Dracula Goes Dreamy (1977)

'Cause even vampires fall in love. Only Lovers, True Blood. Thirst. Unlike those ones, Disco Dracula eventually chills out. Vampires don't just bring terror to the dance floor, they vibe out, they go home, they dream. Until the next night when the dance floor calls and they give in to their vampiric impulses all over again. Sex Me etc. We Can't Stop for those with gout and bloodshot eyes. Ouroborus will not be broken. Morning music for unemployed losers.

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#1!!! (1979)

Oddball human pop meets danceable robot groundwork. They arrive at disco and do disco well (albeit weirdly and mechanically), tag-teaming the role as thing-responsible-for-retarded-transcendence 5 times over. The most retardedly transcendent track (6) is a collaboration wherein the robots back the pop for three minutes of heavenly absurdity not transcendentally pop, not transcendentally electric, just a blissful synthesis of these playfully competing elements. A division occurs at the halfway mark- they pretend to go back to competing playfully, but the bond is still audibly/philosophically there. This is important- we can still thank Moroder but it's the Maels' positivity which distinguishes it from everything that came next (Sparks being 'literate', 'camp', 'mean', 'caustic', 'acerbic') at the same time that it paved the way for everything that came next (rockists claiming synthpop to be 'anaemic', 'soulless', 'Hiterlish').

A

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Shalamar - Friends (1982)

They just duet and tag-team AND DUET and then they duet with a ROBOT on Playing to Win and it's just CRAZY 'cause there's no like virtuoso Kashif-ish sound-bending transcendence, mainly just real positive/lively duets and that weird ass sakata rattle drum, and inevitably, because such positive energy just can't be maintained for a whole record, sappy slow ones that either enhance the lively ones 'cause contrast/dynamics, or are sort of just a bummer. The point is though, life and feeling good:

Let me make you feel good, I can make you feel good (oh so good!)!

so the robot is just wow!

B+

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Sylvia Striplin - Give Me Your Love (1981)

Sylvia's fine, she does her thing, her disco thing, like thin and somehow monotone, and it would've sounded good, or suitable at least, but here's the thing: Roy Ayers does his thing too and he does it disco-funk, thudding and twinkling in a way that's beyond Striplin's innocent disco vocals. This makes Give Me Your Love a better record than it might've been without Ayers, but the discrepancy between Striplin's and Ayers' contributions evokes a singer out of their depth, and this may lead to serious nose-scrunching in the more nasal passages of a song like Searchin', however moved the nose-scruncher might be following the double-hit of disco funk goodness that is Give Me Your Love to Will We Ever Pass This Way Again. Recommended?

B-

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African Suite - African Suite (1980)

Rhythmic/layered perfection- sexy chants over funky proto-house superficially inspired by Africa or Richie Rome's exotic/erotic vision thereof

A

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The Brothers Johnson - Light Up the Night (1980)

THAT COVER. Sets things up interestingly: I can't see The Brothers Johnson playing this, but Interstella 5555 by way of Star Wars, or just some delightful space pop funk. The Brothers Johnson's last Quincy Jones production and arguably last good album. Stomp is a funk pop classic, You Make Me Wanna Wiggle is oddball funk but still lite, and This Had to Be was co-written by MJ and has him singing backup

B


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Teddy Pendergrass - Satisfaction Guaranteed: The Very Best of Teddy Pendergrass (2004)

C'mon, I couldn't not post this after Rawse's verse

What makes a good best-of? I guess you have to like the artist and then assess whether the good tracks are covered or not. Two discs, 16 songs each, is a lot of Teddy Pendergrass and I venture to say Satisfaction Guaranteed has him covered

A

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Rick James - Street Songs (1981)

The classic one- the cover's not as mesmerizing as Bustin' Out of L Seven which recalls The Ramones' big dumb 80s period, playing Street Fighter at an arcade machine at night, Escape From New York, and The Warriors. Nor as creepy as Throwin' Down which is the end of Poltergeist II meets Mad Max by way of a creepy sexual theme park ride or laser tag. Not as confusing as Garden of Love's surreal take on reggae artwork. BUT I LOVE THOSE BOOTS. OH THE CLASSIC ONE. There's no Mary Jane or epic heartfelt Hollywood! But that doesn't matter. There's a Ghetto Life, and if that's not good enough, a Super Freak. You know what? I'd be happy with even one of them. The fact that it opens with the lesser known (actually a single, whatever) but equally strong Give It to Me Baby just makes the record all the more confident: James is gonna come back from a critical lull (Garden of Love), grabbing the listener's attention and promising he won't let go 'til his 8 tracks are over. His grip weakens (now regretting this analogy) on Mr. Policeman- not because of the message but because it's not quite as good as the ones that come before and after. The final four are solid though. The only problem might've been the seven minute Fire and Desire, but it's crazy epic and touching in its hit those high notes when you've got no more words to sing wooooooooo sugar sugar sugar-ness. His songs don't always grab me (I try to forget about his and Prince's rivalry), but there's always enough chaotic funk and sexual ridiculousness to keep me listening and saying fuck yeah I love Rick James! Street Songs! Mary Jane! Hollywood!

A

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Evelyn "Champagne" King - Get Loose (1982)

Produced by Kashif

From where I'm sitting (nowhere special!), this sounds fucking awesome. I got it real cheap too!

A

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Chic - C'est Chic (1978)

1. Chic Cheer 4:44

2. Le Freak 5:31

3. Savoir Faire 5:04

4. Happy Man 4:26

5. I Want Your Love 6:57

6. At Last I Am Free 7:11

7. Sometimes You Win 4:29

8. (Funny) Bone 3:42

Fuck all yall this is cooler than Risqué

Released in 1978, just as disco began to peak, C'est Chic and its pair of dancefloor anthems, "Le Freak" and "I Want Your Love," put Chic at the top of that dizzying peak. The right album at the right time, C'est Chic is essentially a rehash of Chic, the group's so-so self-titled debut from a year earlier. That first album also boasted a pair of floor-filling anthems, "Dance Dance Dance" and "Everybody Dance," and, like C'est Chic, it filled itself out with a mix of disco and ballads. So, essentially, C'est Chic does everything its predecessor did, except it does so masterfully: each side similarly gets its timeless floor-filler ("Le Freak," "I Want Your Love"), quiet storm come-down ("Savoir Faire," "At Last I Am Free"), feel-good album track ("Happy Man," "Sometimes You Win"), and moody album capper ("Chic Cheer," "[Funny] Bone"). Producers Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers were quite a savvy pair and knew that disco was as much a formula as anything. As evidenced here, they definitely had their fingers on the pulse of the moment, and used their perceptive touch to craft one of the few truly great disco albums. In fact, you could even argue that C'est Chic very well may be the definitive disco album. After all, countless artists scored dancefloor hits, but few could deliver an album this solid, and nearly as few could deliver one this epochal as well. C'est Chic embodies everything wonderful and excessive about disco at its pixilated peak. It's anything but subtle with its at-the-disco dancefloor mania and after-the-disco bedroom balladry, and Edwards and Rodgers are anything but whimsical with their disco-ballad-disco album sequencing and pseudo-jet-set Euro poshness. Chic would follow C'est Chic with "Good Times," the group's crowning achievement, but never again would Edwards and Rodgers assemble an album as perfectly calculated as C'est Chic.
-AMG

A

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Mary Jane Girls - Mary Jane Girls (1983)

Party Side

1. Candy Man 4:30

2. Boys 5:34

3. Prove It 4:28

4. Jealousy 3:28

Cool Out Side

5. You Are My Heaven 3:14

6. On the Inside 3:55

7. All Night Long 5:34

8. Musical Love 5:07

Brought together by Rick James, The Mary Jane Girls played fun dance pop. Their self titled album features the song All Night Long, one of the highlights from the Vice City soundtrack.

Side one is party music (as you can probably tell from the title Party Side), and side two is slow jams

B

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Meco - Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk (1977)

'Music inspired by Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk' was a huge success when the original Star Wars movies came out (disco era etc). I found the record in a small store in Wainuiomata called Wonderland Records, the place is so sick... Anyway this record has all the awesomest sounds ever from the movie including lasers, lightsaber wobs, R2-D2 beeps, the song the Cantina Band plays inside the club in tatooine, the classic scores you know and love and tonnes of cool shit. The whole record makes me wish I lived in the disco days so I could've jammed out to this in the club instead of whatever rubbish they play in them these days! I don't see any way that this could have gotten better.

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Lindstrøm - Six Cups of Rebel (2012)

1. No Release

2. De Javu

3. Magik

4. Quiet Place to Live

5. Call Me Anytime

6. Six Cups of Rebel

7. Hina

I have no idea why nobody seems to be into this. Addictive space-disco with funk, manipulated vocals, crazy synths, and crazy rhythms

I've not found many 2012 releases I'm into yet, but this one is really good

B-

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Sisters Love: Give Me Your Love (2006)

This is some pretty funky Soul. Despite forming in 1968 a lot of the music here would probably not be out of place in an 80s Detroit (that I admittedly know nothing about). I think half this band used to be in a backing band for Ray Charles. I haven't listened to Ray Charles for a year at least, so probably I should get some up.

This album is pretty great anyway. I think it is a compilation of stuff they recorded during their relatively short lifetime (1968-1973). They toured with the Jackson 5 for a bit, and recently some cuts from an unreleased LP were finally made available, but other than that I don't know too much about this group. Their most famous song is 'Are you Lonely?' but it isn't on here, and I've not come across it yet. However, 'Give Me Your Love' is definitely here, that totally sweet tack that gave was remixed by Danny Krivit and gave them a new audience of disco fans.

Note lyrics "If you can't fix it / maybe the milkman can"

Oh yeah.

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