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🎵 IT084: A COLLECTION OF DISCO GEMS FOR THE STUDIO 💎
✏️ Toni Dal
🗓 16.11.20


Mixcloud / Spotify

Toni is a very sleepy artist, beatmaker and teetotal bae based in London.

Hey Toni. Can you tell us a little bit about your tape and your song selections?

It’s late, you’re in the studio and you just want to let loose to some disco bangers. The art world can be a stressful place and sometimes you just need to let go.

I present a curated collection of absolutely gorgeous disco gems for your studio. Art is about creative expression and we shouldn’t be so serious all the time. With the world in the state it’s in we need to cheer up, get together with our friends and peers (remain socially distant) and turn our studios into dance floors.

Whether your studio is the size of a football field, your bedroom, your lounge or the cupboard under the sink, these gems will help you explore that space.

What direction did you take with your cover art, and what was your process?

My love for this music is simple. When I'm down, I pull out a record, pop it on, and my mood is instantly improved. That lil’ joyful cherub is me, and hopefully it'll be you too.

What are your fave album covers, records with a great music and artwork combo, or musical projects with a visual component?


Paracosm – Washed Out 
2013, Sub Pop
Artwork: Sara Cywnar
Art dir: Ernest Greene 


This is one of my all time favorite albums and gosh does it have a beautiful cover too. A really natural sounding yet electronic album and super light and fluffy, just how I like it.


Songs To Break Up To – Ta-Ku
2013, HW&W
Artwork: Samuel Johnson


With artwork by Samuel Burgess-Johnson, Songs To Break Up To is a really astounding laidback, atmospheric electronic album, with elements of R&B and hip-hop. The opening track ‘Beginning To End’ holds such a mysterious nostalgia for me, I've never been able to pin down where this is rooted but it moves me on a profoundly deep level.

Elderberry – Swarvy
2016, Leaving Records
Artwork: Chris Hund




Surface Outtakes – Mdnsgn
2014, Leaving Records
Artwork: Chris Hund



High-Loops & Higher-Loops – Iman Omari
2015, Fresh Selects
Artwork: Tyler Deauvea


What did you listen to growing up?

Growing up I was almost force-fed blues – it’s all I listened to for years. I was learning to play the guitar so I would listen to people like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix a lot, but something changed when I heard the song ‘Da Funk’ by Daft Punk. Young me couldn't believe what I was hearing. I poured through that whole album (Homework) – drum machines, four on the floor, some really quite dirty synths, looping, sampling, and all brand new to me. What on earth is this I'm hearing, you know? So again, as is in my obsessive nature, that's all I would listen to for another couple years.

Since then I've always loved sample-based music, from J Dilla, to Knxwledge and from lofi artists like Tomppabeats to Jinsang and a huge breadth of deep house/lofi-house artists. That stuff really resonates with me.

And what’s on heavy rotation for you at the moment?

Struggling with the solitude and anxiety of lockdown and the world trying to piece itself back together, I've actually been distracting myself through the levity of Flight of The Conchords. Been having a good laugh to ‘Think About It’ by Flight of The Conchords. “What is wrong with the world today?” they ask.

What’s happening in your creative world at the moment?

My goal is only ever to do what makes me happy. Make music I want to hear, draw something silly to make myself laugh and hope along the way that I bring a little joy to someone else. My work has always been a mechanism to help me cope with depression and the challenges that it brings to my daily life. So to find that my work also brings a smile to other people is just wonderful. Once the world begins to return to normality again hopefully you'll see me spinning these records across london and you might even be able to catch me streaming live on Twitch.

Where can we find you?

You lovely people can find me at  @iamtonidal. You can also follow me on Twitch @iamtonidal

Thanks, Toni!

TRACKLIST
Prophets of Peace - Get It On / George Smallwood - Hey Mamma / Melba Moore - Standing Right Here / Renee Geyer - Be There in the Morning (1977 Version) / Leroy Burgess - Work It Out / Bileo - You Can Win / Split Decision Band - Watchin' Out / Donnell Pitman - Love Explosion / The Loni Gamble Band - I Like the Way You Do It / Lee Mcdonald aka: Cleveland Parker - I'll Do Anything For You / Skip Mahoney - Janice / Rahaan - Disco Fantasy / Sandra De Sá - Negra Flor / Voilaaa - Le disco des capitales / Logg - Dancing into the Stars / Beckie Bell - Music Madness (Extended Charles Maurice Version) / Clyde Alexander & Sanction - Got to Get Your Love / COEO - Japanese Woman / arian - Your Love Makes Me a Winner ︎

Mark