Cassiano — Onda
from Cuban Soul-18 Kilates (1976)
Brazilian disco funk from one of soulman Tim Maia’s contemporaries, Sergio Cassiano. Really top rate. And how cool is that album cover?
Big hat tip to Jiro over at Ying Yangs for bringing this awesome LP to my attention. Go through the archives there… you’ll get lost a while.
Still not sure what ‘18 Kilates’ means… maybe 18 carat? If anyone knows, hit me up.
RAH Band — Messages from the Stars
from Going Up (1983)
The synths on this are totally nuts…and that’s before the beat even drops. Richard Anthony Hewson, an English producer and arranger, is the disco synth genius behind RAH Band (get it?). He’s worked with a huge roster of top stars: Fleetwood Mac, the BeeGees, the Beatles, Herbie Hancock, the list goes on.
The Beat — Rock N Roll Girl
from The Beat (1979)
Guy goes to disco. Can’t dance like John Travolta. “I wish there was an easier way to meet the girls of today,” he thinks. “And if I had a chance, this is what I’d say… I wanna be with a rock’n’roll girl!”
And so goes this glorious track by The Beat, the LA power pop group fronted by Paul Collins (drummer for The Nerves). Backup vocals will punch you in the face.
Nice interview with Collins on the Michael Shelley show last weekend!
Chrome Canyon — Computers of Love
from Body Music (2012)
Mmmmm, spicy nu-disco beats from Chrome Canyon, a project by Greenpoint, Brooklyn based artist Morgan Z. Can’t touch this beat..it’s that hot.
I like to think that the chrome model on the cover is a tribute to Italo disco hero Gary Low, (sampled by Washed Out) but that may just be wishful thinking.
Catch Chrome Canyon tomorrow night at Lazerpop @ Glasslands. Til then, get yer cloud on…
Great write-up on the Lollywood/Bollywood disco scene at Your Heart Out.
(screenshot from the 1982 film Star, with soundtrack by Biddu/Nazia Hassan)
Salma Agha — Come Closer
from Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki (1984)
Bappi Lahiri’s masterpiece in the original scene from a 1984 Bollywood film. Salma Agha does a stunning job as seductress…and her co-star is drooling all over himself.
Onra sampled this track in 2009, though he just beefed up the beats. Can’t do much to fix the original!
Nazia Hassan — Disco Deewane
from Disco Deewane (1981)
Not sure how credible this is in our post-Gangnam-Style world, but Wikipedia says this Pakistani disco track is the best-selling Asian pop record TO DATE. Nazia Hassan performs the blockbuster here with the help of her brother Zoheb. Wiki:
It changed trends in music across South Asia, where it broke sales records, such as selling 100,000 records within a day of its release in Bombay alone. In South Asia, where the music industry was previously dominated by filmi soundtracks, Disco Deewaane was the first non-soundtrack album to become a major success across the region, paving the way for the emergence of independent Pakistani and Indian pop music scenes.
Oh, and did I mention she was only 16 when this came out??
Bappi Lahiri feat Shailendra Singh & Alisha Chinai — I Am A Bad Girl
from Guru (1989)
Amazing synth beats from Bappi Lahiri, the self-proclaimed “Disco King”… the composer who brought disco to Bollywood. There’s so much going on here rhythmically (latin, disco, electro, pop) that there’s really something for everyone. In fact Dent May does a lot of cheap electronic beats like this on his latest album!
This track appeared in the 1989 Bollywood film Guru. Quality on this cassette rip kinda sucks, but it also brings you right back to the 80s. Grab the whole soundtrack at Madrotter Treasure Hunt.
La Bionda — One For You, One For Me (1978)
Italo disco + saharan costumes = NUTS
hat tip to my favorite disco tumblr balsanja.
Tatsuro Yamashita — Merry-Go-Round
from Melodies (1983)
Epic bass groove on this smooth Japanese disco/easy listening track from one of my all-time favorites, Tatsuro Yamashita (of Sugar Babe).
Exactly what you’d want to be listening to as you pop open a bottle, your chauffeur whisking you away to your beachside cottage.
La Bionda — I Wanna Be Your Lover
from I Wanna Be Your Lover (1980)
Awesome Italo-disco track from the brothers who invented the genre—Carmelo and Michelangelo La Bionda. These guys:
These Sicilian boys grew up in Milan and started their musical careers there. But things really took off when they moved to Munich, Europe’s disco capital at the time, and started pumping out tracks like ‘Disco Bass’ and ‘Burning Love,’ both released in ‘77 under the moniker D.D. Sound, aka Disco Delivery Sound.
A few years later they released this more understated (and better) track in a synth-heavy, Italo-disco style… uncluttered by the fluffy disco horns and strings. And they collaborated with Righeira in 1983 on ‘Vamos alla playa’ and ‘No Tengo Dinero‘… two insanely catchy tracks that Italians still scream and shout to at the disco today.
Suzanne Kraft — Jus U
from Young Adults 12” (2012)
It’s perfect weather for a run in NYC right now—cool, windy, sunny mornings. My favorite route is over the Williamsburg Bridge and back… best views in town. And there’s no better soundtrack than Suzanne Kraft’s nouveau disco beats, the perfect tempo for a trot. (and dancing, obviously) This new track is on the A-side of a Young Adults compilation.
Suzy also has a solo EP, Horoscope, coming out on Young Adults next month.. check a preview of that at soundcloud.
Jonas Reinhardt — Foam Fangs
from Foam Fangs (2012)
For all the synth-heads out there—a new track (and album) from Brooklyn-based synthesist Jonas Reinhardt. So many weird sounds fluttering through this quasi-disco jam you can imagine him twisting knobs and spinning dials, nodding feverishly to the beat.
Hat tip to dublab for this one…
Golden Flamingo Orchestra feat. Margo Williams — The Guardian Angel Is Watching Over Us (1979)
Bumping breakbeat on this track from the Golden Flamingo Orchestra, with Margo Williams’ honeyed vocals on top. Coupled with the subway service announcements in the background, this is a classic. (yeah, Patrick Adams had a hand in it)
“May I have your attention please. There is no uptown A service today. You are advised to take the uptown D train to 125th Street and take the downtown local to your stop… Clear the doors.. we will not move this train until you clear the doors.”
The subway announcements aren’t just there for fun. This dancefloor hymn is dedicated to the Guardian Angels, the red-bereted youth who took crime fighting into their own hands, patrolling the NYC subways in the late 70s and early 80s in an attempt to keep riders safe.
(credit: unknown)
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, who was night manager at a McDonald’s in the Bronx when he started the group, called New York City of the 1980s a “seething cesspool of criminal activity.”
(credit: Bruce Davidson)
(photo I used at top for album art is Danny Lyon’s IRT 2, South Bronx, New York City, 1979)
Dent May — Shakedown Street (2012)
I’ve been hearing the Grateful Dead all over the place lately. Heard this 1978 disco-Dead tune in a bar last week. Then on Saturday I heard Touch of Grey at another spot. And now this. Are we witnessing a revival, or did the Dead never die?
At any rate, Dent May picked the perfect cover tune to match his cheesy sensibilities. Give it a listen… and then compare it to the sparkling glory of the original.
