Island Disco 10
There was only one large record label that truly understood Disco and it was Island. OK, it's a broad statement and one could start to get bogged down in nuances. I suppose Casablanca could be classed as a "large" label and it started out signing KISS so you could argue it wasn't a Disco label per se. But really, c'mon, you know what I mean.....
Island on the other hand was a Rock label which grew out of Chris Blackwell's ambitions. Did you know Blackwell set up Trojan as Island's Reggae subsidiary? I surprised myself when I found that out. I didn't know the two had anything to do one another. I suppose they must have split early on. It's Blackwell's roots in Reggae that are the clue to understanding why Island was so successful with Disco.
In Peter Shapiro's quite amazingly excellent book on Disco "Turn The Beat Around" it's clear that Francois K was the real conduit of dub techniques into Disco. He was crazy about the Black Uhuru "Uhuru In Dub" LP on Jammys, and must have moved mountains to turn in his mix of Jimmy Cliff's "Treat The Youths Right". It's hard to imagine who would have been more pleased working with who on Kevorkian's "Snakecharmer" LP, him or the label. Though Larry Levan also got his hand in on the Peech Boys LP and the Padlock project.
Which, given that it's a super-groop effort, really has no right being as good as it is. There's a common sound to many of these records: a pungently bass-heavy, warmly-flowing current with the drums not perched on high-heels but in sneakers. It is as though the North Atlantic Drift was reversed and flowed up from the tropics past Manhattan, rather than down from the pole. It's a sound I find more enticing than the slightly stiff, electronic beats of Prelude or West End's deconstructed boogie. I've never been a fan of the Latin-tinged Salsoul percussion.
Less of the Island fingerprint here, but this is frequently dubbed to pieces.
I've never been a huge fan of this disc. As I think I said once before, the best thing about it are Ian P's liner-notes. There are better Kid Creole/Darnell things are elsewhere. "Wheel Me Out" is fun though Vortex's "Black Box Disco" (heard first here) is its superior twin when it comes to B-Movie Noir samples.
On 4th & Broadway, the Island subsidiary. And it's interesting that this Arthur Russell classic was the first release on the label.
This extremely eccentric slice of Eddy-Grant-style Disco (think BIG CHANT!) was big in Francois K's bag.
My favorite of Grace's records. Rare to find a compilation with this much integrity. Much of the "Gulf-Stream" flavor of the Island sound was to do with the teaming of Sly and Robbie with Marianne Faithful Guitarist Barry Reynolds and French/Benin keyboard-player Wally Badarou. This team were the so-called "Compass Point All-Stars", who if I had any journalistic ambitions at all I'd research. While my colleague Mark Fisher is fascinated with Grace, the icon, it'll always be her beats that I adore.
But the same sound is here on the lovely Blackwell-produced Hi-Tension single, so perhaps it's more to do with underlying principles?
Wicked egg-head Disco. Like Wobble's "Full Circle" LP it doesn't quite hit the mark but makes up what it lacks in tunes with texture. Arthur Russell pops here with the lyrics for "Hold On To Your Dreams".
The "Echoes" ("Mambo" from which was lifted by Massive Attack on "Daydreaming") and "Words of a Mountain" LPs come highly recommended too. Wally plays ace synth on Manu Dibango's undiscovered "Waka Juju" LP too, a WOEBOT fave.
Peter Shapiro seems to prefer "Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places" LP which admittedly has a beautiful Tony Wright sleeve (Wright, another Island peak-period signifier, see the Padlock sleeve and "Super Ape"), but this is far superior. A charming, floridly melodic listen. You know where the later Specials lifted all their ideas from when you hear these Kid Creole records. Like the "Mutant Disco" record this is a Ze release, but really, props to Island for seeing how beautifully it fitted with their aesthetic. I'll never forget Kid Creole singing "Annie" on Top of The Pops!
Wot no Tom Tom Club!