ECHO PARTY

Inspirational.

HENDERSON & WHITFIELD (edit)

I first heard this record back in March of this year through reading a post on the irrepressible BEAT ELECTRIC. They have given me the heads up on many a tune since I first stumbled upon the world of blogging so a big thank you goes out to them. The vocal version isn't an easy one to mix and the instrumental needs a bit more going on to keep the dancefloor happy - so have given it a little edit. I initially wanted to combine the vocal and instrumental versions and keep chopping and changing between the two but wasn't really able to do this due to some reverb on one of the tracks in the vocal. You will here the change when the guitar comes in.

Henderson & Whitfield - Dancin' to the beat (Mr Smith mixeasy edit) by Mr. Smith

PRINCE - HEAD

Apparently this caused a bit of a stir when it came out. It's about some bride to be sucking the cock of a man that is not her future husband. Definitely controversial in my book, and probably in Prince's book too - he just didn't give a fuck. This is one of the greatest boogie tracks ever written and is by one of the pioneers of the sound.

Prince is a musical genius.

Prince - Head by Mr. Smith

THINK ABOUT IT ...

Classic Baxter rediscovered.

DJ DUANE'S "AFTER THE DANCE" GUEST MIX.

We're pleased to bring you this first installment of what is to be a regular slot here on The Ghetto Disco - our special guest DJ mix, where we host some selections & mixes from our friends & people whose music, tastes & styles we really dig here at HQ.
We thought we'd kick it off in fine style with a killer "40 mins of after-hours comedown femme fatale disco-soul" mix supplied by Brooklyn, NYC based DJ Duane - one half of devastating Disco edit duo - "Bim Marx" (Along with Jorge Velez a.k.a Professor Genius).


Duane has been a fixture in NYC's DJ scene for many years & has had a hand in many jams in the city during that time, most notably the Negroclash parties at APT in the early 00's (Alongside Prince Language & DJ Lindsey, guest DJ's included : Juan Atkins,Mr Fingers, Afrika Bambaataa, Red Alert, Maurice Fulton, Freddie Fresh, DJ Spinna and DJ Technics) & his current regular "Energy 2 burn" sessions at Brooklyn's Trophy bar as well as being a familiar face & buyer behind the counter at East 14th St's music emporium Other Music, on top of all that there's been a guest slot on Tim Sweeney's Beats in Space radio show & 2 EP's of Bim Marx edits on Chicago's mysterious STILOVE4MUSIC imprint which have found their way into DJ's bags & charts on both sides of the Atlantic, in Duane's words :


"The Bim Marx is a fun re-edit project Jorge and I do. We're both huge fans of the early productions of Armando, Danny Krivit, Kerri Chandler and those dirty Chicago edits of the late, great Hardy. We kinda felt like the human, jackin' aspects of that sound has all but disappeared, and we wanted to do something that tapped into that urban, dirty, off-kiltered sound."





As well as the re-edit projects Duane & Jorge have been remixing too, their remix of The Phenomonal Handclap Band's "15 to 20" is out now and you can grab it HERE & HERE & make sure you check out their 2 EP's on STILOVE4MUSIC - "Together" & "Lend a hand" for some serious dancefloor Disco edit action, they've both been in my bag for months now & trust me ... they work :


From the "Lend a hand" EP.



Now, on to Duane's mix, the tracklist looks a little something like this :


1.Tramaine - "Child of the king (12 dub mix)".
2.Faze-O - "Ridin' High (Waajeed remix feat. Tiombe Lockhart)".
3.Niteflyte - "If you want it".
4.Angela Bofil - "Tropical love".
5.Phillis Hyman - "Kiss you all over".
6.Deedee Bridgewater - "Lonely Disco dancer".
7.Vivian Reed - "Don't start something you can't finish".
8.Millie Jackson - "This is it".


Duane Harriott - "After the dance" by theghettodisco


Just want to say a big thanx to Duane for the dope mix & you can also check Bim Marx's guest slot on Beats in Space HERE.

DJ NUTS - BRAZIL

I stumbled upon Brazilian DJ Nuts' blog the other day & thought i'd recommend it to you guys, this guy is a killer DJ with an insane amount of records & skills to boot & he's pretty much the top Brazilian turntablist, he's appeared in B+'s "Brasilintime" documentary alongside Madlib, Egon & Cut Chemist as well as Soul, Funk, Jazz & Disco drumming legends James Gadson, Derf Reklaw, Wilson das Neves & Mamao.


Not only is DJ Nuts dope, but he's also VERY generous as he's upped all his "Cultura copia" & "Disco e cultura" mix CD's onto his blog for us all to download for FREE, these mixes are killer, some seriously rare Brazilian joints cut up & mixed by the man himself, get on these HERE!!


Also, here's a little bonus beat - Nuts in action at his house :





Enjoy!

ISAAC HAYES - I AIN'T NEVER

Isaac Hayes is an artist who needs no introduction, he is one of the most "sampled" artists ever, he's been behind some of the biggest soul records of the last 30 years, his career spanned decades & his contribution to music was huge, Isaac was a superstar, he was "Black Moses".
I've been a big fan of "Ike" for many years & have collected alot of his LP's & often play them at home & enjoy them immensley. Having played the Tom Moulton mix of his killer track "Moonlight lovin' (Menage a trois)" to death for ages imagine my surprise when I came across this gem from 1980...


Clocking in at just over 10 minutes & mixed by legendary NYC Disco mixer & Saint resident Jim Burgess this is truely a monster cut.
Of course Isaac is in his usual smooth mood but the music is frantic, driving & funky & having played this one out myself in clubs numerous times I can tell you ... it's workin'! On the flip is another Burgess mix - "Shaft 2" which upon reading the various DJ's charts in Vince Aletti's Disco bible "The Disco files" (Buy it HERE) seems to have been a big club hit in the Discotheques, although this is a killer track too "I ain't never" wins hands down in my opinion ... a total dancefloor devastator!





"I get high on watching you..."





Isaac Hayes - I ain't never (Jim Burgess mix) by theghettodisco

BOMBERS - LETS DANCE

If you like your disco DEEP (or any music for that matter) and you haven't heard Bombers before, maybe you should sit down.


Bombers were a late 70's Canadian outfit. They released two albums and a string of 12"s in their short lived recording career and you could almost label them fusion rather than disco. The 'rocky' guitar you hear in a lot of their tracks, along with the overall psychedelic feel makes the lines a wee bit hazy. This record though is certainly disco, the string section and the octave bass line during the male vocal make sure of that. What I love about this joint (aside from the driving guitar) is where they take it in the second half, the percussion kicks in, they up the bass and take it down to 80,000 leagues with that 'Doctor Who like synth'. All I can think of (and it consumes me) is 'imagine what it would have been like to see these guys live?' ...15 minute versions of tripped out bliss!!!

This was on their second album entitled 'Bombers 2'. It had a few releases on different labels depending on what country you were living in in 1979. You can actually buy Bombers 2 HERE from itunes. Great for the ipod, but for all the vinyl head's and audiophile's out there you NEED the 12" or the L.P.

Bombers - Lets Dance by Mr. Smith

HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY SESAME STREET!

THE greatest kids TV show of our generation?


Today we have some classic Sesame Street clips courtesy of The Pointer Sisters (The Pinball Theme) & the mighty Stevie Wonder (Nice with the Vocoder) :














Sesame Street - this TV show has had so much influence on pop culture it's unbelieveable, as well as that it's a happy reminder of when we were all off school for a day feigning illness so we could catch up with The Count, Big Bird, Cookie Monster & crew as they embarked on yet another alpha-numerical adventure around the show's NYC Brownstone setting. Basically, this street is responsible for some cool shit. Start from the clips posted above where we have The Pointer Sisters funky jam backed with some psychedelic pinball landscapes & Stevie Wonder (who would've been at the height of his fame by this stage & taking time out of a very hectic Motown recording schedule to get down with the kids!) rocking out with full band & vocoder. Then we've got Paradise Garage DJ deity Larry Levan getting his first ever remix job on vinyl in the shape of Cookie Monsters Disco effort "C is for Cookie" (Which was also backed with a Roy Thode mix & later re-edited on the infamous "Black Cock" series by DJ Harvey in the mid 90's. You can also grab the reissue 12" complete with pinball theme re-edit by Strictly Kev & DJ Food HERE), many years later, 1992 to be exact, the UK get's in on the act with it's own "Dance" version of some Sesame Street goodness on the back of "Rave" musics considerable commercial success ... Although i'm sure many folk would be trying quite hard to forget this one and the many other cheesey "kids" themed rave records it inspired! In short, Sesame Street made me the man I am today & the picture at the top of this post isn't just a collection of images showing the cast of the street, it's a collection of friendly, familiar faces who'll always be around. Bring on the next 40 years ...


HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY SESAME STREET!

BEYOND BALEARIC.

How my afternoon sounded yesterday.

READY OR NOT?

Herbie makes it look EASY while Quincy looks on.

HYPNOSIS - END TITLE (BLADERUNNER)

Finally got around to doing some vinyl rips from my record collection.
Those of you who know me know i'm a serious undercover Electro lover & have been for many years (Ever since I first heard Streetsounds "New York beats VS. LA beats" cassette when I was a youngster - still one of the best mixes ever & LA's mix trounces NY's in my opinion) ... so I though i'd kick things off with a personal Electro favourite of mine from the crates - Hypnosis' Vangelis cover version "End title (Bladerunner)".


Everyone is familiar with the classic soundtrack to Ridley Scott's bleak 1982 Sci-fi masterpiece which was originally composed & performed by Vangelis, and over the years the score has been inspiration for sample hungry Hip Hop heads, Motor City Techno futurists, London Drum & Bass pioneers & in this case Italian Electro outfits ...





According to Discogs.com : "Hipnosis (on some records also named Hypnosis) was a successful Italian techno-disco band in the early '80s, born in Parma and founded by Stefano Cundari. It also featured Paul Sears and Ugo Solenghi. At the beginning of the year 1982 Angelo Bergamini from Kirlian Camera joined the band. Cundari had the idea of covering the song "Pulstar" by Vangelis for the label Memory Records. They recorded the song together with Anfrando Maiola from the group Koto. In the ensuing period all of the original members left the project and Bergamini turned down the proposition to stay as a composer and musician of the new line-up and decided to leave the sixty date world tour. At the same time as Hipnosis was developing, Paul Sears officially joined Kirlian Camera's new line-up. In 1987 Cundari released another 7"/12" ("Droid") under the Hipnosis banner. Soon after he passed away. At this point the official Hipnosis-Story ends."


Even with such scant information & really only a clutch of releases to their name Hypnosis' records still get played today & remain musically relevant to DJ's & music lovers around the world who are embracing the whole "Cosmic", "Italo" & "Space" Disco genres & i'm sure played in the right circles these tracks would induce a fierce poppin' & lockin' session too (That one was for all you BBoys out there)!!


I've also included a Youtube clip of Vangelis' original composition :





Below is the full 12" mix in high quality mp3 :





Hypnosis Blade Runner - End Theme by theghettodisco

A WORK OF GENIUS?

Dedicated to Zoe.K!



Watch & learn.

K.I.D - YOU DON'T LIKE MY MUSIC

K.I.D were a german outfit fronted and produced by keyboard player Geoff Bastow. The more widely known version of this is the instrumental due to its U.S release on SAM (which did not include the vocal version), whereas the original actually came out on Italian disco label BABY RECORDS. For some reason the instrumental was renamed 'Hupendi Muziki Wangu' which translates to 'You do not want my music' in Swahili, a language spoken in a number of different Central and East African countries. Why this was done I can only speculate. The lyrics are clearly aimed at a woman, perhaps one that spoke Swahili. I am sure that many of you out there that can relate to the lyrics in this tune, I know I can. My copy of this is the U.K release on EXCALIBER, I prefer the instrumental of this record but posted the vocal just because it's a bit more obscure. I am not sure what Geoff Bastow is up to now days, but everything I have heard by K.I.D. is KILLER. The instrumental was re issued recently the on the HMD compilation on Strut which you can pick up HERE.

K.I.D. - You don't like my music by theghettodisco

JAMES HILLARD (HORSE MEAT DISCO) - MIX FOR BERLIN RADIO

I'm pleased to host this mix from one of our good friends & favourite DJ's here at The Ghetto Disco HQ - Horse Meat Disco head honcho mr James Hillard.
The mix was originally recorded for broadcast on Berlin radio from the summer & features a top shelf selection of the finest Disco nuggets with some new bits & pieces thrown in, unfortunately we (& he) couldn't remember which station it was on, but it's still hot to trot!!


Those of you familiar with James or the HMD crew will know that these guys are serious about their Disco & all manner of other great music, you only have to check their debut mix album on Strut as well as their killer re-edit 12"s to see that, in short, quality control is high!! James is one of the only DJ's we know who still goes out & "digs in the crates" for those elusive grooves you hear every Sunday at The Eagle here in London (And all over the world!!) so, respect to you sir!!


Here's how the tracklist looks:


1.Edwin Starr - Get up whirlpool.
2.Horse Meat Disco #3 - Iko Iko (Dub).
3.Stargard - Which way is up?.
4.Sparque - Take a little time.
5.Blancmange - The game above my head.
6.Al DiMeola - Sequencer.
7.Methusalem - Robotism.
8.Free life - Dance fantasy.
9.Still going - Spaghetti circus.
10.Vivian Vee - Remember.
11.Switch - Best beat in town.


Big thanx to James for the mix.


To get weekly email updates feat. special parties / news / offers - email James @ Horse Meat Disco: jhillard@btinternet.com





JAMES HILLARD (HORSE MEAT DISCO) - MIX FOR BERLIN RADIO by Bobbyhands