Apparently I was not following the Disco charts in 1981 because this is another one I've never heard! I guess I was mostly into Top 40 at the time. Glad you brought this one to the surface though.
And did you like it, Dan? Hills Of Katmandu was very much a 100% urban dancefloor story, which is quite remarkable when you consider the lasting quality of the record. It could have become much bigger, but it arrived at a moment when the American music industry seemed unsure what to do with dance music.
I’ve been reading reports from the 1980 Billboard Disco Forum Convention, and it’s fascinating to see just how lost they were. At the very same time, there was a steady wave of imports coming in from Italy, where they had no hesitation at all about continuing to make disco records.😁
Thanks for reading and reacting, Dan. Have a great weekend!
I was so excited to see an article about "The Hills Of Katmandu" show up in my inbox!!! I was a huge fan of disco, and after disco spectacularly imploded within months in 1979, I was not ready for it to end and tried searching for more. With disco suddenly being so unpopular, I was brutally made fun of for still liking it.
I lived among the cornfields of Indiana, with the nearest city being Indianapolis, which had a black music station that became #1 in the market during this era, which I attributed to so many other people still wanting dance music after all the disco stations switched to danceless pop or rock. WTLC played great funk music, and I totally enjoyed it.
But I still missed the sugary, happy sounds of disco and tried so hard to find it. Somehow, I found a 12" mail order record club in New York City, so I started getting their mailings and looked for anything I might be interested in, mostly buying blind -- with the aid of the Billboard Disco Chart -- since I couldn't hear anything locally.
However, I learned about Tantra: The Double Album from a review in the audiophile magazine Stereo Review, which had awarded it a Recording Of Special Merit. (I learned quite a few top-notch disco albums from that magazine.) I could only buy it from the NYC mail order club.
Immediately, I was a fan of "The Hills Of Katmandu." None of the other songs on the album resonated with me nearly as much, but "The Hills Of Katmandu" was worth the price of the double album. I remember a roommate, who I never heard listening to anything close to disco, one day listening to "The Hills Of Katmandu" with glee, which really surprised me.
A couple years ago, I posted something on Facebook about this song -- I don't remember if it was only about it or about several disco albums/songs that never get old -- and one of my Millennial friends heard it for the first time from my link and also was amazed at how great the song is.
I never get tired of the amazing beauty of this song...or dancing to it.
Thanks for covering this. I didn't know anything about Tantra beyond what was in the album's notes; all I knew was that Italy still had disco and I looked for more. (Another Importe/12 record I got was "I'm Ok You'reOK" by American Gypsy, another one I never, ever get tired of.)
What a great story, J Lee! I love reactions like this because they bring my research to life. They capture the “event” that sits at the heart of the story I’m trying to tell through this newsletter: the disco backlash in Chicago was a far more layered story than it is often remembered as.
On one side, you had the major cities, where it was largely business as usual. There was still demand, and records still had to be made, promoted and played. That is very much part of this week’s story. On the other side, outside the urban centres, disco was being pushed aside and openly rejected.
So thank you for sharing that. I may well use your reaction in a future post because, as I’ve said before, I’ll keep returning to what happened in 1979. It remains one of the key turning points in dance music history.
Celso Valli was an interesting angle to explore because there is surprisingly little information available on the record, and even on him. Yet it’s such a fascinating track because it feels like one of those bridge records, connecting one era to the next.
We’ll definitely meet Importe/12 again, too. And American Gypsy will get their own episode further down the line.
Thanks again for reading and reacting, J Lee. Have a great weekend!
😁 The Idjut Boys edit is based on the lead single from their second album, A Place Called Tarot. That second album was decent, though not quite on the same level as the first.
That said, there have been quite a few remixes of Hills Of Katmandu. Most of them stay fairly close to the original, which tells you a lot about the strength of the song itself. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Patrick Cowley remix.
Sorry that I confused Tarot and Katmandu. There's a lot of similarity. I thought they might be different versions of the same song. Definitely got that "sound" that we can hear even in Hava Nagila.
Apparently I was not following the Disco charts in 1981 because this is another one I've never heard! I guess I was mostly into Top 40 at the time. Glad you brought this one to the surface though.
And did you like it, Dan? Hills Of Katmandu was very much a 100% urban dancefloor story, which is quite remarkable when you consider the lasting quality of the record. It could have become much bigger, but it arrived at a moment when the American music industry seemed unsure what to do with dance music.
I’ve been reading reports from the 1980 Billboard Disco Forum Convention, and it’s fascinating to see just how lost they were. At the very same time, there was a steady wave of imports coming in from Italy, where they had no hesitation at all about continuing to make disco records.😁
Thanks for reading and reacting, Dan. Have a great weekend!
I thought it was interesting as it had some New Wave/Electronic vibes. It's a bit repetitive for my taste but original nonetheless.
I was so excited to see an article about "The Hills Of Katmandu" show up in my inbox!!! I was a huge fan of disco, and after disco spectacularly imploded within months in 1979, I was not ready for it to end and tried searching for more. With disco suddenly being so unpopular, I was brutally made fun of for still liking it.
I lived among the cornfields of Indiana, with the nearest city being Indianapolis, which had a black music station that became #1 in the market during this era, which I attributed to so many other people still wanting dance music after all the disco stations switched to danceless pop or rock. WTLC played great funk music, and I totally enjoyed it.
But I still missed the sugary, happy sounds of disco and tried so hard to find it. Somehow, I found a 12" mail order record club in New York City, so I started getting their mailings and looked for anything I might be interested in, mostly buying blind -- with the aid of the Billboard Disco Chart -- since I couldn't hear anything locally.
However, I learned about Tantra: The Double Album from a review in the audiophile magazine Stereo Review, which had awarded it a Recording Of Special Merit. (I learned quite a few top-notch disco albums from that magazine.) I could only buy it from the NYC mail order club.
Immediately, I was a fan of "The Hills Of Katmandu." None of the other songs on the album resonated with me nearly as much, but "The Hills Of Katmandu" was worth the price of the double album. I remember a roommate, who I never heard listening to anything close to disco, one day listening to "The Hills Of Katmandu" with glee, which really surprised me.
A couple years ago, I posted something on Facebook about this song -- I don't remember if it was only about it or about several disco albums/songs that never get old -- and one of my Millennial friends heard it for the first time from my link and also was amazed at how great the song is.
I never get tired of the amazing beauty of this song...or dancing to it.
Thanks for covering this. I didn't know anything about Tantra beyond what was in the album's notes; all I knew was that Italy still had disco and I looked for more. (Another Importe/12 record I got was "I'm Ok You'reOK" by American Gypsy, another one I never, ever get tired of.)
What a great story, J Lee! I love reactions like this because they bring my research to life. They capture the “event” that sits at the heart of the story I’m trying to tell through this newsletter: the disco backlash in Chicago was a far more layered story than it is often remembered as.
On one side, you had the major cities, where it was largely business as usual. There was still demand, and records still had to be made, promoted and played. That is very much part of this week’s story. On the other side, outside the urban centres, disco was being pushed aside and openly rejected.
So thank you for sharing that. I may well use your reaction in a future post because, as I’ve said before, I’ll keep returning to what happened in 1979. It remains one of the key turning points in dance music history.
Celso Valli was an interesting angle to explore because there is surprisingly little information available on the record, and even on him. Yet it’s such a fascinating track because it feels like one of those bridge records, connecting one era to the next.
We’ll definitely meet Importe/12 again, too. And American Gypsy will get their own episode further down the line.
Thanks again for reading and reacting, J Lee. Have a great weekend!
wowww! excited to dig into this one. i really love the idjut boys re-edit. what do you think of it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvFc6_i2VbA
😁 The Idjut Boys edit is based on the lead single from their second album, A Place Called Tarot. That second album was decent, though not quite on the same level as the first.
That said, there have been quite a few remixes of Hills Of Katmandu. Most of them stay fairly close to the original, which tells you a lot about the strength of the song itself. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Patrick Cowley remix.
i will dig up that cowley remix.
Sorry that I confused Tarot and Katmandu. There's a lot of similarity. I thought they might be different versions of the same song. Definitely got that "sound" that we can hear even in Hava Nagila.