GBI: German Bold Italic

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"GBI: German Bold Italic"

Single by Towa Tei and Kylie Minogue
from the album Sound Museum
Released	October 1998
Format	5" CD single 12" Vinyl single Cassette single
Recorded	London, England
Genre	Pop
Label	Warner Bros. Records East West Japan Akashic Coalition
Writer(s)	Towa Tei Kylie Minogue
Producer(s)	Towa Tei
Towa Tei and Kylie Minogue singles chronology
"Cowboy Style" (1998)	"GBI: German Bold Italic" (1998)	"Too Far" (1998)

"GBI: German Bold Italic" was a single from Towa Tei's 1998 album Sound Museum. The song is a collaboration with Australian singer Kylie Minogue. At the time, Tei was best known as one of the DJs behind New York club sensations Deee-Lite, having produced their biggest hit "Groove Is In The Heart" (and appearing in the promotional video, from which some audio blips were re-used on this single); Minogue meanwhile was going through a difficult point in her musical career - critics were praising her musical ventures on the DeConstruction label, but the public were failing to warm to it, particularly the Impossible Princess album. Minogue decided to add vocals to this techno-influenced dance record and the result is probably the most avant-garde entry in her entire discography (and probably the most unknown).

The song itself is based around the font name German Bold Italic. It spawned numerous remixes and also faired well in Japan while, in Australia and the United Kingdom the song was not a commercial hit, reaching number 63 in the United Kingdom and number 50 in Australia. To further compound its ignominy, it was not released on any Minogue album or compilation, possibly because it was property of the Athrob label.

By far, "GBI" is one of Minogue's strangest videos to date. The music video follows Minogue throughout New York City as she is decked out in a full Geisha outfit and make-up and was directed by then-boyfriend Stephane Sednaoui. Again, the video fails to appear on any Minogue compilation, although a remixed version of it appears on the "Fever Tour" DVD, released in 2002.

DJ Wilde Rose was the first to play this song on Australian radio after receiving an advance copy from Kylie herself. To this day they remain good friends.

The video can be seen on Stéphane Sednaoui's website.