“Hard Ton Disco Queen”…Italy’s Latest Dance Floor Explosion!!!
“Diamonds, fur coat, champagne” Hard Ton, discussing their musical inspiration! ‘Selfish’ is Hard Ton’s debut EP for Gigolo Records, an artist in the true sense of the word, and one that appears to follow the same lineage as previous label mates Fischerspooner, Tiga et al. What would happen if Divine had been captured by disco aliens and later beamed back to modern day Italy? The answer is closer than you think, and maybe you need look no further than Hard Ton, the biggest disco queen of the XXI Century. With a body that can only remind us of John Waters’ muse, a voice that confidently pulls-up to Sylvester falsetto’s, all set to soundtrack that hops between accelerated beats and shameless acid sounds. He is omnivorous, feeding from the multilevel outfits of Leigh Bowery and modern pop imagery. With his 300lbs, Hard Ton is a Giorgio Moroder low-fat grooves model, with all points colliding into a heavy weight Chicago-sound queen machine. Such a confident description can only come to music and art that is bold in its approach and realized shortly after inception.
Using, exclusively, analogue and vintage gear from the 303, 606, 707, Oberheim DMX, Korg Monopoly, MS20, Prophet V5, the list goes on and is a calling card to any gear-nerd. But the music never becomes stiff or contrived, in fact it always remains fun, as expected when you play with equipment that lives and dies by its own unpredictable rules. ‘Once you start to mess around with it, you never know what’s gonna happen’, says HT. The writing process and the instrumentation informs the music, and by now you should have clear idea what to expect; songs, fashioned in a disco style, with a modern approach to the classic Chicago sound as a back drop. With this in mind it comes as no surprise that their musical references range from Arthur Russell, Drexciya, Gaz Nevada, Duran Duran, Justus Khoencke, Moroder, Terre Thaemlitz, Diana Est, Khan, UR, Madonna and early acid house. But outside of this, Hard Ton fronts a heavy metal band and references Rob Halford from Judas Priest and Geoff Tate from Queensrÿche as inspiration. With this in mind we can sit back and listen to music with the comfort that future releases will hopefully be as schizophrenic this story.
“Selfish” EP out March 15, on Gigolo Records