On the page dedicated to the dead DJs, you can read that Massimo “Massimino” Riva was the author of the best performance as a disco DJ of nightclubs that I have listened in all my life, until today. Given that I am an aficionado of DJ mixes since the year 1978, you can imagine the huge number of DJ sets, or tapes/files, that I have had the possibility to evaluate, recorded by professionals, or amateurs, from the entire world. Of course, the works of many superstars of the mixer are included. Well, I have declared that what I listened from DJ Massimino Riva is the top of excellence. Here I add that the excellent performance was a live mix at the Peter Pan Disco, in Riccione, Italy, that dates back to the end of July, 1985. Massimino Riva was not only a nightclub DJ, but also a guitarist for the rock star Vasco Rossi, and the leader of the Steve Rogers Band, an Italian band successful in Italy during the second part of the 80’s. For your information, Mr. Riva was much more popular as a musician, than as a nightclub DJ. For that, I was very surprised when I have found on the web a mix show by DJ Massimino Riva, freely accessible, and very happy to listen it. It is a mix of the year 1986, whose length is about 1 hour and 2’, and recorded live at the Peter Pan discotheque, in Riccione. Sincerely, I couldn’t believe my ears, because the mix, still present on the web, doesn’t have some of the fantastic qualities that I heard from the work of the same DJ the year before, when I personally visited the Peter Pan discotheque. More precisely, the mix of the year 1986 is inaccurate, rough, sometimes dissonant, and affect with wrong timing choice, even if the music selections are interesting, and with rather coherent rhythms. After having accepted the shocking fact of the above, I asked to myself what happened to Massimo Riva between the year 1985 and the year 1986, and why in a short time-span a talented disco DJ went from excellent to ordinary. Thus, I’ve read accurately all the information about Massimo Riva, posted on the web, and I have noticed that he died in the year 1999, with the following cause of the death: “respiratory crisis provoked by a heroin injection”.
To say the truth, I was already prepared to that, because I have gone deeper in comparing the changes to the work as a DJ of Massimo Riva. Well, I noticed the following facts: in the year 1985, Mr. Riva used to utilize a wider range of rhythms, while the mix of the year 1986 goes entirely from about 90 to about 100 BPM, the preferred rhythms of the club goers addicted to heroin, or opium derivatives; in the year 1985, Mr. Riva had musical preferences very eclectic, not strictly bound to the American record industry, while the mix of the year 1986 is made of industrial disco and fashionable pop music, a sign that he was trying to satisfy a huge need of money; Mr. Riva was a professional guitarist, with a marvelous handling of turntables, that represented a sort of extension of his guitar, and, for that, the acquired imprecision was perhaps something of the mental kind, like the effects of certain drugs over the level of consciousness. Ok, I have a musical ear very well trained, and I don’t know how many persons can notice the same things of the above. However, as someone can understand, sometimes the harsh message is in the music.
What kind of message? By one side, the fact of being a number one in something is not enough to save you from the devilish fascination of recreational drugs. To the other side, recreational drugs always steal a lot to your brain, and to your abilities. Coming to the description of the mix of the page, I previously say that it is a tribute to DJ Massimino Riva, and a nostalgic memory of the marvelous abilities, taken away by heroin abuse. What have I done? First, I have reconstructed the missing playlist of the mix of the year 1986. Second, I’ve acquired all the records contained in the playlist of the above. You need to know that my criteria in compiling playlists for me are radically different, and that I can agree neither the selections, nor the sequence of vinyl records. Despite, I have recorded the same playlist, following exactly the same order. Now, if you want, you can compare the work of a professional, dead DJ, who was perhaps the best of history, to the result of the hobby of a virtual DJ. What's the difference? Only one, I’m much less talented, but sober 24 hours-a-day.
File name is “a redeemed night of 1986 at the Peter Pan Disco, by Max Look DJ (Dec 2024)”, about 1 hour and 20’, it’s my interpretation of a playlist of a great, dead disco DJ, and a tribute to his, prematurely lost, uncomparable talent.
Year 1986, Peter Pan Disco, the playlist:
1) Intro = explosion effect
2) Helen Terry – act of mercy 12” (1986)
3) Jai Dean Woolf – sweet miss America 12” (1985)
4) Talking Drums – pretend a stranger (1985)
5) Picnic at the Whitehouse – east river (1986)
6) Al Jarreau – l is for lover 12” (1986)
7) Climie Fisher – this is me 12” (1986)
8) Device – hanging on a heart attack 12” (1986)
9) Steve Winwood – freedom overspill (LP 1986 “back in the high life”)
10) Nat Augustin – ego 12” (1986)
11) Georgie Red – if I say stop, then stop! (long version 1985)
12) Steve Winwood – higher love (Disconet 1986)
13) Madonna – la isla bonita (1986)
14) Mondo Kane – New York afternoon 12” (1986)
15) Amazulu – Montego Bay (1986)
16) Ayre Rayde – sock it to me (1986)
17) Tina Turner – what’s love got to do with it (1984)
