DISKOAKADEMIN

No.2 x 2012

2012-01-17T15:36:00.000-08:00

Here's a re-edit of jazz-funk organist Ronnie Fosters 1978 trip on a percussion-fueled boogie airplane which apparently crash-landed in Copenhagen, got picked up by local digger Jens Dahl and re-built into a working machine, ready to fly again.

RONNIE FOSTER - MIDNIGHT PLANE (Jens Dahl Edit)

No. 1 x 2012

2012-01-17T15:12:00.000-08:00

My buddy Jens Dahl Thomsen is coming over from Copenhagen on saturday to play some quality boogie & sleeze, as the flyer states we’ll be taking it to THE MAX over at Far i Hatten (Folkets Park) from 22:00 to 01:00. Check us OUT!
The flyer/club is a hommage to the electronic funk group Xavier and their hit Do It To The Max from 1983, where in the video this matchbox reveals that they're all actually hanging out at a hip joint called The Max.

SATURDAY: 22-00
CITY: MALMÖ FAR I HATTEN: FREE ENTRANCE
MUSIC: YES, PLENTY!

No.24 x 2011

2011-12-21T14:20:00.000-08:00

"Come on everybody - and dance the techno disco". The first release on spanish label Blanco Y Negro was this single by the Barcelona-based italo-outfit Jules Tropicana. Jules Bikoko of Cameroon (seen on the cover) who was 1/3 of the group delivered some of the most undermixed vocals in the history of dance music on this track. It' always fun to play this to someone and see them concentrating on making out what he's actually singing. But the wonderfully unenthusiastic cheer-on to come on and "dance the techno disco" lends quite a lot of charm to his otherwise monotonous performance. This is a slowed down version for your listening pleasure.

JULES TROPICANA - COME ON (SLOW)

No.23 x 2011

2011-12-09T15:33:00.000-08:00

Tonight I'm playing in Stockholm again, at the Mejan christmas party (Mejan is what they call their royal art academy here) which is held at Färgfabriken this year. Rumour has it that these parties are anticipated highlights of the year for Stockholmers (like a Labor Day Run is for the North American Outlaw). In any large city with a metropolis complex, art is the great unifier of the classes (well, between the middle and upper ones mostly), and their differences are put aside for one night in the name of good fun. If you're in town, it's a safe bet for some action.

Me on one floor and the Rollerboys on the other floor, bound to get heavy. And if you come by early on (to beat standing in line) you can hear my buddy Gabriel warming up the turntables.

And here's a new mix to light your pants on fire with....

The Disco Outlaw (A Sergio Rizzolo Mix)

No.22 x 2011

2011-12-06T09:17:00.000-08:00

Bagen was a hip MTV-style show on swedish public service TV in the mid-1980's, hosted by the ever so charismatic Cia Berg (front figure in the band Ubangi and later on in the 90's band Whale), check out a collage of some of Cias "looks" during the different shows here.

One of the features of the show except to supply the latest music videos of the time was a segment called Freak Out, where Stockholm B-boy Karl Dyall would give informative examples of breaking, locking and making fun of asians (no kidding, just check out his opening act in thisclip!).

SVT also managed to put out this amazing record of some of the music that was made exclusively for the show, most of it produced by the prolific former prog-rocker Coste Apetrea. There's plenty of good stuff in the way of electro and boogie, and the Mikael Rickfors track is a cool and dark piece that could stand to be compared with some of Angela Werners best stuff.

One noteble track is also the CCC version of Kool Katt, the cheesy rap-boogie hit by the group STOP (there's a nice edit of the original out there by our Norwegian neighbour Rune Lindbaek). This version on the other hand tones down on the cheese and adds more ice in the way of L.A.-electro style drum machines. Oh and the record comes with an instructional poster on how to breakdance and do the electric boogie.

CCC - KOOL KATT

No.21 x 2011

2011-11-15T07:44:00.000-08:00

Another killer cut from our guy in Dublin, mister Niall Kirk. So what's on the plate? Lots of space for those drums to pierce through - and they certainly do - and a healthy dose of shenanigans over at the synthesizer to take the edge off the otherwise overwhelming coolness.

Not sure if this is a rework of a John Travolta track as the title would suggest (how about it Niall?), but anyway you get a picture of his crotch cirka 1978 just for good measure.

Update! The Amen Brother Disco Band will see it's first vinyl release soon, featuring this hot track, therefore we're switching the download link to a Souncloud-preview, yank! Great news Niall and god bless your groovy fingers!

Amen Brother Disco Band - Travolta by niallkirk

No.20 x 2011

2011-11-14T16:00:00.001-08:00

Take a look at this dude. He's all suave and hairy, apparently shirtless and possibly totally nude when this picture was taken. His eyes show a certain determination, located just under that vague uni-brow. Is he handsome? Well no, not really. But somehow he posesses a sleezy charisma that somehow rubbed off on the music this guy laid down back in 1978. The lyrics, which are a bold mix between swedish and english (or "swenglish" as it is called), reads like a compilation list of useful pickup-lines at any bar in Stockholm during the late 1970's.

KENNET GREUZ - LOVE MY BABY LOVE

No.19 x 2011

2011-10-12T07:13:00.001-07:00

This saturday here in Malmö we're throwing a big party with some special guests from the United Kingdom (of Disco?), Mr Frankie Francis and Mr Miles Cleret to be exact. Two gentlemen who has certainly put a new spin to to that tired old "world music"-scene as well as ushering in a new era of vinyl re-issueing by uncovering numerous treasures of afro-related music.

The hidden agenda behind the party is to help finance the first release in a series of 12" singles under the name of Fasaan Disco Specials. The local label Fasaan Recordings has previously released two 7" records of newly produced original material in genres which can easily be described as afrobeat and rocksteady. The new 12" series will be based mainly around a classic disco sound with railings towards everything else on the table from boogie to dub. The first release will feature one side of remixed versions by yours truly, taking the original cuts into the dubby tribal territory of Walter Gibbons and Arthur Russell. Needless to say, I'm very excited about this project. I will keep you updated on the 12"-release, in the meantime check out their Soundcloud-page.

No.18 x 2011

2011-08-23T06:16:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year saw the release of an album made by a group of musicians who had worked with the late Arthur Russell. Under the name Arthur's Landing they put together some great songs in the vein of what we can imagine Arthur would have had them do. The result? Some kind of balearic jazz-pop soft-rock jams, mixed with a nu-disco feel by Breenan Green.
The band is comprised of people mostly involved in projects and recordings Arthur steered besides the disco oriented efforts, with the exception of Peter Zummo who did the amazing trombones on the Dinosaur L-classic Go Bang! Also a noteable inclusion is guitarist Steve Hall who has collaborated with Daniel Wang on many occasions.
Although none of these people were part of the recording of the Dinosaur single Kiss Me Again, the legacy of Arthurs sound and vision is unmistakeable when listening to the 12-minute plus version issued as a B-side to Nicky Sianos polished disco beast on the first two or three imprints of this single. Some free-spirited psychedelic disco-soul if one should need a description.

DINOSAUR - KISS ME AGAIN (VERSION)

No.17 x 2011

2011-08-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

London-based store LN-CC have a knack for picking out amazing stuff in the way of clothing, literature and music. This summer they've put together a pop-up store version of legendary Stockholm-based DJ & producer Mark Sevens crate digging temple Juswax, offering a limited selection from his archives. Among the treats are some of his trademark spins featured on his Originals-compilation for Claremont 56 and his Salute To The Men of Vauxhall mix series previously put out in an extravagant bubblewrap package by LN-CC. You can also pick up a copy of his long out of print Divine Edits-release from 2007.
The Academy especially salutes the decision to keep the information limited on some records with the accouragement to visit the actual store to know more. In these information-crazed days, the joy of actual digging is a scarce commodity.

Visit the Juswax Pop-Up Store here

No.16 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.6

2011-08-11T01:05:00.000-07:00

More Kurt! Thanks to my good old friend Anton up in Umeå, I recently got a hold of the wierd and rare Hauenstein boogie disco cut It's All Nike (which I've mentioned here earlier). Bought cheap from a deadstock of records up in my hometown, the copy is in surprisingly good condition. Not much is known about this 1984 single, especially nothing about the puzzling fact that the obvious theme of this one-off project is to either cash in on or help promote the sports company Nike and its (at the time) trendy sneakers. It's possible that in Germany at this time the Nike brand was not the household name it is today and therefore provided an exotic namedropping opportunity for the task of emulating the musical esthetics of American disco boogie and the hip streetculture associated with it.

Bubblegum-baselines jump right out of the amps while Kurt rocks the synthesizers in a proto-skwee style and it's all good, it's all Nike.

NIKE- IT'S ALL NIKE (DUB-VERSION)

No.15 x 2011

2011-08-11T00:03:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer I took a visit to New York, the Big Apple of Disco. And it was not disappointing, seeing almost every record store organising their crates according to the labels: West End, Prelude, T.K., Millenium Disco, Marlin etc. The store I found myself spending most of my time in was A-1 Records around the corner from First Avenue. As it turns out, DJ Harvey is admittedly also a regular at this joint. Hearing him spin on the magical soundsystem of Santos, playing one of my favourite records (Danny Darrows Doomsday) at peak time, was truly an experience. But hearing him chatting it up with Sweeney on BIS the same week was equally mindblowing, as he mentions a stock of records over at A-1 with some anonymous stickers with the name "DAVE" hand-written on them. According to Harvey, these records once belonged to none other than David Morales. And yes, one of these records had made it into my bag. The classic T.K. 12" of Queen Samanthas Take A Chance released in 1979. That same year, Morales was only 18 years old and under the mighty wing of Larry Levan, spinning at the Garage, the Loft and the Sound Factory. A piece of history that has formed the future of dance music ever since.

QUEEN SAMANTHA - TAKE A CHANCE

No.14 x 2011

2011-05-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

Pinnacle Records spared no expenses when they released this single on 12" vinyl in five different clear-coloured versions: blue, yellow, red, green and brown. Targeteted for the large following of the then already cult brittish sci-fi TV-series Dr. Who, which in 1978 starred the curly-haired Tom Baker as the fourth doctor, the Ron Grainer-penned theme was of course remade in the style most popular at that time, disco. While the original in itself was a breakthrough for electronic music and the pride of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop with its instantly recognizable synthesizer sequences and eerie soundscape, arranged and played by the pioneering Delia Derbyshire, this would have been perceived as weak in comparison and as a purely commercial venture. But the skillfull blend of funky disco instrumentation together with electronics works wonderfully and simply proves that 1978 was a great year for disco.
It could easily have been taken to a higher level of cheesy-ness, but instead there is a heavy disco beat and funky baseline nailing it to the floor and even some nice breaks where this proves to be a very humorous take.

MANKIND - DR. WHO (7" VERSION)

No.13 x 2011

2011-05-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

A Russian record from 1988? Yes, this is avant-garde electronic composer Michail Chekalins first album release, but the material is actually recorded between 1984 and 85.
Chekalin, who studied classical composition and was a trained pianist from a young age, has been called “one of the most radical and innovative synthesists around, not only in Russia but globally” (Audion, 1993, Great Britain). And due to his fascination with a very broad set of tastes, from free-form jazz to psychedelic rock to electronics, he was allegedly an outcast in the russian academic music scene.
This song is in translation called Symphobreak, and is one of the albums highlights due to its slightly funky groove. Most of the album is quite trippy and experimental.

MIKHAIL CHEKALIN - SYMPHOBREAK

No.12 x 2011

2011-04-28T13:55:00.000-07:00

Cazbee and Richard Sen (of Padded Cell) are both old school UK grafitti writers who by some chain of events have wound up as modern day disco pioneers. Their label Mixed Blood Cuts, mainly sporting their own re-edits, has been flawlessly staking out the sound of a total meltdown between hiphop, rock and disco into pulsating bass-heavy dance music.
Their latest release on Autodiscoteque is no exception, starting off with a classic electro-funk nugget gone crazy.
When not teaching his son Persia wild style-ing on trains, Cazbee has generously loaded up his Soundcloud with edits left on the shelf. Not surprisingly, they're all ace. This one is however, in my opinion, a real killer! Any ideas on what the original could be?

CAZBEE - MAGIC ME

No.11 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.5

2011-04-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

In 1984 Kurt lended a hand to Supermax backup-vocalist and percussion player Larry London, producing the album Rockets under the name London Aircraaft. The more boogie/80's soul-vibe may be seem far from the Supermax sound, but when the synthesizer line of Supergirls kicks in it is unmistakeable whose signature it bears. The laidback groove of Angie is also a superb bass heavy Hauenstein-track that fits perfectly in the slicker suit of London Aircraaft. In the same year as this album came out, Larry and Kurt also released a single of a cover of Kurts Supermax-hit Love Machine.

Other projects Kurt managed during the late 1980's are the hard-to-find singles of Nike (with Frank Bülow, later with Culture Beat) and Crazy Coconut, which featured Kurts daughters Judi and Nicola. The Disco Academy has not been able to track down these records unfortunately.

LONDON AIRCRAAFT - SUPERGIRLS

No.10 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.4

2011-04-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

From 1983 comes this whipping and pulsating cut, loaded with flashing neon and electricity (as the title and cover design of the album will suggest).
This is the first Supermax album recorded in the Nowhereland studio which Kurt built together with his keyboard player Tommy Schmidt. This would however be the last Supermax album featuring the original line-up of musicians. Kurt would reform the band many times all through the 1990s featuring new musicians, the first effort together with Christian Kolonovits in 1986.

But the production and sound of later albums (even though occasionally teaming up with old members) could never be compared to that of these early masterpieces.

SUPERMAX - FUTURE TIME

No.9 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.3

2011-03-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

The Bamboo record of 1979 is a sought-after rarity of cosmic disco, and by cosmic I don't mean to reference the italian Afro Cosmic sound of Loda & Baldelli, which in this case had little or no relation to the cosmic sound that Hauenstein envisioned. The hard-driving epic that is Spaceship Crashing has been bestowed the term cosmic simply because there is no other way of describing it. And of course, there is the theme of spaceships and spacetravel in two of the records tracks.
This was Hauensteins own pet project after settling into the Hotline studio in Frankfurt. The WEA label set him up with these three girls from Surinam and let Kurt call the shots, which resulted in him playing almost all instruments himself. Featured on back-up vocals were however the newly recruited Supermax singers Cee Cee Cobb & Jean Graham, who Kurt had found on a trip to Los Angeles.
Since this is a Hauenstein affair, it features a few reggae-influenced tracks, much like all the Supermax records. And how much his affection with Jamaican culture may seem like a footnote to some of his fans, it can't easily be discarded. In 1983, Supermax were the first band with white musicians to play the annual reggae festival in Montego Bay along with Gregory Isaacs and Black Uhuru.
The song that is however most characteristic to Kurts musical legacy, as well as a statement of his unique uncompromising style, is a groovy mid-tempo cut called Hustlers Of Life Never Survive (check that one out here). But the stand-out track for dancefloor action is of course the now classic:

BAMBOO - SPACESHIP CRASHING

No.8 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.2

2011-03-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

Having set up his dream band and soon-to-be life project in Frankfurt with a crew of exceptional german musicians (of which keyboardist Richard Schönherz he had collaborated with on other projects as early as 1971, and Christian Kolonovitz he had met in a studio in 1975), Kurt ignited the sparks of a blooming array of studio collaborations all around Germany.
While most of these guys had their roots in psychedelic rock and kraut (like the prolific producer Peter Hauke) the new and genre-defying direction of Hauensteins Supermax granted them both access and high esteem as studio musicians in the emerging business of the disco sound.
In a cultural context where disco music could neither rest upon or be bound by the foundations of soul or rythm & blues, the sonic innovations of these long-haired krautrockers was much appraised. In the year following the first Supermax record, almost the whole band served for producer Bernt Möhrles project Chilly, delivering well-orchestrated yet raw disco in the shadows of the Chilly models/singers (note the puzzling weight gain and afro increase of the dude on the left side for the picture on the single cover, from what appears to be the same photo shoot as the albums).
The track Dance With Me featured on this record is a spaceous and chilly (no pun intended!) electronic trip of cosmic disco, and definitely stands out among the rest. Besides handling the bass and doing the additional vocals in the break, the arrangement of the song is also signed by Kurt.

CHILLY - DANCE WITH ME

No.7 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.1

2011-03-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest heroes of cosmic disco has passed on to the next level. Musical genius Kurt Hauenstein left this world yesterday, at the tender age of 62. But his life offers a rich and comprehensive history in the creation of some of the greatest music ever made. Which surely served as a spark for another Disco Academy Special. In the upcoming posts we will explore some of the most interesting productions signed by this Austrian musician, starting off with his most prolific creation: Supermax.
The title track of the 1977 album Don't Stop The Music (the bands first or second depending on which sources to trust) is a tribal psychedelic trip of epic proportions, featuring the blocky synth-chords that became a trademark of the Supermax sound.

Before the word wigger entered the dictionaries and denounced the efforts of any respectful popcultural exchange between ethnic groups (i.e. whites and blacks), Kurt was the proud posterboy of a multicultural approach to music and to inter-racial relations.
One of the songs of this albums, Watch Out South Africa, Here We Come, can clearly be interpreted as a prophecy of the bands 1981 tour of this apartheid-ruled region. As the story goes, they "were the first multiracial band to tour South Africa. Despite near constant death threats, they played 21 shows causing quite a political scene and earned Kurt 'no-entry' status to several countries"(quoted here) In a self-documented vide o from the tour, the headlines of daily newspaper Star reveal the bands involvement with the socialist organisation AZAPO.

The swedish balearic rock band Tiedye (responsible for last years summer anthem, the "remix" of DJ Kaos Love The Night Away) announced over a year ago that their full length album would feature a guest appearance by Hauenstein on vocals. We're all hoping that this now posthumous release will make its way to the public soon.

SUPERMAX - DON'T STOP THE MUSIC

No.6 x 2011

2011-02-22T15:11:00.000-08:00

As you may know, I've got a soft spot (and very high cheese-tolerance) when it comes to the music of the disco era produced in my native country Sweden. I think at least every third post here at the Academy is tagged "scandinavian".
So I was awe-struck when I discovered Lovebugs mix Up North themed entirely around scandinavian disco & boogie of the 1980's. It's just so good I kind of wish I had made it myself. Somewhat reminiscent of the Top Nice-teams Svenska Pärlor mix I posted some time ago now, this mix focuses solely on the kind of pop-boogie sound that many have linked to the Sir Lancelot label. Some of these bands (Extra, Mantraction) could have been labeled new wave, but it seems to have been all a blur during those crazy pastell-coloured years. The odd number is definitley the christian disco of De'Funkar.
Lovebug is part of the german radio/club outfit Bleepgeeks located in Ulm, which also has an exceptional blog stuffed with obscurities.

LOVEBUG PRESENTS 'UP NORTH!'

No.5 x 2011

2011-02-20T09:07:00.000-08:00

In 1978, only a year after Giorgio Moroder unleashed his futuristic smash hit on Swedish discoteques (you know the one where Donna Summer feels love) - drummer Åke Eriksson conviced his bandmates in the boogie rock outfit Wasa Express to record this tounge-in-cheek take on the italo disco sound, humoristicly done with nonsense lyrics and high-pitched smurf-like chants. But to judge from the outcome of this playfull mock hommage, it seems they might have found themselves actually enjoying it. Why else would they have spent their precious time away from the safe poses and riffs of their regular rock'n'roll repertoire to deliver such a spaced out excursion of disco perfection.

Again, I have to give credit to our friend V! (Oozlum) for spotting this one.

WASA EXPRESS - GET UP

No.4 x 2011

2011-01-24T03:50:00.000-08:00

Tim Koh is our guest blogger this past week over at Prejka. Apart from being in Ariel Pink's band Haunted Graffiti he's also played in Harvey & Bullocks Food Of The Gods project and is currently working on some music with Lovefingers.
I recently stumbled upon this amazing edit of the Haunted Graffitis Round And Round from last years album Before Today done by a guy from Norway who calls himself Bogstad Diskoensemble. A balearic dub, as he calls it. Amazing stuff, I say.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Round And Round (Bogstad Diskoensemble Dub)

No.3 x 2011

2011-01-19T12:57:00.000-08:00

Strix Q started as the backup band of Magnus Uggla, the swedish equivalent of Lou Reed (or at least he thinks so) who to the international disco underground is most famous for his electro-balearic Sommartid. And it's easy to spot the influences of Uggla on this track off the album Capitol City, which was also released as a 7" single (although a 12" with a dub instrumental would have been nice). This is cocky glam-rock on the verge of 1980's flamboyance, but with the added soundscape of futuristic disco rock. The Moog baseline will blow you away!

And best of all is the lyrics, which in swedish tells the story of a guy getting dressed up and ready to hit the clubs, looking to score some action, and then the chorus comes in like a twist in a thriller to reveal that he's only in it for the boys. Oh, the gayness!

STRIX Q - BOYSS

No.2 x 2011

2011-01-19T03:24:00.000-08:00

A mere glance at this amazingly awful sleeve of this record, you'd think that nothing good could come out of this fat Tom Selleck-lookalike. And it gets even wierder when you contemplate the fact that most of the career of this brittish artist, including of course his classic hit In Zaire, revolve around the theme of Africa. An obsession turned gimmick due to the fact that his breakthrough single was a tribute song to Mohammed Ali, which topped the charts when Ali won against Foreman in 1974 (The Rumble In The Jungle).

So despite the fact that this dude has more in common with James Last than say James Brown, with a theme like that it's likely that at least one of his songs hits the spot with some crazy afro action. And yes, there is such a song...

JOHNNY WAKELIN - AFRO AFRIQUE

No.1 x 2011

2011-01-03T16:03:00.000-08:00

Amen brother indeed! An irish dude getting his hands all over a Czechoslovakian prog disco cut from the late seventies is surely something to praise. And especially since it's the very promising chap Niall Kirk that is behind the grandios alias of Amen Brother Disco Band.
The name apparently originates from the Amen Brother parties that he and his friends have been hosting at the McKenna Brewery, obviously the hotspot of the city of Monaghan. And if it's psyched out and heavily funky disco you want to hear whilst enjoying your pint of beer, but like me live too far away to be able to just pop my head in there, you can always download the recurring mixes that Niall puts together as resident over at MNtothat.
Getting on to the edit at hand, he's really spotted a winner in this one. Building up steam with an infectious groove led by a hillbilly-style funk guitar riff and then occasionally turning on the taps on some heavy rock breaks, all the while keeping the wonderful singing of Bohuslav Janda. Great stuff.

AMEN BROTHER DISCO BAND - TAK-PO

No.54 x 2010

2010-12-23T12:27:00.000-08:00

I first head this tune some time ago in the webshop of the Cosmic Dudes. I didn't know what it was at the time, since they like to keep some things secret in favour of their buyers. Some digging led me to the source, Richard Schoenherz album What A Night, and also the insight that this was a track in dire need of a rework. Said and done, the result has been up on my Soundcloud for some time now, although not for download.

But hey, it's christmas man. And since that's all about the giving part right, I'm ready to turn this baby loose. Merry christmas everybody, and a happy new year of digging and dancing. Enjoy!

SERGIO RIZZOLO - HABLA TACO MARIJUANA

No.53 x 2010

2010-12-18T17:31:00.000-08:00

Our friend Crinan from Gothenburg has dug up some primo norwegian disco. I first heard this in a mixtape by Tiedye, another couple of guys from Gothenburg, made for the music section of the danish fashion label Wood Woods excellent website.
Back in the 90's Crinan made electronic dance music released on Börft Records. Now he runs the music blog/club Mind On The Run and is together with a friend responsible for the Parlour releases, some of the hairiest and most wildgrown edits put on vinyl over the past couple of years.
This one is jawdroppingly rough and funky progrock groover. Åke Aleksandersen in fact started out as a hairdresser in Oslo, and then moved his way to the microphone by playing drums in a jazz band. The songs title refers to the king of winter, a common figure of scandinavian mythology, which seems to have taken over as the unchampioned ruler of the weather during the last days.

FRANK ALEKSANDERSEN - KONG VINTER (CRINAN EDIT)

No.52 x 2010

2010-12-08T07:05:00.000-08:00

DJ Ajetollah is known to her friends simply as Aje (short for Arjumand), and even though she has only been playing records for about a year (mostly as part of the underground crew Sui Generis here in Malmö) she has some kickass skills matched with
a distinguished taste in hard electronic disco both old and new.

This mix for instance starts things off by reclaiming Yellos Oh Yeah from the vaults of 80's nostalgia (although to most people it will forever be linked as the soundtrack to Ferris Bueler's Day Off) and then throwing us right into the retrofuturistic visions of Morgan Geist and his cratedigging spoof project Jersey Devil Social Club.

DJ AJETOLLAH - SPACED OUT MIX

No.51 x 2010

2010-12-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

You could say it was quite unfair that Eric Duncan (Dr. Dunks) stole the limelight from Space Kudu with the release this year of a much praised edit of the same Dolly Parton song that the Kudu did a rework on just last year. But in the game of hype, credit is often overlooked in favor of some influential friends. And I hate to say it, but I like the slower cut that Duncan gives it.
So it's a hard choice not to agree with old Harvey that he is "pretty much the best editor on the planet right now". Especially since his latest (well it's new to me) effort under the C.O.M.B.I. moniker is a monster of a floorfiller. This time speeding things up in an epic take on Village Peoples 5 O'Clock In The Morning from 1980 (when the group was re-invented as a kind of new wave version of Imagination).
But - to be as diplomatic as I can - I would say that there is a thin but substantial line between an editor and a DJ, and whereas Space Kudu surely shines when it comes to unearthing rare and overlooked grooves, Duncan is the guy who can really play a record.

VILLAGE PEOPLE - 5 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING (C.O.M.B.I. Edit)

No.50 x 2010

2010-11-21T14:49:00.000-08:00

I was in Stockholm this weekend to play some records with my friend Johnny Too Bad (Jonas Dahlström) at a place called Marie Laveau. We also had time to squeeze in a session of the online radio show called Heathenism that Jonas and his co-dj Fredrik Borg runs. It's basically us three out in Jonas place in Bagarmossen taking turns at the turntables, drinking beer and eating potatoe chips.
I played mostly swedish stuff, and one of the tracks I play (starting at around 11:05) is If You Wanna Know by Janne Önnerud & Co. The track can be found on two of the bands albums, the 1980 album The Killer and on a limited second edition of the album Disco Power Play from the previous year. This record has long been known only as the cover that was ripped by brittish re-editers Soft Rocks for their 12" of the same name.

HEATHENISM #6

No.49 x 2010

2010-11-14T10:59:00.000-08:00

I've made a playlist for the 10th issue of Tourist Magazine, an online publication with a broad spectrum of topics (a lifestyle magazine if I dare say so).
They also did an interview with me, that is to say the swedish person whose body is currently utilized by Sergio Rizzolo as a vessel for DJ gigs. Confusing? Go check out what he had to say and listen to the selections over here.

No.48 x 2010

2010-11-09T10:52:00.000-08:00

The central piece from the exhibition at Makeriet was as you could tell the record Boonoonoonoos by Boney M (yes, that's eight very good uses of the letter O, nine if you count the one in Boney).
German svengali-like mastermind Frank Farian took on the music business with perhaps the most postmodern of approaches in the making of a band since the debacle surrounding the Monkees. He would later go on to outdo even himself with the creation of Milli Vanilli (I think you know the story).
But let's put aside whatever can be said and thought about Farians commercial strategies concerning Boney M and focus on what's really important: the music of course.
The credit list of musicians for this particular record reads like a who's who of international studio whizz kids of the 1970s disco scene. Curt Cress & Keith Forsey on drums, Mats Björklund on guitar and Christian Kolonovits as arranger. With a dream-team like that no wonder they pulled off the balearic kraut-epic Boonoonoonoos, the italo style electronic Silly Confusion (re-cut by Todd Terje by the way) and the laidback funky disco rock of Breakaway.

BONEY M - BREAKAWAY

(Sorry, this was taken down for copyright reasons)

No.47 x 2010

2010-11-04T07:41:00.000-07:00

Some amazing photos by Maya Hultmann of last saturdays guerilla record shop at the Makeriet gallery. Me and my main man Tobinski behind the decks.
Big thanks to everyone who showed up, bought records and drank beer with us.
And special thanks to Elias Westerberg, Mira Svanberg, Sofia Fredlund, Daniel Stahre, Jonas Grönlund, Arvid Holm & Farin Carami for support and inspiration.

No.46 x 2010

2010-11-01T15:31:00.000-07:00

Curtis Black of the Phantom Dogs Disco outfit takes a spin on the B-side of the french cosmo-rockers epic Philippe Renaux-produced Future Woman 12" single, which the Academy covered extensively in a recent special.
Here it seems the guys are left to figure out things themselves (no Renaux or Honeyman on credits), which they had no trouble with. The hissing vocals are hilariously "sexy".
This version kicks out most of the mellow string parts and focuses on extending the dubbed out percussion climax, even adding a little extra echo to the mix.

ATOMIC CONTROL - CURTIS BLACK EDIT

No.45 x 2010

2010-11-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

Daniel, who helps to run the gallery space Makeriet where The Academy recently exhibited (pics are on the way!), also has a local club called Music People together with two people. A guy called Johannes and a girl called Johanna.
Johanna Knutsson lives in Berlin where she makes dance music and cuts hair pro-style. Her first EP will be released early next year by Klasse Recordings.
She's recently put some of her Knutsson magic on an old proto-house joint, So Good So Right, off the classic gay disco album Body Talk by Imagination.
As far as I know, this is the first introduction on the disco edit-scene by a woman. Wether they are generally too cool to care about such a marginalized effort or just feel left out of the picture, the reason why the output of disco edits over the last few years have gone under the adjective of "bearded" is pretty plain to see.

IMAGINATION - SO GOOD SO RIGHT (Johanna Knutsson So Easy Edit)

No.44 x 2010

2010-10-30T03:24:00.000-07:00

If you happen to be in Malmö (Sweden) tonight, the Disco Academy will be throwing a guerilla record shop party at a place called Makeriet. Around 40 records will be sold, everything from the bargain bin finds around the corner to rarities picked up in Europe, each with the Academy sticker on the cover and a small typed review. There will be beer. And turntables.

Here's the FB-event.

No.43 x 2010

2010-10-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

Oh by the way, I also have a new mix! It's about telephones, in case you were wondering.
Here's the tracklist:

Secret Cosmic Phone Call
André Szigethy - Telefon (1983)
Midnight Star - Operator (1984)
Answering Service - Call Me Mr. Telephone (Lindström & Prins Thomas remix) (1985/2005)
Johnny Chingas - Phone Home (1982)
Blue Feather - Call Me Up (1982)
Crazy Gang - Telephone Computor (1983)
Body Electric - 5595 (1984)
Iron Curtain - Telephone (1985)
Eberhard Schoener - Why Don't You Answer? (1981)
Danny Darrow - Telephones (1979)
Kim Harlow - Who's On The Line? (1978)

Sergio Rizzolo - (..is) On The Line!

No.42 x 2010

2010-10-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

Behind the name of Rutger Hofbahn is a guy from Stockholm called Sebastian, an up-and-coming dude producing some very slick neo-balearic disco in the same field as the Eskimo Recordings stable.
His first single is called Rhea and is still only available digitally, but in time I believe that will surely change.
With an affection for the sweeping synthesizer sounds of early cosmic disco and the blissed out groove of the balearic beat, Hofbahn delivers this mix of old and new treasures.

SUCH A FEELING (MIX) by Rutger Hofbahn

No.41 x 2010

2010-09-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

To tell you the truth, I really don't know who Mystic is. I was searching for this particul song and found a random and seemingly anonymous download link of this pretty awesome edit. And since I can't find any other information about this mystery editor I guess he really lives up to his (or her?) name.
The original is an oriental flavoured disco boogie cut from 1978 by the same producer that would later go on to cut some serious latino cheese with Kaoma. But here, Jean-Claude Bonaventure really nails the groove with that sitar. The Panama project (which also included prolific drummer Serge Haouzi who worked on all the Martin Circus albums as well as the Zebra record together with Bonaventure) later went on to record a very tribal percussion trip of that Doobie Brothers song.

PANAMA - SO HIGH TONIGHT (MYSTIC EDIT)

No.40 x 2010

2010-09-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a long while since I posted something from my friends of Vidderna over here, mainly because we all blog over at Prejka together now.
They cetrainly have been keeping busy; with a recent tour of São Paulo, releasing a very limited split 12" with Ljudbilden & Piloten on Neosordo Records, as well as doing an upcoming tour of China. And yet they are always moving forwards on the lookout for new sounds, records and instruments. Often intertwined into the hybrid projects they call Vidderna Versions, which has of yet spanned everything from turkish prog rock, swedish new wave & Bryan Ferry.
Far from your ordinary edits, these are elaborate remixes with live instrumentation and studio tricks far from the reaches of my comprehension, but still very subtle and a with a carefull enchancing of the original. This tribal excursion by old aussie goths Dead Can Dance from 1996 was picked out of oblivion recently and sent into deep meditation.

Dead Can Dance - Song of the Stars (edit) by Vidderna Versioner

No.39 x 2010

2010-09-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

When the fourth installment of the crate diggers bible for the 21st century (Claremont 56 stellar compliation series Originals) came out last year, confusion struck those eager to hit the shops when it became evident that the balearic brits behind volume 4 (Matthew Burgess & Jolyon Green) had for some reason misspelled or distorted the name of this Swedish new wave group. The credits stated them as Diggy Tal & The Invaders, leading many diggers astray on their quest for this bass heavy bomb of a track.
Lucky for us here on home turf then that we had a head start in spotting this in the bargain bins of our local dealers.
Most of the album is crappy new wave rock with some stiff synthesizers thrown in for show. This track however stands out among the rest, partly for its straight up disco funk groove and possibly for its detour route all the way to Hollywood for a remix by studio wizard Rusty Garner.

DIGGY TAL & THE NUMBERS - IF IT'S LOVE THAT YOU WANT

No.38 x 2010

2010-09-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Disco Academy has been nominated for best swedish mp3-blog in the Swedish Podradio Awards 2010! Although I guess it should be best international mp3-blog now since we have brittish disco professor Paul Jackamo on board.
Among the nominees are also the Malmö-based music collective Prejka which I am a also part of, so I will be competing with myself to some degree. Which is just all the more fun!
I am not sure if the voting function is available for people outside of Sweden, but please give it a go here below:

No.37 x 2010 / The Saucer People Guest Blog No.4

2010-09-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

How_Beezar is a former Russian punk, indie & trip-hop drummer who spent ten years playing in a variety of bands before sucumbing to the sheer joy of the deep disco re-edit. One of his re-works is destined to create a tsunami of interest in DJ circles and here is a rare chance to jump on the bandwagon before it has even pulled out of hype station. The original track is by Russian artist/composer Yury Antonov and is called ‘I Remember‘ (or ‘I Reminisce‘ depending on the translation). It features on the soundtrack of the 1981 Russian film ‘Take Care Of The Women! and it is worth hearing the original just to grasp how radical the edit really is and plus you get a chance to watch some serious early eighties Soviet nightclub action!

Don't just take my word for it, here is what DJ legend and author of "Saturday Night Forever:Story Of Disco" Jussi Kantonen had to say about the track "Severely and rapidly addictive. Also very beautiful and sinister at the same time, like advanced science". If that wasn't enough, it has the seal of approval from the guys behind Overfitting Disco who commented "...the definitive dope indeed, now, a bootleg label must pick this one up, fast".

Until this gets released either officially or in bootleg form, feel free to send it, post it and generally spread it's love around in the smug knowledge you heard about it first! You can also get more of How_Beezar's amazing collection of edits by visiting his LiveJournal page. Also check out his incredible collection of proto-house and proto-techno tracks called "Tracks That Left Their Time Behind 1977-1983"

YURY ANTONOV - I REMEMBER (HOW_BEEZAR RE-EDIT 2010)

No.36 x 2010 / The Saucer People Guest Blog No.3

2010-09-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Diskoakademin's post of Flash & The Pan's 1987 classic 'Ayla' I thought I would delve into my own collection of tracks from this strange and semi-obscure Australian band. Formed in the early dawn of pre-history (or the 'mid-70s' as some historians label it) their first release, the 1976 'Hey, St. Peter' was a hit both here in the UK and in their native Australia but it was the 'Walking In The Rain' flip-side that they are now better known for (if only for the seminal cover version by Grace Jones that was the opening track of her 1981 Nightclubbing album).

Between 1976 and 1982 they released a shed-load of records and in the process had a series of minor hits and near misses with the best known probably 'Early Morning Wake Up Call', 'Waiting For A Train' (check out the 1983 Italo-disco Moonbase cover of the track by Tony Carrasco of Klein & MBO fame, especially the killer dub) and the 1984 'Midnight Man' release which featured a couple of sleazy-groove infested remixes from Francois Kevorkian & Ron St. Germain which I have included here. First up is the ultra-rare 11 minute plus remix with it's tripped-out progesque introduction followed by the mighty instrumental dub. Is it at this point I say 'enjoy'? probably not...

FLASH & THE PAN - MIDNIGHT MAN (LONG EXTENDED REMIX 1984)

FLASH & THE PAN - MIDNIGHT MAN (INSTRUMENTAL DUB 1984)

No.35 x 2010 / The Saucer People Guest Blog No.2

2010-09-07T05:03:00.000-07:00

Every cosmic (or 'afro' if Beppe is reading this) DJ worth his space salt knows that between the slo-mo Moroder on methadone 110 chuggers there needs to be the occasional 'percussion freakout' and these two tracks, both clocking in at just over nine minutes, are 'da freakin' bomb' as the kids no longer say. Trouble Funk were a Washington D.C. funk band from the early eighties and perhaps more than anyone else, responsible for the 'Go-Go' sound.

What is the 'Go-Go' sound? Well, according to Kip Lornell & Charles C. Stephenson, Jr. in their definitive 2001 book on the genre, The Beat: Go-Go's Fusion of Funk and Hip-Hop:

"Go-go's essential beat is characterized by a syncopated, dotted rhythm that consists of a series of quarter and eighth notes (quarter, eighth, quarter, (space/held briefly), quarter, eighth, quarter)… which is underscored most dramatically by the bass drum and snare drum, and the hi-hat… [and] is ornamented by the other percussion instruments, especially by the conga drums, timbale, and hand-held cowbells."

Well, there you have it in an academic nutshell! The reason why most of the time "writing about music is like dancing about architecture"; sometimes you just have to feel the groove (and the odd space-synth outburst!). The two Trouble Funk tracks featured here were released as a 12 inch on Jamtu Records in 1981 and though they are not as well known as say their 'Drop The Bomb' and 'Pump Me Up' tracks, in my opinion they were the best thing they ever did and in the right hands, still have the potential to cause dancefloor mayhem to this day. 'The Beat (Part 2)' has the odd crackle & pop but for me this is the key track, the pounding NY post-punk Konk/ESG/Liquid Liquid beat loops and attack of the space-synths overdubs make it sound as go-go fresh today as it was when it was first released 29 years ago.

TROUBLE FUNK - THE BEAT (INSTRUMENTAL PART 1) [1981]

TROUBLE FUNK - THE BEAT (INSTRUMENTAL PART 2) [1981]

No.34 x 2010 / The Saucer People Guest Blog No.1

2010-09-07T03:06:00.000-07:00

As this is my first post, it seems appropriate to reference where I live and in turn, allow you to be dazzled by the rich cultural diversity of Diskoakademin. The image above gives the game away doesn't it? I am of course from the imaginary city of Metropolis...sorry, I meant England (so easy to confuse the two) and what could be more quintessentially English than The Kinks and their 'mod' inspired visions of 'Waterloo Sunset' and 'Dedicated Follower Of Fashion'?

Only this is 1979, the whole world had become infected with the disco meme and even former English rockstars were not immune. As the Stones had already joined the disco party very succesfully the year before with 'Miss You', it is hardly suprising that other former 60s English rockstars would also be jumping on the glitterball bandwagon.

Recorded in New York as part of the 'Low Budget' album sessions, '(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman' was released in 12 inch "Disco Mix Extended Edit" form while the album itself acheived the highest American chart place of any Kinks album. What I love about the track (aside from the flaying guitars, driving bass and sheets of synth wash) are the lyrics. Anyone who has listened to the words of their 'banned' 1970 single 'Lola' knows that Ray Davies can tell a good story and this is no exception, check out this wonderful rhyming couplet: "I'm too weak, i'm so thin, I'd like to fly but i can't even swim". Sheer poetry!

THE KINKS - (WISH I COULD FLY LIKE) SUPERMAN [DISCO MIX EXTENDED EDIT 1979]

No.33 x 2010

2010-09-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

This is one of my own spins, although I'm sure someone must have picked up on this before me. I would have gone with the Outta Town Mix that was released on the Ayla Mixes 12", but could only find the single version, which is pretty close anyway.
The brooding and spacey intro is quite reminiscent of what Studio pulled off with the Williams version of Tangerine Dreams Love On A Real Train.
I couldn't help myself to put some reverb on that enormous drumbeat while I was at it.

FLASH AND THE PAN - AYLA (at 33 rpm)

No.32 x 2010

2010-08-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

Baldellis classic wrongspeeder. You can see him play it during his lecture at the Red Bull Music Academy a couple of years ago, along with other wrongspeeders like Alien Sex Fiend and Culture Club (Underwater starts at about 0:55 into the clip).
So this jittery 120-something bpm showtune disco camper turns from simply nuisance to an epic chugger where all the subtle instrumentations that are packed so tightly are suddenly revealed by the turn of a switch, ready to blow your mind. As it surely did back in the days, causing confusion among record store owners in Italy when kids came in with casettetapes of Baldelli mixes hoping to buy stuff no one could recognize.

HARRY THUMANN - UNDERWATER (at 33 rpm)

No.31 x 2010

2010-08-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

We all like our disco slow and groovy, in fact the pitch on my decks are always set to -3 as a point of entry. Just that extra nudge can change the feeling of almost any record.
When this technology saw the light of day in the late 1970s, the art of the discjockey as we it know today was also born. But apart from beat mixing, the pioneering djs of these times saw with fresh eyes all kinds of opportunitys to be explored. Something as simple as an rpm-switch could in the right hands become a tool of creativity, as it very well did.
The wrongspeeder is as integral to the afro-cosmic style as scratch is to hiphop. And the same reckless attitude spawned those ideas.
A 12" or 7" single cut at 45 rpm could be played at 33 rpm and an album track cut at 33 could be played at 45.
The italian djs Beppe Loda & Daniele Baldelli are the masters of this, what one could call a technique or skill. But in comparison to scratching, this is a skill mainly focused on crate digging.
So whoever picked up Johnny Warmans 1981 album Walking Into Mirrors and heard the endlessly tugging drumbeats of the epic Fantastic Light decided to turn this 6 minute drama into a 4 minute club banger.

JOHNNY WARMAN - FANTASTIC LIGHT (at 45 rpm)

No.30 x 2010 / Philippe Renaux Special No.6

2010-07-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

Definitely the most exciting and mysterious record I have found from the early career of Philippe Renaux.

Released in 1982 on Clever, Renaux own french sublabel to italo dominators Carrere. This however, is the amazing sleeve for a release on the Mexican label Peerless, which is the only release of this song where Renaux is credited under his own name. For the Clever release he has resumed his old alias Phil Honeyman.

Here we find him alongside Claude Mainguy on writing credits (a long-time collaborator who also worked with Rockets and as recording engineer on the Paris Casablanca record, as well as co-writing a B-side with Renaux for Massieras Venus Gang single Space Woman in 1981, just prior to this record).

The Clever release states Derek Arden on production credits, which is most likely another alias of Renaux since the Peerless sleeve credits both Renaux and Mainguy.

Too bad then that they never worked again under such circumstances, since this is a profoundly confusing and creative mix of early electro, classic disco and balearic guitars. Kicking of in a Timmy Thomas mode on the keyboards backed by stiff drum machines, this trip gets more funky by every second - adding vocoders and Funkytown-styled breaks before turning into a fullfledged anthem when Gil Slavin (a former back-up singer to Grace Jones) takes to the microphone.

Not your average disco record, and a worthy conclusion to our Philippe Renaux Special here at the Disco Academy.

BRAIN - D.I.X.O.

No.29 x 2010 / Philippe Renaux Special No.5

2010-07-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

It's time for some cosmic feelings again. Another collaboration with his old bandmates of the Rockets. This is their "third" album, from1979 (the hectic discography of the band resulted in a lot of lumping together of previously released songs in re-packeged releases).

Here we have Renaux featured on writing duty again on the track Cosmic Feeling, but seemingly not involved with the instrumentation this time (although I can't be sure about that, my correspondance with Mr. Renaux has been sporadic and most the time he could not remember the specific tracks). Anyway, very enjoyable cosmic disco rock.

ROCKETS - COSMIC FEELING

No.28 x 2010 / Philippe Renaux Special No.4

2010-07-14T09:41:00.001-07:00

In 1979 Renaux produced and arranged this rather conventional disco project, working alongside colleague Rachid Bahri for the first time. They would later work together on a disco project called Modesty (named after its female vocalist we can assume) which resulted in a couple of singles.

Letting the cosmic fad rest a while, the theme here revolves around the luxurious pleasures of some exotic cities, namely Casablanca and Cairo. This idea however seems to have evolved from one of the album cuts on the Renaux cosmic masterpiece Discosmic Dancer, called "Casablanca is alright for dancing tonight".
Suitable to the theme, this is glittering and smooth disco aimed to please. A saxophone solo a bit on the cheesy side, a proper uptempo choir refrain and some steady drums. But the male vocalist really does a superb job of infusing decadence into the mix. And there's a very loveable break with oriental flutes and a synthesizer baseline.

PARIS CASABLANCA - DANCING IN CAIRO

No.27 x 2010 / Philippe Renaux Special No.3

2010-07-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

Renaux was long involved with the people behind the band/project Rockets, even during their forming years under different aliases, no doubt because of their shared love for the cosmic. Mainly credited as a writer, he penned their single Rocket Man in 1974 (as The Rocketters). In fact, according to reliable sources (i.e. the man himself!), he was the bands first singer
He is also credited as the writer of their most enduring production - Future Woman. What is less known is that he actually does the vocals as well as plays all instruments on this song (thank you for the scoop Philippe!).
This has the smell of J.P. Massiera all over it, whom Renaux worked with in 1976 as co-writer & producer (as well as bass player under the pseudonym Phil Honeyman) on the Jessy Joyce record Love Me.
Even though they apparently never worked again, it seems that they both took a lot of inspiration and ideas with them from that collaboration and channelled it into their coming work in the field of cosmic crazyness. Massieras later hit song Space Woman bears an uncanny resemblance to this Renaux piece. A friendly paraphrase or jealous rip-off?
As the concept of Rockets formed much around the idea of a rock band (they did actually tour as live musicians, including lasers and smoke machines of course), their sound is a mix of heavy psyched out rock riffs and funky electronic disco rhythms (needless to say, they're one of the greatest bands ever).
This sounds crystallizes to perfection in Future Woman, which Renaux made for them in 1975. A single (under their alias Les Rockets) was released the same year, however I favored the much harder and bass-driven 1976 Long Version from the self-titled Rockets album for this post.

ROCKETS - FUTURE WOMAN (LONG VERSION)

No.26 x 2010 / Philippe Renaux Special No.2

2010-07-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

Since most of Renauxs best productions are dated to 1978, I'm not sure in which precise order they were released, so I figured why save the best for last and keep all you well-read disco afficionados patiently expecting this post to drop, one of the most revered and sought after cosmic disco albums of the past years, as well as being the arguably most amazing effort from the hands and mind of Mr. Philippe Renaux.
The album is Discosmic Dance, by the "artist" Chris Craft (who seems to be an orange coloured rip-off of the Silver Surfer).
In the same over the top fashion as the Van Duyne album, most of the track titles here involve the word "cosmic" in order not to leave anyone guessing as to what the theme is. But what makes this such an extraordinary album in comparison is the comic book-like affection in which this concept is embraced.
Also, of course, it's all about the music. Harsh and broody semi-electronic instrumentals far to the leftfield of the disco mainstream sound and at times with one foot in the door of the avantgarde.
It's hard to say whose intentions spawned this resulting record. One could imagine Renaux setting out to cash in on the current trend of all things cosmic and naturally turning to synthesizers in order to fuse this element into a disco sound. But amidst all the fun of jerking out wierd rhythms and tones from these machines he must have got too caught up to even try to make dumb danceable music out of what otherwise may have seemed a sordid project.

It strikes me that Renaux has the same incomprehensible charm as that of italian low budget exploitation-movie directors by the likes of Enzo Castellari or Jesús Franco. Always quick to jump on the bandwagon of someone elses sucess and turning out hasty copycat versions, but in the process of their own creative input set against heavy economic limitations manages to pull off something far more interesting or simply too hilarious not to enjoy.
By the same principle, anyone with just money on their mind could not have come up with something this wonderful.

CHRIS CRAFT - INTERPLANETARY CONFLICT

No.25 x 2010 / Philippe Renaux Special No.1

2010-07-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

After my recent special on italian producer Alberto Radius, I thought I would continue digging up the forgotten names from the era of the disco producer.
And so I stumbled on Philippe Renaux; french composer, writer, arranger and producer as well as the label boss of the french Carrere sublabel Clever.
The story of his involvment in the disco business starts around 1977, closely after his collaborations with the enigmatic J.P. Massiera.
His full-on production efforts starts with the pretty conventional idea of establishing a disco diva by the name of Toni Van Duyne, a project which seems to have been fully orchestrated by Renaux. But from the get-go, Renaux had his mind set on something cosmic. A theme that would prevail in most of his commitments of the late 1970s and early 80s, and which is clearly evident here on Cosmic Dancer of 1978
On this, the first and only Van Duyne album apart from a handfull of singles, most of the production is soft midtempo disco-pop with modest hints of synthesizers thrown in for a sci-fi-esque effect, to fit the ever prevailing cosmic theme (which seems fuelled by an inspired fascination of Barbarella) . Be A Star works very well though, riding on a perky baseline aided by some funky synth squeezes.

TONI VAN DUYNE - BE A STAR

No.24 x 2010

2010-06-27T16:13:00.001-07:00

I long discarded this as a too-cheesy italo project without even having heard it, but when I came across the full album recently it struck me that this is something completely different. Just the sparse yet funky intro (Curt Cress on the drums!) sets you into the sleezy mode that the cover so ingeniously portrays. This is the kind of cut you would likely hear in a Mark Seven mix, neatly placed alongside Stars 'N' Bars.

BILGERI - VIDEO LIFE (LONG VERSION)

No.23 x 2010

2010-06-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

How wierd this world can be, that a Checkoslovakian guy picks up a foreign record with an 80's mainstream look and hits a jackpot of sleezy synth boogie, while here in Sweden most of us would shrug at the notion of yet another Carola record while flipping through a bargain crate. The fact that this crazy-eyed christian is one of our biggest celebrities and the queen of schlager here also makes her name and recording efforts invisible to the eyes of anyone who doesn't buy into the wholesome swedish lifestyle.
A nice surprise it is then, that my computer machine told me about this amazing blog and this dudes re-edit of Carolas 1983 single Hunger. Thank you (and God bless you) Oozlum for re-introducing us to the cheesy yet cool sound of Carola.

CAROLA - HUNGER (OOZLUM EDIT)

No.22 x 2010

2010-06-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

What the what is going on here!? Doomsday is here, apparently caused by a giant He-Man character shooting laserbeams from his eyes, so the best thing to do is get nasty with each other and "drown in our juices of love". Just take a peek at what's going down on the sleeve!
So was Danny Darrow a formerly devout christian who in the face of the confusing and corrupting climate of the 1970s lost his faith and decided to hell with it and went all in for the decadence? I'd like to believe so.
Anyhow this record is an ingenious display of sleaziness from start to finnish, all cosmic synthesizers shooting through latin percussion and electric guitars teaming up with saxophone bursts. The 12" Long Version which you get here also adds a couple of minutes of epic sequencer droning.
I can easily say this is the best record I own. And it's all thanks to my great friend Mathias who bought this without having heard it and decided to give it to me just because he knew I would like it even more. I did however trade in my double copys of Skatt Bros, Chaz Jankel & Peter Baumann, but it was totally worth it. Thanks Mathias!

DANNY DARROW - DOOMSDAY (LONG VERSION)

No.21 x 2010

2010-05-27T16:47:00.000-07:00

Did some fixing up on an old Killing Joke track I found in the basement of the post-punk movement, caught in flagranti banging on the machines of the emperor.
The angry young man-singing had to go, but the teen frenzy is still there. The rhythm leaves you with a slightly seasick impression, like drinking a whole crate of Jolt Cola while headbanging.
I will be playing this at my friend Mathias excellent club SPASM tonight (which happens to be held in a basement), along with some action-synth-laser-rock out of the 1980s.

SERGIO RIZZOLO - MOLOTOV MODULATOR

No.20 x 2010

2010-05-17T14:44:00.001-07:00

King Sling & Samo DJ finally closed the book last year and ended the saga that was High Feelings, one of the greatest yet most shortlived record labels out of Stockholm.
Three years in the running did however unveil such classic cuts as the COS MES Sadistic Skatepark 7", Kool DJ Dust The Disco Opera LP and some timeless techno from Over The Hill (Samo DJs excellent re-edit of an obscure library record).
High Feelings went beyond the re-edit scene with the way they presented themselves, and thus defined its greatest nerve as a cutting edge phenomenon of pop culture.
Here is an awesome New Wave-Electro joint from catalogue number 002.

KOOL DJ DUST - TURBO BY MR Z

No.19 x 2010

2010-05-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

Gary Numan, master of baselines & Star Wars fan. We've all been in a constant mind-blown state here at the Academy over the allround awesomeness of Numans vast catalogue, largely due to Bonar Bradburrys epic re-edit of his Music For Chameleons, which introduced his work from the stale shelf of New Wave unto our discoteques.
Our main chopper Tobinski puts some loving touches on another knockout track, Stormtrooper in Drag, which appears to have originally only been released as a solo single of fellow Tubeway Army bandmate Paul Gardiner, despite most credits belonging to Numan.

GARY NUMAN - STORMTROOPER IN DRAG (TOBINSKI EDIT)

No.18 x 2010

2010-05-05T01:52:00.000-07:00

Who would have guessed that slick big business disco diva Claudja Barry would have taken on the task of recording a cover of polio-stricken pubrocker Ian Durys dirty lovesong about early morning sex.
But the missing link in this equation is of course Chaz Jankel, Durys nr.1 Blockhead during their first two records of groundbreaking cockney punk-funk.
This version actually bears close resemblance with the solo work that Jankel later would go on to produce in the mid 1980s (which in recent years have gotten some long due notice thanks to an extensive re-issue launch by nu-disco record label Tirk), and one could imagine that this is what Jankel would have made this classic cut sound like had he had free hands.

CLAUDJA BARRY - WAKE UP AND MAKE LOVE WITH ME

No.17 x 2010 / Alberto Radius Special No.4

2010-04-23T04:56:00.000-07:00

Space bull alert!?! Alberto teams up as arranger and guitarist on this monster of an album, the first and only interesting effort of classical guitarist Maurizio Colonna. Tullio De Piscopo on the drums along with an ensemble of other italian studio wizards.
Lots of peaks, breaks and rhytmic parts on this one, kind of going for that stiff but somehow funky orchestral sound of the likes of the Marlin Records output or Alec R. Constandinos epic concept albums, but here infused with some amazing and laughable Black Sabbath-like rock attempts and the classical virtuoso touch of Colonnas fast fingers.

MAURIZIO COLONNA - HEAVEN'S ALIVE TONIGHT

No.16 x 2010 / Alberto Radius Special No.3

2010-04-23T04:13:00.000-07:00

The following year of 1980 was a cosmic one for Mr. Radius. After about two years of disco dabbling, it seems he was finally beginning to enjoy himself - throwing in crazy ideas and not sticking to any blueprints. Which is evident on this 7" single and one-off project.
Deemed as the italian aswer to Hauenstein and Zander by the thrustworthy Cosmic Dudes, they did however plead for a remix or re-edit due to the cheese overload of the vocals, which they soon got by the enthusiastic over-achiever Space-Kudu, the alias of Amsterdam wonderchild Rick Claassen.

LA DOPPIA FACCIA - ALIBI (SPACE-KUDU RE-EDIT)

No.15 x 2010 / Alberto Radius Special No.2

2010-04-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

An early italian disco rarity often contributed to Stefano Pulga (although he is merely credited as a co-writer). The three releases made by this strange project were all either arranged or written & produced by Alberto Radius, along with different musicians.
The title refers to the Vatican pope Karol Jozef Wojtyla, who got the job in 1978. Apparently a pretty uptight pope, this was probably a very satirical remark on his behalf.
Stevie Kotey picked this one for his compilation Disco Italia: Essential Italo Disco Classics 1977-1985 on Strut in 2008.
With its wonderful blend of proto-italo electronics and classic New York disco funk baseline, this is one of the best works in the Radius catalogue.

FREDDY THE FLYING DUTCHMAN AND THE SISTINA BAND - WOJTYLA DISCO DANCE

No.14 x 2010 / Alberto Radius Special No.1

2010-04-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

It's Alberto Radius-week at the academy! I think it's about time we cast the spotlight on this italian guitarist and producer and his strange and wonderful career.
No doubt some of us spotters on the bearded side as well as the hardcore italo heads have at some point crossed paths with a record discreetly credited to this man.
Although he has had a hand in a comprehensive output of italian disco singles during the golden years of the early 1980s, no one seems to have picked up on the red thread that is his distinct sound and pointed it out as a mark of quality in the same manner bestowed on the likes of Bobby O or Patrick Cowley. Possibly due to Radius more dominating connection with prog and avantgarde as is evident in the releases under his own name and his inclusion in psych-group Formula 3. But to prove my point, you only need to give a listen to this cut from his second solo album; a heavy chunk of bass & drums funkrock turned into soaring string-driven disco pop, keeping both a slick and proggy appeal that ties the whole track together.

ALBERTO RADIUS - LA META

No.13 x 2010

2010-03-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

This guy, besides being the voice of Uriah Heep for a while, is also one of the men behind the cosmic masterpiece The Ultimate Warlord of 1978, as one half of the brief group The Warlords with Peter Green (not that Peter Green though).
And later during the following year of 1979, also together with Peter Green, they released the album Super Nova as Intergalactic Orchestra, which is even harder to get your hands on than the Warlord-single.
With a resume like that in your bag you can't really go wrong, right? And so in the same year as The Warlords hit the discoteques, Byrons solo debut hit the racks with a curious blend of blues rock trivialities and a black sheep in the form of proto-italo afro rocker African Breeze. Being a perfect blend of of the seemingly unlikely career personas Byron was juggling at the time, this track hits hard with all the right moves, and I'm amazed I didn't hear of this sooner.
It's much likely that this is the ace of secret weapons up many discjockeys sleeves.

DAVID BYRON - AFRICAN BREEZE

No.12 x 2010

2010-03-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

Åke "Kråkan" Nilsson had an on and off musical career between working for his fathers carpeting company, which he eventually took over. You can see him hard at work here on the sleeve for the 1980 album Lyftet. He now operates dance courses in Åkersberga.
This boogie-monster of a track, eluding to the swedish porno magazine Lektyr, is a sleezy but witty wordplay of rhymes where the natural association to various swedish words for certain body parts is substituted and censored with a drum break, only to break the build up of uttering a dirty word by throwing it into a completely different direction when the groove picks up again.
Björn Skifs did a similar prank on his disco-dabbling effort Hela Natten Lång, when a simulated orgasm turns out to be just a sneeze.

KRÅKAN - LEKTYRDISCO

No.11 x 2010

2010-03-14T15:52:00.001-07:00

I really don't get what all the fuzz is about Magic Fly, since it fades in comparison to all the other amazing stuff Space has released. This for instance, from their harder to find fourth album Deeper Zone, had passed my attention for some time until I heard the Magick Edit Allstars edit of it and I went bananas to the beat.
But I have to admit that the edit is pretty unnecessary, since the original has so many good parts working just fine and moving along nicely at a much more groovier tempo than the upbeat Allstars interpretation. I guess that's a matter of taste, so hats off anyway for championing this monster of a space-funk track.

SPACE - INNER VOICES

No.10 x 2010

2010-03-07T13:40:00.001-08:00

I found this crazy Russian record from 1983 at an outdoor yardsale last summer. As with most east-european records, the english subtitles sound riddiculuosly awkward when out of context. Which is much the same these days with the cut and paste language of Babelfish.
Anyway, there are some spaced out disco vibes on two of the tracks, and I decided to do an edit of one of these. Anastasia starts off with some cowbell action straight out of some farm, and the bouncy guitar'n'strings groove is coupled with schmaltzy but charming vocals. There are however some excellent breaks thrown in here and there that make this a killer on the dancefloor. Насладитесь!

YURI ANTONOV - ANASTASIA (RIZZOLO EDIT)

No.9 x 2010

2010-03-05T16:21:00.001-08:00

The gaps of time seem to have swallowed this group into oblivion, since not much is known about them. From what I've gathered by the sleeve notes, these are the Fortune siblings (and not some suave guy who got lucky), consisting of Colleen & Maureen doing a moaning take on blues and brother Richard rocking the guitar.
This album from 1978, produced by Mark Davis (if that tells you anything?), blends some stiff disco-ish electronic instrumentation with funky wigged out rock'n'roll. But be warned, this kind of groove is only for the deep disco diggers who've already explored everything else.

FORTUNE - SADDLE THE WIND

No.8 x 2010

2010-02-15T12:18:00.001-08:00

This is so... EPIC! I posted this a while back at my other spot (the music collective Prejka), but I felt I needed to include this one here as well, since this is pretty much the prototype for what the Disco Academy is all about.
Basically, there are three types of qualifications that make up the basis for any records advancement into the Disco Academys "Public Library", they are as follows:
1. An artist of questionable integrity burdened by horrible past acheivments who just happens to punch a hole through mediocrity and deliver something extraordinary.
2. Due to common neglect and/or cheesy album cover art, said record is largely unknown even to the most avid collector - although it may be spotted in almost every record shop known to man.
3. The groovy nature of this particular record - even though it may be instantly felt - appears to be unintentional and defies all categorization, leaving the dancer clueless as to what he or she is being subjected to, as well as testing the boldness of the DJ that is subjecting them to it.

This is one of those records...

HERB ALPERT - BEYOND

No.7 x 2010

2010-02-15T11:19:00.000-08:00

This track, here re-edited by Alden Tyrell, was released on the compilation Clone Box Jams a few years back, no doubt due to it's clean and hard sound as it rubbed shoulders with Chicago house productions as well as the electric Garage classic Heat You Up, Melt You Down by Shirley Lites.
Although on that compilation this composition is credited to Harold Haltermeyer & Peter Moesser, and the track is titled So High (which could suggest that another release was made still unknown to Discogs... or more likely that Mr. Tyrell wanted to keep this treasure to himself).
Anyway, I just spotted this wonder of Germanian cosmica among the secret offers of Cosmic Dudes latest batch of up-for bids. So go spend a fortune and then laugh loudly while stroking a white cat as you build your empire of hard-to-find cosmic records.

PETER MOESSER'S MUSIC - HIGH (Alden Tyrell Re-Edit)

No.6 x 2010

2010-02-15T11:08:00.001-08:00

There was a time before disco hit Sweden when so called dance bands ruled the nation in terms of nightlife entertainment. It's hard for someone unfamiliar with scandinavian culture to fully grasp the impact this culture had and continues to have as the main supply of music in many peoples lives. To describe this very simply put, these dance bands are orchestras of very skilled musicians in a category somewhere inbetween cover band and house band, performing a very slick and romantic take on everything from soul, pop and country, usually with swedish vocals.
Around 1979, disco was a fact in Sweden, with the introduction of the concept that one DJ can replace a complete orchestra, to the effect of what has been called "the death of dance bands" (There is a very entertaining news broadcast from the time of this process here)

However, many acts of the dance band scene tried to get with the times and recorded and performed what they believed to be disco music, often with hillariously awkward results.
Except for one of these exploits, being the studio project Laser, which was based out of the highly succesful dance band Sten & Stanley. With this side-project, they set out as early as 1977 to cash in on the cosmic trends of disco that were emerging, and recorded covers of such hit singles that had broke the mold. Including of course Giorgio Moroders anthem I Feel Love.
Leaving out the vocals completely, this version takes on a much more wobblier feel that is as funky as it is freaky.

LASER - I FEEL LOVE

No.5 x 2010

2010-02-14T07:45:00.000-08:00

On the 13th of February 2009 the Disco Academy first set up shop here on the internet and in the celebrated recordstrore Rundgång in central Malmö, since then we've sold a bunch of records that have satisfied the disco cravings of both locals and out of towners.
Supplying mainly unknown gems from the sidetracks of the late 1970s disco-boom to the whacked out album fillers of major international artists, as well as overlooked efforts from the Swedish music scene of the 1980s, we hope that the Disko Akademin sticker of approval will in time earn a value of its own.

Here on the blog we've had the pleasure of introducing the skills of producers & DJs like Albion, Vidderna, Lugnet, Giulio DJ, Dompteur Mooner, Phantom Dogs Disco, Schmami, Tobinski, Bogdan & The Robot Scientists, just to name a few. Under this year we have connected dots, passed along praises, made wild associations and accusations and probably stepped on some toes along the way.
We hope to keep doing what we're doing for another year, and hopefully improve this blog and our skills in hunting for the cosmic & far out exploits of dance music.

This saturday we will celebrate our bithday, conveniently enough, at the Vinyl Bar of KB.
DJs Tobinski & Rizzolo will keep your mind on its toes through the evening from 22:00 to 04:00.

This is the link to the FB event for more info.

No.4 x 2010

2010-02-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

From the funky side of the new romantic scene, this is pure discorock action with a great drum beat and a thick synthesizer bassline. Simple and effective, it could easily work in the set of any DJ regardless of style.
The 12" of Mind Of A Toy surely holds the goldmine of B-sides from the new wave era, with the Dance Mix of Frequency 7 sharing the wax on the same side as this treasure, thus spanning the spectrum of almost all emerging club scenes of the early 1980s with a sound now revered as both proto-techno and electro, and perhaps even moving into new territories of the club sound.
I do recall a certain Kano production, I'm Ready, being hyped as a sort of theme song for a very happening scene that I now don't even remember the name of. Good music prevails all categorization as it seems.

VISAGE - WE MOVE (DANCE MIX)

No.3 x 2010

2010-01-21T04:26:00.000-08:00

This amazing display of cinematic excellence that is the movie Raiders of Atlantis (or Atlatis Interceptor, or Atlantis Inferno, or I Predatori de Atlantide - depending on which country it was released) was conceived in Italy with a semi-american cast in 1983. The story takes place in Miami 1994 when the population of Atlantis appear out of nowhere due to nuclear radiation of course, and they're a pissed off biker gang with face paint and uzis ...of course.
Apart from the amazing acting and scenery, the music is ace. Totally saucy boogie-disco and arpeggio mood pieces laden with rocking guitars and that typical "action" drum sound.
Guido & Maurizio De Angelis are the brothers behind this soundtrack as well as countless other italian movies of the 1970s and 1980s.
The main theme was released as a 12" single by Kangaroo Team Records under the name Black Inferno. According to Discogs that's also the title of the track, which makes sense since it is sung repeatedly throughout both the instrumental and vocal version (with plenty of macho growling)

BLACK INFERNO - THEME FROM ATLANTIS INTERCEPTOR (INSTRUMENTAL)

No.2 x 2010

2010-01-13T02:57:00.001-08:00

This friday I (Sergio Rizzolo that is) will be warming up for some swizz action from In Flagranti at our local church/club Babel, hosted by Tricks/Tricks/Tricks.
But already tomorrow night they will unleash their vision of cosmic sleaze in Stockholm with the 24:Hrs team.This is the promo video for the latest installment in their Sounds Superb 12" series, which is the teams creative outlet for everything surrounding In Flagranti - such as re-edits and odd tracks from fellow colleagues. We're hoping they will bring a couple of copies on their visit, otherwise it will soon be available for puchase on Juno / Piccadilly.
Here's another quality cut from their bag - a drugged out take on an already wierd Prelude Records classic by Slimline.

IN FLAGRANTI - MINI SELL

No.1 x 2010

2010-01-10T09:13:00.000-08:00

Top Nice is arguably one of the best clubs in Stockholm (and possibly Europe - since they have expanded their territory to London in the last few years) simply by the fact that the large and loose collective behind the name always seem to have just as much fun, or even more, than the dancefloor crowd.
It doesn't hurt then that these deejays are top nice in their game as well - with people like Carli, Ebotron, Maxxbass, Alonzo & Hampus Time D.J. (just to name a few) often seen behind the decks.
Last summer they held a party at a place called Pluto in Stockholm that I was fortunate enough to attend as an impromptou guest DJ. That night saw the release of their mixtape Svenska Pärlor, one of last years best crate-diving mixes into the history of Swedish new wave & disco, which they finally have decided to share with the good folks of the world wide web.
Keep it coming boys!

1. Viva – Igår, idag, imorgon
2. Tredje Mannen – Ser dig nu
3. Adolphson & Falk – Krafter vi aldrig känner
4. Freestyle – Kom till mig
5. Mikael Rickfors - Dancing on the edge of danger
6. Magnus Uggla – Sommartid
7. Magnus Uggla – Sommartid (12” version)
8. Tv3 – Telefonterror
9. Peter Stridh – La luna
10. Michael Dee – Nu ska vi opp, opp, opp
11. Tredje Mannen – Flanör
12. Ståålfågel – Utan rymddräkt på Uranus
13. Giant Steppers – Uptown downtown
14. Madeleine Uzho – Satisfied
15. Nasa – Take off your clothes
16. Ståålfågel – En dag på varuhuset
17. Peter Stridh – Single Girl
18. Lustans Lakejer – Något måste brista
19. Cirkus – Amazonas
20. Lacrosse – Du befaller
21. Reeperbahn – Förnedringen
22. Lustans Lakejer – Stilla nätter
23. Johanna Lundberg – Heta linjen
24. Cosmic Overdose – Tonight
25. Ratata – Romantic (non mi ami plu)
26. Ratata – Ögon av is

TOP NICE - SVENSKA PÄRLOR

STORMVARNING

2009-12-30T06:20:00.000-08:00

A late Christmas present from my friend Tobinski (who I run the new club So Slick together with), and as always he delivers an equally solid as obscure take on a forgotten treasure from the most commonly known artists in Sweden.
Ted was somewhat of a musical prodigy and became a pop star in the 1970s while barely a teenager. He later joined a religious group and tragically ended his life in his early forties. But for a while, he was surely kicking ass and causing storms (which the title implies, and which apparently affected his hairstyle)!

TED GÄRDESTAD - STORMVARNING (TOBINSKI EDIT)

IT'S A BOOGIETHON!?

2009-12-28T17:30:00.000-08:00

Behind pretty face Tina Charles stands the long-haired indian guy and disco producer Appaiah Biddu, known and praised among record collectors and disco beards for his own project The Biddu Orchestra and his work on Bollywood soundtracks.
Although he often stepped aside from his more cosmic ambitions to bring in the green with works like Carl Douglas Kung Fu Fighting or producing for Tina Charles, he managed to slip in an odd delight on this one originally from one of his own albums, Eastern Man with The Biddu Orchestra, namely Boogiethon.
Which as the title implies combines boogie and marathon into an amazingly funky rhytmic-driven boogiethon of slippery sythesizers and hard-on horn sections, with Tina taking the back seat on this one with a minimal of singing efforts that simply just cruise along with the groove.

TINA CHARLES - BOOGIETHON

THE ITALIAN MASH-UP

2009-12-28T16:03:00.000-08:00

Mash-ups was a terrible gimmick of a trend in the early 21st century, preceeded by the great DJ boom in the 1990s that led people to believe that anything that was conceived by a DJ and written about in magazines like The Face or Dazed & Confused was the shit. Which it was of course, until the hangover came and sober ears shivered at the sound of 2 Many Djs.
What might have slipped our attention though, is that long before the word mash-up was the coolest word to spit out in a club or record store, some crazy italian dudes were making money off the same concept, but for the simplicity of things merely calling it medleys.
Only with the difference of less available technology and harder legal issues on their plates, they did what the early hip hop scene had done before them and rounded up a bunch of studio musicians to play the stuff they wanted to hear.
Whoever idea it was then to have a band record cheesy italo mash-up covers of Deep Purple and Ten Years After (Smoke Like A Man) or Michael Jackson and Greg Kihn Band (B. Project) is something for the historians to figure out. Stefano Pulga was however the main force behind this pink project, and did manage to pull off a few pretty funky creations. This is my favourite:

PINK PROJECT - DER DA DA DA

PASSION OF THE ROD

2009-12-27T14:14:00.000-08:00

On the album Foolish Behaviour Rod tries to get back into the old rock boots after the credability wreckage of throwing his invaluable talent on disco (his smash-hit Do ya Think I'm Sexy). But the production frenzy of the 1980s had a wonderful ability to disregard any ambitions in favour of the dancefloor, hence disco-rock hybrids like Passion.

ROD STEWART - PASSION

DISCO ON THE SWEDISH AIRWAVES

2009-12-08T02:37:00.000-08:00

Last night the swedish radio station P3 aired a 2-hour documentary by the programme P3 Pop about the new swedish disco scene, shedding light on some wonderful friends of mine here in Malmö as well as colleagues in Gothenburg and Stockholm. A big thanks to Josefina & Dennis of Prejka for mentioning the Disco Academy, which in the show gets a lot of attention from reporter Sara Martinsson. If you're fluent in swedish, you can listen to the programme here for the next month.

The show closes with this wonderful re-edit of one of Swedens most worn out hits of the 1980's: Freestyles Vill Ha Dig. A song that brings up bad memories of cheesy high school parties and sweaty palms for almost every young swedish generation since its release, but in the care-free hands of Bear Funk founder Stevie Kotey becomes a simply astounding piece of wonky & melancholic funk.

BIG BEAR - I NEED YOU (BABYLOVE'S DISCOMIX)

HERE I AM IN NEW YORK... 1990

2009-11-12T15:49:00.000-08:00

I first heard this record at Arvid Holms place while we were drinking coffe and doing some trading. Then a little while ago another of my colleagues over at Prejka, Jimmy Virkki, posted the original version of this song by Francis Lai, from the album Paris - New York, which features a well known name among cosmic connaisseurs on the credit list: Sauveur Mallia of Arpadys, Spatial & Co etc.
None the less, Amanda Lears version is in my opinion a whole lot heavier and spaced out even without the aid of Mallias bass power, and takes the vocals into more bizzare territories. It seems that the Incognito record is another disco concept album involving the seven deadly sins, which perfectly suits the decadent voice of Lear.

AMANDA LEAR - NEW YORK

TOMPA vs. TOBINSKI

2009-10-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

My friend and dj colleague Tobinski has pulled out his bag of tricks on our Swedish rock star Tomas Ledins disco outing, dubbing up the intro and pulling the breaks before releasing the full force of this amazingly funky groove.
This track is from the self-titled debut album by Ledin released in 1977, which also features the seminal smash hit on the edit-scene Ta Mej, reworked by both norwegian Rune Lindaek and Gothenburgs Just Like Music.
Me & Tobinski will soon premiere our very own club at a joint called Carib Creol here in Malmö, so keep your peepers wide for the dates, because it will surely be legendary.

THOMAS LEDIN - DANSA DANSA (TOBINSKI EDIT)

GAY LEATHER VIDEO

2009-10-28T06:24:00.000-07:00

I was just informed by my friend Nora that the probably happiest gay man in Berlin, Mr Daniel Wang (who I by chance happened to mention in my previous post), is playing here in town just two weeks from now! All thanks to the ambitious and broad agenda of our local techno patron Adam Lundberg (of Röda Rubinen).

The California-born dj, producer and record label owner has become synonymous with the renaissance of the classic disco sound of the bathhouses and Fire Island of the late 1970s, starting off in the mid-1990s by adopting a strictly analogue approach to producing and releasing dance music on his Balihu imprint, as well as through his work behind the dj deck defending the legitimacy of the dramatic & joyous disco sound away from the mere patronising grips of "cheesy". This ongoing love affair extends into a very perceptive vision of a dancefloor that has more in common with the social ethics of predecessors like David Mancuso or Larry Levan than most of his contemporary dj collagues. This is quite evident in a recent piece he wrote for Self-Titled Magazine, listing his favourite choices in this category.
The links to gay culture is also obviously relevant to this musical legacy, and in Daniel Wangs case the connection between the two is constantly blurred. Most notably in the 2002 release of the 12" Panoramic, featuring as a B-side Two Tracks We Made In 1999 For A Gay Leather Video, which by its title pretty much tells the story straight up. (...did you get the word-play pun on that? A bit cheap, yeah?)
What might chock you though, at least if you are straight, is that this is not an energetic or sleezy display of effective grooves & hooks that we commonly associate with pornographic soundtracks, but a rather sensual, melancolic and even romantic track composed with simple, delicate synthesizer melodies and drums.

DANIEL WANG - TWO TRACKS WE MADE IN 1999 FOR A GAY LEATHER VIDEO

(On the vinyl release, both tracks share the same title. This is only the second track, b3.)

DIGGING UP BARCELONA

2009-10-23T10:18:00.001-07:00

I have been very absent here due to a whole lot of field trips and archeological work, so rest asured that I have plenty of great disco treasures for you to study before the year is over.
The last week I've spent in Barcelona getting my fingers covered in dust and arguing with spaniards about over priced and worn out rarities.
Luckily a was able to dig up some primo spanish stuff as well as some new favourites, like this extremly hard-hitting instrumental groover from the masterminds of disco legends Tee Scott and the Yugoslavian Began Cekic, known mostly for his cover of The Police Voices Inside My Head under the alias Common Sense.
Dollar Bin Jams has an excerpt from an interview with Tee Scott conducted by Daniel Wang that sheds some light on the business behind these rather raw renditions of then contemporary disco productions.

BROOKLYN EXPRESS - CHANGE POSITION

SPECIAL GUEST: COSMIC DUDES

2009-09-18T02:16:00.000-07:00

The slogan in swedish that you see under the Academy logo can roughly be translated as: the hunt for the cosmic vinyl.

No one has taken that quite as litteral as the two longtime friends Charles & Mitch, who run the independent online webshop Cosmic Dudes, a place where the most obscure records ever produced finally see the light of day, and end up in the hands of true connaisseurs ready to spend that extra dime.

The Academy has the honour of hosting a current Top 3 courtesy of the dudes themselves, kicking off in epic proportions with this disco bomb picked by Charles:

"I picked a very great track to start with, which had amazing success in our store and which I believe has everything you’d expect from a good disco dancer.
Victor Bach has been behind some silly disco material, then delivered this supercool disco monster that i found a few years back and then re-discovered when looking up records for a possible compilation last year.
I shared this finding with my soulbrother John (http://johncampoxford. blogspot.com/) who recently did a fantastic edit, tightening the whole bitch to the max. The edit will be released on vinyl soon. This is the original full lenght track, ripped directly from my vinyl. Some of the vocal parts can be missed, that's why we did an edit, but overall this is a very timeless, slick, unearthed track , which leaves you wondering why this wasn’t huge
back then."

VICTOR BACH - LIVING IN HARMONY

TWENTY FOUR AND COUNTING

2009-09-12T03:26:00.000-07:00

Since today is my birthday I thought it would be nice to have my own orchestra compose a theme song of all my favourite things:
heavy basslines & classic disco guitars, some whacked out strings, a heavy rock section,
the latino-style percussion break (with a deep toned male voice saying random words of approval)and some sprinkles of synthesizer magic to top it off.
All way below the 100bpm mark and dragged out for about 6 minutes, and there you have it.

RIZZOLO DISKO ORCHESTRA - MY OWN COSMIC WAY

The polaroid of me was taken by Kristoffer Matti, RevK of Stephen Hawkings, for the new project Prejka, a combined blog for all the local creators in the field of cosmic & psychadelic music, including Vidderna, Lugnet, Kristallen, Psychic Malmö and myself.

DISCO FOR CHAMELEONS

2009-09-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

This is the original version of what Bonar Bradburry turned into the cosmic bomb of the year with his majestic re-edit Carlos The Jackal.
From a broodingly dark intro not far from an Argento soundtrack by Goblin, and further onto an uplifting anthem of crashing drums and funky bass, this is surely as cosmic as disco can get.

GARY NUMAN - MUSIC FOR CHAMELEONS

GUEST MIX: DJ SEAMLESS

2009-09-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

Hold your phones! Pass the smokes! Put on your boots! Because there's a new mixtape in the house. This time from my friend Olof, or Seamless as he is known behind the wheels of steel.
The Academy is all about introducing and inspiring new perspectives on disco, but I have to say we have strayed pretty far from the conventional definition of disco.
Good then that there are DJs like Seamless who have a fresh, youthfull (and dare I say not so nerdy) take on the disco sound.
Crate digging jocks might be turned off at the sight of titles such as Play that Funky Music White Boy, the stuff of gas station compilations. But it just takes a pair of ears and feet to appreciate that good music is simply good music.

The Source - Elektrons feat. Pete Simpson
Sing Sing - Gaz
Love Sensation (Rough Mix) (Dim's DJ Friendly Re-Edit) - Loleatta Holloway
Don't Give Up - Elektrons feat. Holly Backler
Seconds (12" version) - The Salsoul Orchestra feat. Loleatta Holloway
Play That Funky Music White Boy - Wild Cherry
Push Push - Brick
Nefertiti - Wisdom
Doin' The Dog (Extended) - Creme D'cocoa
War - Edwin Starr
Moment Of My Life - Inner Life feat. Jocelyn Brown
Super Funky - Amigos Invisibles
Disco Lights - Dexter Wansel
Ladies Night (Extended) - Kool & The Gang

DJ SEAMLESS - LADIES NIGHT MIX

JAN GUILLOUS SECRET BALEARIC CUT

2009-09-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was visiting a friend and fellow DJ in Stockholm, and while we were having breakfast and listening to the radio, this song came on.
It was during the programme Sommar on the channel P1 that features famous swedes as guest hosts on each occasion. This time it was our beloved macho journalist Jan Guillou behind the microphone, chatting away about his amazing achievements between tunes.
As we were expecting something in the way of Bruce Springsteen, we were quite baffled when the groovy intro of this semi-electronic and superbalearic chanson entered the airways.
The composers are of course a widely famous swedish act that Jan rubbed shoulders with during the golden years of the 1970s. And as such, I won't reveal the original title here since my recent efforts to introduce music (the censuring of my post about Karat) have been quite troublesome.
You can still hear Jan Guillos forrays as a balearic DJ online at the P1 archive

JAN GUILLOU - SECRET BALEARIC CUT

NIGHT OF THE MOONER

2009-08-09T04:52:00.001-07:00

In the blunt daze of summer, our choice of drinks are increasingly chilled and minimal in content. So is our search for music, a quest for crisp perfection among oversized portions of electro or house, the sloppy fast food of the ears that only leave us exhausted and bloated in the sun.
Well timed then, that the most international german of the cosmic renaissance, Dompteur Mooner, is now offering a collection of eerie and sleek electronic disco hybrids that sparkles like little treasures in the pitch black of night, on the 12" release of Music For Espionage, the first solo record on his own label Erkrankung Durch Musique, available for purchase on Clone Records.
The Münich-based DJ and producer is responsible for the brilliant and well-researched Elasté: Slow Motion Disco compilation of 2007, as well as his collaboration with legendary electronic composer Conrad Schnitzler on the release of rare tracks from the late 1970s, re-edited by Mooner.
Le Coq Rogue is the result of "searching through piles of records in shady second hand shops looking for bizzare productions and undefinable styles"

DOMPTEUR MOONER - LE COQ ROGUE

BEATS OF BUCHAREST

2009-08-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

From Bucharest of Romania comes Bogdan Anghel to bless us with the most balearic of beats.
Like many other cities, the club scene devoted to the sounds of disco and balearica is quite small in Bucharest. Thanks to the ever expanding online networks in the age of the long tail, these scenes are increasingly merging together into a global village of balearic micro-organisms.
Bogdan is currently sitting on original material for two full lenght albums and shopping around for labels as we speak. We might however see the birth of regional record label at the hands of this ambitious Romanian, so keep your eyes squinting towards the inner parts of Europe.

SADE - HANG ON TO YOUR LOVE (BOGDAN EDIT)

FEEL THE PRIDE

2009-08-02T08:17:00.000-07:00

Since it's been Gay Pride events this weekend all around Sweden (or at least Stockholm), I thought I should post something to pay tribute to this subculture and its profound effect on dance music and the shaping of the disco scene, as well as providing us with perhaps the greatest sexual revolution of the 19th century.
This amazingly bouncy proto-EBM joint is from the soundtrack to the french 1982 movie "Deux Heures Moins Le Quart Avant Jésus Christ" about the gay times of the Roman empire just before the arrival of Christ, the ultimate partypooper.

RAYMOND ALLESSANDRINI - HOMOSEXUALIS DISCOTECUS

COSMIC VINYL SURGERY

2009-08-02T04:28:00.000-07:00

I got my hands on a copy of this dark and heavy cut through a very peculiar DJ collection that was sold off to a local record store. The dub-side of this 12" was playable, but on the other side a 7" record of Whodinis "Freaks Come Out At Night" was glued on, also with the instrumental side up, creating some kind of disco hybrid of dubbyness.
This wonderful creation among others sold for only 5 Swedish kronas, was packaged in a plain white sleeve with handwritten notes concerning titles, but unfortunately not signed by the DJ responsible.
Whoever he or she was, we salute this fearless and unsentimental legacy of DIY-record collecting now passed on to a new generation of diggers.

IAM SIAM - TALK TO ME (DUB VERSION)

ANOTHER BLUE PLANET

2009-08-01T03:02:00.000-07:00

As it turns out, our friend Giulio DJ put together an edit of the Karat track just a few months before the Lunar Jam version came out. He in turn first heard the track in a mix by Lindström from two years ago, where the vocal parts were cut out.
Which is probably were Ticker & Cristoidz got the idea for the Lunar Jam project.
With some stuff that's out there, it seems the sheer potency of the grooves is just waiting to be picked out of some dusty bin, that it spreads like a virus when discovered thoughout the collective mind of the cosmic connaisseurs.
The same fate that befell the Christian Bruhn-soundtrack to Timm Thaler last year, resulting in a multitude of reissues and re-edits (including my own of the Wetten, Dass? track)
Our friends Parlour of Gothenburg experienced the same effect when a now well-known Phoreski edit hit the shelves just as they had placed the order with a vinyl pressing company for a release of the same material.
Such is the nature of the re-edit "industry" so to speak, it's a jungle out there.

GIULIO DJ - BLAUER PLANET EDIT

P.S! Be sure to check out Giulios monthly mixtapes on Myspace. Overflowing with cosmic delights and original material.

ANOTHER CASE OF AFRO GOES UNKNOWN

2009-07-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

Deep in the jungles of Germany, this tune was conceived in a haze of "world music" and the electronic cool of the 1980s club scene. Hence the abundance of loose drum work over a heavy arpeggio bassline and some well calculated guitar riffs.
This bastard child has been called Afro, Cosmic & Balearic by compilations claiming it as their own all through the 90s, for instance the Electric Funky Afro Sound bootleg series which featured the nice dub mix on their Volume 2 12", now as hard to find as the original pressings of this tune.

UNKNOWN CASES - MASIMBABELE