It is now November
2013. This list relates to November 2012.
I should probably give
up.
And yet ...
Here we go yet again.
A month dedicated, as it turns out, to dance.
1. "Hippo
Mancy", by Tom Janusch. The entire 1970s disco scene displayed in miniature.
Like a snow dome. Groovy.
2. "Contours
Sway", by Larry Gus. DFA signing (now with an album out) with the
ingenious approach of taking an actual (or fake: who can tell these days?)
disco number and chopping and screwing it until it sounds like a song trapped
in a blender. (A compliment.)
3. "I'm A Man
(full length version)", by Macho. Italo disco. Imagine a mid-point,
perhaps, between Earth Wind and Fire and "I Feel Love". Or, y'know,
don't. Listen to this instead. You weren't really planning on doing anything
else for the next 18 minutes.
4. "I Love
America", by Patrick Juvet. One thing about disco is, if you only knew it
from the songs they played on the radio, you really did have a skewed and
unflattering view of it. They say that size doesn't matter. They are wrong.
Twelve inches is disco's true measure. Reducing something like "I Love
America" to three or four minutes really negates the point of the song and
leaves the young and impressionable listener (viz., me) having strongly
negative views of what is, in its 12-inch iteration, as fine a song as the
disco era came up with. (Well, almost.) It's like going down a rabbit hole from
which you can never escape. For 13 minutes, anyway.
5. "I Wanna Give
You Tomorrow (disco version)", by Benny Troy. I don't care who you are,
there will always be disco songs that you haven't heard before. Benny Troy
comes on as a slightly restless/anxious Barry White. Oh those blessed strings. From
1975, when things were more fresh, new, exciting and (maybe) innocent.
6. "Dreaming A
Dream (Goes Dancin)", by Crown Heights Affair. I think you can probably guess what is going on here.
7.
"Stardance", by John Forde. Many of the finest exponents of disco did
not hail from England. (I'm not sure where you would place the Bee Gees vis a
vis that last statement.) John Forde hailed from England. The word
"cosmic" can't help but come to mind: this song seems to have its
head in the stratosphere and its feet on the dancefloor. Or: did John Forde
invent prog-disco?
8. "Ain't No Time
For Tears (Sacred Rhythm Version)", by Ashra. Not disco per se, but this
does share the idea of strength through repetition. And rhythm. What we have
here is Joe Claussell taking some well schmick Manuel Gottsching guitar triangulations
and superimposing them onto a salsa beat. And the result is insane. Hola!
9. "Keep It
Together (Factory Floor Remix)", by How To Destroy Angels. As with
"Are 'Friends' Electric?", say, this remix, if you put it out on the
dance floor, might clear half the patrons, but those who remain will be pogoing
their little hearts out. There is something very end-of-the-seventies Sheffield
about Factory Floor which I find very appealing. They are, on the face of
things, cold and industrial, but it is done with a deft hand that draws you in.
As we sit here now, they have an album out. On DFA.
10. "We Came To (house mix)", by
The Crystal Ark. Did somebody mention DFA? It is disappointing that last year's
Crystal Ark album didn't get more traction than it did. Gavin Russom's homemade
synths and Viva Ruiz's vocals are a good pairing, and the album is a lot more
interesting, and varied, than most people seem to have assumed it would be.
This is a different mix of a song from the album. It may not be the
long-awaited return of Black Leotard Front, but it's all good.
