TOM MOULTON — A Tom Moulton Mix

the inevitable Paradise Garage biopic: Moulton, Gibbons and Levan racing for the remix, eccentric characters like Arthur Russell and David Byrne skulking around, the spectre of AIDS looming ahead...it will be like The Last Days Of Disco but instead of chatty socialites, the focus will be on the music itself...we can only hope that it doesn't get optioned by Tom Cruise...

johnny depp as tom moulton
jack black as walter gibbons
usher as larry levan
leonardo dicaprio as arthur russell
jared leto as david byrne

johnny depp as nicky siano
woody harrelson as steve dahl

still can't think of who's going to play tom moulton ... who's the modern day tom selleck?

and who's going to play david mancuso?? val kilmer?

http://www.biography.com/famous/images/episode_images/Matthew_McConaughey_320x240.jpg

Every time I listen to this album I fall in love with a new song. "Keep on Truckin'" and "More More More" are obvious winners, but how amazing are "Feel the Need In Me" and "Make Me Believe In You"? Certainly a sequel to this album is in order; I'm sure there's plenty more material of his to use.

I really hope so. This is one of those records you can put on for a room full of people (who don't know the damnedest thing about disco) and they all instantly love it.

Perhaps some enterprising ILMer can put together some sort of the "Best of the Rest" tracklist?

we need a good moulton discog first

Yeah, there's like a thousand Tom Moulton mixes or so.

i don't remember liking this, but listened to kebekelektric the other day and that was pretty fetch

i don't remember liking this

jaxon's on praise thread for what reason?

Not that it's defined as a praise-only thread, but you know.

discgos discog isn't small. did he really work on 1000s of tracks? an urgent and key list would be lovely.

dude, i praised kebekelektrik which he produced.

Yeah, I'm sure he did work on 1000s of tracks. He mixed almost every track on the first six Trammps records, was on a ton Graces Jones' 70's stuff, of course did the Philadelphia International stuff (I feel the need to remind folks again that this collection is indispensable and completely essential if you want another compilation of his mixes: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:anfexq80ld6e), and was all over many of the Salsoul records. In fact his discography is almost too daunting to just pick out a collection of tracks.

God, why did I link to AMG, no one will ever get through. Try this one: http://www.amazon.com/Philadelphia-Classics/dp/B00138KO3Q/ref=dmusic_cd_album/002-7253090-9404062?ie=UTF8&qid=1203700304&sr=8-2

i just bought a record by jose fajardo's fajardo '76 called la raiz de la charanga which is all awesome charanga/guaracha/salsa stuff on coco records and of course there is a friggin' fab moulton mix of "c'mon baby, do the latin hustle" on it. ???????????????

um, just illustrating how you never know where he is gonna show up!

Yeah, I just passed up a $7 copy of this (http://www.discogs.com/release/128520) the other day. I think I might regret that.

'make me believe in you' is amazing! it is my favorite soul song.

yeah matt wtf were you thinking??? have you heard chocolat's "baby lets do it the french way"?

Mea culpa to Jaxon . . .

Don't worry deej, I went back yesterday and it was still there and it was actually only $4, not $7. On the Tom Moulton tip, I also got this 12" for $2 (http://www.discogs.com/release/380581). It's the same version of "Fill Me Up (Heart To Heart)" as on the album, but I'm happy all the same.

DJ last night dropped Eddie Kendricks 'Keep on Trucking' and the dancefloor erupted into 300 aural orgasms. Also, dropped a couple Pilooski edits that people ate up like pigs at the trough. Fuck, this shit sounded so good... Note to self: half the records I own are so much better on a proper sound system.

I always thought Patti Jo's "Make Me Believe in You" was a cover of Curtis Mayfield's version of the song, since he wrote the tune. But apparently the Patti Jo version came out in 1973 already, whereas Curtis's version is on Sweet Exorcist from 1974. So did he originally write the tune for Patti Jo? Who is/was Patti Jo anyway?

Anyway, I think both versions of the tune are great... The Richard Tufo strings on the Curtis one are really beautiful, it's one of his most discoish songs before he actually went disco.

Apparently she also released another Curtis tune, "Ain't No Love Lost", as a single in 1972, and that's about it for her recording career. Both of those songs were written and produced by Curtis, so I guess she was a protege of his or something. It's weird that those singles didn't come out on Curtom though.

I just realized that "Keep on Truckin" was produced by Frank Wilson, the same guy who did the Supremes' "Nathan Jones"...they are very similar in structure and "sound" when you really think about it. Too bad the latter pretty much faded into obscurity. Moulton mixed another Supremes/Frank Wilson collab though, "Stoned Love".

pitchfork review of this album was so bad

o never mind i forgot we covered that upthread

BTW, if "Feel the Need In Me" were the only song I could ever listen to from now until I die, I would be okay with that.

Just picked up The Tymes "Tymes Up" (http://www.discogs.com/release/586378) yesterday. Another "A Tom Moulton Mix." It seems "It's Cool" was a pretty big chart hit in the UK. The whole thing is lush and gorgeous. Featuring "The Sounds of New York" directed by Bernard Purdie as the rhythm section and TSOP on strings, etc. Beautiful stuff that has that great Philly sound of the era before disco strings got largely a little too bouncy (or something like that) for my tastes towards the end of the 70's.

I recently got this "A Tom Moulton Mix" loveliness: http://www.discogs.com/release/384807. Highly recommended. Nice cover too:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1244/1305607670_d141e8eabb.jpg

i picked up both Kebekelektrik and Witch Queen (both posted over at American Athelete) recently, the former a Tom Moulton mix, both involving Gino Soccio. what's weird about the Witch Queen though (which features a disco cover of "Bang a Gong") is that all the players are from Muscle Shoals! the same dudes that backed Aretha and Wilson Pickett, that partied with Duane Allman, totally had disco chops to boot. what didn't they do in the 70s?

the real news about witch queen is their "all right now" cover

I started my set at studio b with that, recorded here:

http://www.slapyouinpublic.com/2007/11/jacques_renault_dan_selzer_liv.html

i got those gibbons salsoul comps on vinyl. terrible artwork though. looks like some old rave thing.

BTW, if "Feel the Need In Me" were the only song I could ever listen to from now until I die, I would be okay with that.

― musically, Monday, 17 March 2008 18:21 (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ i also feel that way about "keep on truckin"

TM's Invisible Jukebox in the Wire this month is kind of lol, snarking at dub, house, Grace Jones, hiphop, Peter Shapiro (who was interviewing)...it's clear he's definitely a disco/soul classicist and not into sonic explorations or anything like that. Apparently he's still producing music?

Hardly a surprise that he's a classicist, since few of his classic mixes are particularly adventurous compared to, say, Levan or Cowley. They're still great though, obviously.

Yep, for sure.

I remember reading how he didn't like euro disco because it doesn't have "soul". he's right to dislike grace jones tho,talentless diva who he had a nightmare working with.

this comp is great. is there a better disco collection? (not rhetorical, I'm asking!)