Jollymusic - Jollybar

I don't remember what year it was, which only serves to frustrate me further as there is no year listed on the packaging, but I was in a shop run by a very unfriendly person, so unfriendly that I won't mention that shop's name, and he was playing this CD. It was bouncy and catchy, sounding like someone managed to mine the seventies vibe from thrift store records while maintaining a loose theme throughout the grooves. That might not sound terribly original but what stood out was the record wasn't ultra polished or necessarily club ready. It had half-finished musical interludes, people yelling at the DJ in Italian and the general sense that someone was having a lot of fun in their bedroom. Not a recipe for chart-topping sales by any means but certainly memorable. This was Jollymusic, the duo of Francesco De Bellis and Mario Pierro, and the record was the initial release of their debut album, Jollybar.

Jollymusic attracted enough positive attention that Illustrious, a dance extension of Sony UK, came calling with an offer to reissue Jollybar with better distribution. Jollymusic returned to the studio, tweeked the album a bit and it saw reissue under the slightly confusing name, Jolly Bar. Apparently, they felt that since the source material was taken from the original Jollybar album, that the new titled should only be a variation, though that certainly doesn't scream multiplatinum success anywhere that I've been.

This is where the story gets kinda fuzzy because I've read that the revised album didn't see release, but it clearly did and there were several singles issued including a Prefuse 73 remix and appearances from KT Tunstall. You can view details and scans of the packaging on it's discogs reference and while I don't own a physical copy of that reissue I do know people have it as I have a lossless rip myself. Regardless, it's obvious Jollymusic didn't set the world on fire and the duo of De Bellis and Pierro don't seem to have issued anything under the Jollymusic name since 2002, so I think it's safe to say they've hung up their hats on that project, but the music lives on regardless.

This is the original issue of Jollybar from 2000, ripped from my original copy of the album. If you're listening to this and are reminded of Daft Punk, albeit with more of a focus on vinyl and samples than drum machines and synths, that's alright because there is definitely a bit of that same joyful feeling here that permeates throughout Homework. Put this on in the background and it sounds like a million things you've heard yet totally unique. An easy starter for me is the wonderful Joolyo but the whole thing is great. Maybe we'll get lucky and Jollymusic will put something out with a bit better distribution. Enjoy!


Jollymusic - Jollybar

01 Intro
02 Piano
03 Disco Disco
04 Joollyo
05 Les Figalles
06 With Love
07 Talco Uno
08 Drago
09 Crazy Simon
10 Talco Due
11 Kfun
12 Crociera
13 La Dolce Vita
14 Daddy
15 Tape Jam
16 Borotalco
17 Reversi
18 Anicafill
19 Angel