| "GBI: German Bold Italic" | |||||||||||
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| Single by Towa Tei featuring Kylie Minogue | |||||||||||
| from the album Sound Museum | |||||||||||
| Released |
October 19, 1998 October 25, 1998 (UK) |
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| Format | 5" CD single 12" Vinyl single Cassette single |
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| Recorded | London, England | ||||||||||
| Genre | Pop, house, dance, funk, disco, electronica | ||||||||||
| Length | 4:37 | ||||||||||
| Label | Warner Bros. East West Japan Akashic Coalition |
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| Writer(s) | Towa Tei Kylie Minogue |
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| Producer | Towa Tei | ||||||||||
| Kylie Minogue chronology | |||||||||||
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"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).
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 towards the climax of which, the 5"2', then 30 year old singer was collared like a dog and carried by a Japanese man on a leash. It was directed by then-boyfriend Stéphane 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. The video can be seen on Stéphane Sednaoui's website and on Youtube.
The song itself is based around the font name German Bold Italic. The font is seen on the single cover, and was included as a bonus feature on the CD single and the enhanced CD version of the Sound Museum album.
The song was featured in the following concert tours, though only performed as Dance Interludes:
It spawned numerous remixes and also fared 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. Melbourne-based 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.
| Chart (1998) | Peak position[1] |
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| UK Singles Chart | 63 |
| Australian Singles Chart | 50 |
| Japan Singles Chart | 20 |
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