WOEBOT

DISCO.

00.00 Yazoo: Situation (Francois K Dub Mix)
Francois K was hired by legendary Disco DJ Walter Gibbons as a drummer to help him segue between records* and also to enable Gibbons stretch the music into yet weirder shapes. Kevorkian proceeded to build a rep of his own and well as turning in some excellent imaginative interpretations of tracks like Bohannon's "Lets Start to Dance III" and Michael Wilson's "Groove It To Your Body", acting as in-house re-mixer at Prelude (I have 12" mixes by him of L.A.X.'s "Fight Back", D Train's "You're The One For Me" and Musique's "In the Bush") he also crossed over with elan into to the Electro-Rock arena. As well as this awesome mix of Yazoo he was responsible for the legendary remix of Kraftwerk's "Tour De France" and collaborated with Jah Wobble on "Snakecharmer."

02.17 Smokey Robinson: And I don't love you (Special Remix by Larry Levan & Benny Medina)
Peter Shapiro, who now seems to writing less at The Wire because he's working a book on about Disco, brought this to my attention. It's a very minor Smokey Robinson Motown twelve inch from 1984, but Larry Levan's Dub mix of it is great. I've found Levan's mixes are among the most conservative of the disco crowd, this may be in some way a reflection of the fact that he had the highest profile of all the DJs and consequently moved in mainstream circles. The atmosphere on this is quite similar to Dionne Warwick's "Heartbreaker", neuromantic soul. I picture this in the soundtrack to some pink and blue neon-lit mid-eighties brat-pack B-movie, rubbing shoulders with Tangerine Dream.

06.25 Bruce Johnston: Pipeline
I've mentioned this track by former Beach Boy Johnston before and now y'all get to hear it. I was stoked to find this in Bleeker Bobs in the West Village (of all places!) Notable for the way the drums "star" in the mix and how the instruments fade into the sound of crashing waves and seagulls, must have made for a transportative dancefloor experience. Traces here too of the "Manhattan Disco Sound" that fullsome almost Broadway-Musical-cum-1950s-Dance-Craze-RKO-Radio-Transmission sound. (shrugs) Maybe you don't know what I mean? It's the sound of yellow cabs, prosperity and decadence.

10.20 Universal Robot Band: Barely Breaking Even
Patrick Adams, who produced this, has a serious Disco rep which I've always considered surprising given that he's very much a "workaday" producer. Probably most famous for Musique's "In the Bush" and Black Ivory's "Mainline" he also turned out some great fucked up synth-led grooves like Cloud One's mind-bendingly awesome "Atmosphere Strut" and their "Flying High" (the latter which I have a debt of gratitude to Dan Selzer to introducing me too). The Universal Robot Band track stands out by merit of it's bonkers percussion.

15.21 Class Action: Weekend (Dub Mix by Sergio Munzibai and John Morales)
I always play this and the next track at parties. I've had them both in my bag since 1992. The M & M Dub Mix is to my mind preferable to the full vocal version, what distinguishes it from some of the "too-spartan" dub mixes you can find in Disco is that here they keep all the best parts of the vocal line, and through the process of stripping away extraneous clutter the track grooves a mile better. The ladies love this!

22.05 Forrrce: Keep on Dubbin' (With No Commecial Interruptions) (Francois K Mix)
Astonishing that this towering monster of a track, about the best argument on wax for the viability of dub disco isn't more celebrated. I'm also confused about it's relationship Konk's "Baby Dee", essentially the same tune but transparently vastly inferior, has to this. You want to see people lose their minds on the dancefloor, well put this on a 10K rig, the whiplash on that bassline is devastating.

26.25 Kebekelektrik: War Dance
A Tom Moulton Mix. I'm permanently alluding to this project which seems to be Moulton's take on Kraftwerk. "War Dance" and it's lolloping synths is defiantly, engrossingly minimalist. I think this is Moulton, a "classical" Disco producer at his most eccentric.

33.21 Klein & MBO: Dirty Talk (European Connection)
Which must stand as the definitive Italo track. I've once again be surprised that this hasn't been more visible in the reissue of the Italo stuff. I think the assumption on the part of people putting this stuff out once more is that everyone knows it, but I'd have to disagree. The link between this (deprived of the giggling woman on this mix, maybe I should have spun the flipside...) and Rhythim is Rhythim's "Nude Photo" is indelible, making it a key document in the "Detroit-Techno-stems-from-European-Music" argument.

37.15 Raw Silk: Just In Time and Space (Dub)
A classic mix by David Todd and Nick Martinelli. I love the way the slinky Manhattan fanfare slips out of the "jungle" beat.

40.47 The Jammers: And You Know That (A Shep Pettibone Mix)
Shep's roots were in Hip-Hop, he worked on Afrika Bambaata and the Jazzy Five's "Jazzy Sensation" but crossed over into Disco. I've always thought his stuff maintains some of Electro's anti-linearity, his tracks can be arranged quite vertically. The squiggly bassline on this and the next track (another of his mixes) must be one of his trademarks.

44.04 Sinnamon: He's Gonna Take You Home (To His House)
This goes on forever! Just amazing, and I think benefits from being pitched up quite speedy on the twelve tens. I imagine disco would have often been faster when played out at clubs, it's wrong to pussy-foot around at lower more "faithful" tempos with the assumption that they are in some way more authentic.

50.55 Matsubara: S.O.S.
Don't know much about this. Lovely tune though.

55.13 Betty Lavette: Doin' The Best That I Can (Walter Gibbons Mix)
This, gulp, eleven minute mix of "Doin' The Best That I Can" is widely regarded amongst cognoscenti as Walter Gibbon's tour-de-force. Gibbons whose working relationship with disco god Arthur Russell (this is the context for all those tunes people!) produced "Let's Go Swimming (Coastal Dub)" and Indian Ocean's 10.11 mix of "School Bell/Treehouse." He practically chucks the kitchen sink in here, it's quite preposterous. I used to make the mistake of only using the last seven minutes of the track in my sets, but the full wide-screen splendour of the thing is only appreciable with the (once again) "Manhattan Sound" vocal bombast of the intro. Spine-tinglingly lovely stuff.

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A big shout out to Angus at "I Feel Love" and Phil "Big Daddy" Sherburne. This one's for you, dudes!

*I couldn't rent a drummer for this mix (winks), so some of the cuts are verging on the messy/abrupt. Mixing disco is difficult people, but essential to understand the way the music works.

Posted by Woebot at April 5, 2004 01:19 PM