What draws together Northern Soul and Hardcore Techno’s collective dancefloor ecstasy, the Italian radical architecture discotheques, and Federico Fellini’s dreamlike visions of Emilia Romagna? Liscio is the answer.

Quintessentially North Italian and fundamental to the location’s working-class, Liscio has long been an overlooked music genre and a neglected cultural phenomenon. Musically rooted in the folk tradition of Emilia Romagna, a region that has been pivotal for the history of Italian clubbing – there lie the origins of Italo Disco and House, as well as a consistent part of the 1960s Beat and Garage scene – Liscio had its heydays between the mid-70s and the early 80s. Despite the other subcultures of the time – like punks and rockers – looking down on the genre and dismissing it as a ‘mainstream’ and ‘square’ scene, Liscio had a strong ethos and impact on the community that continues to inspire today.

In Lissio, a 1978 documentary aired by RAI, the Italian state television, one of the scene’s most influential musicians, Raoul Casadei, highlights the philosophy behind the movement: “We can talk of a Liscio way of life. Simple people who wake up, shave, cycle or ride a scooter to work, to the factory. It’s everybody’s genre. It’s a culture that makes people sing, be calm, it makes them get together and lose their shyness.” These words underline the affinity of Liscio with other international music genres and scenes of the time like British Northern Soul, African Zamrock and Afrobeat, or American Funk and Disco; their shared sense of community and feeling of collective escapism and ecstasy.

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