No. 13 x 2012 / Philippe Renaux Special No.7

I just had to re-visit this old special feature I did on the french cosmic mastermind Philippe Renaux, since I found this extraordinary gem on the B-side of the Night Heroes Moroder-medley (produced by Silvio Puzzolu who also made a Kraftwerk-medley under the name Between The Sheets and produced the legendary Bagarre project). Sidetrack: how come nobody makes medleys anymore? Wouldn't everybody want to hear an Alden Tyrell-produced medley of Patrick Cowley tracks? Or a Lindström-produced medley of Philippe Renaux for that matter.
OK back to the matter at hand, O.I.M. is a collaboration between Renaux, Puzzolu & Luigi "Svengile" Venegoni (who was is Stratospheric Band) so you know it's gonna get heavy when these dudes get together. They start off with a tight uptempo boogie-beat straight out of 1983 and then throw in some surf guitars (!?) to keep it weird all the way to the synth/vocal chorus. The acronym of the song title may puzzle you at first (what could it mean? Open Information Model? Operator Interface Module?Ordained Interfaith Minister?) - the answer is of course much simpler than that, it's just a vocal translation and mimic of the squelshing sound that they churn out on that synthesizer. Genius!


NIGHT HEROES - O.I.M.

No.12 x 2012

I'm usually not a fan of airports, it all feels like a never-ending episode of typical Seinfeld-complications  like accidentaly waiting in the wrong line or having someone take your luggage from the bag line by mistake because you have similar breifcases. And I rarely have time to get in that continental groove of feeling like a globetrotter because I'm always looking at my wristband clock worrying about departure times, transfers and the looming threat of delays. But it's nice to switch that impression off sometimes in favor of a more carefree and glamorous one, like that of Marc Harris for instance. He doesn't give a flying fuck about the boring reality of commercial flight transportation. Through his sunglasses everything has a shimmer of adventure and style; the airport is a symbolic structure of freedom and movement with its high ceilings and glass walls - not an oversized waiting room with expensive distractions. And when the airplane takes off into the air, Marc takes off into the air. He alone is soaring through the clouds with his perfect hair.


MARC HARRIS - AIRPORT

No.9 x 2012

It's been a while since you heard from me here, since I've been finishing my bachelor degree (not in disco though). But I have been keeping myself busy on that scene as well, providing the third volume for the very interesting Edits-series by netbased label Diavol.
The Argentinian label is run by local discophiles Premini & Jovan, and they have developed a quite uniqe concept with this project. All volumes are released digital and free of charge, accompanied by cover art from interesting young artists and video trailers in the same vein of musical visualization as In Flagrantis promo films.
The first volume features edits of obscure Brazilian disco, new wave and pop signed by themselves, the second volume had Nassau edit the local flavours of his home country Italy. For this third volume I pitched in with one edit of a Swedish original (Subway At Night) but expanded to an international scope on the following three cuts (spanning three diferent continents - Japan, UK & USA) and also decided to keep the names of the originals to myself - not out of pride, I've just always enjoyed the mysterious side of edits more (it makes the crate digging so much more fun).
The cover art was provided by Los Angeles-based Cleon Peterson, and is one of the pieces of a series called The Practice Of Masters.
All edits are now available for free on Soundcloud but you can also show your love by getting the whole volume for just a dollar at the Diavol site.

No.8 x 2012

As some of you may recall I did an edit some time ago of a track by Richard Schönherz called Between Judgement And Madness, which I released under my own name with the title Habla Taco Marijuana. I gave it away as a christmas present here in 2010 and ever since that it's been living a life of its own (someone even put it on Youtube).

By chance, I was digging through my own collection and stumbled upon the Black Jack record, which I had bought for the wonderfully sleezy Jungleman Jive (as it was re-edited by Loud E). I thought I should give the whole record another chance and when I came to the title track, it turns out it's a semi-cover of that very Schoenherz-track.

It's not so surprising of course, since Peter Hauke who is behind Black Jack also produced the Schönherz record (and they're both in the extended circe surrounding Kurt Hauensteins Supermax). Schönherz is also part of the production team on the Black Jack record, and so is drummer Hartmut Pfanmüller who plays on both those records.

Very much a friendly affair, and a nice reinterpretation which speeds up and tightens the groove from the 1978 version, leaving out the long and spacey interlude which I also cut out on my edit. There's some different synth figures here that are bordering on cheesy, and the harmonica is a wierd touch. All in all it's a bit more stiff and mechanic in it's approach, but with a coked out sleezy charm that complements the rather pretentious aspect of the "original".

BLACK JACK - HOT PASSION

No.7 x 2012

Spotnicks was not a band in the classic sense of the word, but more of an institution that carried on in various constellations for decades, spitting out records in a variety of styles and quality based loosely around the surf sound of the 1960's. Their gimmick however, was the cosmic aesthetics of the space age (which I'm sure gave them a lot of gigs in the USSR). This gimmick played out well even long after the race to the moon was won, and gave them entrance to the cosmic side of the disco spectrum when 1978 came around: when the band somehow ended up in the hands of a bunch of french guys who cut the amazing electronic disco record Never Trust Robots with them throwning in some surf riffs here and there.

Anyway, on to 1983 and the band sees a new formation away from the instrumental surfing to a more rock oriented format with actual songs of their own, but not without a cosmic touch. The title track off this record is a loud bass-driven sleeze-fest with Phil Collins-size drums that works really well as a late night anthem, complete with a healthy dose of synth swooshes and the chatter of the space station control room during the guitar solos.

SPOTNICKS - DROP ME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE

No.6 x 2012

Heavy Rotation 2 is about to hit the stores soon, and sees the return of the cosmic-european trio of Albion, Spacelex and Dea to the frontiers of the edit desk, this time joined by the serious sidekicking of Emil Doesn't Drive. Fans of the blog should already be familiar with Albion since back in 2009, if not sooner. The first volume was a deep plunge into the same vaults of disco obscurity that has been the source for Albions classic mixtape series dating back to the CBS era, and volume two is no exception.
The Heavy Rotation team of cosmic explorers has for this trip as well as the previous manned the vehicle that is Frisbee Records (run out of Berlin by Spacelex), but I'm thrilled to say that their next mission will be on the Blackdisco label (run by Lovefingers & Nitedog in the U.S.A.), one that has hosted previous voyages by the likes of Basso, Alexis Le-Tan & Justin Vandervolgen.
And if you don't like waiting for good things to come, and want to have this slice of cosmos right away, Oye Records in Berlin has had the privilege to receive a limited first batch of these darlings. Go get one here, just don't be fooled by the incorrect release date.

No.5 x 2012

I did a guest mix recently for one of my favourite blogs, FRWCTRL. The idea of the mix is based on the arty and surrealistic low budget porn movie Night Dreams from 1981, one of two (the other being Café Flesh from 1982) porn movies written by Jerry Stahl under the pseudonym Herbert W. Day. Most people know Jerry Stahl for his biography-turned-to-film Permanent Midnight of 1998, where Ben Stiller stars as a sweaty and leather-clad Stahl in a very un-romantic portrayal of his own heroin addiction during his years in L.A. as a writer for the TV-series ALF and Moonlighting. Both Night Dreams and Café Flesh are dark and twisted visual experiences with the same aesthetics of the post-punk era as Liquid Sky, and the music in these films are great. The trailer for Night Dreams (which is also the intro & outro for my mix) uses a sample from electronic pioneer Morton Subotnicks Wild Boar from 1968.

SERGIO RIZZOLO - NIGHT DREAMS

No.6 x 2012

Continuing on from our previous post, here is the track that's featured on the Hollywood Seven EP as the German Version. While touring with Glass Candy in San Diego in 2009, Johnny Jewel found this cover of the Jon English/Alides Hidding track Hollywood Seven in an alley shop behind a pharmacy (also a cosmic circumstance of fate since the Albuterol Mix that started the whole thing refers to Mike Simonettis asthma medicine... which can be bought at pharmacies!). The german title of this cover is however a free interpretation of the original (in translation it means "Big City Lights", and there's no mention of Hollywood anywhere), so Jewel must have memorized the names of the two persons who are credited as the writers of the original song, Gloria Sklerov & Harry Lloyd, in order to have spotted this gem.

The first recording of the song was in 1976 by Jon English, which is a slow moving rock bagatelle. But Juliane Werding & her co-producers has clearly based her electronically loaded version on Alides Hiddings interpretation, which both came out in 1980. And she had some great company, apart from her husband Tobi Pflug the credit is shared with a certain Ulrich A. Rudolf who was also involved on the amazing cosmic boogie classic Don't Stay For Breakfast by Ströer as well as in the "electronisch rocktheater"-project Xynn. And on mixing duties? Ralf Nowy of Methusalem! Of course, it's possible that Jewel picked up this record simply on account of those names alone without knowing that this would turn out to be a cover of Hollywood Seven, I know I would have.

JULIANE WERDING - GROSSSTADTLICHTER

No.5 x 2012

"It's one of those tracks people come up to the booth and ask about the most". The quote is from the press release of the Hollywood Seven EP released by Perseo last year, but I imagine it to be a quote straight from Mike Simonetti himself, the initiator of that rather peculiar release. It refers to the rather unknown and only solo single of dutchman Alides Hidding, an uptempo hybrid of electronic disco and AOR-pop with a "classic feel". Simonetti & Johnny Jewel (co-founder of Italians Do It Better with Mike) used this as the closing track of their now legendary Albuterol Mix, but in the live-edited version that has become known as Disconet Dilemma. The concept of the Hollywood Seven EP release, which is quintessentially also the story behind it all, is not that of a random edit package with the main ambition to promote a DJ slash producer. No, the focus here is all on the music and the joy of digging. To tell the story shortly, this track blew up among the Italians Do It Better camp and since they kept finding amazing cover versions of it all over the world, decided to compile them and share it with the world. Do read the full story, which says it all much better than I will, here.

This version of the Alides Hidding track, the 12" Maxi Version, is not (or so I think?) the one that the Disconet Dilemma edit is made from (the title of that edit only refers to the Disconet promo 12", which is hard to find any info on). It's a bit slower and more spaced out in the intro, and the saxophone solos are more prominent.

ALIDES HIDDING - HOLLYWOOD SEVEN (MAXI VERSION)

No.21 x 2011

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.14 x 2011

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

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

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.9 x 2011 / Hauenstein Special No.3

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

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.5 x 2011

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.2 x 2011

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.52 x 2010

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.50 x 2010

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.46 x 2010

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