Danny K, one of dance music's upper echelon-members continues his Mr. K edits series in total earnest. You'd have thought cat might have given up by now, spending nigh on the last thirty years at the top of his game, but no! he just keeps on giving. A lovely man and a true ambassador for disco and dance music in general, there's not many cut from the same (silk) cloth as this man!

Two more rambunctious edits from disco's well-excavated underground but there's no-one really that does it better than this man! As deft with the razor blade as he is with a turntable, it's his precise selections, grasp of dynamics and general air of sophistication that sets his work apart from the majority of the also-rans. If you've ever had the joy of seeing him play, you might recognize this two cuts from his personal armory; if you haven't, then enjoy the music and try to catch the great man in action sometime in the near future - you won't regret it! 

STAFF COMMENTS

Sil says: Smooth full moon is out and all you need is this 12" oozing midnight jazzy vibes on both sides courtesy of master Mr. K. Gold.

A Vision Of Panorama continues his synth exploration, expanding his vision towards new synthesizer motifs and dreamy chords on a vast array of late night cosmic g-funk grooves, modern funk and boogie inspired tracks. This time covers a different spectrum of sounds and atmospheres which merge to form a harmonious whole that can stands on territories of accomplished future soul, jazz and funk. Distinctly deeper and visibly more emotive deep house than just a technique of smooth Balearic instrumentation.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: What's this?! Balearic tycoon AVOP switches tact entirely and dives head first into 5D-boogie! Essential tackle for lovers of Moon B, Turquoise Summers, Dam Funk etc....to be honest there's also a bit of Floating Points in there too! Wicked!

This is the first ever reissue of ‘Disco Soccer’, the 1979 album from Ghanaian sportsman turned musician Alhaji Sidiku Buari. Originally an athlete, winning silver and gold medals in the Senegal All Africa Games and West African Games in 1963 and a bronze in the All African in Congo Brazzaville in 1965, Buari moved to America on a music scholarship from The York Institute, obtained as a result of his athletic achievements. Buari soon became enthused by baseball, training with the York team and occasionally playing in matches. When one of York’s music teachers heard him singing inspirational team-builder songs and chants for his side - in the Ga language- he suggested putting a rhythm section behind the songs, recording them, and seeing what the American record buying public thought of them. It won’t surprise you to hear that said Americans loved the demos- so, in 1975, he recorded his first album – the first of fifteen. Buari went on to collaborate with Bernard Purdie, Sugar Hill’s Steve Jerome and Salsoul’s bassman, Gordon Edwards. A switch to Polydor in 1979 produced Disco Soccer, and if you’re into disco or boogie or any hybrid thereof, this is a must-have album. A homage, Ay to Zee, to New York’s late 70s disco scene, filtered through an Accra late-night haze: Ga vocals and West African percussion all the way, all of it composed and produced by the artist himself. A generous eleven tracks of all killer-no-filler boogie business: one of those albums you just put on, and leave on. An essential partner to BBE’s double Buari LP Feelings/Sidiku Buari & His Jam Busters, Disco Soccer is reissued from the original masters and reproduced on 180-gram vinyl with new liner notes and original artwork.

Dwight Druick was born in Montreal to a professional gambler and an ex-Radio City Rockette. One of five children, he grew up in a family buoyed by music and beleaguered by the vagaries of miscalculated risk. After attaining a McGill University bachelor’s degree in Art History, Dwight fully embraced both music and risk by traveling to London, where he signed a contract with Pye Records and Joe Cocker’s management company. The ensuing record, "Druick & Lorange" was released to critical acclaim and relative success. After returning to Canada, Dwight recorded two albums with Phil Vyvial: "Midnight" and "Minuit". Recorded with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section in Alabama, the duo’s work achieved airplay success in Quebec and across Canada. Dwight subsequently released his first French language solo album, "Tanger", released in 1980 by the Canadian label, Bobinason.

Today quite hard to find in its original version, "Tanger" is first of all an incredibly solid album, clearly underrated and deserving more credit. Mostly known by collectors and DJs for the stunning cover of Toto’s classic hit, “Georgy Porgy”, which was produced and arranged with the help of George Thurston (Boule Noire), it includes many other tasty titles, with amongst them another fine rendition of “Open Your Eyes” by The Doobie Brothers. In fact, with its brilliant mix of Modern-Soul, Disco and AOR styles, the whole album is already considered by many connoisseurs as a classic, and clearly a must have for anyone enjoying this musical blend.

Never reissued on vinyl until now, here's a chance for blue eyed soulboys, yacht rock obsessives and the Balearic crowd to grab their copy.

Emotional Rescue returns to the music of British pop band Furniture, with an EP of the band's own extended versions, remixes and unreleased takes of their particular output. Taken from three 12"s that followed "When The Boom Was On" (ERC072), the songs included cast a light on their development from 3 to 5 piece, adding Sally Still (bass) and Maya Gilder (keyboards) and the new male / female frontline. The subsequent broadening of their line-up and sound meant they could start to address the kind of pop music they wanted to play. After the early releases garneered radio play and reviews, Furniture were launched into the melee of '80s pop. An anomaly, the band found they attracted a specific kind of intense follower, who were often beguiled by Furniture's freaky normality. This was addressed on the 1984 release, "I Can't Crack". A more urgent version of the sound Furniture had debuted with "Why Are We In Love", the track, sung by Tim, was based around a sequencer-like rhythm played live by drummer Hamilton Lee, and a clarinet part played by Tim's brother, Larry Whelan. A mix of bleakness and euphoria, the song was and is a favourite of the band and considered one of their best self-productions, as well as becoming a latter day club play. This is followed by the studio experiment "Throw Away The Script", where the band wrestled with sequencers and synth-pop, but then countered it with a free-jazz sax solo. Found on the flip of the double A -side of "Love Your Shoes" 12", this instrumental version too became an underground club hit, including a cult play at Fran Lenaer's influential Valencia club, Spook Factory. Played loud, the studio mastery, trickery and oft-accidental discoveries come to the fore, with tissue-damaging frequencies giving extra sound system shaking bottom end. The B-side continues the band's love of making extended mixes with "Dancing The Hard Bargain". Co-produced with Tim Parry (formerly of Blue Zoo), they threw everything at these 12" versions. Able to relax and focus on the sounds they really liked, rather than the ones thought more commercial, this can be clearly heard on this compelling, percussive mix, a stop-start breakdown becoming a band hallmark. To close this collection is the mammoth "Bullet". Again sung by Whelan, an edited version of which debuted on the 1986 Survival compilation of Furniture tracks called "The Lovemongers", here this previously unreleased original take is centred on a mesmeric tape loop, live drums and a guest appearance by violinist Helena Bjorelius.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: I'm not up on much of this sound I have to confess. But I'm a sucker for anything jagged, funky and progressive! Furniture seem to join the dots between post-punk, new wave and Balearic and alongside the A Produce record on All Night Flight this week, should be your go-to curveball releases this week!

Ground is an Osaka native, but his soul is truly that of a nomad, traversing the planet, befriending kindred spirits found in humans, animals and plants. He is exceptionally receptive to the beauty in everything that surrounds him - the incidental music of a city street, the orchestral chaos of a scrambling radio, the syncopated grace of migrating birds, the simplicity of an isolated hand clap - and as his roadmap continuously unfolds, he accumulates a vast catalogue of visceral tools to musically recount his experiences. 'Sunizm' is a cross section of the artist’s process - an array of complex microcosms overlapping to comprise a thematic whole - gathering field recordings, found instruments, jagged electronics, synthesized chanting, and weaving all into a dense narrative that appears obsessively constructed yet divinely improvised. 'Follow Me', the second of two singles surrounding the album, is complimented with a pseudo drum’n’bass treatment by enigmatic Greek artist Jay Glass Dubs, as well as a massively triumphant b-side entitled 'Ozone House', which is exclusive to this single release. Attention all humans, animals and plants, Ground and the ESP Institute present, 'Sunizm'.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: If you've heard me play out lately then chances are you've heard a whole lot of Ground, whether in solo mode or alongside Mori or Bartellow. Here we get a killer cut from his LP, brand new cosmic excursion "Ozone House", and a brutalist breaks mix from Jay Glass.

More stuff from Ben & Dean's exquisite Rogue Cat squadron. Now delving into reissues and excavations via their ReSounds branch, this is the second record to receive attention and treatment from these new disco mavericks.

Quiet Force's "Listen To The Music" is a mid-pyramid Balearic nugget. Owned by most of the third tier, but still fetching upwards of a ton via trading markets, it's the domain of Balearic scribes and soldiers out of reach of the meagre peasantry and unwashed.

Coming here, backed with two remixes, the original is a superbly evocative slice of Italian balearia - slow in pace but with a maxed out, post-coital glow that lends itself to white loungers draped across sandy beaches awash with cocktail-wielding patrons.

Straus & Pask flip the mood to an electro-disco fuelled drug chugger laced with 303s, vintage synths and primitive sampling that's defo gonna work early doors in the club.

Apiento & Tepper drop the second remix: slightly shuddering with some well deployed noise gates while a vintage, late 80s electro-soul beat fuels the motion as a whole manner of expansive melodies, vox and pad sweeps elevate our soul.

Dean and Ben are also responsible for the Rotation Soundsystem - a Klipschorn-powered, mobile party that counts stately homes, country gardens and subterranean basements amongst its choice spots of revelry. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Sil says: Rogue Cat here with some well-dug Balearic gold, galvanized with some modern alchemistry to great affect. I'm sold.

Chain Tripping — the band’s seventh LP and third for DFA —was recorded between Marfa, Texas and the band’s home in Los Angeles. The ten songs are unlike anything YACHT has ever made: pop experiments from a sideways dimension coaxed into their studio through a portal opened by machine intelligence.

“AI and Machine Learning represent a revolution in music equivalent to the introduction of the synthesizer or the beginning of laptop music. We’ve been a band long enough to watch technology overwrite our assumptions many times, and felt compelled to bring these new tools into our life,” explains YACHT.

YACHT (an acronym for “Young Americans Challenging High Technology”) is Claire L. Evans, Jona Bechtolt, and Rob Kieswetter. For "Chain Tripping", the trio invented their own working method, at the intersection of DIY and high-tech: they used neural networks to break their patterns apart into infinite variations, which they re-assembled into new songs that they then learned, performed, and recorded live. Rather than rely on any single tool, they brought together several distinct AI processes to generate lyrics (Char-RNN), musical data (MusicVAE), raw audio (SampleRNN), and instrumentation (a “neural synthesizer” called the NSynth). They were inspired by the long history of generative composition, from William S. Burroughs’ cut-up writing method to David Bowie’s custom “Verbasizer” lyrics software from the ‘90s.

Dead Horses continue to ply their narcs at the best discos and underground dances in town, this third installment a particularly heady offering from the firm.

The mysterious Otherlover opens proceedings with a teasing cut, "Need Your Love" which seems to throb at the very edge of climax throughout its loopy duration. Meanwhile DJ Nature remixes "Music Moves Me" by Dicky Trisco & Love Drop - a steady-away, mid-tempo number that should keep the momentum rolling with its detailed low-end and subtle, smooth samples. The pair also drop "Waiting For The Sax", which is the most disco flavoured offering here, with Trisco and LD chopping some up (unbeknownest to me) disco grooves and added a subtle, weightier kick underneath. Sometimes you don't need sorcery to move the floor, just tried and tested body science. Dead Horses know their respective fields inside out....Recommended.

STAFF COMMENTS

Sil says: Chuggy disco house heavy on the sample side of things. Promises to ravage your dancefloor for real. Three cuts of sublime house music at the right tempo!

Melvo Baptiste steps up to mix the latest Glitterbox compilation, "Hotter Than Fire" featuring the upfront disco heat that has been setting off the dancefloor all summer at Glitterbox parties in New York, London and Ibiza. A strong contender for the hottest party on earth, Melvo has headlined Hï Ibiza for another record-breaking season this summer. "Hotter Than Fire" channels the energy of a Glitterbox event, with this three-disc special exploring the best authentic house and disco sounds.

Featuring highlights from the Glitterbox imprint such as The Shapeshifters’ gloriously instrumented "Life Is A Dancefloor", enchanting dancefloors since its release and featuring Chic lead vocalist Kimberly Davis, as well as brand-new heat like JKriv’s "Yo Love" and KON’s remix of Qwestlife’s "Fever", a track that features iconic US talent including Sugarhill Gang and Siedah Garrett.

Transitioning through the decades, "Hotter Than Fire" traces all the way from the 1978 soulful-disco cut "Gotta Keep Trying" by Tenderness, Goldie Alexander’s 1981 "Show You My Love" and the 1983 "Body Work" (Vocal Mix) by Hot Streak on CD1 through to warm 90’s sounds on CD2 such as Masters At Work’s Club Dub of Chic’s "Chic Mystique" and Shay Jones "When Love Calls" (E-Smoove's Late Night). Transitioning gradually into 2019, the compilation features upfront house and disco exclusively available on the compilation like Seamus Haji "Boogie 2nite "(Dr Packer Extended Remix), Loods "Love" and the Kormak remix of Low Steppa "You’re My Life".

Demonstrating what Glitterbox does best, "Hotter Than Fire" re-creates the atmosphere of the party, with an abundance of disco, house and soulful sounds that embody the hands-in-the-air, euphoric, confetti-filled moments that the events are loved for.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xLP 1 Info: VOL. 1

2xLP 2 Info: VOL. 2

Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Nigeria Soul Power 70’ album showcases the influence of funk, rock and disco on Nigerian music during the 1970s. Originally released as a nowlong- out-of-print collectors’ 7” box, this fully expanded album release now also includes extra tracks from Sonny Okosuns, Wings, Chief Kollington Ayinla and more.

While for many people the fusion of funk and jazz music with Nigerian rhythms and aesthetics began with Fela Kuti and his afro-beat sound, in fact this can be traced further back to the phenomena of the 1960s Nigerian artists and house bands in nightclubs and hotels who interpreted US soul and pop music with a local flavour and none more so than Geraldo Pino, the ‘African James Brown’ who features heavily in this collection. Other similarly inspired Nigerian funk and soul artists featured here included Tony Grey and his Ozimba Messengers and Don Bruce and The Angels.

‘Nigeria Soul Power 70’ includes a number of tracks from the group Wings originally known as BAF (Biafran Air Force) Wings, an army band formed during the Biafran civil war in Nigeria. The groups’ heavy mixture of funk, rock and African styles was popular among many Nigerian groups at the time.

Beneath the shadow of the few Nigerian artists who signed international recording deals in the 1970s - Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Chief Ebenezer Obey - lies of vast wealth of largely undiscovered musical transmutation and cultural cross-pollination and included here are heavy afro-funk/rock and disco tracks from artists such as the legendary Sonny Okosuns as well as rare cuts from little-known outside of Nigeria - groups such as Colomach and MFB. Most of these obscure artists signed to major labels in Nigeria in the commercial slipstream that opened up as Philips, Decca and EMI tried to emulate the international success of the big three international Nigerian artists.

Finally featured here is Kollington Ayinla, one of the co-founders of Nigerian Fuji music, who gives us perhaps the heaviest of all tracks on this album. Ayinla is the great moderniser of the Fuji sound and in the late 1970s began adding Bata drums and synthesizers to his authentic music to create a powerful and heavy new fusion of traditional and modernist aesthetics, embracing both new technology and experimentation while rooted firmly in Nigerian historical lineage.