It seems that the ancient tradition of the re-edit is nowadays as much in vogue as it was during disco’s heyday—perhaps even more so. Disco and boogie revivalists and old-schoolers Dimitri, Danny Krivit, and Greg Wilson have been hacking at it for ages, and now it seems everybody’s giving the old girl a spin. Just who Pilooski is, I couldn’t tell you—according to his discogs profile he eats feathers and is at least somewhat out of his gourd. Either way, these edits are damn well dirty enough for any kind of fetish to be perfectly alright with me. And not dirty in the Princess Superstar sense—these are some scratchy old joints exuding freakdom from their pores.

First up is Jackson Jones’ “I Feel Good,” which disco-raps its way into your heart with a frenetic slap-happiness, combining wobbly-arse percussion, walking bass and weird string samples, bringing the funk in all three ways. Then things go straight prog on you—”Kismet” is a re-edit of an Amon Duul II track (!) of space-folk-ethnic-jazz-rock meanderings, an invocation that mingles the spacy with the surreal. You could try dancing to it, but I would recommend avoiding the brown acid if you do. I think my brain finally went beyond the pale upon the arrival of “Glastonbury,” which is billed as a “Dirty Reissue.” Whatever that means, I call it Vertigo Records-style white funk drumming with a chorus of acid-folk casualties singing from the hippie hymnal. By which I mean go out, buy this, and turn on, man.

Dirty Edits / DLL005
[Listen]
[Mallory O’Donnell]

I recently picked up a bizarre, very bootleg-ish compilation of ‘80s Canadian funk and dancefloor R&B called Funk & Boogie from the Great White North. Unfortunately, most of it, filled with clunky synthetic drums/bass and primitive Fairlight/DX7-style synthesizers, has not dated well at all. Yet there is something endearingly weird about these tracks, as they were trying to follow the poppier footsteps of Jam & Lewis while still having a foot in the post-disco club scene, all on a very minimal budget. I decided to make a mini-mix to showcase some of these oddities, the majority of which I could find nothing about (not even a Discogs listing).

I do know that all of the tracks come from the Musicworks and Street Level imprints, two labels in the early ‘80s that were based in Montreal, although did a lot of recording in Philadelphia with prolific disco engineer/producer Herb Powers. As for the artists, James Carmichael is likely the same singer who once headed the group Instant Funk (of “I Got My Mind Made Up” fame), Kim Covington was a New Jersey soul/theater singer who now lives and records in Paris, and the Little Dabs were the two children (aged 4 and 6) of the drummer from the group Gypsy Lane, who did all the music for the Village People. Speaking of the Dabs, their Spielberg-inspired single “E.T. (Every Time)” was a big enough hit in Canada that it got European distribution through the Belgium label BMC. I sadly know little about Jahmilla, Tara Laine, Jacki, or Dee Dee T, but the Jahmilla record did get European distribution through the Dutch label Rams Horns. To close this mix off, there’s Mac Mac’s male answer/response track to Lisa Lisa’s freestyle hit “I Wonder If I Take You Home,” produced by someone called “Grandmaster Cash.” Hope you enjoy…
[Michael F. Gill]

Montreal Misfits
01: James Carmichael - All Of My Love [Expansion/Musicworks]
02: Jahmilla - Pillow Talk [Street Level, 1985]
03: Tara Laine - You Made Me Believe [Street Level]
04: The Little Dabs - E.T. (Every Time) [Musicworks, 1982]
05: Kim Covington - All Of My Love [Street Level, 1983]
06: Dee Dee T - We’ve Got All Night [Unknown]
07: Jacki - Don’t Break My Heart [Unknown]
08: Mac Mac & Jamalot Kingdom - Let Me Take You Home (Lisa Lisa) [Musicworks, 1985]

As with their last two twelves, one of which was Beatz’s #1 of 2006, this one’s just too well done to deny. On the a-side, Singer Zena Kitt dwells on various personal uncertainties in the verse over a spare synth octave thump and rich, long strings, but when the chorus approaches it’s like every sound starts getting really cagey, and when it finally does come the empty space is filled with cheeky chicken-scratch guitars, a healthy dose of horn stabs, and (naturally) “a bri-yut newww li-i-ife.” The songwriting’s smart, the stylized diction is perfect, the instrumental buildups and breakdowns are taut, no note’s out of place, no smirk’s in sight. Just awesome. For his remix, Morgan Geist subdues everything—even the volume is lower—and after a new bassline and lots more space and just enough reverb, we’ve got something of a Metro Area track, the instruments taking turns soloing in the lime.

Escort Recordings / ESCRT-003
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[Nick Sylvester]

Welcome to the Beatz By The Pound year-end roundup for 2006, a veritable smorgasbord of lists, thoughts, and reflections about the current state of dance music. And while all of our writers handed in very diverse ballots, we were able to come to a consensus on a couple of key releases, producers, and labels. Let the madness begin…

(more…)

The Larry Levan influence is present here not just in the name of this German label but also within the grooves of “Just Tell Me When”. Manmade Science supply a brand of disco-house that’s been somewhat lacking in this year of darker sounds. The vibe is funky deep house, looped and spun bits of bass, with Chic-esque guitar scratching that calls back to the heyday of French House but it updated with a chilly Teutonic sheen. The B-side “Difunkt” is a bit sloppier and funkier, with nice organic drum sounds writhing and coalescing around a simple bassline and synth-wriggle. Nicely old-school but not outdated, this is a fine release all around.

Philpot / PHP 020
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[Mallory O’Donnell]

Those anticipating the party behind this summer’s “Starlight” to be a one-shot deal will be hugely disappointed by its follow-up, “Love in Indigo.” If anything, it’s less Chic Corporation, more West End Records, with a series of shiny horn and piano breaks that pepper brilliantly-restrained percussion while taut, simmering strings play underneath. B-side “Karawane,” on the other hand, is an unexpectedly earnest and funky afro-boogie gem with Paradise Garage leanings. It struts like a glitter-covered paratrooper boot: rugged, fab and just the right side of silly. Escort are quite rapidly becoming a serious force to be reckoned with in the crowded world of post-2000 disco.

Escort Records / ESCRT 002
[Listen]
[Mallory O’Donnell]

To be clear: Besides being a longtime NBS fave—and christ, say what you will about A Funk Odyssey, like you can even begin to understand what “Little L” is really about—Jamiroquai are easily the most fucking incredible “hardworking dance band” out there. If there is an act worthy of the title “Lenny Kravitz of acid-funk,” it’s these guys. Jay Kay can sing, the string arrangements are always smart and gorgeous, the rhythm section grooves busily but never overwhelmingly, and most times the lyrics are both catchy and insightful: “Now we got emergency / Oh we got emergency on planet Earth.” Recognize those lyrics? That’s the chorus from Jamiroquai’s hit song “Emergency on Planet Earth.” What were you listening to in 1993? As for “Runaway,” what can I say? It’s probably the best song of 2006. Just like “Virtual Insanity” was the best song of 1996. Just like “Canned Heat” was the best song of 1999. Sensing a trend here? I say “Runaway” is “probably the best song of 2006″ because Grant Nelson’s deep house remix has some pretty bad-ass horn parts, which combined with the bigger kick might put it on top. No comment re: the stiff, no-fun Braxe/Falke remix except wow, talk about two guys who really don’t get Jamiroquai. Haters, eat your hat.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment UK / 88697 01600 1
[Listen/Watch]
[Nick Sylvester]

A release scooping up most, but not all, of the Italo group Tantra’s output, The Double LP revolves around two side-length epics—the A-side “Hills of Katmandu,” and the D-side “Wishbone.” I first heard the former (in truncated form) on the Idjut Boys classic Saturday Night Live, Vol. 2 mix, and if it blew me away then, it’s even more potent in its full 16-minute-plus glory. Exotica and “orientalist” touches were always a feature of Italo, and “Hills of Katmandu” deftly weaves such fare into a monster of rumbling percussion, weaving analogs, and swaying female vocals. The sweet little nugget of disco fantasia that interrupts at the 6:30 mark is both unexpected and cheesily delightful. “Wishbone,” on the other hand, is funkier and more mesmerizing—the odd female vocals are paired with echoed tribal percussion to a mystical and almost eerie effect, with a sitar-like lead making the odd appearance. It’s the mirror of “Katmandu,” but an unsettlingly purist one—making absolutely no concessions towards any but the most tripped-out of dancefloors. If I could find the crowd that would happily vibe along with me to all of its 15 glorious minutes I would never bloody leave.

Normally this would constitute a full and rewarding album, but in between these two leviathans is sandwiched another two full sides of goodness that interweaves primal and futurist elements. The B-side unveils two strong Eurodisco stompers: “Get Ready to Go,” which could’ve soundtracked any number of early 80’s prime-time buddy-cop TV shows, and “Top Shot,” a track that pushes all the gay disco buttons it can find and then digs around for some more. The C-side, on the other hand, starts with “Su-ku-leu,” a traditional African-flavored number that still kicks out on its disco heels, combining the chants and ethnic percussives with synth pops and sweeps, which blends right into “Mother Africa,” a T-Connection-esque stomper with a delicious percussion break that sets the stage for the most stereotypically “disco” of their tracks, “Hallelujah.” Side closer “Get Happy” points an arrow towards boogie, and could be a Chic b-side, with its warm syn-strings and chimes. It’s the very spirit of disco’s unabashed joyfulness, and a fine place to rest.

The Double LP is that great disco rarity—not just a classic album, but a classic double, and as such it demands a proper remix and CD release. Until then… keep those needles fresh!

Importe/12 / MP-310
[Mallory O’Donnell]

Last year’s Credit to the Edit was, for many, one of the reissues of the year, as long-time Manchester DJ Greg Wilson served up some of his finest disco, funk, electro, and boogie re-edits. The three tracks on Hardcore Boogie are Wilson’s own, created using the same techniques as his re-edits, but with more layers of different source songs and various vocals thrown on top. In other words: bootlegs. “Hardcore Boogie” cuts in some orgiastic female panting and a vocoder-ized Bambaataa over a roller-disco loop. “Chocolate Factor” is an unqualified masterpiece—nearly fourteen minutes of Chocolate Milk’s “Who’s Getting It Now” atop a mesmerizing set of funk bass and stabs. The result is an early-morning danceathon that’s the essence of boogie—spare enough to be ageless, forceful enough to keep the dedicated groover in total body-lock. The last track, “DD & Rakim” mixes Eric B & Rakim’s well-worn “I Know You Got Soul” and a James Brown grunt scratched at 45 (from Dubble D’s “Squelch”) to create an almost introspective, broken beat-esque jazzscape. Essential productions from a living legend.

Redux / REDUX001
[Listen]
[Mallory O’Donnell]

French disco producer Cerrone is, undoubtedly, a legend of dance music. Beginning his solo work in 1976 with the classic Love in C Minor, he has gone on to sell more than 25 million records and win five Grammy Awards for his efforts. In the course of promoting the reissue of his first four albums and the upcoming NY Dance Party for 2007, Stylus sat down with the man that brought us Supernature.

First up—tell us a little bit about the NY Dance Party for 2007. How did you become involved with this project and with Nile Rodgers?

Yes, Nile, he’s been my friend for thirty years. We’re going to celebrate thirty years of dance, also thirty years of his and my careers, too! (Laughs) It’s going to be in New York, during the Columbus Day weekend, and it’s going to be really huge. We have fifteen different sites, the main stage is going to be in the park (Central Park), and the event will be between 3 PM to 9:30 PM. Every site is going to have something different—some will be a DJs, some singers, but at 6:30, from the main stage, we’re going to have the big show, with a lot of stars involved from the last thirty years of dance, and that (will be broadcast to) all the sites by satellite, because all the sites (across the city) are going to have a large video screen on the back of the stage. With all of the sites in New York, we could have more than 3 or 400,000 New Yorkers dancing in the streets—it would be a great image for the World, and for New York. This is what the Mayor wants, too.

So, the Mayor has been enthusiastic and positive about it?

Oh yes, and if the mayor was not enthusiastic about it, you know, how could we do it? The mayor understands very well what we are trying to do, and likes the idea to give back the image of New York to the world… it’s sad, because after the Eleventh of September of 2001, the image of New York for the rest of the world changed very much. You know, it’s become much more a city of business than music, like in Europe we have Geneva… but New York is a wonderful city for music, and we want to celebrate the city as the home of dance music. The image of the people of New York, young or old dancing in the street, it’s a tremendous, beautiful image that we want to give back to the world. We are still working on the sites for the event, but we are thinking Battery Park, other parks, some sites for 3,000 people, some for 10 or 15,000, maybe something by LaGuardia as well… every month the event is getting bigger and better, with more and more people getting on board.

You’ve been doing a number of live events and dance parties recently, haven’t you?

We did the event in front of Versailles, with 100,000 people, which you can see six minutes of video from on my website… that was last year… Two months ago I played (an event) for Dolce Gabana, next month a tour in Moscow, in February another tour in France… and I’ll be working in the middle on a new LP to be released in the spring.

This will be all original material?

Yes, right now we have 14 new tracks.

So, do you enjoy the live performances as much as the studio work? How do you feel about that?

Oh, I love it! Did you see the video?

The DVD you released last year? Yes, I saw that.

OK, because if you see the video, you have the answer for your question.

Very true!

After 30 years in the music industry, when you have the chance to play in front of so many young people… I take a great pleasure, it’s a surprise and a pleasure… and I thank my God that I could do this!

It’s great to see some of the things that you’ve done as far as live performances—not just concerts but theatre events, operas, the global peace concert back in ‘92… do you still see yourself as primarily a musician? In some ways it seems like you’ve become more of an artist in the broad sense, a cultural force of sorts.

When I’m on stage, I’m a musician. More a musician than an artist. I have to be. But, I mean, when you start in a group, in a band, as a musician, it’s for the rest of your life. When you take an American star, like a Carlos Santana, no matter what you have going on in the front, they are still a musician in mind.

How do you feel about your relationship with the dance music world? It seems that you’ve moved away from dance at times, doing rock and doing more neo-classical music, but that you’ve never really turned your back on dance music as a whole…

Well, every few years I have a DJ who remixes or releases some of my old music, so the radio plays new stuff, but also, plays the old stuff with a new style, and the DJ puts me right on the floor where I have to be. For example, William Orbit made a remix in 1990, 1991 and then David Morales and Frankie Knuckles and so on, I mean there are so many DJs who have remixed my back-catalog, so no matter what, if I want to move from the style—and I say to you, I don’t want to move—the DJ kicks me in the… (laughs).

You don’t have a choice!

Yeah, and thanks, it’s perfect! Those guys make my life easier, so I don’t sound like a has-been!

Well I think you’ve combined enough looking back with looking forward that no one could accuse you of resting on your laurels or taking it easy…

Thank you!

But, looking back for a moment, what are some of your favorite or most memorable of your own releases?

Of my back-catalog, oh wow… I don’t want to sound pretentious, but I like I lot of it—starting from “Love in C Minor,” to “Got to Have Loving,” to “Supernature,” and so on… I like them all, they are my babies, if I can say that! I have to love my babies, you know? (Laughs)

How about your productions for other people?

If I made a production or a track for someone else, like Don Ray or Kongas or something like that, it’s still 75% myself, so, it’s still my baby! For example, for my last LP I composed 18 songs, and I know that I’m only going to use 12 or 14 songs for the record, so the other four songs are maybe going to go to someone else, but… I’m going to do something with it. Like, the Don Ray album—I had too many tracks for my album Supernature, and in the meantime, because Don Ray was my arranger for strings and brass, I said let’s make an LP for you—and we finished the LP together, but as I said, these are still my songs, my production—my babies!

What else are you listening to right now?

There is a lot. A lot, a lot of good music right now—I like a lot of R&B, I like also… the Madonna, I love the last Madonna!

How about when you started?

For strings, I got very influenced by Barry White, of course. And because I’m a drummer, I put the drums at the front on the mix. At the moment everybody told me, it’s crazy to have the drums up front, you have to remix that for the radio. But, to make sure that the record company isn’t going to remix my songs, I made it 60 seconds or a few minutes longer so that I was sure I’m not going to be played on the radio and no one is going to touch my mix!

Well, it worked out well for you and for the dancers as well…

Yes!

[Mallory O’Donnell]