The Discomagic Empire
How the Milan-based label made Italo Disco iconic around the world.
In past newsletters, we have covered what makes a song an Italo Disco song and we have outlined the way Baby Records shaped the European music industry.
Another leading player in the Italo Disco scene was Severo Lombardoni with his Discomagic Records. A classically trained musician who played the harmonica, the guitar, and even the trombone, he opened a record store in 1974 and a wholesale record store in Milan in 1977.
In 1979, he established Discomagic. Compared to Baby Records, it was the more experimental leading label in the realm of Italo Disco. Just consider this anecdote: Discomagic right-hand man Rino Facchinetti tells author Francesco Cataldo Verrina that one afternoon, Francesco Bontempi, also known as “Lee Marrow,” showed up at Discomagic and he was fuming because a competitor had passed on a track of his that they deemed too “old-school Italo”, thus not fit for sale. That track was what would become “The rhythm of the night,” which repres…