Passengers (2) ‎– Hot Leather

This infectious track of cutting edge, early 80's, Italo- disco ranks among Celso Valli's best, and along with his Tantra releases, helped secure his reputation as master producer of the genre. This key LP track by commercial, Italian pop group, The Passengers, became an instant dance floor phenomenon upon its release, and arguably remains a legend over 30 years later. Valli once again demonstrated his uncanny knack for blending and layering synthesizers with live percussion and vocals, into elaborate, build-and-release phrasing, which vamps and grinds, layer by layer,into a key-changing, escalating crescendo "bridge". In this case, he laid a deep, grinding synth-bass guitar strum on each downbeat of the standard, 4-4, drum machine, and threaded it with an electronic bass "dribble" in double time (a la "I Feel Love") This gives the piece an instantaneous, irresistable syncopation in double time, which anchors the entire track, and confirms the dark, sexually implicit attitude its title suggests. Valli also employs his trademark crisp, live bongo riffs to counter the deep driving bass/drums with cha-cha syncopation, a perfect contrast which drove dance floors wild, and still sounds incredibly fresh and interesting 3 decades after its release. As was typical, the Italian lyrics didn't translate very intelligently or stylishly into English, and the result is somewhat silly/dated, even for that day. But who cares? ...he rhythm of this track is irresistable. Disco afficionados everywhere: I defy you to stand completely still when this song is played!