I've had a couple albums in the queue but my connection has been awful for some reason for the last few days (three failed uploads on the first up!). It's driving me a bit crazy since I have such amazing tracks to share. In the meantime, here's a taste of that first album. If anyone has the proper mp3 of the second vid please please post it in the comments or get it to me somehow, because it's unreal. The man was brilliant, and the fact that he isn't as known as Moroder is a testament to the miserable state of the American aesthetic taste, then and now.
Wherever you are, Mr. Cowley, we love you.
434:49 minutes remaining in the upload... (See Below)
Finally, the first upload I've had in nearly a week that hasn't failed. Today I present you with a legendary collection of the greatest tracks by America's greatest electronic disco producer. Before his untimely death in 1982 (at age 32! so young.) Patrick Cowley did a world tour with Sylvester and started the superb hi-nrg label, Megatone records. I've re-written this post a dozen times it feels like so just check him on wikipedia if you want to know more.
Number 2 in the spacer disco series isn't from our friends at the Disco2Go blog, but discovered elsewhere online and posted as a follow up to a post ages ago of my rip of the 7" single from this album.
Back to Music is a 4 track 1978 disco album from Theo Vaness, but frankly tracks 2-4, though solid tunes, are just here to fill out the album. The first track is the draw, and it is epic. 16:31 side-long disco medley, kicking off with a cosmic narrative about time travel and rolling into a medley as follows:
Back To Music 7:35 I Who Have Nothing 1:15 Feelings 1:15 Yesterday :55 Brahms : Third Symphony :45 It's Now Or Never 1:30 What Did I Say :04 Blue Suede Shoes :12 Shake Rattle and Roll :12 Johnny Be Good :12 Tutti Frutti :12
This is the US version, I haven't found the Euro version but apparently it's considerably worse (though given the tracklist I can't really imagine that being true). No, this is indeed the Euro version. My god.
This is one of those projects that results from a massive budget and a very good connection.
Vaness was better known for his gay disco anthem As Long As It's Love, unfortunately not included on this album (if it were, I would have to declare this the Gayest Disco LP Ever. As it stands, Sylvester retains that title).
I've got a few more to go, don't know that I'll get up another one tonight but we'll see how temperamental rapidshare is being. Anyway, enjoy.
Good evening spacers & runaways! I've got a few more neat bits of far-out disco for you this week, mostly mp3 encodes of lossless files provided by the wonderful Disco2Go blog (Tonight's post found lossless here). The originals even come with .cues for your burning/ripping pleasure, so hit him up if you'd like the pristine originals or you want them in another encoding format.
First up is this four-track four-on-the-floor effort from Quebec. Supposedly involves an ex-member of seminal French Synthpop/Disco group Droids, although I can't seem to track down any more info on that and discogs is being less than helpful.
Laid-back spaced vibes throughout, with one of my absolute favorite 'sounds' when it comes to disco: the TV Soundtrack. Perfect for listening, lots of analog synth twiddles and production fun on two sides featuring a dozen separate snippets that could have been in the OST for Battlestar Galactica 1980. Superb. Once I get around to ripping vinyl again I'll have to start in on my small collection of this sort of thing. The French (and Quebecois, obviously) had a good handle on it, but frankly the Italians and the Japanese were the masters. Refer to my old post of that Digital Trip synth soundtrack for a prime demonstration of Japan's direction, or my very first post of Nights of Babylon for another example of French efforts to a similar end. Anyhow, check out the youtubes below. Beyond Orion is my clear favorite, but none of them fall short of expectations. Enjoy.
Speaking of synthy-stuff and that Digital Trip album, the lucidmedia blog reposted it along with SIX more similar albums. The Macross one is particularly good for this kind of music (Silver Moon, Red Moon on the same is a great example of this kind of this soundtrackish disco sound, as is O-G Love although both are much more 'late-80s' in style). This also has an example or two.
AGH! Crazy time of year for me. Forgot what it was like to be a student again, then tax season came along. Here's another bit I've nabbed over time, between projects and class I haven't had time to rip anything new. That said, I'll not do you wrong. Lordy.
CD rip of two albums of disco-style funk-punk-rock-whatever. Imagine the Talking Heads around this period, except not afraid either of rocking hard or laying down some proper dance shit. Like Nat Glover (Kid Creole) but freaked like Damião (pick your spelling, I've no idea) doing house. It's not P-Funk, but it could fit in the pantheon. I wouldn't be even remotely surprised if it was produced by Bill Laswell (check this though it's probably on this blog somewhere since I ripped my copy long ago).
Reposting this because I've just gone back and compared the version I had before I ripped this and this recording, and the other can't compare. This is the best rip of this tape you'll ever find: original copy and aside from 25 years of wear it still retains fair fidelity. If you have any interest in the japanese avant-garde of the past 50 years or interestingly original music in general, get this. The text of the original post follows.
Alright, up today we have one of the gems of my tape collection. It's been posted elsewhere in various forms (actually having trouble figuring out where I found it in the first place, come to think of it), but this rip is from my copy of the original cassette. It remains in raw, full-side v0 mp3 form, since I don't think cutting it up into 'tracks' makes any sense. Have a listen and you'll see what I mean.
This release was a recap/medley of live performances for a 1983 Japanese Anarchist festival. Features bands such as A*MUSIK, Skeleton Crew (Fred Frith/Tom Cora), Remedy Control, and at least one or two noteworthy Japanese-name acts who I can't seem to remember and I'm having a surprisingly difficult time digging up the other blogs that have posted this in the past (I BELIEVE one of them is Zuno Keisatsu but I can't read Japanese at all). If anyone wants to translate the cover in the comments, there's a larger copy of the scan in the file. Anyway, I'm hoping to start varying up the posts from my increasingly regular dance single rips, so look for more like this in the future. Enjoy.
Got a few things coming up. I've been adding my old mp3s to my itunes thing since I shifted over to mac after my PC finally broke, so I've had some old things come up again. Let's call it a retro phase. Track 1 on the B side of this single was the first bit I ever heard from this band, back when I was 15. I was in a (bit of a crap) punk band, and it was a bit of a revelation for me. Fell in love with the rest of Number Girl's discography not long after, but Sentimental Girl's Violent Joke remains a touchstone of my musical evolution. The first time I ever identified with something in a language I didn't understand.
And here I am, ten years later and running a rave disco world music blog. Please give it a chance. (BTW their final live DVD easily ranks among the top 5 live concert videos I've ever seen)
"24 hour trial periods" are nonsense... Same for music as they were for video games and movies. Everything I post is out of print and unavailable aside from the used market; if you can show me to be wrong I will remove the download. otherwise, cash in or get over it.
If I post links which I did not upload or rips I didn't do please feel free to comment the post or email me and I'll attribute them properly. I would prefer to do this but unfortunately most of them are things I've found without proper attribution.
Please leave a comment if you download. Not a requirement of course, but it makes doing this that much more fun.
