FIMIANI: Amore Latino EP out on Toy Tonics

Toy Tonics has just released a fresh house record by FIMIANI, also known as BPlan. This DJ and producer from Naples, Italy, has been making waves for the past three years with his edits of extremely rare Italian disco tracks, released under his own imprint, Caffè Corretto.

FIMIANI’s “Amore Latino” EP marks his debut as a producer, featuring four house tracks that are all played live, with no samples. The tracks echo the early 1990s New York house sound, reminiscent of Masters at Work, François Kevorkian, and the legendary Body & Soul club. They’re built on rolling funk grooves, with jazzy piano chords, organs, real bass players, and horns. This EP isn’t just for the dance floor—it’s musically rich enough to enjoy at home too.

Hailing from the beautiful island of Ischia near Naples, FIMIANI is more than just an edit maestro and a skilled producer. He’s also the organizer of a summer house festival and deeply inspired by the Italian house scene of the mid-1980s to 1990s. Those familiar with dance music history know that house music is an Italo-American creation. Italians didn’t just invent Italo disco— the genre that inspired countless American dance music producers in the 1980s and 90s—but they also laid the groundwork for what would become house music.

The original house producers in Chicago have often shared how they were influenced by Italian sounds from 1981 to 1986. DJs from the HOT MIX 5, who were instrumental in starting the house genre and coining the term “house music,” were spinning early Italian electronic dance records, which inspired them to create their own music. Tracks like Kano’s “It’s a War,” Klein & MBO’s “Dirty Talk” and “MBO Theme,” Capricorn’s “I Need Love,” and others made their way to Chicago (and New York), motivating Chicago DJs to start producing their own electronic dance music. This early Chicago house music was then played at the Warehouse club, where the genre got its name. This sound later influenced many New York producers in the 1990s, as well as Italian producers who developed their own version of the Chicago genre, known as “Italo-House.”

This deep connection between Italo house and American house is further evident in how many American house DJs found a second home in Italy, where house music became mainstream in the late 1980s and 1990s.

National radio stations like Radio DEEJAY helped turn club hits into mainstream anthems, while party promoters like Angels of Love in Naples, and pioneers of house parties in Rimini and Riccione like Vae Victis, Echoes, and Magic Monday, brought American house producers to Italy. DJs like David Morales even lived in Italy, and artists like Tony Humphries and Masters at Work played on national radio and had hit singles there—while still remaining underground in other European countries.

House music is truly an Italo-American affair, and FIMIANI is a modern example of this perfect union.