Cappella

An Italo-house production team employing up to ten different studios, at least a trio of producers for every production and scores of session workers, Cappella is mostly the creation of producer Gianfranco Bortolotti. Undoubtedly influenced by Motown's assembly-line aesthetic (as well as the '80s British dance team of Stock, Aitken & Waterman), Bortolotti coordinated the work of longtime producers Dj Profxor, Raf and Dj Pierre (not the Chicago producer) to create dozens of European club/chart hits under the aliases Cappella, 49ers, Fargetta, Raf, Clubhouse and East Side Beat. For good or ill, Bortolotti's productions were most responsible for the Italian house phenomenon of the late '80s and early '90s, based on an often-maligned push-button production blueprint which includes only the cheesiest of melodies, samples, piano lines and diva vocals. Each single produced by Bortolotti's Media Productions underwent rigorous testing and remixing for maximum airplay in each country it's released, with only Bortolotti holding the final say on what appears. Throughout the 1990s, Cappella was one of the most thoroughly unartistic dance acts -- and for the most part, proud of it.

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