Single Review: Giorgio Moroder – ’74 Is The New 24′
2 min read
There’s been something of a trend occurring the last year or so with the music industry’s elder statesmen. Obviously the Paul McCartneys, Neil Youngs and Rolling Stones of the world have maintained a consistently lofty level of notoriety for half a century now (and let’s face it, Keith Richards is going to outlive us all) but recently, some true pioneers – like perennial sideman Leon Russell or Soft Machine frontman Robert Wyatt – have emerged from the shadows of obscurity and rightfully reclaimed a place at the table.
The ubiquity of last year’s Random Access Memories propelled Daft Punk back into the stratosphere and in their slipstream, the stellar cast of featured players on the record. Seemingly overnight, Pharrell Williams became the household name he was always destined to be, Nile Rodgers became the go-to session guitarist for every track of the bourgeoning new-wave of funk and Italian disco legend Giorgio Moroder’s 9-minute spoken autobiography Giorgio by Moroder showed beyond doubt just how different dance music could’ve been without his influence.
His latest single, the wryly-titled 74 Is The New 24 cements his legacy perfectly with relentless arpeggiators (lest we forget, Moroder essentially invented the use of the “click-track” in electronic music), beguilingly garbled vocoder and expert use of the dynamic arc of a bona-fide “banger” Again, we partially have Moroder to thank for the all-important “drop” around which all dance music centers.
Anthemic, climactic and quintessentially European, 74 Is The New 24 is at the same time nostalgic for the early days of the dance culture which Moroder irrefutably shaped as well as fresh and modern enough to capitalize on the entire new generation of fans afforded to him by everyone’s favourite French robot duo. The very title of Giorgio’s re-emergence leads you to believe he’s been given something of a new lease on life and with 74 Is The New 24 being the title of 2015’s forthcoming LP (his first major-release in 23 years), it’s great to see such a legend back at the top of his game after such a lengthy stretch out of the public eye.
