Jean-Francois Mouliet is Turbo Crystal, a Frenchman armed with only a stiff drum machine, a slap-bass, some really goofy spoken-raps, and a sing-song falsetto reminscent of Chromeo or Mocky. His two short tracks here, self-described as “ghetto rock”, will be hard for any dance fan to take seriously, but to their credit, they’re perverse and sparse enough to at least keep your attention while they are playing.

The real interest here is in the remixes by Escort and Bear Funk’s Fabrizio Mammarella. Considering they have so little to work with, it’s no wonder Escort have “pulled an Aphex Twin” and completely reworked “French Girl” as a tidy piece of keyboard-free Eurodisco. They’ve added in female backing vocals, horns, and a live rhythm section to back up the main vocal. It charms, but they are a bit too generous. Mammarella gives the original the respect it deserves: he phones it in. He simply drops the vocals over a run-of-the-mill disco-tech rhythm, adding just enough reverb shots and synth drones so it could pass for being spaced-out. Being blase never felt so right. I guess.

Tiny Sticks / STICK 12
[Listen]
[Michael F. Gill]

It takes a special kind of artist to make you slap your head in stupid realization. My introduction to Douglas Lee (and his Lee Douglas “pseudonym”) gives him a free pass to that group. Although I’ve been a fan of Lee for more than a year, I finally listened to his music a couple months ago. In the passing time, his illustrations and high-profile motion graphics work left me drooling. His ability to make psychedelic and neon-tinged illustrations feel new again is as good start as any to see what this artist-musician is capable of. With the Lee Douglas moniker, Lee might sound as mature as any, but he’s only given us two singles to hold, coo over, and cherish.

So let me coo for a bit because Lee or Douglas’ latest single, New York Story, is worth it. The title track begins with a Loose Joints strut of a bassline, adds a Trans New York Express synth, and caps it off with a balearic synth that bleeds out onto the summer sun. The song has a life of its own from all the oxymorons – a pummeling track that also swirls, it’s wide-eyed and effortless as a wind-up toy but packs 500-lb chimes straight out of Blondie’s “Rapture”. None of this accounts for the cowbell fest of a b-side, “Ramv”, which makes sure that Liquid Liquid won’t get the last laugh with “Optimo.” But that’s the beauty of Lee Douglas’ oh-too-tiny body of work: he’s too busy smacking you with glee.

Rong Music / RONG 20
[Listen]
[Nate DeYoung]

The premise of Wild Rumpus’ new single must’ve been born from Basement Jaxx’s candy-coated dreams. It’s hard to say what type of fairy would deliver these visions of reggae-disco while a slide guitar dances in our heads. I can only imagine that the Rumpus duo of legends, DJ Cosmo and Gary Lucas, must have a winged costume or two in their closets. But enough about the premise, here’s how the single starts: with just a marching drum fill. And that might be as fine a start as any to throw out those catch-alls like “anything goes” or “glorious mess” for such an eclectic stew.

From Lucas’ taut riffs, to the toasters’ telling it to ‘em, to the reggae hiccup, each part is finely crafted together. Without a whiff of cashed-in novelty, Musical Blaze-up isn’t just willing to take catchphrases like “sound system hoedown” of “bluegrass reggae” to the bank. And neither are any of the remixes. Rub-n-Tug’s Bitches mix shoots the song into the stratosphere and sees what happens to it in zero gravity, Rob Mello returns this Jaxx offshoot to its jacking roots, and Cosmo herself makes sure that dub itself doesn’t get snubbed in this summertime stroll.

Bitches Brew / BITCH-012
[Listen]
[Nate DeYoung]

If kitsch weren’t such a discredited term, we might be tempted to apply it to Peter Visti’s remix choices here, consisting as they do of one wan blues whitey, Dolly Parton, and the mostly forgotten disco-bowtie charlatan Taco. Luckily, Visti is so kitsch he’s beyond kitsch, especially when his nimble fingers grace the source material of our last two subjects. Parton’s “Jolene” becomes almost unrecognizable in Visti’s context, transmogrified into an unlikely underground disco smash you’re certain you heard one stoned night at the Gallery. With bass-driven meanderings and pungent synth swells supporting a filtered guitar strum, it seems Dolly can ride the analog waves as well as any old diva.

Chris Rea’s “Josephine” sounds much more true to form, although I must confess my ignorance with regards to the original track. It’s loads more atmospheric, almost to a fault, and could be any one of a number of innocuous ’80s soundtrack cuts, left out to drift in the realm of the dollar bin. Thankfully, Visti comes back with another surprise, turning the bland swing-disco pabulum of Taco’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” into re-edit gold, morphing the groove into something that’s equal parts Kano and Nitzer Ebb. As though the cast of Fame got choked-up on crystal meth and Baudrilliard’s critical theory, the track resolutely (and brutally) demands you to get your kicks on, lest you suffer the groovy, post-modern consequences. Highly recommended for the not-so-faint of heart.

Mindless Boogie / Mindless 006
[Listen]
[Mallory O’Donnell]

Along with Finland’s Uusi Fantasia and Sweden’s Bjorn Torske, Studio are one of the groups whose sounds and sympathies orbit the cosmos of Prins Thomas’ imagination of space/disco/dub. It’s “not disco” though, or not as we know it, but a form busted open by eccentric tastes and open ears. In a recent interview I did with Prins Thomas, he explained how the relative marginality of Scandanavia (and especially Norway) has kept things prised open, and open things prized. “On the one hand,” he explained, “I could have lived anywhere and made the music I do – but the isolation is important. I think that’s one of the reasons why there’s a lot of diversity here. We’re open to a lot of styles and it’s been an important part of generating our open approach…you have to work hard to please everybody when you play here – there’s no sub-genre nights or anything like that. You can’t afford to be a genre fascist in Oslo.”

Prins’ remix of “Life’s a Beach” opens with an appropriately stomp-paced cosmic bassline with all sorts of shifting Balearic textures thrown over it, slowly rising to full swing alongside spills of space delay. Then, at the five minute mark, by the strange and welcome intrusion of a very 8-bit sounding note, the track reaches its peak (which only sounds once!), after which the whole thing just drifts away on congas and beachy spume. Meanwhile, back at the disco, Todd Terje turns tables on the tracks, rendering “Beach” nocturnally capable with some chunkier percussion, altering the mood from giddy to “giddy up”. Terje likewise uses the same 8-bit note at almost exactly the same point in the track, then opts for the a similar long outro, re-done in a more late-evening fashion. Oddly similar, the two mixes here are sun and moon to each other. Ah, so much good music.

Information / INF 003
[Listen]
[Peter Chambers]

The young Jet Set Records out of Kyoto (who rock a logo highly reminiscent of a certain defunct airline) brings us this three-track sampler for their 4 Seasons CD comp, including an exclusive from Daniel Wang and organic beatscapes from two Japanese groups. The former is a fine enough offering, with typically bubblesome bass and a pair of “Eastern-sounding” melodic motifs, but it might sound a bit rote to those expecting some new tricks from the mighty Mr. Wang. The two natal inclusions are far more interesting, however.

Nix fuse several styles together for “Syk-A” with impressive, rapidly-moving fluidity. Over a smooth synthetic beat, they drop some jazzy keyboard infusions and gospel-house yearning with almost a New Age-y prettiness. The unexpected appearance of the flute in the track’s final third is a welcome nod to East-West crossover that sounds remarkably unforced. Similarly lovely and graced by natural progressions is the delicate “Flower” by Bassed on Kyoto. More jazz than house or techno, it’s a textural marvel, a series of interlocked rhythms, tasteful soloing and Minnie Riperton-esque vocal ejaculations that positively oozes the promise of spring emerging from an unfolding bud.

Jet Set Records / JS12S007
[Listen]
[Mallory O’Donnell]

Something like “Feed The Mood” after two decades of looped disintegration, or really any children’s toy on its last five or six seconds of battery life, “Marimba” pines for early Detroit through a fog of tired synths and last-legged drum machine clatter, and yes there are marimbas. I have to say this one took me a while, especially after the hardhitting Vuelo EP. “Marimba” is just so impressionistic, never really progressing toward an end, and you have to be in the right mood for that. That said I wouldn’t be surprised to see new faith in slo-mo disco give rise to more slo-mo techno like this, the wooze of 45-at-33 irresistible and hardly sarcastic when done proper. On the flip: “Pagans” is a simple minor arpeggio set to an equally simplistic rise-and-fall discobeat, with Metroid-like blasts of synth here and there but nothing truly moving until this wailing mechanical duet that recalls The Knife’s “The Captain.” I’m this close to editing that part out of the hodgepodge and leaving the rest.

Supersoul / SSREC 0056
[Listen]
[Nick Sylvester]

Long-serving Italian cosmic disco survivor Daniele Baldelli re-emerges with a perfectly apt partner in the Gomma crew. And while he might be an old-school warrior, don’t expect a crusty retro showcase here. Opener “Dark Flies” is pounding case-in-point, a two-fisted electro-house stomp that edges into aggro, especially in the brief, husky vocals and pummeling drum breaks. The touches of kosmische – cascades of noodly synth-frizz and an overall rocket-liftoff vibe - do little to detract from the meaty thumping at work. “Funkfibrilla” mixes up tempos and ropes in chunky robo-bass to pilot a smoldering course between post-Kraftwerk Teutonia and iridescent filter-house. “Dyprion” winds things up with a stabbing tandem of keys and rotorized bass, whilst oscillating textures somewhere between heavenly and loopy wash your battered body to shore. Don’t concern yourself with the past: Baldelli’s still doggedly stuck in the future.

Gomma / 094
[Listen]
[Mallory O’Donnell]

Blame the current streak of scorching summer days but Tensnake’s new single I Say Mista is nothing short of a salve. Like a mutant (and highly infectious) strain of electro-pop, “I Say Mista” is doused with enough fizzing Italo handclaps and bubbling Chicago House synths to ignore your clingy t-shirt and how soaked it really is. Which really isn’t too much of a change for Tensnake. Dude’s unassuming productions have given us a debut (”Around The House”) and remix (Junior Boys’ “FM”) that never shock or awe outright - they take their time and insistently draw your attention in. A fact that makes Audision’s overhaul of “I Say Mista” into a churning techno beast feel like it’s declawed - all the gradual intensity of the original is blurred when thrown into the foreground. B-side “Look Into the Sky” flips “um hmm” into a hook and slowly carousels simple melody around like an ice cream truck. Like all the smart kids, all I can do is run after it.

Mirau / MIRAU 006
[Listen]
[Nate DeYoung]

I confess, I haven’t heard the original, so I’ll avoid some kind of specious contextualising and cut to the record. First listens find me flinging clichés around: “going for broke”, “everything but the kitchen sink”. Closer ears and repeat recitals find smaller (but not lesser) rewards – neat edits, muppet noises, and a strangely effecting counterpoint of vertical layering and spacious horizontal unfolding. Neither the Glimmers nor Ray Mang deserve all their coolsie hype, but this is a remix to be reckoned with, sublimating a good-old “boots and pants” (that phrase again) rhythmentality to a fun-loving, effect flinging melodicity that comes up with more than enough bounce to the ounce to please kidz and headz alike.

Harvey’s mix drags us out of the ebony/chrome/fluoro-pink disco universe of the Glimmer/Mang version into some kind of swampy, headfuck psychedelica, somewhere between a German jam band and early Funkadelic warming up (just as the acid starts to settle in). Are you DJ enough to like this? You’ll get cred for trying. There’s something to like here in the woefully, wilfully purple passages – where’s the original? Where are the kidz? What happened to the dancefloor? You’re not my mother. We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore here. Whether it’s a good trip for you probably depends on the colour of Eddie Hazel’s teeth, and whether they’re sharpening as you try to focus on them, to no avail.

Grayhound / GND 053
[Listen]
[Peter Chambers]