Ciel Gloss
Self Control
Italo Disco lives again.
To a younger generation, Italo Disco – a fusion of New Wave, synth-pop, and club music emanating from Italy – is a subgenre that is lost in the passage of time, discovered in buried treasures of dusty vinyl. It wasn’t particularly huge in the U.S. (Europe and Asia loved it), but it managed to score a random hit or two on American Top-40 stations. One of them was “Self Control,” originally recorded by Raf but popularized by Laura Branigan in 1984.
Ciel Gloss’ cover of “Self Control” is a long-deserved contemporary makeover of a virtually forgotten (again, stateside at least) classic that was a state-of-the-art dance track for its time. Gloss’ dreamy vocals captures the oozing sensuality of Branigan’s take but with a different tone. Gloss aims for otherworldly sweetness, echoing the transcendent journey of the night life. The keyboards and production values are modern, but their faithfulness to its source reveals how cutting edge it was to begin with.
Balancing moodiness with throbbing sexuality, “Self Control” seduces and mesmerizes the ears. Gloss is a young vocalist who steps into to the future while looking at the past. Her talent is a throwback to the days when artists pushed the stylistic boundaries of pop music.
