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Burn, baby, burn!
Now that just about every essential Nuyorican boogaloo record has been reissued, it’s time to excavate the funky forgotten great jams of the disco era. Stateside ‘s cool Ghetto Discotheque comp focused on the Miami sound, with Queen Samantha ‘s b-boy classic Take A Chance, T-Connection ‘s Do What You Wanna Do and KC & the Sunshine Band ‘s Afrobeat-style revamp of the pearl-time stomp Blackwater Gold. Meanwhile, the Essential Latin Flavas (Stimulus) collection covers what was happening simultaneously in Latin clubs. DJs should grab the advance 12-inch vinyl sampler for Charanga 76 ‘s No No Pararan, which many will recognize as a souped-up version of McFadden & Whitehead ‘s Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.
Back to Africa
Crate-digging Jazz Café supremo Adrian Gibson has been keeping busy since raiding the Bosworth archives for Strut ‘s excellent Music For Dancefloors series. His new African Disco (Nascente) set is a stone killer. Along with known burners like Dan Boadi ‘s Money Is The Root Of Evil and Blo ‘s Get That Groove In, he also comes up with overlooked stormers like the Malinga Five ‘s Kaloule Woman, Kabbala ‘s Ashewo Ara, and two off-the-hook Fela Kuti joints by Nigeria’s Ephraim Uzomechina Nzeka – backed by a French studio band! Too much. Gibson is starting up his own label, so expect more dance-floor damage on the way.
Tokyo strikes back
My ears are still ringing from the Polysics blast on the Japan Nite bill during South By Southwest 2000, which ranks high among my all-time fave showcases at the annual Austin showdown. Now, thanks to California’s Asian Man label, the Polysics’ dazzling Neu disc is finally available in North America. Sure, the demented Devo -esque thrashers recorded this stuff three years ago, but it actually fits right in with the current disco-punk revival. Time for a Plastics reunion.
Sprockets rock
compilation of jerky-quirky German synth-rock is a remarkable document. Inspired by New York’s DFA crew, Hell and Thomas Bär present a brilliant often unintentionally hilarious assortment of Sprockets-style angular electro madness designed for clubs by the likes of Der Plan , Pyrolator , Can’t say that I’ve ever been knocked out by anything Munich’s International Deejay Gigolos label has put out, but DJ Hell ‘s New Deutsch 79/95 compilation of jerky-quirky German synth-rock is a remarkable document. Inspired by New York’s DFA crew, Hell and Thomas Bär present a brilliant often unintentionally hilarious assortment of Sprockets-style angular electro madness designed for clubs by the likes of Der Plan , Pyrolator , Keine Ahnung and Weltklang. Be careful: Die Hornissen‘s Ziettunnel could inspire spontaneous monkey touching.
