Disco? Very!

Every now and then we develop new musical tastes and find a niche genre which we simply can't get enough off. You know you've developed a niche love when you suddenly can't stop listening to a couple of tracks from a particular mix or artist and suddenly you find yourself hunting down as much as you can and becoming alarmingly discerning as to what 'good (name of niche genre) is'. Every time you play a friend a track they love it, but somehow not as much as you because my God you love it! Don't worry though, they do like it but they've got their own niche and unfortunately with niche genres you can only them love one at a time.

My various partners in crime have each found their own particular niche genre, for Niel it's Electro-Swing which he has been rinsing almost none stop for the past six months. For those who are interested perhaps the most well known purveyor of the genre is Parov Stellar and here is his massive tune 'Catgroove' from his 'Coco' album performed by the exemplary TakeSomeCrime. Once again the best place to get your hands on as much as you can is Podcasts and fortunately electro-swing.com has a fantastic one. Electro Swing did gain some brief mainstream attention in 2010 with Gramophonedzie and his delightful (if overplayed) remix of Peggy Lee's 1947 version of 'Why Don't You'. Other tracks worth exploring are DKS's rework of Louis Prima's 'Sing With a Swing', and the simply gorgeous 'Wash My Hands' by Kormac off his rather interesting 2010 album 'Word Play'. The word for this genre is fun! Its throbs House Party madness and screams for a total loss of inhibitions, the wonderful added bonus being that is draws attention to some classic works from the thirties and forties confirming that swing is by no means dead... it just got louder.


For Oli its a relatively new one called Moombahton, take you're favourite dutch house record and tweak it down to 108 bpm and you've got it! The genre has been developing nicely since late 2009/early 2010. Here's Munchi with 'Esta Noche', Benga's classic 'Night' remixed by Sabo and the apparent creator of Moombahton Dave Nada remixing Sidney Samson's Riverside. The whole genre reeks of drunken, sweaty, body on body filth and is probably going to go huge quite soon for three very good reasons 1. Its relatively simple to make 2. It remixes Afrojack quite a lot and perhaps most importantly 3. Drunken, Sweaty, Body on Body FILTH! I'm personally totally sold on electro-swing and am beginning to develop a fondness for Moombahton (apparently the way to get it properly is to hear it live, another one for the long, long list). But as with all niche genres every one has their own personal favourite, nay, their definitive sound which they seem to love more than anyone else. For me? It has got to be Disco House.


I love disco and thats putting it mildly. Its a genre which frequently gets a lot of stick but for me not much else compares. Think Donna Summer (The undisputed Queen of Disco), the incredible Bee Gees (soundtrack gods for the film Saturday Night Fever), the ridiculous Boney M, the ultimate survivor Gloria Gaynor, Barry White! and killer groups like the supercool Kool and the Gang, the unstoppable KC and the Sunshine Band (and this one!) and the unbelievable Earth, Wind and Fire to name but a few. Actually I'm going name some more, Baccara, The Trammps, Lipps Inc, Wild Cherry, Anita Ward, ABBA, Alicia Bridges, BARRY WHITE!, Cheryl Lynn, A Taste of Honey, Hot Chocolate, Rose Royce, Tavares, Sister Sledge (Jesus Christ I love Sister Sledge!), Sylvester, Hues Corporation, The Silver Convention, Michael Jackson, Chic, Diana Ross, U.N., Dynasty and so many others (Dear Readers, Matt has had to take a two hour break to dance his ass off and will be back shortly) and thats before we even begin to go anywhere nearer the much larger realms of Funk and Soul. Disco marked the birth of the big Dance clubs, Dance moves and generally Dance music.


Fast forward from the late seventies and early eighties to the late nineties and early noughties and you've got the French House explosion with a heavy disco influence (the running joke in Daft Punks titling of their 'Discovery' album) flowing throughout. This can still be heard today when you listen to artists like the scintillating Breakbot, the gorgeous Justice, and the massive Cassius (or to put it another way anyone associated with Ed Banger Records).


Which brings me to 2010 where I stumbled upon the gent who, I think, is doing it better than anyone else, GoGoBizkitt. I first stumbled upon GoGo whilst going through (you guessed it) a Podcast, Fresh Mesh's Podcast to be exact and his Disco Damager mix, its definitely worth a listen and got plenty of play on my old Ipod until I noticed something unusual. As with many podcasts you usually get parts that are better than others, in Disco Damger there was a particular twenty minute slot that I just found myself constantly repeating. Turns out that the twenty minute slot was solid Bizkitt (along with a few other tunes on the mix) and from then on I was hooked.


The first love was easily Earth Wind and Fire 'Let's Groove' (GoGoBizkitt Remix) that four on the floor thumping beat with the samples deliciously chopped and reworked back into the groove. My favourite part is the drop into the original lyrics, we've been building for a while, teased with the prospect then we're treated to the full glory of the original before being hurled back onto the 21st century dance floor with a cheeky brake and rewind.

Next up is Dynasty 'I don't wanna be a Freak' (GoGoBizkitt ReRub) which is so funky it starts to hurt after a while. Wash that down with Silver Connection's 'Get up and Boogie' (GoGoBizkitt's Shimple edit) it's the bass in this one that really pulls you in and the well sliced vocals once more throw you round the floor, before the freaking string section comes in and frankly, I just lose it. This on is dangerous and beautifully captures the disco spirit which is nice considering it comes from a lesser known disco group.

Now for a biggie. It's Daft Punk's Technologic (GoGoBizkitt Remix) and I frankly I think it's the best remix of this track I've ever heard. The real beauty is listening to this track on the disco damager mix where it is expertly introduced and slips the bass in underneath you like a limbo dancing carpet fitter. Needless to say within twenty listens of this track (how long ago that was) an intricate choreography of UV painted burlesque dancers had neatly formed in my head with the words to the song painted out on their bodies and their movements having a kind of Daft Hands effect.

And I thought that was it, luckily however I was very wrong. GoGoBizkitt's soundcloud should provide you with everything you need (along with free downloads yay!) and I really must insist you check out Touch That (jumped about a foot in the air when I heard this one, Bad Girls is a favourite) and Crave You (a remix of the wonderful Flight Facilities, although admittedly this one is better).

I should also recommend N'Joy 'Do Whatcha Gotta Do' Thony Ritz Remi, 'I'll Get You' Classixx feat. Jeppe/Kitsune, and a rather recent find Sarlat 'Diskokugel' who is just fantastic! 

I'm keeping my eyes on this one, strictly for my own personal benefit of course but I hope you can find some pleasure in mixing the old with the new and having a shuffle through a decade or two. I should mention that before I was into Disco House I was a massive fan of Balearic Beats another gorgeous little genre that I will discuss some other time, but to give you a taste and in the spirit of Disco here's Rubber Room and Cockroach.