Pitchfork

Sally Shapiro's Best New Music'd debut, Disco Romance, frames the Swedish singer's shy persona within the electronic sounds and drum machine patterns of early-80s Italo disco. Songs like Pitchfork's #27 track of 2006, Shapiro's devastating "I'll Be By Your Side" are basically synth-pop love songs, bursting with the grand romance of Italo singers such as Valerie Dore. In recent years, though, the likes of Norwegian producers Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas have incorporated into their music the more futuristic side of Italo, as part of a genre-crossing mélange known as space disco.

On "Spacer Woman from Mars", Shapiro and her usual producer, Johan Agebjörn, try launching their own sound beyond the moon. Shapiro still sings of dancing, but now she's a spooky interplanetary voyager, complete with robotic vocals and sci-fi sound effects. The song will appear alongside the likes of Lindstrøm and Studio on Lo Recordings' forthcoming Milky Disco compilation.

"This track was originally intended for Disco Romance, but in the end it didn't feel like a proper Sally Shapiro track, because of its space (rather than love) theme and feel," Agebjörn explains. "So we decided it shouldn't be on any common Sally Shapiro release. Sally actually is no spacer woman, she only pretends to be on this track. Hence she's only a guest vocalist this time."