RECORD PRODUCER - RADIO PRESENTER - CLUB DJ -WANNA BE ILLUMINATI :)
RECORD PRODUCER
DISCOGRAPHY
YEAR - TITLE- ARTIST
1988 "Beat Romance" - Backstage / Lunatic Records - Disco Magic (Italy)
1990 "Shining" - Brothers Brigade (Leo Young, Cirillo, Markie) / White Label (UK)
1991
"True Underground Sound of Rome Vol. 1" - Male Productions (Leo
Young , Mauro Tannino, Chicco Furotti) / UMM (
Italy) - Male Productions (UK)
1992 "True Underground Sound of Rome Vol. 2" - Leo Young, Mauro Tannino, Chicco Furlotti / Male Productions
(UK)
1992 "Golem" (double vinyl LP) - Leo Young / MBG (Italy)
1993 "The Order" (EP) - The Order / Male Productons (UK & Italy)
1994 "I need you Blitza" - Leo Young / Animus (Italy)
1994 "Dirty Melody" - Eiffel Music & Leo Young / Animus (Italy)
1994 "The Numerical Value" - Music Institute (UK) / Music Institute (UK), Sharp (UK). (Listed as one of Tony De Vit Top 10 tracks of all time!)
1994 "The Question" - Cult Status (Leo Young and Marco Funari) / Music Institute (UK)
1995 "In Geneva Vol. 1" - Leo Young & Direct Courant / Strong House Records/Amato (UK). (Charted by Erik Morillo in his top ten tracks for 1995!)
1995 "So true I want You" & "Temple of trouble" - Leo Young and Nigel Champion (N-Joy) / CSMF (UK). (Prodigy's record label!)
1996 "True" - Leo Young & Don One (alias Mark Bell alias Shaboom!) / KTM, Tresor (Germany), Otherside (Chicago USA) (Marshall Jefferson's Label)
1997 "Cosmic Land" (Triple vinyl LP) - Leo Young featuring Mr Beef / KTM, Tresor (Germany)
1997 "African Rhapsody" - Leo Young & Mr. Beef / Mama Records (UK)
1997 "Spy in Rio" - Leo, Laj & Mr. Beef / Spectrum (UK)
1997 "Secret Mission" - Leo Young & Marco Funari / Music Institute (UK)
1997 "The Sicilian Recipe" (EP) - Leo Young & Mr. Beef (with Strong help by Amato himself...) / Strong Jazz Records /Amato (UK)
1997 "From Russia with Funk" - Leo Young and Richard Whaterhouse featuring Steve "Bongo" Young/ Pronto (UK)
1997 "High Energy Breakdown" - Dub Duo vs. LNL featuring Claudio Coccoluto / Pronto (UK)
1997 "Psychedelic Billy" - Leo Young & The Subiaco Project (Mr Angel, Pulcinelli, Giuseppe Mari) / Pronto (UK)
1997 "Not so fantastic 3" - Ray Mang, Lee Tong and additional interference by John Stitch (Dan from Idjut Boys!) / Mangled (UK)
1998 "Beyond the Stars" - Leo, Laj & Mr. Beef / Spectrum (UK)
1998 "The Roman Funk Front EP" - (L.Young,L.Pulcinelli,C.Vincenzini) (DOUBLE PACK EP) Leo Young featuring Mr Angel/ Disorient (UK & Japan) *
1998 "Roman Funk Front Vol II" featuring Daniele Baldelli / Pronto (UK) *
1998 "The Reality is very different EP" - The Young Brothers the Christian and Pulcinella (includes unreleased track by Luigi Pulcinelli / Pronto (UK) *
1998 "Mystic Voyages" - Leo Young, Laj, Mut Koru (limited 500 copies World Cup 98 release) / Pronto (UK)
1998 "The Scene was" - The Young Brothers & Vincencini Pronto Recordings (UK) *
1999
"The Roman Funk Front Vol. III" (DOUBLE
PACK EP) - Leo
Young & DJ Vincenzini
featuring Daniele Baldelli, Mr Angel, and Sebastian Young /
Pronto Recordings (UK) *
1999 "Let me be weird" - The Young Brothers & Vincencini featuring Baldelli / Pronto Recordings 010 WHITE LABEL ONLY (UK)
1999 "La b combination" - Leo Young / Sniff (France)
1999 "The Final Sax & Sex Version" - Young & Vincencini featuring M. Casale / Sniff (UK)
1999 "Mangled 005" - Ray Mang & Lee Tong mangled (UK) *
1999 "The Afro Porn Adventures of Leo Young" - Leo Young featuring Mr Angel and Luigi Pulcinelli / Prosniff LP (UK) *
2000 "My Gitana" - The Leo Magic Orchestra / People records (UK) *
2001 "The poor brother of Pete" - Lee Tong / Lowlands-Surpise Records (Belgium) *
2001 "The Magickal Childe" - Leo Young/ Tummy Touch (UK), Baza (Russia) 2002 *
2003 " Cosmic" (remix) - Sedona vs. Roswell Leo Young / Eletrick Soul (New Jersey USA)
IN ADDITION TO THIS LEO YOUNG HAS ALSO RELEASED FROM HIS OWN LABELS (PRONTO RECORDINGS, PROSNIFF, ARISTOCRATICA) TRACKS FROM THE FOLLOWING ARTISTS: TOMMI WHITE (ICELAND), TRULZ and ROBIN (NORWAY), DJ VINCENZINI (ITALY), GIANCARLINO B. (GOA CLUB ROME) AND WAS CO-OWNER OF THE HISTORIC ITALIAN MALE PRODUCTIONS RECORD LABEL AND RAVE MANAGEMENT FROM 1990 to 1992.
In 1997 Leo founds the Pronto
Recordings record label in Brixton (London) and with the promotional
help of Tony Rossano, who was at that time his press agent ( later
involved in running Strut Records and currentely also a successfull dj
), he manages to launch the Pronto phenomenon worldwide, releasing
between 1997 and 2000 a total number of 11 masterpieces known to many as
Pronto Classics.
RADIO PRESENTER
In December 1983 Leo gets his first radio show called DJ MUSIC on the local catholic radio station Radio Valle dell'Aniene run by the famous Vatican showbusiness priest Don Mario Pieracci now Monsignor Mario Pieracci now personal assistant of Cardinal Ruini (www.donmario.it). This possibility was given to him because since the tender age of 1o, Leo was involved in catholic radio shows for kids, already showing his talent for entertainment and a big interest for dance music, which was very unusual for his young age. In 1986 while visiting the local hairdresser for a nice haircut (one of Leo's fixations), he gets to meet the director of a commercial regional radio, who had been listening to his show and proposed him a more suitable public for his music...and that's it! Leo starts the most successful show on regional radio, soon to be broadcasted by 5 different stations and called BABILONIA "MUSIC FROM THE FUTURE", a show that deliberately challenged the Italian radio establishment by broadcasting for the first time electro and early house music for 3 hours every day no-stop. In the meantime continuing his collaboration with his media mentor Don Mario on a TV show called VJ MUSICA for a local catholic TV. A very successfull show for this local TV which was re-run later on for many years by Don Mario for the bigger audience of his regional TV Rete Blu. The eccentric TV show featured Leo's very own personal pioneering experiments (1987-88) with the TV medium combining a sort of mad reality TV and music videos for a total of 93 episodes!
In
1990, after Leo became one of
Italy's most respected DJs, he was invited by his dear friend Luca
Cucchetti (currentely working on Italian RAI
Radio 2) to join one of Italy's more successful dance music shows called
CENTRO SUONO SOUND SYSTEM on the famous roman
black music station Radio Centro Suono(www.radiocentrosuono.it), where
only a year later he will be having as guests the famous English group
the Prodigy (who published in 1995 one of Leo's
most obscure releases on their own imprint CSMF).
In 1994 Leo hosted also for a
brief period of 4 months a very funny night talk show on a local roman
radio, and in 1995 he became part of the now famous HOUSE
MACHINE TEAM and hosted shows on Swiss National radio COLOUR
3 .
For a few years Leo was
involved with House Machine, a radio show that is broadcasted in several
different countries and everywhere in Italy. Though he has been too busy
to work for them lately, he still supports them and occasionally drops
in.
Leo has also been the first
foreign radio presenter to broadcast in Russia in 1997 with a 4 hours
special dedicated to the history of dance music, and since then has
become a popular figure in Russian entertainment with his last radio
show being broadcasted nationwide by 54 radios! (Russia is a big place!).
Leo has also been hosting
occasional shows on Icelandic National Radio with music. Working with
two of Iceland's most respected comedians he finds that only Iceland can
take his dark humour fully, so the rest of the world will have to wait
until they are ready to appreciate Leo's
comedy talents... the Great Comedy of Pan!
He has also been been guested in some of the most prestigious dance
radio stations in Europe, like Kiss FM in London, where he also
delivered a special mix show in the year 2000, and Kiss Fm in Berlin,
plus many more occasional shows all over the place, like his very
hilarious shows on national Norwegian radio NRK with
Pål Strangefruit or on The Voice 104.8 (Oslo) with G-Ha. Let's just say
that Leo is the only DJ
to have broadcasted in every corner of Europe, from his native Sicily to
the extreme north of Murmansk in the last 20 years.
For his achievements all over the world he has been awarded publicly in
Rimini in 1998 from the Italian National Radio 2 (RAI) and from Italy's
number one radio Dj and
authority Claudio Cecchetto the SUPREME DJ
AWARD as being one of Italy's 20 best Dj's
of all time, something that finally made his family back in Sicily and
his beloved mother in Rome proud. Soon after Leo
was invited to RAI HQ in Milan to host as a
very special guest Italy's number one show the Italian TOP
10, which that day reached nearly 3 million listeners! For several years
Leo also collaborated with
Italy's most successful commercial radio Radio Dimensione Suono
(www.rds.it). His childhood friend Carlo Antonucci, who is now the
Director, still remembers with joy those early days in their little
studio were they started BABILONIA music that
definately was the FUTURE...
CLUB DJ
As
early as 1984 Leo was invited
to perform his first DJ set in
the garage of a friend that loved the dance approach of his radio show
and wanted him to try something new by working with a crowd. Leo
was already experimenting with Dj
equipment since the age of 10 and thanks to a friend of his father, a
famous bass player called Tony Wamsley (co-founder of FLYING
RECORDS in Naples), he started to really love what club Djs were
doing, mixing two different records at the same time for the first time
in history. He made sure that Tony regulary sent tapes from legendary USA
radios like PHILLY 99 FM in
Philadelphia and WBLS in NY,
sources of much of his early musical inspiration. In the
beginning of 1986 another radio DJ
and dear friend Carlo Antonucci lets him work for the first time in a
club and that's it! A move that will change Leo's
life forever, because soon after he will start to DJ
all over central Italy. In 1987 he becomes resident of the historical
club LEGENDS in London where VIP's
like Mick Jagger and Paul Weller (spinning records occasionaly) use to
dance to Leo's Djing! So how
did he do it?
disciple
Well, Leo is the grandson of a
very eccentric lady known to the public as the writer ANNE
CUMMING and the actress FELICITY MASON.
So who was this person that helped his grandson to become one of
Europe's leading DJ's
?
She died in 1993, but her legacy and her work continues to bring
admiration from all quarters. FELICITY MASON was
one of the few living disciples of the master russian actor MICHAEL
CHEKHOV (www.utoronto.ca/slavic/tsq/01/chekhovwest.html) and was
described by her dear friend WILLIAM BURROUGHS (http.//artnetweb.com/iola/journal/081197.html)
as being the lady of the future... FELICITY MASON introduced
Leo to the PET
SHOP BOYS duo in 1983 who celebrated with him in 1986 the number
one hit WEST END GIRLS on EMI
in one of his famous pasta parties, where Bronsky Beat and other
80's icons were running around the place. Most importantly Felicity
introduced him to BRION GISIN (www.thameshudsonusa.com/new/fall03/528438.htm),
one of the most inspirational people of the BEAT
GENERATION, inventor of the DREAM MACHINE and
creator of the CUT UP TECNIQUE
later on used by BURROUGHS for magickal
experimentation. Felicity got Leo
to spend a lot of time with this man who the Rolling Stones have always
worshipped as a true Master, and that for Leo
was another family friend that will inspire him for the rest of his
life. In the meantime Leo's
task as a disciple of this eccentric bunch was to cook pasta for the
starving underground writer and dear friend Terry Wilson who wrote the
celebrated underground novel D'Train and PLANET
R-101 with Brion Gisin. Terry Wilson (www.creationbooks.com/frameset.asp?p=
http://creationbooks.com/titles/1840680474.html),
practicly living with Leo and
his grandmother at that time also became another source of inspiration
for the young lion pasta king and sorceror's apprentice.....Historical
dialogues from that period can even be found in the record production of
the famous BILL LASWELL (www.silent-wather.net/billaswell/discography/collect1/
fileunderburroughs.html).
But FELICITY MASON was also ANNE
CUMMING. Leo Young's
grandmother was also known all over the world for her outrageous books
"THE LOVE HABIT" and "THE LOVE
QUEST" and a real star of the sexual revolution. Most of all
she was Leo's first manager and
got him his first important DJ
residency at London's most known 80's joint called LEGENDS
(what an appropiate name for a place to start ...) Not only did
she get Leo his first
international Dj residency, but
she also financed him in going to learn more about recording by becoming
a student of the famous London production duo DOUBLE
TROUBLE (remember them with the REBEL
MC?) at the famous 80's North London DJ
studio called NOISEGATE STUDIOS, where CJ MACKINTOSH
was starting to PUMP UP THE
VOLUME at that time ...history of house...
So in summer 1987 Leo was Djing
at LEGENDS, and he was about to start a new
night with MARK MORE (S-EXPRESS) and his
friend FRANCO PRESTA, but unfortunately he had
to go back to Italy where at that time you had to do an obligatory year
of bollocks in the military before getting your passport back.
Hence Leo stays in Italy
participating in the DMC Italian final and
later becoming involved in creating the first rave in Italy together
with his friends DJ Bismark and
Enzo (Ragazzi Terribili). Leo
was in fact officially recognized as the inventor of Italian raves by
the Italian newspaper LA REPUBLICA (article by
RICARDO LUNA summer 1990).
He worked a lot as a dj
alongside Italian house legend CLAUDIO COCCOLUTO in
the 1988 period (Crocodile...) before entering the airforce and becoming
involved in running the variety department of the Ministry of Defence, a
truly hilarious task that Leo
had to follow during the day. However at night he was back in the clubs
with a residency in the Club Dream with Marco Moreggia (Ragazzi
Terribili), located in Via Veneto, home of La Dolce Vita which years
earlier had seen his grandmother FELICITY MASON working
for FELLINI, the king of cinema. And yes,
that's why Leo is half Italian,
half English. Leo's mother came
to Italy with Felicity, who was working in the Italian cinema business
of the 50's and 60's, and she found the true Sicilian man....Leo's
father called Elio!
Between 1989 and 1994 Leo
played in hundreds of clubs and raves across Italy and Switzerland until
he decided to leave Rome for a more suitable international location like
London (the city of his mother). The fact that he had been re-opening a
church and using it as a venue for his Sunday morning personal House
Mass disturbed the Vatican boys and it became clear that his work in
Italy was starting to get too much attention from certain "authorities",
not being very happy with this growing trend of Body and Soul...
NOTORIOUS
CLUBS IN ITALY WHERE HE WORKED
REGULARLY INCLUDED:
COCORICO' (RICCIONE)
RED ZONE (PERUGIA)
IMPERIALE (TIRRENIA)
UNDERGROUND CLUB (ROME)
ALIEN (ROME)
PIPER (ROME)
TENAX (FLORENCE)
CENTRAL PARK (FLORENCE)
Leo
was also one of the biggest rave organizers and with his dear friends
Chicco Furlotti and Mauro Tannino put together between 5000 to 10000
people every week with names like Derrick May, Juan Atckins, Joey
Beltram, Dave Angel. Most of all he was the first person to bring UNDERGROUND
RESISTANCE (including at that time JEFF MILLS)
to Europe and discovering a very young talent called Matthew B, nowadays
known as BUSHWAKA and many other techno kings
of the future that joined him in those early years.
But he was also a lover of house music, introducing to Italy the concept
of art/house club and bringing to Italy together with his friend Adriano
Chiarini people like Gemini, Cajmere, Marshal Jefferson, Harvey (MOS),
Bobby Konders, and many more and actively promoting house as a chilled
midweek alternative to techno, but most of all launching the legendary
Friday night house sessions at the UONNA CLUB in
Rome with dear friend Dj Andrea
Torre from Radio Centro Suono that included for the first time in club
history (1990/91/92) art exhibitions and house music.
Leo
and the arts include the amazing work done between 1993 and 1995 with
the contemporary dance company of Enzo Cosimi called BLITZA
OPENING,
which Leo and this famous dance
company performed in the best theatres in Italy, and brought with great
success also abroad at the internationally acclaimed center for modern
arts in Paris le Bobur a work dedicated to the fragility of the hero.
Leo composed 45 minutes of
music for this special event that brought him to Paris and the home of
modern art, where years earlier he had been visiting with his friend
Brion Gisin the famous DREAM MACHINE. It was
like this that Enzo Cosimi described back then the papers that will
bring us to Paris in March 1994: "heroism, supermanism, personal
mythology, a vigorous prospective of the world. In fact, what is the
definition of the hero in classical terms if not a chain of virile
attributes? To begin with the hero is a loner. Alone, in as much he is
superior to all. Without equals, because incomparable. Only by passing
the borders, entering a stranger territory, he can find an enemy of the
same caliber". (Leo moved
to England soon after this performance).
In 1995 Leo also participated to IL FESTIVAL DEL CINEMA DELLE OMBRE taking place in the PALAZZO DELLE ESPOSIZIONI in Rome, where he performed with 5 musicians (including Paolo Modugno) a new film score for the 1924 muted classic "The Greed", obtaining great response from the film critics of the Italian newspapers the day after. This event was organized and put together by the mind of a great Roman intellectual called Stefano Ottaviani, "IL COLONELLO", who had always supported Leo's work through the years, as another dear friend of Leo, an eccentric Italian journalist called Dino D'Arcangelo from the prestigious La Republica.
In
England Leo finds his first
residency at the Mass, an ex-church in the center of Brixton and becomes
involved with running his own DJ
agency for a couple of years to help pay the bills and make new friends
in such a competitive town. Soon after pushed from his talent to
innovation, he starts to create another movement and joins forces with DJ
Harvey, at that time resident of the Ministry of Sound to reshape the
London scene with what Leo
defines as Cosmic music, a kind of esoteric sound born in the north of
Italy at the end of the 70's by Djs like Daniele Baldelli (Leo's
music Master!), Claudio Rispoli detto Moz-art, TBC, l'Ebreo,
and other pioneers of sound made in Italy.
Leo finds that the inspiration
that Harvey and the other Djs of the Ministry of Sound get from people
like Larry Levan or Ron Hardy is something they have in common, because Leo's
respect for the Dj masters has
always been of a religious nature, respectful of their position as
priests of the new Aeon. This was a very interesting point of contact
for moving them forward in the world of Cosmic music, and the Italian
music masters that unfortunately never had the international exposure of
Dj's like Levan who were
working in NY. Leo
starts promoting this Cosmic sound during his legendary pasta dinners
and soon after starts a new night in London, COSMIC
NIGHTS ABSOLUTELY NO HOUSE, although
running for a brief time features as a revolutionary idea in the UK
scene!
Who was on board playing those new vibes with Leo?
Well, check for yourselves and make your mind up on how the so called NEW
FUNK scene was born....
RHYTHM DOCTOR (MAMA RECORDS)
IDJUT BOYS
HARVEY
LEWIS COPELAND and JP (VINYL JUNKIES)
DAVE HILL and JULES (NUPHONIC)
and obviously LEO
YOUNG as the resident
Let's
see what ID magazine actually said about Leo's
night in the issue of AUGUST 1996:
"Light years away from the crap suits in afros and retro piss-up
nights, London is spawning a cool subterranean disco, deep house and
fusion scene. The sound is fucked up, abstract and dubwise grooves from
old-school US gear like the Loft Classics bootlegs to new-school UK
house labels U-Star, Matrix, Nuphonic, Atlantic Jaxx and Other. Check
Cosmic nights for absolutely no house. Essentially these crews are
playing dance with a quality threshold, avoiding Nu-NRG and Ecstasy to
take everything that bit deeper."
Leo has played in the following
London clubs between 1995 and 2002:
Bar Rumba
333
Ministry of Sound
93 East
Pacific
The Mass
Happiness Stans
Notting Hill Gate arts club
and resident of the club SUGAR in Lemminghton SPA alongside friend and colleague the Rhythm Doctor.
In 1996
Leo starts to spread his Cosmic
revolution around Europe with a new residency at the club TRESOR
in Berlin playing regularly 10 to 12 hours sets!
In the same year he prepares his new album called Cosmic Land for TRESOR's
record label KTM.
In 1997 he starts travelling around Scandinavia Djing regularly in
Helsinki (FINLAND) and getting involved with the up-and-coming scene of
Iceland. With his friends GUS GUS and Tommy
White they start to promote the Cosmic sound, and the Cosmic man himself
finds on this island a sort of second home full of intelligent people
making intelligent music. He discovers the lost Thule always ready for
party action, and they called it the island of the devil, so he loves
it.
In December 1997 Leo arrives
also in Russia for his first visit to Saint Petersburg, home of all the
revolutions including Leo's
up-and-coming Cosmic revolution!
Yes, Leo loves Russia &
Russia loves Leo. That's why
his latest album has sold more copies there than anywhere else in 2002,
and Leo's favorite city after
Rome is definitely Saint Petersburg.
Russia has also awarded Leo
with a great honor. In February 2002 he was invited by the Russian
government to play at the BOLSHOI THEATRE in MOSCOW,
a truly historical event for Leo,
dedicated to raise money for children victims of terrorism. The cost of
the ticket was 1000 dollars per person and almost all the foreign
ambassadors in Moscow attended the event which was also featuring
legendary drummer Billy Cobham.
LEO WAS THE
FIRST DJ IN RUSSIAN
HISTORY TO PLAY AT THE
BOLSHOI THEATRE!
In 1998 Leo's Cosmic music
master Daniele Baldelli introduced him to the Electronic Voodoo concept,
and Leo starts a new branch of
the Cosmic revolution soon after with a more up to date electronic
sound, rediscovering his techno and electronic roots in his new base in
Oslo (Norway), where he first started to play in 1998 thanks to the
dynamic techno dj duo Trulz and
Robin. From 1999 till now he has successfully been running ELECTRONIC
VOODOO, a club concept that started at the popular club
Sikamikanico in the Norwegian capitol with his dear friend Arild and
spread across the whole of Europe with regular Electronic Voodoo gigs
also in Saint Petersburg, Reykavik, London, Rome, Antwerp, Moscow and
even Murmansk.... This concept residing until 2003 in the alternative
club KILLYREGO in OSLO is
definitely something more than only music. It's Leo's
experimentation with years of experience that wants to create the
ultimate dj concept of the
future, in which he becomes the High Priest dj
of electronic music, it's something he called at the time Electronic
Voodoo.Now in 2006 he is one of the biggest representatives of Cosmic
Sound in northern Europe and he simply defines his music as enlightened.

