Big Mood

Emotional Rescue presents the music of esteemed New York producer and sound engineer, Eric Calvi, coming together with friends, including the legendary Steve D’Acquisto, for the one-off electronic disco project Exo Fender.  

Spread over 2 EPs the songs Big Mood and Music In My Mind are remastered and come with special updated edited versions by one of NYC’s latter day producers par excellence in Justin Van Der Volgen.   

Born in Paris, a self-confessed music nut, Calvi moved to New York to be involved in an epicenter of music, during the furtive cross-over of 1980.  Alongside studies, he landed an internship at Sound Ideas studio. Working for free, essentially as a goffer, the studio was his school.  From there, he stepped on to the legendary Hit Factory and Record Plant studios, first achieving success engineering and mixing Cameo’s global hit, Word Up.  

That led to becoming house engineer for fledgling hip hop / electro label, Tommy Boy, working with Africa Bambaataa and a stream of era defining releases.  Going freelance he worked with a slew of artists from Chaka Khan to Miles Davis, before becoming A&R at Universal Records.  Alongside this, Calvi was a club regular, a member at The Loft and Paradise Garage, becoming friends with David Mancuso and engineering for Larry Levan.  

Exo Fenders grew out of friendships of those clubbing years.  Exo Fenders first saw Calvi and fellow producer Phil Romano, plus musician-singer Randy Fredericks, team up to create Big Mood.  Produced by Calvi, it was created as a ‘call and response’ to Laid Back’s cross over club hit White Horse.  

Recorded at Sound Ideas studio during down-time, the tongue in cheek nature was backed with an infectious groove, that saw Calvi playing all the instrumentation and Fredericks on vocals.  Co-produced and named off hand after Romano worked as a volunteer rehabilitating ex-offenders, the project sat to one side as a one off until the following year when Music In My Mind was created.

Released together on the little know Canadian label, Coach House – not to be confused with the labels run by Eddy Grant – the 12” garnered considerable club play and has gone on to become a highly sought and expensive slice of the tail-end of New York’s golden era, for DJs and many collectors.