Rolling thread for your recent DISCO and BOOGIE discoveries, enthusiasms and obsessions

slave - wait for me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2crb0iFXro

one more from our man funky brewster's record collection. this is baxa, i'm not kool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Ss8iG8HCM

my discogs wantlist keeps growing thanks to this thread.

here's a new one to me. gives me the proper groove chills. c.m. lord, "don't run me away." b side to "flashback." please stick around for the breakdown at 3:45. so good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77-vXnu7Pcc

I've been crossreading Tim Lawrence's Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979 and Vince Aletti's The Disco Files 1973-78: New York's Underground, Week by Week: the latter is def catnip for collectors, though both have plenty DJ playlists, DJ comments on particular tracks and albums (the 12" is still several years away, so they use a lot of album tracks, for full-length flow--no having to flip the 7" for part 2, if there is one provided---and sonic depth).
Also, Aletti provides comments and capsule reviews of stuff he likes, going around and around NYC as the scenes and places and star DJs take off (and sometimes crash or disappear).
Lawrence's saga, incl. interviews with DJs and dancers, puts it all in historical perspective, like "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" and Eddie Kendricks' "Girl You Need A Change of Mind" had the kind of wild-for-the-time changes x continuity that gave DJs and dancers some ideas as well as thrills. "Soul Makossa" was an example of one that became a hit because of club play, thence to radio---but some other hits never did get radio, did without it, screw you radio!

Since I never pass up the opportunity to mention it, here's another shout out to James Hamilton's Disco Page.

Another huge fan of Mike T-diva's work on James Hamilton's Disco Page.

Hip-hop with some great production behind it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ueuRDr8Hc
Rappermatical 5 - Party People

this was the filthiest record in my collection. gave it a couple washes with record vacuum and it's back to sounding great again :) everybody says the erot dub is the one, but i always played the a-side instead. can't wait play it under the stars in waimanalo tonight. that bassline is so funkay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5kgVjOA_X8

it wasn't my crowd last night, people were not feeling the slutty norwegian disco

making good use of that next to you break

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJNajgq7Phs

i'm finally recording the long-awaited funky b mix tape now. so many gems in dude's collection. couple highlights:

dabeull - dr fonk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OCyYbW6zPY

sky tony - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no9bA_gUIyE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no9bA_gUIyE

kon - all night (everybody)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjJ4z65D-dU

tuxedo - roll along
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6VVnSPAWho

new touch sensitive EP is some str8up ear candy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQsQHHUQCWQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88p6AwgZNaw

great EP: https://lyndadawn.bandcamp.com/album/at-first-light

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BOmOADxDVA

out of the funky b archives, issa jam from 2008

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnvwXoTTO04

dayton flic - livin' for your love

'Move' off that Lynda Dawn record is so great, even though it is pretty much wholesale theft from Fifth of Heaven's 'Just A Little More'

I love this one at the moment, check that clunky bass synth sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7Hlv0CDQdM

Gloria Weems - Push it up [1983]

and this is just straight gorgeous, think it's a JP Massiera joint:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA5GR_iPfVQ

Chantal Balmy - Imagine

only just listened to that Sky Tony track upthread with the Donna Allen sample, that's pretty nice!

God I am so behind on this thread, that Slave song rules. I don't know Slave too well tbh, really need to dive into their stuff. Big fan of some Aurra tunes though, weren't they kind of a spin-off from Slave? Obv Steve Arrington is a boss too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uEiJ_dzKmY

Diva - Prise au piège

I already knew the awesome 'La Nuit' by these folks but this is another great one

This one's also amazing, Geraldine Hunt was behind some excellent stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUUnUkC57UE

Sophie Stanke - L'Amour d'une Diva

“Sophia Stanke”

Possibly a member of the Lithuanian-Québécois Stanké family, which shortened its name from Stankevičius upon moving to Canada. Stanko and its variants are generally derived from the given name Stanislav.

Two recent 1984 purchases:

Kerr - Back At Ya (Instrumental)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsuGzghQ6NY

Tyzik - Jammin' In Manhattan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsvjM9LzWYY

bringing the bounce to the floor there mike! :)

Tim Lawrence's listening companion for the second volume of his New York dance etc trilogy, which I'm reading now---already got most (?) of this, and the rest might be around online, but this seems handy, and might sound better:
https://www.residentadvisor.net/news/42875

The John Robie one is a deep cut. Wanted to reissue it after finding it on a disconet comp. Pretty cool track.

Feeling this one: McGee - Now That I Have You (1984). It's a remake of an older track which has since been reissued on comps, but this version sadly sells for sums beyond my means.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5sU4HcQc94

Now in the peerless homestretch of Larry Levan's Live At The Paradise Garage--the Strut version, with 1979 added to title by poster SoftTalk Mesa---ilx or something currently messing my YouTube pastes, but look for that post, with perfect sound on non-audiophile headphones. Ahhhhhhhhhh

pretty delighted to have stumbled across this -- robbie leslie's extended remix of jimmy ruffin's "hold on to my love" that disconet put out in 1981. the standard-length version, which had been a pop hit the previous year, is a tight and solid tune, but extended it really takes on a heightened sense of epic drama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXQjC0FfxrU

youtube comments seem to suggest that this was a hit at the saint.

'81 was clearly still a transition period from trad disco to hi-NRG--there's a slight awkwardness to this J. Ruffin remix's production and performance to my ears which I find endearing

I made a few disco playlists of some of my favourite tunes for a Finnish board, might as well share them here, in case anyone's interested. They are meant to be introductions to various types of disco, but I tried to veer away from the obvious hits everyone knows:

"Classic disco"
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdW4Wfh6CZlb15vknlCMtcd7ephRCOf6y
- String and horn heavy tunes in the classic disco mold.

"Instrumental disco"
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdW4Wfh6CZlaYhyjx3cReXChfDrj69oqR
- Disco tunes that are fully instrumental or only have some backing vocals, also includes disco covers of movie themes.

"Space disco"
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdW4Wfh6CZlYPs0pJOWxlmxk75CQ1ropT
- Disco with space-themed lyrics and/or cosmic sounds.

"Gay disco"
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdW4Wfh6CZlYFatzo2UUt8_Ntc59Kggac
- Tunes done by gay artists and/or with a gay or campy feel.

"Synth disco"
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdW4Wfh6CZlaGlq8la12gxpuQzGi_DF7W
- Disco with synth leads, mostly boogie from the early '80s.

I'll be updating the lists every now and then.

Nice Tuomas! Were you into the Disco Discharge comps? Your playlists kinda remind me of them.

I have two or three of those, but never really dug deeper. The Disco Recharge series of album reissues from the same label is great though, especially since they reissued all of Boris Midney's various projects... He's pretty much my favourite disco composer/producer of them all.

When it comes to disco compilations, my favourites are Ben Liebrand's magisterial "Grand 12-inches" seroes, and (for rare '80s disco and boogie) Unidisc's "Star -Funk" series.

I used to own all the Disco Discharge comp CDs, but sold them; unlike most CDs, they've retained most of their value. There's some superb stuff on them, of course, but in general the aesthetic was a pinch too zingy for my tastes - and in particular, some of the later Hi-NRG comps really weren't great at all.

too zingy for my tastes

This is a fantastic way to describe those comps. There was always something a little ... not for me about them?

What do yall mean by "zingy"? Never heard this series.

I would recommend the Grand 12-inches series for you if you aren't familiar with it already... It covers a lot of same ground as the Disco Discharge, but has way more mellow and funky stuff, and since it isn't limited to disco only, it also has loads of great extended versions of '80s R&B and synth pop too, with an occasional old school rap and house tune thrown in as well. The only downside is that Liebrand apparently couldn't get/afford anything from the Warner Bros archives, so there's no Prince or Madonna on the comps, but other than that they have almost all the great 12"/extended mixes from the seventies and eighties you can imagine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ4nLTlCkLo

I started making a Spotify playlist of all those Disco Discharge comps earlier this week. I've added the first ten so far:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/58Sjf1TMQF5tMrk8xsBeFr?si=s7cnKA7LQcaUz9HoGXMH_A

And there's already one on there for the Grand 12 Inches series:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4LqfSYJkMpSNeUmcjefMSr?si=CmIeAuSEThyG_6Lb709KLA

And there's already one on there for the Grand 12 Inches series:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4LqfSYJkMpSNeUmcjefMSr?si=CmIeAuSEThyG_6Lb709KLA

It's nice that someone has made this, but since the actual comps apparently aren't on Spotify, it looks like in many case they've added the radio/7" edit of the song on the list, and not the 12" version, which, you know, kinda goes against the spirit of something called "Grand 12-inches" :) Based on the notes on Liebrand's site, several of the track on these comps are extended mixes he has uncovered from various archives, which have never been released on CD before, and I guess they aren't on Spotify either? There's also a handful of extended mixes he's done himself specifically for this compilations by blending together the vocal and dub mixes from the original tapes. These include "Beat the Street" by Sharon Redd, "You're the One for Me" by D-Train, "Love Can't Turn Around" by Farley Jackmaster Funk, etc., and they're mostly really good, since Liebrand is an excellent remixer.

I made one more playlist:

"Smooth disco"
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdW4Wfh6CZlZwrRGFCyxmkZzh_O61L2Zf
- More mellow and romantic (but still danceable) tunes for the wee hours of the night.

Ah, haven't listened to the Grand 12 inches one as i've probably got 75% of the albums anyway xp

When I was making the Disco Discharge one I always tried to include the correct versions from the compilations

the sound quality on the “Grand 12 Inch” series is supposedly really good too:

I have taken the greatest care to come up with the best possible masters, sometimes comparing up to 5 different versions to find out which one sounded the best and most pure. And sometimes even baking the analog master tapes to make them playable again.

Yeah, the comps generally sound really good.

fucking hell this moonstone version of "the visitors" is killing me rn, so amazing

enjoying this Greek banger from 1979

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRMU787OEtY

tuomas thank you very much for posting your playlists!

fucking hell this moonstone version of "the visitors" is killing me rn, so amazing

fucking hell goddamn IAN LEVINE produced that? christ, that must be the one thing he's ever done in his life that isn't fucking horrible

Here's another not-fucking-horrible Ian Levine production (and co-write): finally, in 2001, he made a genuinely great Northern Soul record.

Sidney Barnes - Standing On Solid Ground

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMpnlZ7PaoI