio:
With his first release on Tummy Touch mere moments away (the diablo-funk-groove
melange that is The Magickal Childe), it seems appropriate to offer
up some background on our most unusual Italian friend to date, Leo Young.
Stamped through with all the hallmarks of a spiral-eyed, baby-eating
loonball, Leo's history is nothing if not colourful.
I mean, just check this out: Kicking off his DJing career through the
unlikely medium of catholic church radio stations in his native Italy,
Leo Zagami (aka Leo Young) found himself under the spotlight as the
youngest broadcast DJ in his country after playing his own show at the
tender age of 13 back in 1983.
By '86 Leo had achieved national prominence through regular exposure
on commercial networks countrywide, before taking up a residency in
the once infamous London celeb haunt Legends in 1987 (apparently no
less a figure than Mick Hucknall honed his party-hopping ginger wankster
skills there by hitting on scared young girls with that awful beaming
orange face of his).
The following year saw Leo reach the DMC national finals and shift further
into the burgeoning rave scene that would consume him for the following
decade. Recognised as the man responsible for organising Italy's first
rave in Rome back in '89, L'Impero Dei Sensi was a three day non-stop
extravaganza that galvanised Leo's subsequent musical activities.
Further parties lured Detroit originators Underground Resistance and
Juan Atkins to Europe for the first time, while he also takes the credit
for giving The Prodigy their first gig outside the UK.
By 1991, Leo had initiated the seminal Friday Uonna club in Rome - another
first in his country, combining as it did art exhibitions with an eclectic
stew of house, disco and Detroit techno sounds - before opening The
Underground in the catacombs of Constantine.
Soon after, controversy blew up around Leo's reclaiming of a catholic
church as the venue for his Sunday Morning Cosmic House events, which
went on to run for six heady months before intervention of a non-divine
nature led to the plug being pulled.
With some thirty records already released since 1987 on a brace of quality
imprints from MBG to Tresor, and a DJing reputation built on countless
world-wide performances and legendary 12 hour sets - perhaps most memorably
at Berlin's Tresor, where Leo was a fixture between '95 and '96 - the
man's contribution to dance music is significant to say the least.
As a footnote, Leo is also generally considered to be as mad as an upside
down clown, renowned for a reckless penchant for ludicrous coiffeuring,
questionable neo-pagan mystical interests, threatening verbal behaviour
and convincingly delivered allusions to a bloodline of eccentric castle-dwelling
Italian aristocrats.
So what about it then?