Ivano Bellini

Ivano Bellini is one of the most popular DJs in the city, as well as an occasional producer and remixer for South Beach imprint SFP Records, a label he runs with Marc Sacheli and another local DJ, Pierre Zonzon. Miami Afterhours is a good example of the sets he spins every week at Space and other nightclubs. The fourteen tracks he uses are deep yet energetic, pushing his mix forward into a dark, rhythmic unknown.

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More About

• Ivano Bellini
• Pierre Zonzon
• Marc Sacheli
• Donna Summer
• Jacques Lucont

Miami Afterhoursopens with Bellini's bizarrely funny track "Deep in It," on which Navarone leers out a tale of a freaky space man descending on a disco "where all the women are drinking and dancing and grooving." He keeps up the pace with Porno's "Music Power" before dropping into Tantamanna's "Talking," a hypnotic house cut inspired by Donna Summer's "I Feel Love." Most of the records he uses are pure instrumental tracks, with only repetitive vocal hooks to adorn them, the better to encourage movement on the dance floor. A notable exception is "Seattle 2045 (Rave Dogs remix)," an apocalyptic, rock-house hybrid by Rave Dogs' Fire.

On the eighth cut, however, Bellini locks into the patterned grooves of Zoot Woman's "Grey Day (Jacques Lucont remix)" and stays there, allowing the mix to grow dangerously tedious. In a nightclub, this might encourage dancers to lose themselves in the sound, moving as if in a trance, but on a CD, it gets boring after a while. A more consistent collection of songs would have made Miami Afterhours a better listening experience. For now, it resembles Bellini's club performances to a fault.