Blog de Konk – Last.fm

Disco Not Disco (Post Punk, Electro & Leftfield Disco Classics) 2008

1. Vivien Goldman - Launderette (3:47)
2. Delta 5 - Mind Your Own Business (3:13)
3. Shriekback - My Spine Is The Bassline (12" edit) (4:01)
4. Konk -

Your Life (party mix) (7:25)
5. Isotope - Crunch Cake (3:55)
6. James White & The Blacks - Contort Yourself (august darnell rmx) (6:15)
7. Quango Quango - Love Tempo (remix) (7:55)
8. Gina X Performance -

Kaddish (4:47)
9. Material - Don't Lose Control (dance version) (4:19)
10. Kazino - binary (3:56)
11. Liasons Dangereuses - Los Ninos del Parque (12" mix) (5:03)
12. A Number of Names -

Sharevari (inst) (6:17)
13. Six Sed Red - Shake It Right (bang 'em right) (6:24)
14. Maximum Joy - Silent Street/Silent Dub (7:54)

Is it disco? Is it something else? Disco Not Disco, the forthcoming Strut collection, ought to come with a disclaimer. Oh, wait, here we are: Post Punk, Electro & Leftfield Disco Classics 1974-1986. So it is disco, then?

Sort of. Disco Not Disco collects fourteen rarely-heard but totally slammin', bottom-heavy bodymovers with strong appeal for fans of, say, the collected works of James Murphy. It's disco-like in its steady rhythms and pulsing bass, but it's not exactly the Hues Corporation.

Compiled by Last Night a DJ Saved My Life author Bill Brewster, the disc runs the gamut from New York's underground club scene to Detroit's then-burgeoning techno pioneers, and even hops the pond for a handful of tracks that lit up the British Isles. The collection, a follow-up of sorts to Strut's 2000 Disco Not Disco comp, emerges January 14 on the recently rejuvenated imprint.

Let me present Theriolalia, the Internet’s most debilitating musical syndrome. Are you yapping like a fox, roaring like a moose, barking like a kittycat? Listen to these ten streamable artists for temporary relief.

Ranked in order of popularity on last.fm.

Brazilian Girls (15,994 listeners). Enough with the “no Brazilians, one girl” crap. What matters is their new album feeds you the same kinds of beats, but grungier than the last record. Yum, and Sabine Sciubba keeps bleating in ten different languages. Don’t wait till she breaks out in Bamanakan or Dutch to buy a record of theirs; the 21st century Nana Mouskouri is singing now in a venue near you.
Lyrics Born (12,110 listeners). From the Bay Area, Lyrics Born is some kind of drug for me. His Later That Day, from 2004, just changed my views on rap (not really, but it’s a nice thing to say). Big props to the nice lady at Music Emporium 286 Flatbush Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11217 718-638-0550, for turning me onto LB. The proof is in the pudding: I can’t make a mix tape sound good without having a LB jam on it.
Johnny Winter (9,710 listeners). My guitar teacher hipped me to Second Winter way back in the vinyl age; it was one of those original three-sided records. I had never heard anything as good in its vein of funked-up electric blues, and thanks to digital remastering and last.fm, you may never either.
Ben Webster (5,330 listeners). There is something so gorgeous about the way he plays tenor saxophone. I love me my Joe Lovano and David Murray, but it’s hard to beat those recorded sides with Ben Webster for sheer beauty of sound. Dive in yourself; I’m a big fan of That’s All.
King Britt (4,114 listeners). Another great reco from Music Emporium. The album Adventures in Lo-Fi is one of those amazing secret hiphop treasures; I listen to it and wonder still, how come this isn’t being blasted from the rooftops?
Susanna and the Magical Orchestra (4,010 listeners). Thank you, superhelga, for sharing the S&MO goodness with me this summer, right before the duo’s new album came out. The new record, Melody Mountain, is in the same vein as List of Lights and Buoys, maybe not as good, but it’s so worth it for the quiet, quiet cover versions that compose the entire album. "It’s A Long Way To The Top," anyone? Fellow theriolalia sufferer Cloudtrapeze and I are waiting for her to cover I Will SurviveQuoth cloudtrapeze: Slow it right down, get rid of most of the chords and change the remaining ones to minor, and there you go.
I can even hear it in my head - well, I would be able to if I wasn't blasting Cocteau Twins.
DJ Logic (2,505 listeners). This guy made a record back in 2003, The Anomaly that I picked up at J&R the other day. I had one song from it in MP3 format downloaded from some long-forgotten server, Michelle, which I liked, and when I saw the friendly orange slipcover, I decided to buy my own copy of the CD. Of course, it would turn out to be completely off the hook, a Vernon Reid collaboration, with tons of other special guests Miri Ben-Ari, anyone?, and in its own way, a completely idiosyncratic take on where hiphop is and is going. We will be listening to this record for years to come, I promise you.
Erroll Garner (2,372 listeners). One of the great jazz pianists, and the composer of “Misty,” one of the last jazz standards written. Garner sadly doesn’t get the appreciation he deserves today; as WKCR’s Phil Schaap said the other day, it’s astonishing that someone who 50 years ago was recognized as one of the leading lights of the music is today barely known. He’s streamable on last, luckily, so he makes my list and should make yours.
Konk (1,332 listeners). I will confess, this is more of that post-punk that makes my heart sing, but in this case, it’s heavily leavened with helpings of disco and funk; I would have to go back to the informative booklet that comes with the greatest-hits CD for sure, but I would have to wager that the Konk players were all in regular dance orchestras playing on disco sides or in uptown salsa orchestras as well as cranking the hell out of their amplifiers and making this beautiful, motivating record. I first heard Love Attack on WNYU’s late-night dance-music show in 1987 and went down to Vinylmania to buy my own copy on 12-inch vinyl. Imagine my delight to find the record newly remastered on CD two years ago, and try to comprehend my happiness at finding it streamable so I can recommend it to you through last.
Mala Rodríguez (793 listeners under her streamable name; a couple hundred more without the accent mark). I first heard Mala R. on the PA in the Concerto record store in Amsterdam; she was appearing in Holland a week after my departure. I liked Tengo Un Trato enough to buy it then and there. When I got back to my island chain, I found that Alevosía was available in this country. I wasn’t impressed until I heard the title cut, which could have knocked me over with a feather; lightly sung Spanish vocals, a claves rhythm, loping bass, and a windy, patient guitar solo. It was the last thing I expected on an Iberian hiphop record and has turned me (again) into a big fan of Mala.

Honorable mention:

Bush Tetras (2,551 listeners). More of that lovely, lovely post-punk sound that I so love. I bought the compilation disc a couple of weeks ago and would have ranked it on the big list above except that there’s only one streamable track available, from another compilation, the monstrously good You Can’t Be Funky.
Marlui Miranda (129 listeners). Marlui made an ambitious and beautiful record with a choir of indigenous folks from Brazil. They sing and chant and the music (it’s a mass), just gets wilder and more elaborate: it’s absolutely riveting. Look for it at your local library: for some reason, audiovisual librarians go rightfully gaga for records like this one. Is it because it’s “world music”?
Hamid Drake - Joe McPhee (16 listeners). This is one in a series of poorly labeled last.fm streamable albums. I heard a daylong interview program with Joe last Sunday on WKCR; based on that and the little I’ve heard from him I have absolutely no qualms about recommending this title to you and your friends and anyone who’s read this far already. Classic out jazz music by two masters, Hamid Drake and Joe McPhee.

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Recommendation #23 [Disco Not Disco (Post Punk, Electro & Leftfield Disco Classics)]

oct. 7 | putting my parents to bed on KVRX

Can you hear this streamable music? You may suffer from Theriolalia!