Various Artists - 'Le Meilleur de Les Rythmes du Monde'
(4xLP Box Set, Musique du Monde, France - 1981)Volume One
A1 [00:00] TELEX - "Moskow Diskow" (Looking for Saint Tropez, 1978) Belgium
A2 [04:40] Giorgio MORODER - "From Here to Eternity" (From Here to Eternity, 1977) Italy
A3 [09:35] Moon BIRDS - "Crystal No. 3" (Cosmic No. 1, 1977) France
A4 [12:10] John FOXX - "Plaza" (Metamatic, 1980) England
A5 [15:35] Three DEGREES - "Set Me Free" (3D, 1979) USA
A6 [19:35] Mr. PARTRIDGE - "The Forgotten Language of Light" (Take Away/The Lure of Salvage, 1980) England
A7 [22:50] Geoff BASTOW - "Communique" (The Video Age, 1980) Belgium
B1 [00:00] Brian ENO - "Untitled" (Unreleased, 1979) England
B2 [02:00] Space ART - "Welcome to Love" (Play Back, 1980) France
B3 [08:15] DROIDS - "Shanti Part I" (Star Peace, 1978) France
B4 [10:50] Yellow MAGIC ORCHESTRA - "Firecracker" (Yellow Magic Orchestra, 1978) Japan
B5 [15:10] PRINCE - "Sexy Dancer" (Prince, 1979) USA
B6 [19:10] CAN - "Safe" (Can, 1978) Germany
[Total Time: 50:20]
Volume Two
C1 [00:00] Hot R.S. - "In a Gadda Da Vida" (Forbidden Fruit, 1978) South Africa
C2 [05:10] Patrick COWLEY - "Megatron Man" (Megatron Man, 1981) USA
C3 [09:25] Roland BOCQUET - "Dancing" (Unreleased, 1981) France
C4 [13:30] Essendon AIRPORT - "How Low Can You Go?" (Sonic Investigations of the Trivial, 1979) Australia
C5 [15:55] KRAFTWERK - "Spacelab" (The Man-Machine, 1978) Germany
C6 [20:50] Donna SUMMER - "Our Love" (Bad Girls, 1979) USA
D1 [00:00] Jean-Phillippe GOUDE - "Machine" (Drones, 1980) France
D2 [03:50] This HEAT - "24-Track Loop" (This Heat, 1979) England
D3 [07:45] LIME - "You're My Magician" (Your Love, 1981) Canada
D4 [13:00] SPARKS - "Tryouts For the Human Race" (No. 1 in Heaven, 1979) USA
D5 [18:05] LEDA - "Endless Race" (Welcome to Joyland, 1978) Germany
D6 [21:00] SUICIDE - "Cheree" (Suicide, 1977) USA
[Total Time: 49:50]
Volume Three
E1 [00:00] Gary NUMAN - "Everyday I Die" (Tubeway Army, 1978) England
E2 [02:00] Grace JONES - "Pull Up To The Bumper" (Nightclubbing, 1981) Jamaica
E3 [06:20] Haruomi HOSONO & Tadanori YOKOO - "Malabar Hotel, Upper Floor, Moving Triangle" (Cochin Moon, 1978) Japan
E4 [10:25] HELDON - "Les Soucoupes Volantes Vertes" (Interface 1978) France
E5 [12:05] Loose JOINTS - "Is It All Over My Face" (Is It All Over My Face, 1980) USA
E6 [16:30] Liaisons DANGEREUSES - "Peut Etre . . . Pas" (Liaisons Dangereuses, 1981) Germany
E7 [19:45] Munich MACHINE - "A Whiter Shade of Pale" (A Whiter Shade of Pale, 1978) Italy
F1 [00:00] FUNKADELIC - "One Nation Under a Groove" (One Nation Under a Groove, 1978) USA
F2 [06:00] League UNLIMITED ORCHESTRA - "Don't You Want Me" (Unreleased, 1981) England
F3 [09:50] Black DEVIL - "No Regrets" (Disco Club, 1978) France
F4 [14:00] Electronic SYSTEM - "Time Trip" (Disco Machine, 1977) Belgium
F5 [18:15] Dee D. JACKSON - "Automatic Lover" (Cosmic Curves, 1978) Italy
F6 [21:45] Trevor BASTOW - "Better Ways" (The Video Age, 1980) Belgium
[Total Time: 50:00]
Volume Four
G1 [00:00] Depeche MODE - "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead" (Speak & Spell, 1981) England
G2 [02:00] CHROMIUM - "Beam On" (Star to Star, 1979) USA
G3 [07:05] Ryuichi SAKAMOTO - "Riot in Lagos" (B-2 Unit, 1980) Japan
G4 [10:20] TRANSVOLTA - "Disco Computer" (Disco Computer 7", 1979) Belgium
G5 [13:20] Gina X PERFORMANCE - "Nice Mover" (Nice Mover, 1979) Germany
G6 [17:35] Marvin GAYE - "Time To Get It Together" (Here, My Dear, 1978) USA
G7 [20:30] British ELECTRONIC FOUNDATION - "Groove Thang" (Music for Listening To, 1981) England
H1 [00:00] INDUSTRY - "Ready for the Wave" (Industry EP, 1980) USA
H2 [03:25] Akira SAKATA - "Panco" (Tenoch Sakana, 1980) Japan
H3 [06:05] Venus GANG - "Love To Fly" (Galactic Soul, 1978) France
H4 [09:20] BOHANNON - "Listen to the Children Play" (Summertime Groove, 1978) USA
H5 [13:30] Francis RIMBERT - "Games" (Bionic Orchestra, 1979) France
H6 [15:15] ZODIAC - "Zodiac" (Disco Alliance, 1980) USSR
H7 [18:40] Aksak MABOUL - "Saure Gurke" (Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine, 1977) Belgium
H8 [19:45] Giorgio MORODER - "I Wanna Rock You" (E=MC2, 1979) Italy
[Total Time: 50:05]
Rough Translation, Back Cover:
"Through the years, Musique du Monde has brought you the cutting edge of listening pleasure. And now, we are proud to present to the general public some of the most amazing sounds from the previously only privately-issued 'Les Rythmes du Monde' series. We continue our tradition of finding you the very best of new music from around the globe, seeking sounds that speak the universal language. Here you will find the pounding rhythms of the discotheque, love songs for fantastic robots, a new electronic era of sexy cosmic fun. Its happening in France, in Italy, in Germany, the United States, Belgium, Japan, South Africa, and have no doubt, in outer-space. This is the sound of the future, but it reaches to the very soul of life, to the elemental rythm of the heart. Switch it on, plug yourself in, and let everything go: become part of the collective music. This is the very best of 'Les Rythmes du Monde'."
Reissue Notes:
The Musicophilia reissue program is proud to present a major missing piece the history of the Musique du Monde label's golden age: 1981's four-LP box set, 'Le Meilleur de Les Rythmes du Monde'. This set was a 'best of' collection released (in limited quantities) to the public culled from the privately issued and distributed 'Les Rythmes du Monde' set. So far, none of the individual records from that almost mythic series has been unearthed; like other private releases from Musique, it was shipped direct only to a who's-who of music taste-making cognoscenti. It is rumored that Monsieur Jan Marine (one of the founders of Musique du Monde and the label's primary mixer and song-finder for their various compilation series) went to the U.S. and trained in the then-nascent art of beat-matched DJing with Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles, and even Francis Grasso during the mid-70s, in preparation for the label's forays into disco. 'Les Rythmes du Monde,' especially the later volumes from which this 'Best Of' is believed to be culled, brought Musique into new territory for the public ear. But the territory heard here is heavily rooted in the funk, soul, pop, tropicalia, proto-punk, dub, musique concrete, sound library LPs and early electronics that were the focus of earlier 'Le Tour du Monde' and 'Les Miniatures' discs. 'Les Rythmes' was the label's natural extension, and taken together with their work over the previous decade plus, one almost has an "alternate history" of pop music—the history that should have been, or that was, if you knew where to point your ears. So we welcome you to this world of fuzzy electronics, four-on-the-floor beats, floating robot voices, cosmic space-ship chases, and glorious dancefloor hedonism that would itself go on to become the foundation forthe next thirty years of discotheque sound. The graphic design of the record sleeves may be dated and passe, but the sounds found within these sleeves remains as relevant and essential today as ever.
— I. Sonnecomme, January 2009