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Disco. So heisst man seit das mitende neunzehnjahr-ehundert der tunz-tanz vier-zu-den-boden samstags pimmelparty. Was ist mit den Disco passiert? Ist es wirklich passierte oder was? Die antwort ist nicht etwas anderes: tanzst du oder sonst? Dazu - seit ihr deutsch, fremd-deutsch oder was - ihr seit be-scheid wissen. Wenn sie ein leckerer Buerger maul-taschen paeckchen kaufen wollen, lesen sie den min-destenshaltbar oder nicht? Ich mach´s nicht und es schmeckt gut normaler-weise. Keine sorgen, die maultaschen sind immer das gute von menschen. Wie-so ist Disco? Siebzigste, Achtzigste oder Neun-zigste. Das war die zeit wo maenner ohne schamroe-te tanzen koennen. Aber heute, was steht mehr? Eine uebel faelschung von was war langjaehrig? Oder sonst etwas radioaktives heiss? Ihr seid hier um das zu erfinden.
Pierlo from Romelikes Germany and of course: Disco.
DSICODsico. A freeing of eit-her body and soul. Or is it only one music? Clear and hollow like plastic bottles on the mountain trashs? No sprite, no spi-rit. Seems like everynow like it anyhow and it`s assshaking danceable for all fags or faginas. Yes, yes. I heard some people say Disco is best. But thats we talk about. Talk about a music chan-ging generations. Talk about lightfigures. We got deep in it. Really deep - just touched the real. We asked the internet and our parents. And it´s annoying but more interesting. So just get inspired of this cool (the new meaning) fanzine. You will find out why you still dance to this music and whats the scence behind great tunes. Plus some great Top 69 list to checking out for, the dsico classics. Best before baby. If you like the zine just drop me some lines.
Mito from Tokyo is a DJ.
Disco. Non e solo un coso rotondo che si butta ma anche la musichetta. E vecchia ma funziona ancora abbastanze bene, dapper-tutto era morto. E di-ventata fiume principale (mainstream), poi sembrava merda! Meglio prima vuole dire che c´era un tempo quando la musica disco era fenomenale. Ma meglio prima anche sta scrit-to normalmente sobra il latte, ma per disco non esiste la data precisa. Non si sa quando il gusto sara burro; gli anni set-tanta gia sono passati, giovanotto. Negli anni ot-tanta Italia era il posto di nascita per un tipo di disco plastico ginnastico. Oggi, che bello, madonna mia, disco piace la gente si balla uno due. Questo fumetto tifoso (fan zine) scrive la storia di sabato notte febre, di nuovo. An-che la nonna quando balla in cucina dice che siamo bravi e ci da un extra poco di carna.
Harald from Germany is a friend of Pierlo and us.
Here´s what to expect on the following pages, translated into three different languages:
Sorry Hipsters,This fanzine doesn´tcontain triangles
Disco describes a musical style which became popular in the mid 1970s. Influ-enced by Funk and Soul, Disco music also includes Latin percussion and sym-phonic elements such as strings or horns. Most significant is the steady rhythm that makes it easi-ly danceable: a ´four-to-the-floor´ beat, often with an open hi-hat on the off-beat. Thanks to catchy melodies and re-petitive vocals the sound became popular extremely fast, and by the
end of the 1970s most of the Western world was in-fected with Disco fever.The Discotheque plays a key role in the movement; it´s where the music beca-me a life-style. Every-thing revolves around DJs and club culture - doing the hustle, doing the bus stop, doing the bump. Following planned steps doesn´t appear as cool nowadays, but it set the whole world dancing, and today Disco is still the best club music. Word!
Bert knows how to Disco.
8Eighth Notes
BASSDRUM
Snare
X
X
HiHATS (closed) X
HiHATS (open) X
Claps X
The use of the synthesizer created the sensual feel that is characteristic for Disco and paved the way for Donna Summer´s land-mark hit ´I Feel Love´ in 1977.
Stereotypical Disco Beat:
Legendary Minimoog
It´s time for the next prohibition: Disco. Guitars jitter in the background instead of wailing self-confidently, masculinity is a joke. But they get all the air-time on the radio! I can´t listen to those soft synthe-feizer sounds any more! Rock is bad-ass, Disco is just bad! And look at those sell-outs: Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Queen, KISS - they all made a Disco song!
Steve at work.
7654321
XX
XXX
X X X
X
X
Hi, my name is Anita Bry-ant. I would like to tell you the truth about Dis-co: it is a complete sin to live that hedonistic ´life-style´ as many call it, and god will never forgive you for listening to that sex music! It´s wrong to think Disco is fun. And by the way, as a mother I know that homose-xuals cannot biologically reproduce children; there-fore, they must recruit our children! That´s why I say: Ban Disco! Save our children.
Disco stamp, 1999
Hedonistic life style
Excerpt from ´Discotheque Rock 72: Paaaarty!´ by Vince Aletti, Rolling Stone Mag, 13.09.1973
Anita Bryant
The massive quantities of drugs ingested in discotheques produced the next cultural phe-nomenon of the disco era: rampant promiscuity and public sex. While the dance floor was the central arena of seduction, actual sex usually took place in the nether regions of the disco: bathroom stalls, exit stairwells, and so on.
„Paar-ty! Paar-ty! [...] You hear the chant at concerts, rising like a tribal rallying cry on a shrill wave of whistles and hard-bea-ten tambourines. It‘s at once a call to get down and party, a statement that there‘s a party going on and an indication that dis-cotheques, where the chant originated, are back in force...... in the last year they‘ve returned not only as a rapidly spreading social phenomenon (via juice bars, after-hours clubs, private lofts open on weekends to members only, floating groups of party-givers who take over the ballrooms of old hotels from mid-night to dawn) but as a strong influence on the music people listen to and buy.The best discotheque DJs are underground stars, discovering previously ignored al-bums, foreign imports, album cuts and obscure singles with the power to make the crowd scream and playing them overlap-ped, non-stop so you dance until you drop.One of the most spectacular discotheque records in recent months is a perfect exa-mple of the genre: Manu Dibango‘s „Soul Makossa. [...] its hypnotic beat and mys-terious African vocals drove people crazy. (Vince Aletti)
O
What a dif-ference a gay makes.
It´s not that I wouldn´t get in or anything, I just don´t wanna go. Disco-theques are for hypocrits, all that happy fuss is so superficial. Who cares if you can´t dance or how you look, I´m leading the Space Invaders highs-core in all Ohio. I heard they´re doing drugs like all the time; I once tried Champagne on New Year´s and it was aweful. Iuhhh.
Characterized by a strong bass, a simple
melody, and tense repe-titive lyrics. “Disco“, as this music is called...is becoming increasingly popular on AM and FM
radio stations. WPIX-FM recently switched several hours of its night-ly programming over to „Disco“ and leaned Disco the rest of the day. (1975)
Bill
DJ Nicky Siano (The Gallery) &DJ Larry Levan (Paradise Garage)
In 1969, American club DJ Francis Grasso popularized beatmatching at New York´s Sanctuary nightclub. Beat-matching is the technique of creating seamless tran-sitions between records with matching tempos. This allowed people to keep dancing without a break inbetween songs.
DJ Francis Grasso(Sanctuary)
The Diskjockey
Xavier of Justice made a collage out of his 8 favorite new Dsico labels - do you know them all? (p.49)
The first NY clubs in the early 70s must have been the shit! Electryfying temples of dancemusic: The Loft, The Gallery, Para-dise Garage or Studio 78. Larry Levan is one of my favorite DJs and Remixers; just bought his ´Ladybug´ Remix on Discogs for only $210. All my friends envy me for having it! My favo-rite artists of today are LCD Soundsystem, Hercules & LA and stuff by label Gomma. Nu Disco!
9
Hey Xavier. You forgot me: Jellybean. Famous Fun-house DJ and Madonna`s first lover.
John ´Jellybean´ Benitez
„records live and die in disco-
theques, like exotic hothouse
flowers.“ Vince Aletti,1973
8
Excerpt from „The Disco Handbook / Chapter 2 - Disco Lingo“ by Bruce Pollack:
„Any new craze worth the hysteria that disco has created must have its own specialized language–a slang vocabulary known only to insiders, making them feel more in. The disco craze is no exception, coming equipped with an assortment of colorful words and expres-sions to match the colorful, high-gloss fabrics worn at the discothèque.“
KINETIC ENERGY: A substance produced by the nervous system when it interacts with the myriad effects of the disco.
MOBILE DISCO: A commercial enterprise which comes to your house, school, or neighbor-hood arena equipped with records, lights, speakers, turntables, mixers, deejay, and good vibes, to set up a one-night disco extravaganza.
NERD: 1) Anyone who wears socks with cowboys and Indians on them.2) Someone whose mother takes them to the disco and then waits outside in the car with the motor running.
THE BOX STEP: 1) An old-fashioned notion of dancing which will only get you in trouble at the disco.2) That four-cornered signal you make over your shoulder to friends, to warn them that you‘re with the kind of square who is still hopelessly in the dark ages, at least as far as dancing is concerned.
HOT: Cool
COOL: Hot
BAD: Good
A
David Mancuso (The Loft)
BROTHER: 1) A kindred spirit in the night2) Anyone who can demonstrate a handshake of more than four separate movements.
CONVERSATION: An outmoded preoccupation at the dis-co, which many lead to things like ex-changing phone numbers or agreeing to meet outside for a breath of fresh air.
DISCOTHEQUE: What the French, who invented it, call the disco. Literally, a record library.
ROLLER DISCO: Disco on roller skates.
FOX: This year‘s version of the Old Lady, who was last year‘s edition of the Chick, who replaced Bird, who is a Chick or an Old Lady in England.
TURKEY: Anyone who refers to women as Foxes, Chicks, Old Ladies, Birds, or Broads.
FUNKY: 1) The kind of rhythm and blues designed to cause one to break out in cold sweats. 2) The collected aroma of the disco - with sweat, tears, makeup, hair-spray, and perfume mingling with the moisture of bodies all gasping for breath in the darkness.
KKpres.
Narrating It
A story featuring Charles Manson, Jimmy Carter, Timothy Leary, Michael Jackson, Zsa Zsa Gabor and many more
were strongly committed to their European origin, a conservative class-consciousness, and a rat-her strict dress code. It seems that such places could not provide what a thriving un-derground scene of gays, sla-ckers, bohemians, ex-hippies, young immigrants and notori-ous partyheads was looking for - unique celebration and exces-sive dancing. Many contemporary witnesses and music journalists stress that these desires im-plied much more than just the longing for a good party, name-ly, the shared desire to escape into an egalitarian, liberated space without sexual or racial discrimination. Even though this might sound like a stereotypical phrase from the fading decade of the highly politicized 60s, the tempting promise of Disco was certainly not the liberation of the masses but the liberation of the individual, instead. When teach-ins and demonstrations did not help, one could overcome the persistent social borders at least for a single night through the universal language of dan-cing. The decisive influence of the late 60s sociopolitical climate on the emergence of Disco is a fix part of its historiogra-phy. In his book ´́ Turn The Beat Around - The Secret History of Disco´́ Peter Shapiro describes its climate as an ideology hangover that was demonstrated through simple slogans like ´́ I´m OK, You´re OK´́ and a general return to rather individual concerns. Part of that setting is that many civil rights acti-vists, especially Afro-Ameri-cans, were frustrated and dis-illusioned because the liberal establishment didn´t seem to be capable or willing to grant the hard-won concessions, while the hippies had to face the fact that drugs could expand ones mind but not society. Only the gay community was en-couraged - by the Stonewall Riots. The Stonewall Inn was a
Disco is commonly associated with two different things: the location, discotheque, and Disco music. The term discotheque is a hybrid (neologism) between disc and bibliotheque, it was coi-ned in occupied Paris during the early 1940s by the pioneering nightclub ´́ La Discotheque´́ , whereas Disco music - as we know it today - first emerged in the early 1970s.
Forced by the official ban of so-called ´́ jungle music´́ and other restrictions during the Nazi-occupation, little Jazz clubs in France would no longer dare to set up a whole live band, so they were simply pla-ying recorded music via gramo-phones, instead. However, the crucial point is not just that the band was replaced by a gra-mophone but, as music journalist Peter Shapiro argues, ´́ that a disc jockey played music of his own choosing and not necessari-ly what was in the hit parade, tailored to a specific crowd of dancers in a nondomestic set-ting´́ . The first disc-jockeys appeared in conjunction with the new mass medium radio in the early 20th century, they quickly played an important and powerful role as style-innovators and promoters. While most clubs still had live music, piano rolls, or juke-boxes where the playlists were determined by the distributors, the concept of the disc jockey transferred into the club scene-ry enabled a more distinctive sound and interactive approach (at least in theory). Despite the end of the occupation and the associated repression after 1945, the discotheques remained very popular in France. Though, the formerly shady venues became glamorous celebrity hangouts for the likes of Zsa-Zsa Gabor, Omar Sharif or Louise Malle. Due to that prehistory, most clubs in NY (and elsewhere in the United States) that labeled themselves as discothèques in the 1960s
clandestine parties around that time, they were certainly not the only ones but they gained a legendary status due to their groundbreaking style. Mancuso, born 1944, was a runaway who stranded in NY in the mid 1960s. He was engaged with all kinds of scenes; the gay-rights mo-vement, LSD fueled hippie ga-therings with Timothy Leary, or Afro-American rent parties in Harlem. Mancuso, looking like Charles Manson after a wellness trip with his big beard, scrag-gly hair and piercing eyes, is often portrayed as the icon of the real Disco culture that is opposed to the greasy Tony Ma-nero, John Travolta´s character in Saturday Night Fever. Many of Disco´s legendary DJs like Frankie Knuckles, Francis Gras-so, or Larry Levan were regular guests at The Loft and they all acknowledged the unique inti-mate atmosphere which made the parties so different from the average uptown clubnight. Mancu-so tried to create a Disco lab with perfect conditions, he was concerned about everything from excellent sound over nutritious catering to an extravagant deco-ration, but the most important thing remained the music itself. Thanks to years of experience in the scene, he knew exactly what kind of music people would dance to. Mancuso recruited a crowd that was ambitious and willing at the same time. He reminis-ces; ´́ When a plane takes off there´s a moment when the pilot decides that the speed is right, he pulls back and - boom! - you leave the ground. The party was like that. There was a point at which it just went up. It didn´t happen right away. It took time. But it happened.´́ The first Loft party, set up at Valentine´s Day 1970, was entitled ´́ Love Saves The Day´́ , a title that illus-trates Mancuso´s escapist noti-on.
In 1970 there was no such thing as ´́ Disco music´́ , neither spe-
gay bar on Christopher Street in New York that was, like many other gay venues, raided by the police frequently because sel-ling alcohol to homosexuals was supposedly prohibited. In the night of June 17th, 1969, when 8 police officers entered to stop the party, the patrons and staff decided to finally stand up against the police harass-ment, which lead to a proper streetfight or as the New York Daily Mail put it; ´́ Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad´́ . Although it hardly put an end to the police harassment, this incident is considered to be the kick-start for the gay-rights movement, it stands for New York´s status as the gay metropolis where thousands of homosexuals from the US and the rest of the world came ´́ to learn how to live openly, honestly and without shame´́ . Although the precedent remarks might suggest so, Disco was not the inevitable consequence of social determinants or even cul-tural constraint. Critics stress that despite the chronological connection the linkage between nightlife and politics is rather overrated; ´́ I really don´t think that many of the activists went to the discotheques, and I don´t think many of the people going to discotheques were into the political thing´́ says sound-en-gineer and DJ Bob Casey, while the Stonewall regular Jorge La Torre frankly admits,´́ I wasn´t politically enlightened at the time. All I was interested in was having fun, going out dan-cing, and getting high´́ . They argue that Disco is the creative work of enthusiastic individuals who shared a passion for dance music and happened to live in the same town, NYC.
David Mancuso was one of those enthusiasts. He set up a loose series of semi-private house parties, later known as ´́ The Loft´́ . Mancuso´s events were part of a whole network of
I´m just an outlaw
my name is desire.
Tasha Thomas “Shoot Me“
minutes or more´́ . What appears as a commonplace to contemporary clubgoers was quite an advan-ced skill back then. Considering the fact that the record pla-yers at that time had no pitch function and the drumbeats on the records were played live, it seems almost impossible to keep two rhythms running with the
cific files in record shops, nor radio shows. Like in the pioneer period of Hip Hop a couple of years later, DJs were looking for suitable tracks on all kinds of records. The playlists of the early 1970s DJs featured songs that would hardly appear on any Time Life Double CD anthology among Donna Summer or the Bee Gees. Mancuso, for instance, played Babe Ruth´s ´́ The Mexi-can´́ (later a B-Boy classic) followed by Manu Dibango´s dri-ving afro-beat tune ´́ Soul Makos-sa´́ and Eddie Kendricks proto-Disco track ´́ Girl You Need a Change of Mind´́ , others blended Cymande´s percussive ´́ Bra´́ into The Door´s ´́ Roadhouse Blues´́ . As long as there was a steady and dominant groove, everything could be played, it was all up to the DJ. The trailblazing innovation of that time was certainly not fin-ding single tunes with driving beats, but to mix them into one steady flow. Beatmixing! While Mancuso was first of all famous for his selection, his mixing skills were rather poor, all he did was blending during the last fading seconds of a song. As claimed by popular history, Francis Grasso was the one who really enhanced this new tech-nique. He was the resident at the Sanctuary, a former bap-tist church that turned into a gay hot spot, where the DJ was placed in the pulpit. In this sinful setting, Grasso perfor-med his pioneering beat-mixing experiments: by using his head-phones, he cued the unheard track, let it go just in the right moment and then played the two records simultaneously with the beats synchronized ´́ for two
same tempo for such a long time, whereas Grasso simply boasted: ´́ to me it was like nature.I did it like I walk my dog´́ . In-terestingly enough, his signa-ture mix was not beat-matched. He layered Chicago´s ´́ I´m A Man´́ over the vocal break of Led Zeppelin´s ´́ Whole Lotta Love´́ , because ´́ You really couldn´t dance to the Zeppelin once it went into the orgasmic tripping stuff, but if you mixed it with Chicago you could.´́ The people went nuts. Supported by strobe light, massive sound, a passio-nate crowd and of course drugs, Grasso´s DJ sets created this unique atmosphere, that club culture since then is commit-ted to; a synergetic experience of ´́ call and response´́ that could not be reproduced anywhere else. It was especially the Sanctuary´s gay audience, often fueled with poppers, that was eager to follow the DJs journey and functioned as party cata-lyst.
Besides clubs like the Sanctua-ry and semi-private parties like The Loft, there was a third sort
David Mancuso„Godfather of Disco“
„Every man wants to be a macho macho man to have the kind of body, always in demand
Jogging in the mornings, go man go works out in the health spa, muscles glow
You can best believe that, he‘s a macho man ready to get down with, anyone he can“
Village People “Macho Man“
Whereas ´́ Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose´́ by James Brown and other rough funk tunes slowly disappeared from the playlists, DJs began to increasingly spin records by The O´Jays, MFSB and The Intruders, the so-called Phillysoul from Philadelphia In-ternational Records. It was cha-racterized by its highly-orche-strated sound; sweeping strings, rich instrumental arrangements and sweet horn sets. This cor-porate sound was the congenial cooperation of the innovative production teams Gamble & Huff and McFadden & Whitehead and the label´s house band, which consisted of creative session musicians such as the vibrapho-nist Vincent Montana Jr. and the Trammps´ drummer Earl Young. Thanks to his distinctive snare pattern and hi-hat work, Young is supposed to be the inventor of the stereotypical Disco drum, exemplified in the song ´́ Disco Inferno´́ by The Trammps. Ano-ther signature tune is MFSB´s epos ´́ Love Is The Message´́ that starts like a sleazy sitcom trailer and ends with Montana´s extensive vibraphone jamming. Besides the lush production and the uptempo drumbeat, it were the powerful but universal mes-sages that made Phillysoul the most influential aesthetic of Disco´s heyday. Everybody could easily appropriate and sing along phrases like ´́ Wake Up Eve-rybody´́ by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes or ´́ Ain´t No Stoppin Us Now´́ by McFadden & Whitehead, which became a gay anthem. By the summer of 1973 hundreds of discotheques popped up in the Big Apple. There, the DJs and dancers had developed a specific taste for dance music together and as a result the tunes that were played in clubs resembled each other increasingly. Once it became a corporate sound, record labels slowly started producing Disco music. Shapiro calls it ´́ the beginning of the codifica-tion of disco as a style rather than the taste of whatever DJ
of venue that played a crucial role in the early days of Disco, the baths. Some of New York´s bathhouses were no longer only dedicated to sexual interaction, they had become pleasure domes. The Continental Baths for in-stance featured a restaurant, private apartments and a dis-co, where the guys would wear nothing but a towel around the neck. Attracted by such a greco-roman spirit and a very sophi-sticated entertainment program (performances by Bette Middler& Barry Manilow, Patti LaBelle), more and more straight people wanted to join the party. And through the support of the two DJ rookies Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan, the Continental Baths became one of the hottest nightspots. They provided the pulsating rhythm for its x-ra-ted scenery that is probably the worst nightmare of Steve Dahl or any other Disco hater. Both had a strong preference for soulful music, but while Knuckles was more into mixing, Levan, in-spired by his Loft adventures, focused on the atmosphere. In 1974 Levan, who already had a name, left the Baths to spin at a black gay club called Read Street and from then on until the closure Knuckles was the resident. The Loft, The Sanctuary and The Continental Baths were only three of dozens of venues that were involved in the emergence of Disco culture in New York during the early 1970s, but they stand in an exemplary fashion for crucial contributions; the intimate atmosphere of a private party, the DJ as powerful master opposed to the insane crowd as willing servant and the club as an orgiastic setting. Although the DJs picked sever-al obscure & novelty records in the early 1970s, the predominant style was Soul & Funk music, anyway. Artists that appeared on almost every playlist were James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Booker T. & The M.G.´s or Diana Ross.
ming a dancing-star. By comple-tely ignoring the gay subtext of Manhattan´s club culture and de-picting Disco as a modern ball-room scenery, the movie visua-lized a family-friendly notion of Disco. A year later, however, the queer face returned to the public in a silly disguise, the Village People. Now, family-dads all over the country were dan-cing polonaise accompanied by the ridiculous lyrics of ´́ Macho Man´́ . Revenge? Maybe that was the last straw that led to the backlash of Steve Dahl´s Disco Demolition Day in 1979, where thousands of drunk troglodytes expressed their concern about the threat to real Rock music, gayness and superficiality by burning Disco records in a base-
happened to be playing at that time´́ . In order to match the sound that was demanded, Salsoul Records for instance drafted al-most the complete house band of Philadelphia International. Sal-soul was actually a Salsa label, but as the money-driven owners realized the financial poten-tial of the it-sound, they were looking for renowned professi-onals like Montana and Young, who could embed their Latin-in-fluenced style in proper Disco arrangements. The New York label marked its status with the release of Dou-ble Exposure´s ´́ Ten Percent´́ , the very first 12-inch single that was commercially available. It was remixed by the Ice Palace resident DJ Walter Gibbons, who deconstructed the three minute-original and extended it into a 10-minute percussive master-piece. Through that release, the world was introduced to two innovations that are crucial elements of modern DJ culture, the remix and the 12´́ .
In 1975, Van McCoy´s #1 hit ´́ The Hustle´́ with its earworm melody, lame rhythm, and sleazy sympho-nic arrangement introduced Disco to the masses. Via radio the new sound was transmitted into the living rooms from Charlotte to Seattle, to people who would probably never do the hustle. Anyway, Disco was already more than just a subcultural phenome-non of nightlife, it had become mainstream. Due to nationwi-de popularity, the term Disco turned into a universal promo-tional affix, which was attached to almost everything; Disco-bowling, Roller Disco, Kinder Disco... Even president Jimmy Carter´s inaugural ball at the White House had a mobile-Disco featuring two dancers in pea-nut costumes. The hype reached its peak by 1977, when Saturday Night Fever delivered the urban fairy tale of Tony Manero, the Italo-stud who tries to escape his frustrating 9 to 5 by beco-
BIRTH Of THe fIRST 12IncH SIngleTom Moulton, famous for his early Disco mix-tapes at Sandpiper Bar (Long Island, NY), started making remixes for the music industry in 1974. Club culture was growing and so was the demand for longer records with breaks and builds.Some time in 1975, Moulton took a mix for Al Dowing to New York Media Sound to have it mastered onto a seven-inch metal blank - which was the standard format for singles. But they were out. The engineer José Rodriguez used a ten-inch blank, instead. In order to avoid having it look like the rest of the record was blank, they spread the grooves apart. „Oh my God! Boy, was that hot“, Moulton says, „it just made the regular forty-five sound like such shit. The levels were incredible... the dynamics, the bass...“. Tom Moulton pressed a new, bigger, 12‘‘ promo (an edit of Moment of Truth‘s „So Much For Love“ ) to give it to DJ Richie Kaczor and DJ David Rodriguez. It was the very first 12inch single. Some months later in 1976, Walter Gibbon‘s remake for Double Exposure‘s „Ten Percent“ was the first commercially available twelve-inch single on Salsoul Records. „The Super Sound Single“ became a term in in-dustry/advertising. However, isn‘t it strange that they „invented“ it late in the 70s? Shouldn‘t the physical rules of „more space, more data/ran-ge“ be obvious to every soundengineer?!?
public intention. ´́ It was time to polish the fittings so the socie-ty folk felt comfortable jumping aboard´́ , and the club that paved the way for this new commitment was ´́ Le Jardin´́ . When Diana Ross´ appearance at the opening caused an enormous promotio-nal stir through the press, many clubowners tried to follow that simple but effective principle. Certainly, chatty socializing has always been a part of clubbing, but it now seemed that everything was about ´́ look who´s here´́ , big limousines, the guest list - and less the music. Welcome to the Studio54!
In contrast, a club that had nothing to do with celebrities riding on horses on the dance-floor was the ´́ Paradise Gara-ge´́ , home of DJ Larry Levan. It was dedicated to the underground spirit of The Loft, where the young Larry had been fascina-ted by Mancuso´s gift to create that certain intimacy. Neverthe-less, the former parking garage was ten times The Loft, it had a huge dancefloor and supposedly the best p.a. in town. The whole straightforward setting was fee-ding only one purpose - dancing. Levan was not very good at mi-xing, but he had an obsession to control all of his clubbers´ sen-ses. Therefore he personally took care of every medium in the Gara-ge; he screened movies (´́ Altered States´́ , ´́ The Wizard of OZ´́ ), he leveled the soundsystem during the day, he had his own control set for the light and eventually he played wonderful dance mu-sic. Like in the early days of Disco, the selection was very eclectic and featured all kinds of records; Grandmaster Flash, MFSB or the Talking Heads. Mel Cheren, the co-owner of the Gara-ge, remembers that once ´́ he had the whole club dancing to nothing more than a few keyboard doodles, unaware that the record he was accompanying had finished mi-nutes ago´́ . What gave Levan such an outstanding position apart
ball stadium. (More about Disco Demolition Day in the follow-ing article ´́ The Art of Disco-Bashing´́ )
With the mass-popularity of Disco since the mid 1970s, New York´s club culture changed and headed in two different direc-tions. While a lot of under-ground gay venues and shady clubs just continued business without being bothered by any celebrities or straight subur-bians, a few other places beca-me the glossy temples of eli-tism, which attracted all the
Welcome To The Studio54!Grace Jones arriving naked so many times it became tiresome; Margaret Trudeau, wife of the Canadian Prime Minister, caught on camera with her muff getting some air; a famous fashion designer buying sex from a busboy; Bianca Jagger riding in on a white stallion lead by a man wearing nothing more than a coat of paint; Liz Taylor photographed having something placed on her tongue; Liza Minelli chewing the fat (and her inner cheeks) on a banquette. Someone dying in an air vent trying to get inside; Sly Stallone ordering at the bar next to John Travolta while a child-like Michael Jackson sits on a sofa in between Woody Allen and Truman Capote, with Andy Warhol over to the side, Jerry Hall next to him deep-throating a bottle of Moet & Chandon...
The Clash showed Punks how to dance and Madonna made it Pop. While these derivates only refe-rred to the aesthetics of sound and ignored the indispensable setting of the nightclub, House music emerged from the same sy-nergetic energy of dance music and the dancefloor. So it´s no coincidence that the new sound was named after the club where it had been distilled ´́ the Ware-house´́ in Chicago (residency of Frankie Knuckles). Here, Frankie Knuckles and his audience redu-ced Disco to the max.
After the masses had already turned their back on Disco in 1979, the final death notice was announced when the HI vi-rus appeared on the set in 1981. Initially nicknamed the ´́ Saint´s Disease´́ - referring to a gay club that popularized the vo-cal-dominated subgenre Hi-NRG and whose members were about the first to die - the virus took the life of thousands of dance maniacs and many pioneers like Patrick Cowley (see our ´́ Dis-co Heaven´́ ). The impact on the clubscene was dramatic. In those days Disco might have lost its carelessness, but opposed to a popular narrative it didn´t die. It grew up!
from his atmospheric DJ skills, was the sort of cross-marketing process that was going on bet-ween him both as a DJ and remi-xer on one and the record labels on the other side. Thanks to the thousands of people (and espe-cially other DJs) dancing every weekend in the Paradise Garage, the ´́ Larry Levan Dance Mix´́ button on a sleeve could give a Disco record the final boost. Think of Gwen Guthries ´́ Ain´t Nothing Goin On But The Rent´́ or Tanaa Gardner´s ´́ Heartbeat´́ , both Garage classics. Since 1992 when Larry Levan died at the age of only 38, he was turned into a mythical figure of pop-history as a godlike DJ. Whether he was really that genius or he sim-ply ´́ had an attitude´́ is irre-levant. Fact is that Levan and the Paradise Garage, where he performed from 1977 until its closure in 1987, stand for the continuum of Disco.
The 1970s had already known subgenres of Disco, but the new decade marked a sweeping frag-mentation that brought out a vast variety of styles and even-tually fully emancipated descen-dants. The Sugarhill Gang rapped over the sample of Chic´s ´́ Good Times´́ and introduced Hip Hop,
Sesame Disco!The 70s kids‘ shows Sesame Street and The Muppet Show by Jim Henson had many sket-ches about Disco, a fact that perfectly reflects how omnipresent mainstream Disco was. Plus, the songs were easy to remember! Disco as a genre wasn‘t culturally challenging at all, and with its world of bizzare celebrity characters and comical glamor it seemed a suitable sub-ject for kids. Today, many new Disco musicians who probably watched the shows as kids are still inspired by the Muppet style. Andy of Hercules & Love Affair says he loves the Muppets, and that their song „True False / Fake Real“ is highly inspired by them. The Puppetmastaz are to HipHop what the Muppets were to Disco. When Gonzales raps he sounds like Mr. Snuf-fleupagus, and Escort just had a YouTube hit with their muppet Disco video „All Through The Night“.Check dsico-fanzine.com for some videos...
Bibliography:
- Brewster, Bill and Frank Broughton. ´´Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey´´. London: Headline, 1999.- Lawrence, Tim. ´´Love Saves The Day: A History of American Dance Music, 1970-1979´´. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2003.- Shapiro, Peter. ´´Turn the Beat Around: A Secret History of Disco´´. NY: Faber and Faber, 2005.
Gwen Guthrie
USA
Success in Million Dollars
Cup Size
Lovers
Gay-Diva Factor
Dance Moves
Lyrics
6C12
34%11
7/10
No romance without finance. (Ain‘t nothin‘ goin‘ on
but the rent)
1b
Grace Jones
USA
Success in Million Dollars
Cup Size
Lovers
Gay-Diva Factor
Dance Moves
Lyrics
41
<A51
93%
175
7/10
Pull up, to it, don‘t drive, through it. Back it, up
twice, now that, fit‘s nice. (Pull up to the bumper)
1a
MadonnaUSA
Success in Million DollarsCup SizeLoversGay-Diva FactorDance Moves
Lyrics
100000000C
243192%193
3/10Holiday, Celebrate, Holiday Celebrate! Holiday, Cele-
bration, Come together in every nation. (Holiday)
2a
Kathy SledgeUSA
Success in Million DollarsCup SizeLoversGay-Diva FactorDance MovesLyrics
29B
1439%
388/10Responsability to me is a tragedy, I‘ll get a job some
other time. (Lost in Music)
5a
Tina WeymouthUSA
Success in Million DollarsCup SizeLoversCutie FactorDance MovesLyrics
14B4
99%2
6/10We broke the rules but we won the game, Nothing to lose, everything to gain. (Pleasure of Love)
5c
Gloria Gaynor
USA
Success in Million Dollars
Cup Size
Lovers
Gay-Diva Factor
Dancing Moves
Lyrics
27C9
81%4
4/10
I don’t want pity, I bang my own drum, Some think
it’s noise I think it’s pretty. (I am what I am)
3a
Donna SummerUSA/Germany
Success in Million DollarsCup SizeLoversGay-Diva FactorDance MovesLyrics
28B5
66%28
6/10Do it to me again and again, You put me in such an awful spin. (Love to love you baby)
4c
Agnetha FältskogSweden
Success in Million Dollars
Cup SizeLoversGay-Diva Factor
Dance Moves
Lyrics
859B4
39%15
10/10
Friday night and the lights are low, Looking out for
the place to go. (Dancing Queen)
4b
Sabrina SalernoItaly
Success in Million Dollars
Cup SizeLoversGay-Diva FactorDance MovesLyrics
+-0D
7259%
12/10
Take a chance, With love romance, Have some fun
tonight. (Boys Boys Boys)
3b
WE WILL SURVIVE
DISCO DIVAS
Playing Cards
NEW!
Tina WeymouthUSA
14B4
99%2
6/10We broke the rules but we won the game, Nothing to lose, everything to gain. (Pleasure of Love)
Tina WeymouthUSA
14B4
99%2
6/10We broke the rules but we won the game, Nothing to lose, everything to gain. (Pleasure of Love)
We scrolled the the discography (productions, remixes, appearances) of super famous Disco producers on www.discogs.com and counted the time from top to button of each list (one scroll / second / Mac WheelMouse). See for example: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Giorgio+Moroder
1.PA
Patrick Adams produced:Musique ´Keep On Jumping´ or Bumblebee Unlimited ´Lady Bug´
Quincey Jones:Michael Jackson ´Thriller´ or Brothers Johnson ´Stomp´ Plus: ´We Are The World´
Ian Levine:Miquel Brown ´So Many Men So Little Time´ or Evelyn Thomas ´High Energy´.
Giorgio Moroder:Donna Summer ´Love To Love You Baby´ or filmmusic for Midnight Express ´Chase´ Plus: a lot of Italo Queens.
Nile Rogers (Chic):Sister Sledge ´We are family´ or David Bowie ´Let`s Dance´. Plus: Madonna ´Like A Virgin´
Dieter Bohlen:CC Catch ´I Can Loose My Heart Tonight´ or Modern Talking ´Cherie Lady´.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
6.DB
2.QJ
3.IL
4.GM
5.NR
14236 54 25 61 34 Scrolling Seconds
By the way: Dr. Dre is scrol-lable in 89 seconds. Just to inform the Hip Hoppers.
Research I: The Disco Producer
More cool words: Superman, Superstar, Heartbreaker, Skydiver, Drum-mer, Friday, Saturday, Disco Circus, Discolypso, Dynamite, Stimu-lation, Sensation, Space, Boogie, Baby, Fun, Magic, Ooh, Burning, Kiss, Touch, Moonlight, Moonboots, Fire, Flight, Bass, Busstop, Hustle, Nasty, Mad, Roller Skating, Waterbed, Lipstick, Celebrate
218
210
134
110
78
72
64
44
43
35
31
26
22
19
19
19
17
16
16
6
You
Love
I
Me
My
Dance
Your
Can
Is
Night
Up
Man
Keep
Body
Feel
Hot
Come
Down
Party
Together
We counted the most used words in song titles from 1127 Disco re-leases on Atlantic (346), Casablanca (135), Prelude (200), Salsoul (237) and T.K. Records (209). Range of release dates: 1974-1986
Uses of ´Up´ or ´Down´ in Song Titles
Up31
Down16
Uses of ´God´ or ´Devil´ in Song Titles
God3
Devil6
TOP NOUN:Love -> 210 Matches
TOP VERB:to can -> 44 Matches
Research II: Typical Disco Song Title
We counted the Disco releases of each year between 1974-1986. Based on 1127 Disco records (same as on the left side...)
1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986
2
18
48
129
173
116121
117
73
31
12
3
284
Examples from 1979: Kiss ´I Was Made For Lovin` You´, Lipps Inc. ´Funkytown´, Michael Jackson ´Don´t Stop ´Til You Get Enough´, Dan Hartman ´Relight My Fire´, Chicago ´Street Player´, Anita Ward ´Ring My Bell´. Danceclassics: Martin Circus ´Disco Circus´, Bumblebee Unlimited ´Lady Bug´, Inner Life ´I`m caught up´. Leftfielded: Telex ´Moskow Diskow´, James White & The Blacks ´Con-tort Yourself´, Dinosaur ´Kiss me again´, PIL ´Death Disco´
Research III: The Disco explosion
1
2
3
4
5
6
8
9
10
11
12
14
13
15
16
17
18
1920
7
1. Paradise Garage, Club by Michael Brody and Mel Cheren; 84 King St. 2. When hearing Barry White‘s „Love Theme“ at an exclusive party on a boat Aaron Spelling got the idea for the famous TV series „Love Boat“; West Pier 3. Neil Bogart of Casablanca Records met Paul Stanley and then signed KISS whose most succesful hit would later be the Disco song „I Was Made For Loving You Baby“; 5 Hudson St. 4. The Loft, Club by David Mancuso (first location); 147 Mercer St. 5. Greenwich Village, or just „The Village“ - gay quar-ter that gave the „Village People“ their name. 6. The Gallery, Club by Nicky Siano (second location);172 Mercer St 7. „Lombardi‘s“: John Travolta‘s favorite Pizza place. 32 Spring St. 8. In 1979 Harry „KC“ Way-ne Casey of KC & The Sunshine Band was beaten up by some anti-Disco kids in front of Katz Deli; 205 East
Houston St. 9. The Saint, Legendary Gay-Club; 2nd Ave & 6th St. 10. Besides Cheesburgers „Big-Q“ also sold Quaaludes Burgers; 52 East 10th St. 11. Dancete-ria, Club of Disco Punk; 30 East 30th St. (third location) 12. Office of Sal Soul Records; 240 Madison Avenue 13. Grace Jones walked down 5th Avenue complete-ly naked in 1983 14. Office of Prelude Records; 200 West 57 St. 15. Studio 54, Club by Steven Rubell & Ian Schrager; 254 West 54th St. 16. The Sanctuary, Club with Dj Francis Grasso; 407 West 43th St. 17. Funhouse, Club by Joe Monk; 526 West 26th St. 18. Roxy, originally Roller Disco; 515 West 18th St. 19. Village People‘s Victor Willis (the police officer) was found passed out in a monkey cage; NY Central Park Zoo 20. Legendary roof top pool party by „The Discog-hosts“; 702 Park Avenue
NEw YOrK CITY
90-minute-riot. Is it pure coincidence that disco was slaughtered in a baseball stadium, the traditional Ame-rican playground for proving one´s masculinity? Pro-bably not.This riot, though unintended, somehow resembled the fascist book burnings and marked the most violent expression of a widely spread antipathy towards dis-co-culture. In 1979 disco had turned into a four-bil-lion-dollar-industry and had dominated the mainstream culture. There were 20,000 discos all over the country and the commercial potential of disco was heavily ex-ploited. It was no surprise that Dahl didn´t remain the only persecutor of ´́wimpy´́ disco-culture: there were others like D.R.E.A.D. (Detroit Rockers Engaged in the Abolition of Disco), KGON-DJ Bob Anchetta, who sawed up stacks of disco records with a chainsaw, KROQ-DJ ´́In-sane´́ Darrell Wayne, who organized a disco funeral at Ventura Beach or Dennis Erectus, who destroyed disco records in his radio show ´́Erectus wrecks a record´́.According to Dahl´s imagery, disco did not just lose the battle, but the whole war. Disco was turned into dance-music and descended into oblivion. In the end, western masculinity had prevailed, thanks to Steve.
White three-piece-suits never seemed to fit Steve Dahl, a slightly overweight 24-year-old Radio-DJ from Chica-go. He also didn´t´t like pina coladas because he was allergic to coconut and, to top it all off, he couldn´t dance. This justification for his anti-disco-crusade, explained on the Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder in 1979, was actually more reasonable and less sarcastic than one might think in the first place. It actually sho-wed why the average white American guy seemed to pre-fer Kiss to Chic, because something deep inside of him couldn´t deal with this sexually explicit, too glamo-rous, too gay and maybe too black sort of subculture. Compared with Rock, disco simply didn´t have any balls!Dahl´s crusade, fueled by his offbeat and white trash sense of humor, resulted in the so-called Disco Demo-lition Night which took place on the 12th of July in 1979 and is usually referred to as ´́the day that disco died´́.After Dahl got sacked from his job at WDAI earlier in´79, because the radio station had switched it´s pro-gram from rock to disco, Dahl, now with WLUP, dedicated himself to wiping out disco. He founded his own army, the Insane Coho Lips (coho salmon had been released into the great lakes to kill the lamprey eel, a para-site), took over disco-clubs and produced the anti-disco-hymn ´́Do you think I´m disco?´́. And what was originally intended as promotion for a baseball match between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers at Chicago´s Comiskey Park, turned into a riot and a bea-con for the downfall of disco.The Disco Demolition Derby was a twi-night doublehea-der: two matches were set up on one evening. Since the White Sox had played a rather poor season, the idea was to let everybody in for only 98 cents, who showed up with a disco record to demolish. As a result the stadium was full packed with 50,000 fans and another 15,000 waiting outside. The atmosphere was heated up due to the aggressive promotion and people were chan-ting ´́disco sucks´́, starting fireworks and throwing their records like frisbees on the playing field. Beer consumption was three times higher than usual and when Dahl finally showed up in between the matches, fully
equipped with army outfit, army jeep and some blonde bombshells, the audi-ence was waiting for some blood to be spilled. After Dahl blew up a big box with 10,000 disco re-cords, hundreds of people star-
ted to make a run on the field and devastate the playing field, stea-
ling the bases and setting parts of the lawn on fire. Only massive police force ended the
DIS
CO
VS
RO
CK
Together they rocked every discothèque while Hihat just stood there in awe, with her mouth open...
Bass and snare used To Be BesT friends.
until, one day Bass would only hang out in the ViP area...
Bum Tsss Chack Tsss
...and Snare didn‘t seem to fit in any more.
she got very sad because nobody seemed to want her anymore (there`s no snare drum in most of Techno and House).
That‘s when she started taking drugs and got into Jungle, drum ‚n‘ Bass und ragga..
dumdumchack diggidiggibumchack! (Pitched up breakbeats)
...while Bass was sniffing snow at exclusive glam parties.
You‘re right! We invented the BPM! The beat is only com-plete with both of us! disco-jogging only works with Bum and Chack!
one day, snare had a vision:
By that time, Bass had also realized they can‘t live without each other...
...and so they got back to working the discothèques - together!
„snare, i am your great grandfather! stop embarassing yourself, where‘s your pride? When i was your age i was leading marches; the straight rythm was my idea! You gotta pull yourselves together, guys!“
Will Smith is performing ´And The Beat Goes On´
by The Whispers
Will Smith is performing´Forget Me Nots´ by Patrice Rushen
Will Smith is performing ´Greatest Dancer´ by Sister Sledge
Will Smith is performing ´Rock The Casbah´ by The Clash
[10:55] W1LLSM1TH: yo
[10:57] jamiroquai72: anybody in here?
[10:57] dftpunk: bonsoir
[10:57] †justice†: sup guise
[10:57] jamiroquai72: bonsoir!
[10:58] W1LLSM1TH: wheres kylie?
[10:58] †justice†: woah daft punk you are the greatest!
[10:58] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: i‘m here will
[10:58] dftpunk: merci
and we love justice too
[10:58] W1LLSM1TH: how ru kylie? say hi to olivier
[10:59] jamiroquai72: hate to say it mates, but all daft punk does is sample disco tracks
[10:59] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: olivier says hi big willie
[10:59] †justice†: jamiroquai is gealous theyre successful and hes not
[10:59] jamiroquai72: “he“ certainly neednt to be jealous....
[10:59] dftpunk: we also like jamiroquai ;)
[10:59] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: i thought jamiroquai is a band
[10:59] jamiroquai72: WE ARE A BAND!
[10:59] W1LLSM1TH: no beef in here lol
[10:59] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: yeah i know its like bon jovi is a band too.. but no need to yell at me
[10:59] jamiroquai72: all i said is that daft punk just take samples from old disco classics and
make millions... not very “creative“
[11:00] Madonna™: hey
[11:00] W1LLSM1TH: i didnt know dft punk was sampling i thought its all theirs
[11:00] †justice†: even if they do, its not like theyre the only ones sampling disco RIGHT
WILL!?!
[11:00] jamiroquai72: harder better faster stronger see: http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=sklZ-f6Wstw
[11:00] dftpunk: hi Madonna™! how r u
[11:00] W1LLSM1TH: its the sound i grew up with thats why i like sampling it... what, you dont
like disco j?
[11:00] Madonna™: omg jamiroquai yur so hot#
[11:00] jamiroquai72: of course we like disco
[11:00] †justice†: duh will :D btw Madonna™ jamiroqueer is a band
[11:00] jamiroquai72: cheers Madonna™! btw we‘re a band...
[11:01] Madonna™: really? are the other members as cute as him?
[11:01] W1LLSM1TH: whats yer point jam? btw Madonna™ youre a milf
[11:01] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: LOL is there a disco song you havent sampled yet will
[11:01] jamiroquai72: we prefer to write our own songs instead of using other artists‘ music,
thats my point
[11:01] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: whats a milf?
[11:01] W1LLSM1TH: i love combining the old with the new, i think its artistic
[11:01] †justice†: jamiroguy we also write new disco songs so what
[11:01] jamiroquai72: ok lets see... those were will‘s hits:
“Summertime“ <– Kool & The Gang‘s “Summer Madness“
“Gettin‘ Jiggy Wit‘ It“ <– “Greatest Dancer“ by Sister Sledge
“Miami“ <– “And The Beat Goes On“ by The Whispers
“Men In Black“ <– Patrice Rushen‘s “Forget Me Nots“
“Will 2K“ <– “Rock The Casbah“ by The Clash
[11:02] dftpunk: jamiroquai doesnt use samples, but theyre sampling a certain style. we are
quoting great musique (no secret), they are pretending to invent an own style, but its just as
retro... which is worse, quoting or immitating?
[11:03] W1LLSM1TH: omg my willenium song is sampling the clash??? didnt even know... k-
ci hooked me up with that one
[11:03] Madonna™: i used to be a disco queen myself in the 80s... but i also remixed ABBA
[11:03] †justice†: thats not a remix thats sampling
[11:03] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: i just googled “milf“
[11:03] W1LLSM1TH: rofl
[11:03] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: hey where‘s that tracky guy? werent we all supposed to meet here and talk
to him
[11:04] jamiroquai72: so dftpunk does that mean anybody playing a bass is immitating?
who is tracky
[11:04] W1LLSM1TH: jamiro you consider kool & the gangs summer madness DISCO? btw
we won a grammy with dat one! at least all my songs are better than that staying alive cover
by the fugees
[11:04] Madonna™: sampling, immitating - whatevs, i think disco remains a popular genre
because it‘s danceable. it‘s accesible to anyone, it doesnt exclude anybody culturally. its the
perfect mainstream
[11:05] †justice†: i like wyclefs version of staying alive! we play it all the time... hey why is it ok
to you to sample, but not to pirate music Madonna™?
[11:05] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: tracky, the upitup guy who told us to come here at 11
[11:05] dftpunk: Madonna™, i partly agree with you; disco is raw material from a cultural point
of view, its not “owned“ by anyone like techno or hiphop
[11:05] Madonna™: †justice†: because i pay for the samples i use
[11:05] TheDiscoghosts: EEÖÖÖÖÖÖÖHH!!!
[11:05] dftpunk: hi discoghosts! we love you
[11:06] TheDiscoghosts: sorry daftpunkers but we love ladies only, no dudes!
[11:06] dftpunk: for your info: disco was made by mostly gay people
[11:06] W1LLSM1TH: what?!?
[11:06] TheDiscoghosts: but disco is dead and so are all the gay producers (aids). its very
heterosexual nowadays
[11:06] jamiroquai72: i cant believe im even reading this chat. you guys are all
unfuckingbelievable, sorry but im outta here
[11:06] W1LLSM1TH: does this make any of MY SONGS GAY THEN?!?!?
[11:06] †justice†: isnt tracky one of TheDiscoghosts?
[11:06] Madonna™: relax will youre still very masculine
[11:06] TheDiscoghosts: whats a tracky?
madonna youre also very masculine
[11:06] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: LOL
[11:07] W1LLSM1TH: yo, honey i shrunk the kids is on tv, just started!
<you have been disconnected from the internet>
hey guys sorry i‘m late but i ha |
Now put small drops of glue on the backside of each mirror piece. Care-ful, it´s hot!
Planning a private party? It´s so easy making your own mirror ball, just follow these steps...
Cut little squared pieces out of some old CDs. Hardrock or Metal CDs re-flect the best.
Good work. Now start your hot-glue pi-stol. Smells yummie doesn´t it?
1 2
4
Arrange the pieces in rows around the styrofoam ball. Almost ready...
5
3
Deluxe Party Ball- styrofoam Ball- Crappy Cds- Hot-glue
- scissors
Wow!
Night Fever´́ ; at first Grover is dan-cing like Tony Manero (John Travolta) but soon gets out of breath while everybody keeps yelling at him ´́ dance!´́ . He keeps dancing until he finally faints. The BBC actually reports in an article titled ´́ Dancing Death´́ about an epidemic that broke out in mid-July 1518 in Strasbourg, France, where a woman stepped into the street and started to dance. ´́ She was still dancing several days later. Within a week about 100 people had been consumed by the same irresisti-ble urge to dance. The autho-rities were convinced that the afflicted would only recover if they danced day and night. So guildhalls were set aside for them to dance in, musicians were hired to play pipes and drums to keep them moving, and pro-fessional dancers were paid to keep them on their feet. Within days those with weak hearts started to die. By the end of August 1518 about 400 people had experienced the madness.´́ It´s still not clear today what made the patients dance day and night; some think they had ingested argot, a psychotro-pic mould that grows on stalks of rye, others say they were obsessed by a demon. According to the BBC article the dancers might have had entered a tran-ce state due to ´́ extreme psy-chological distress´́ caused by their poor living conditions.
Let‘s see if “Hasi Interna-tional“ is Disco infected?
An analogy which often appeared in mainstream Disco culture and its conquest was the Dis-co fever. The rapid success of the genre seemed like an epide-mic; Bruce Pollack wrote in ´́The Disco Handbook´́ from 1979: ´́By now you´ve heard the word and felt the fever. In newspapers and magazines, on radio and TV, in movies and advertisements, on city buses and airplanes buzzing the beach, the word is always the same - disco - and the fever is spreading.´́The 1977 movie ´́Saturday Night Fever´́ by Robert Stigwood and John Badham had ultimately popu-larized the music and its corre-sponding club scene all over the world. In the movie, the fever had an additional meaning: the urge to get out of every day life and become king at the local disco-theque on the weekends. The urge eventually became an addiction until one´s life completely re-volved around the weekly ritual of going out to dance. The Bee Gee´s ´́ Night Fever´́ from the movie soundtrack also describes the fever as the excitement for nightlife.
As a mass phenomenon mainstream Disco also exerted a certain peer pressure; having to know the right lingo, wear a fancy outfit, know the latest dance moves. The 1970s kids TV show ´́ Sesame Street´́ made fun of this fact in several sketches (you can watch them on www.dsi-co-fanzine.com). One sketch is spoofing a scene from ´́ Saturday
Fever
Dance Disease
Typical Earworm. Often transmitsDSI-79 virus
?
?
It‘S A peSt!
This throws another light on the story line of ´́ Saturday Night Fever´́ and the motifs of Tony Manero´s unhappy life (dead-end job, unsupportive parents, tensions in the local community, wrong friends) as the medical explaination for his dancing.
Germans have a special term for catchy tunes that get stuck in your head: earworms (Ohrwürmer). Once entered, the earworm re-peats the main melody of a song within your mind, over and over again. Disco songs often have such catchy melodies, that´s probably also a reason why they became popular so quickly. Who hasn´t found themselves sing-ing ´́ these sounds fall into my maiaiaind´́ or ´́ vamos a la playa oh ohohoh oh´́ all day? The big-gest producers of earworms were -without any doubt - ABBA. The Swedish group had one hit after another thanks to the signature harmony singing of female lead singers Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Faeltskog. This style of creating neat harmonics with two voices already helped The Bea-tles implant earworms with their music. And once it´s stuck in people´s heads it´s a guaranteed chart hit. Sometimes an Ohrwurm can be killed by listening to or singing another song, so the worm gets irritated and mixed up; during the Disco era, howe-ver, every other song was just another earworm...
More and more people (especial-ly Rock fans) got tired of the omnipresent Disco hype during the late
Ear Worm
Gay Cancer
Addiction
42
4140
3938
watch the music video to “Boys“ by Sabrina Salerno
watch the film “Maestro“ by Josell Ramos.
visit www.ebonycuts.com
watch the film “Paris Is Burning“ by Jennie Living-ston.
read the book “Turn The Beat Around“ by Peter Shapiro
watch Tracky‘s YouTube playlist “Sesame Disco“
The DSI-79 virus:Widespread, contagious virus in the western hemisphere. Transfused by air -> music. Causes several diseases - in some cases fatal!
70s/early 80s with its obtrusi-ve earworms. Hate arose agains annoying melodies and lowbrow lyrics, and the ´́ Disco Sucks´́ movement was started (as de-scribed earlier in this issue). Steve Dahl´s Disco Demolition Night, where thousands of Disco records were burned, is consi-dered ´́ the day Disco died´́ . But since it´s all about ´́ Staying Alive´́ , Disco coudn´t be killed. So god created a disease that killed a lot of Disco producers and DJs (many of them homosexu-al). At first the disease was called gay cancer until it later became known as AIDS...
And because of all of those sym-toms people needed good medici-ne. Some used methaqualone, a muscle relaxant also known as Quaaludes, others inhaled Pop-pers (amyl nitrite) to enhance sexual pleasure. The most po-pular medicine was cocaine, a stimulant of the central nervous system. However, most of the medicine used is addictive - a fact that caused more symtons to appear due to their regular use.
CONCLUSION: As a conclusion I can say Disco is a highly conta-gious, addictive, and deadly di-sease. In order not to catch any of the above symptoms make sure you NEVER:
listen to the song “Lady Bug“ by Bumblebee Unlimited, especially not the Larry Levan edit
Dr.DRE
During our research we´ve come across some great tunes, and we´ve decided to compile a list for you featuring our 69 favorite Disco tracks +1 bonustrack; the list also con-tains important milesto-nes of music history. We sorted them chronological-ly, determined their most significant elements, ana-lized their tempo (BPM), and guessed the tonal key - all to find musical si-milarities / differences.
It´s interesting how the list shows in what ways the genre developed. It also questions the musi-
cal cliches Disco is noted for, while drawing connec-tions to today´s dance mu-sic. Some sounds are still up to date while others seem antiquated... As a conclusion, we made a track with all the average values of the below songs (bpm, key, elements etc.) to create the ultimate Uberdisco track! Mwahaha!
Some musical elements are typical for Disco, be sure to know these: electric (often slap) bassline that alternates / slides between two octaves, funky guitar playing syncopa-ted chords (often with
the wah-wah effect), open hihat between bass and snare drum, latin per-cussion enhancing the rhythm, claps, cowbells, tom toms, and other rhyth-mical gadgets, a steady ´four-to-the-floor´ (FTTF) 4/4 bassdrum, uplifting strings creating a lush atmosphere, repetitive vocals and raps, falsetto (head voice) choir, qua-cky snythesizer basslines and melodies, and much more (vocoders, synthetic drums)...
You can listen to all songs (incl. Uberdisco) at www.dsico-fanzine.com
TOP 69
Signage of our TOP 69
$TubeTip
D
Favorite Disco Song of Daniel, M-Boy, Konrad, Roglok and Tracky
You Tube Hit / Flop
Hipsters, watch out!
€
Worst lyrics
MB
Romantic /can opener
D DJs favorite
Chart-breaker
LandmarkSong
/ Champagnetested.
z Catchy tune!
Duuuhh
Outta space' Rock?
No meaning
Average BPM: 116,64
Analysis of our TOP 69
Average Year of Release: 1984
Top Disco Nations:51% USA (35 songs of 69)13% UK 9% Italy 5% Germany 5% France17% Others
Top featured elements:59% Synthesizer40% Claps40% Funky guitar31% Strings 21% Choir21% Trumpet/sax/hornsection 19% Bass with octave shifts 19% Latin percussion
New York
Average Key: 16% C minor10% E minor 9% C#minor 9% D minor56% Others
Lead Vocal:53% Male45% Female 2% Chipmunk
The Disco City
27% New York10% London 9% Los Angeles 6% Philly 4% Paris 3% Frisco41% Others
London
Los AngelesPhilly
ParisFrisco
TOP 69T
itle
Art
ist
Lab
elYe
arLo
ca.
Gen
reD
escr
ipti
on
Lyri
csS
igni
fica
nt E
lem
ents
BP
MK
EY
V
Them
e Fr
om
Sha
ftIs
aac
Hay
esS
tax
1971
US
AM
EM
The
me
Dis
coFu
nky
them
e so
ul w
ith a
vera
ge D
isco
tem
po
and
a
slee
zy b
laxp
loita
tion
por
n at
mos
phe
re. H
ayes
‘ sou
nd
was
too
sof
t fo
r th
e 60
s, h
is s
ucce
ss c
ame
in t
he 7
0s.
“Who
‘s t
he b
lack
priv
ate
dic
k th
at‘s
a s
ex m
achi
ne t
o al
l the
chi
cks?
“
Wah
wah
-gui
tar,
fals
etto
cho
ir,
Love
Boa
t st
rings
, tam
bou
rine
117
Gm
M
Sou
l Mak
ossa
Man
u D
iban
go
Atla
ntic
1972
Fra.
Par
isA
fro
D
isco
Man
y co
nsid
er it
the
firs
t D
isco
son
g. D
eep
mal
e ra
p
voic
e an
d d
rivin
g A
fro-
Funk
hor
ns &
bre
aks.
The
com
ple
x rh
ythm
req
uire
s ex
celle
nt d
anci
ng s
kills
.
“Mam
ma-
So-
Mam
ma-
Sa-
Mam
ma-
Mak
ko-S
a“S
ax/h
orn
sect
ion,
funk
y gu
itar,
1/16
hih
at, c
owb
ell
117
Gm
M
Pep
per
Box
The
Pep
per
sS
par
k19
73U
KS
hag
ga-
del
icA
gre
at b
it of
Moo
g-y
mad
ness
! Ini
tially
a ji
ngle
for
TV,
“Pep
per
Box
“ in
spire
d m
any
Dis
co m
usic
ians
...“B
a-b
a-b
adap
Ba-
ba
bad
da-
dah
“S
ynth
, bg
choi
r, cl
avic
hord
, cla
ps
105
F#
-
Love
Is T
he
Mes
sage
MFS
BP
hila
-d
elp
hi19
73U
SA
NY
Dis
co-
Ste
pO
ne o
f the
ear
ly “
Clu
b“-
hits
. Thi
s si
mp
le g
roov
e m
akes
yo
u w
anna
dan
ce. N
ice
one.
(Tom
Mou
lton
Mix
)-
Sax
, org
an, s
ome
strin
gs,
groo
vey
dru
ms
115
Cm
-
Love
, Let
Lov
e A
nd B
e Lo
ved
!To
ny F
ox
Bla
ster
1974
Bac
k-se
atD
isco
-S
oul
Pas
sion
ate
love
lyric
s su
pp
orte
d b
y or
ches
tral
set
up
, ki
tsch
y so
und
. Id
eal f
or a
rol
ler
skat
e p
olon
aise
at
Sou
l Tr
ain!
“In
the
bac
ksea
t of
my
car“
Bas
s w
/ oc
tave
shi
fts,
hor
n se
ctio
n, c
lean
gui
tar,
shak
er,
pia
no, s
ynth
org
an, m
ale
voca
ls,
fem
ale
choi
r
116
D/
Em
M
Aut
obah
nK
raft
wer
kP
hilip
s19
74G
er.
DÜ
SK
raft
- w
erk
Imp
orta
nt b
ecau
se it
mar
ks t
he b
egin
ning
of s
ynth
esiz
er
mus
ic w
hich
str
ongl
y in
fluen
ced
Dis
co. A
rtifi
cial
but
w
arm
sou
nd, m
etro
nom
ic t
emp
o, r
epet
itive
lyric
s..
“Die
Fah
rbah
n is
t ei
n gr
aues
B
and
, wei
sse
Str
eife
n,
grue
ner
Ran
d“
Sp
heric
al la
yers
of a
nalo
g sy
nth,
m
onot
onic
mal
e vo
cals
, voc
oder
, sn
are
& h
ihat
<-
whi
te n
oise
85F
M
Let
The
Dru
ms
Sp
eak
Fatb
ack
Ban
dP
olyd
or19
75U
SA
NY
Ho
rny
Hym
nH
orns
pla
y a
catc
hy t
une;
str
uctu
re r
athe
r m
inim
al
- ap
pea
rs q
uite
con
tem
por
ary.
“Let
the
dru
ms
spea
k“H
orn
lead
, fat
shu
ffle
dru
ms
with
p
artly
op
en h
ihat
s, c
onga
s, r
aps
107
GM
I Wou
ldn´
t C
hang
e A
Thi
ngC
oke
E
sco
ved
oM
ercu
ry19
76U
SA
SF
B B
oy
Dis
coH
edon
istic
“Je
Ne
Reg
rett
e R
ien“
lyric
s th
at e
ncou
rage
th
e p
eop
le t
o w
aste
the
ir tim
e on
the
dan
ceflo
or, w
arm
at
mos
phe
re.
“I w
ould
n´t
chan
ge a
thi
ng, I
f I h
ad t
o liv
e m
y lif
e al
l ove
r“C
risp
y b
reak
bea
t d
rum
s, c
lean
gu
itar,
saxo
pho
ne, c
hoir
117
G#m
M
Paz
uzu
(The
O
rigin
al fr
om
1976
)
Tony
S
ylve
ster
Sky
lax
2007
1976
US
AN
YE
xplic
it
Dis
coU
hhh
Ahh
h. T
his
drip
py
und
ergr
ound
Dis
co t
une
was
p
rob
ably
use
d in
ton
s of
por
ns. G
allo
pin
g b
eat
- vu
lcan
o st
yle.
Har
ry fu
cks
Sal
ly...
“Uhh
hhhh
h ah
hhhh
h ya
“1/
16 h
ihat
s, 4
TTF
bas
sdru
m,
per
cuss
ion
gallo
p, s
trin
gs, f
emal
e m
oani
ng
113
Cm
F
I Was
Bor
n Th
is
Way
Car
l Bea
nM
otow
n19
77U
SA
LAG
ay
Dis
coH
ighl
y or
ches
trat
ed P
hilly
soul
sou
nd w
ith g
ayp
ride
lyric
s. D
isco
as
a cu
ltura
l lib
erat
ion!
I‘m
OK
, you
‘re
OK
...“I
‘m w
alki
ng t
hrou
gh li
fe
in n
atur
e‘s
dis
guis
e“ -
“I´m
ha
pp
y, I´
m c
aref
ree
and
I´m
ga
y“
Gal
lop
ing
hiha
t, b
ass
w/
octa
ve
shift
s, h
arp
, pia
no, s
trin
gs, s
ome
wah
-gui
tar,
mal
e vo
cals
, fem
ale
bac
kup
118
C/
G#
M
Yes
Sir,
I C
an
Boo
gie
Bac
cara
RC
A19
77S
pai
nH
ous
e-w
ife D
.Th
is s
ong
is t
he p
erfe
ct e
xam
pe
for
all H
ouse
wife
Dis
co
song
s in
the
70s
. Fla
t iro
n sy
tle. T
hink
of A
BB
A,..
.“I
‘m a
sen
satio
n yo
u tr
y m
e on
ce y
ou‘ll
beg
for
mor
e“C
hees
y st
rings
, cla
vich
ord
, xy
lop
hone
hig
hlig
hts,
op
en h
ihat
121
DF
I Fee
l Lov
eD
onn
a S
umm
erC
asa-
bla
nca
1977
Ger
.M
UE
lect
ron
Dis
coIn
trod
ucin
g Q
uaal
udes
, the
dis
co d
rug:
futu
ristic
, ec
stas
tic, g
lam
orou
s, e
lect
roni
c D
isco
... A
mile
ston
e b
y sy
nth-
pio
neer
Gio
rgio
Mor
oder
.
“Ooh
I fe
el lo
ve, I
feel
love
“A
rpeg
gio
synt
h, d
rum
mac
hine
, lo
ng d
raw
n-ou
t fe
mal
e vo
cals
130
C/m
F
It‘s
Goo
d
For
The
Sou
l (W
.Gib
bon
s M
ix)
Sal
soul
O
rche
stra
Sal
soul
1978
US
AN
YTr
ibal
D
isco
Sou
nds
like
the
craz
y rit
ual o
f som
e ab
orig
inal
Dis
co
trib
e. T
he fl
utes
cou
ld b
e th
e he
rold
of f
renz
y. T
hey
coul
d
also
be
bal
sam
- fo
r yo
ur s
oul.
“It‘
s -
good
- fo
r -
the
- so
ul
-- I
- lo
ve -
you
!“La
tin p
ercu
ssio
n, g
allo
pin
g hi
hats
, flut
es, c
hant
ing,
cla
ps
124
Dm
F
Tube Tip
$
-
D
z M
Tit
leA
rtis
tLa
bel
Year
Loca
.G
enre
Des
crip
tio
nLy
rics
Sig
nifi
cant
Ele
men
tsB
PM
KE
YV
Gam
eR
ick
Van
der
Li
nden
Sp
iege
l-ei
1978
Net
h.H
AR
Eur
oS
ynth
Nov
elty
slo
w E
uro
Dis
co! I
ncre
dib
ly fu
nky
and
vis
iona
ry.
Pro
duc
ed s
olel
y on
a Y
amah
a G
X-1
syn
thes
izer
.-
Syn
th o
nly:
bas
slin
e w
/ oc
tave
sh
ifts,
syn
cop
ated
mel
odie
s10
4?
-
Mis
s Yo
uR
olli
ng
Sto
nes
EM
I19
78U
KLO
Dis
co-
Ro
ckN
ice
exam
ple
how
Dis
co in
fluen
ced
Roc
k, e
ven
thou
gh
the
two
genr
es w
ere
alw
ays
confl
ictiv
e. In
itial
ly t
his
song
was
fast
er, b
ut t
hen
reco
rded
with
slo
wer
tem
po
(pro
bab
ly in
ord
er n
ot t
o so
und
too
Dis
co..)
“I‘v
e b
een
hold
ing
out
so
long
, I‘v
e b
een
slee
pin
g al
l al
one,
Lor
d I
mis
s yo
u“
Str
aigh
t d
rum
s, p
artly
op
en
hiha
t, D
isco
bas
s w
/ oc
tave
sh
ifts,
con
tain
ed g
uita
r, or
gan,
ha
rmon
ica,
cat
chy
chor
us
110
Am
/D
mM
Rin
g M
y B
ell
Ani
ta W
ard
T.K
. D
isco
1979
US
AM
ED
isco
-S
oul
Cat
chy
sing
-alo
ng h
ook
that
mak
es t
his
song
an
all-
time
Rob
inso
n C
lub
ant
hem
. Tur
n on
the
ligh
ting
cons
ole!
“...l
ay b
ack
and
rel
ax w
hile
I p
ut a
way
the
dis
hes.
The
n yo
u an
d m
e ca
n ro
ck a
bel
l“
Str
aigh
t d
rum
s, in
fam
ous
Dis
co
Tom
s, c
lap
s, s
lap
bas
s w
ith
octa
ve s
hift
s, fu
nky
guita
r, ch
oir
126
Cm
F
Lad
y B
ugB
umb
leb
ee
Unl
imit
edR
CA
1979
US
AN
YC
hip
-m
unk
Dis
co
Cut
e ch
ipm
unk
voic
es o
ver
a fu
nky
groo
ve, a
Lar
ry
Leva
n C
lass
ic w
ith g
reat
pia
no c
hord
s. N
ovel
pro
duc
tion
aest
hetic
s; s
ober
and
tig
htly
arr
ange
d.
“Lov
e yo
u an
d k
iss
you
and
ki
ss y
ou a
nd h
ug y
ou“
Str
aigh
t b
eat,
latin
per
cuss
ion,
p
iano
, fun
ky b
ass
with
oct
ave
shift
s, p
itche
d-u
p s
ound
119
Bb
mC
Goo
d T
imes
Chi
cA
tlant
ic19
79U
SA
NY
Dis
co
Dis
coP
rob
ably
the
mos
t fa
mou
s b
assl
ine
ever
; Sug
arhi
ll G
ang
just
ap
pro
pria
ted
the
inst
rum
enta
l - “
Goo
d T
imes
“ he
lped
to
boo
t up
Hip
Hop
.
“Mus
t p
ut a
n en
d t
o th
is
stre
ss a
nd s
trife
, I t
hink
I w
ant
to li
ve t
he s
por
ting
life“
Funk
y b
ass,
ep
ic D
isco
-gui
tar,
pia
no, s
trin
gs, s
tacc
ato
choi
r11
3E
m/
AF
Ain
´t N
o S
top
pin
U
s N
owR
isco
C
onn
ecti
on
Bla
ck
Ros
e M
usic
1979
US
A,
NY
Aft
er
Ho
ur
Dis
co
This
Lof
t cl
assi
c is
a g
reat
aft
er-h
our
tune
due
to
its
Reg
gae/
Dub
ele
men
ts. T
he o
rigin
al b
y M
cFad
den
&
Whi
tehe
ad is
sup
pos
ed t
o b
e a
gay
prid
e an
them
.
“Don
‘t y
ou le
t no
thin
g,
noth
ing.
Not
hing
sta
nd in
yo
ur w
ay“
Reg
gae
dru
ms
(rim
shot
-sna
re),
filte
red
syn
th p
ads,
war
m
bas
slin
e, w
ah-g
uita
r w
/ re
verb
113
G#m
M
Gre
ates
t D
ance
rS
iste
r S
led
ge
Atla
ntic
1979
US
AN
YD
-I-
S-
C-O
Mai
nstr
eam
hit
with
gla
mou
rus
“Kin
g of
the
D
isco
thèq
ue“
as m
otif.
Sim
ilar
feel
ing
as S
atur
day
Nig
ht
Feve
r so
ngs
bec
ause
it g
lorifi
es D
isco
sta
rdom
.
“The
cha
mp
ion
of d
ance
hi
s m
oves
will
put
you
in a
tr
ance
“
Funk
y gu
itar,
1/16
hih
at, d
etun
ed
orga
n, s
trin
gs w
/ vi
bra
to11
6C
mF
NO
G.D
.M.
Gin
a X
EM
I19
79G
er.
CO
LD
isco
-W
ave
Slo
w D
isco
gro
ove,
als
o co
nsid
ered
gay
ant
hem
. Fu
turis
tic s
ynth
sou
nd m
akes
it “
wav
y“.
“Tha
t‘s
life
- on
e d
ive.
“S
ynth
bas
s, F
X &
pad
s, v
ocod
er,
non-
mel
odic
al “
Wav
e“ s
tyle
si
ngin
g, c
owb
ell
110
Cm
F
Don
‘t S
top
‚Til
You
Get
Eno
ugh
Mic
hael
Ja
ckso
nE
pic
1979
US
ALA
Glit
ter
Dis
coG
litte
r &
gla
mou
r fe
elin
g! M
icha
el J
acks
on a
pp
ears
m
ultip
lied
in b
oth
mus
ic v
ideo
and
son
g (m
ain
and
bg
voca
ls).
“Jus
t lo
ve m
e ‚t
il yo
u d
on‘t
kn
ow h
ow -
ooh
“E
xotic
per
cuss
ion,
cla
ps,
sha
ker,
glam
ouru
s st
rings
, fal
sett
o d
oub
l-ed
, hor
ns, o
rgan
, cle
an g
uita
r
119
Am
/B
mM
Dan
cer
Gin
o S
occ
ioW
EA
1979
Can
.M
ON
Eur
o-i
sh
Dis
coTh
is r
epet
itive
gro
ove
bui
lds
up t
ranc
e, o
ut o
f sp
ace
feel
ing
than
ks t
o d
elay
effe
cts.
Ver
y ca
tchy
ind
eed
.“D
ance
r D
ance
r D
ance
r
- go
t to
tak
e it
high
er.“
Syn
th &
sla
p b
ass
w/
octa
ve
shift
s, fu
nk g
uita
r, p
iano
, Wav
y ch
oir,
clap
s
122
Em
F
Giv
e M
e Yo
ur
Love
Syl
via
Str
iplin
Uno
M
elod
ic19
80U
saN
YR
olle
r D
isco
Typ
ical
han
d-i
n-ha
nd R
olle
r D
isco
gro
ove;
del
iver
s a
war
m a
nd s
oulfu
l atm
osp
here
(sof
t vo
ice)
.“D
o yo
u w
ant
me?
“Fu
nky
dru
m a
ccen
ts, c
lap
s, w
arm
b
ass
w/
octa
ve s
hift
s, c
lavi
chor
d,
fem
ale
voca
ls &
cho
ir
110
G#m
F
Bos
tich
Yello
Do
It R
ecor
ds
1980
Sw
itzD
ark
Dis
coC
lass
ic D
isco
ele
men
ts t
rans
late
d in
to t
he a
rtifi
cial
ae
sthe
tics
of s
ynth
and
dru
m m
achi
ne m
usic
(Ele
ctro
).“S
tand
ing
at t
he m
achi
ne
ever
y d
ay fo
r al
l my
life“
Rea
l dru
ms
/ p
ercu
ssio
n,
min
imal
syn
th b
ass
& s
trin
gs,
mon
oton
ous
rap
121
Dm
M
Is It
All
Ove
r M
y Fa
ceLo
ose
Jo
ints
Wes
t E
nd19
80U
SA
NY
Wes
t E
nd
Dis
coR
educ
e to
the
max
! Leg
end
ary
“lai
d b
ack
but
ultr
a d
ance
able
“ D
isco
cla
ssic
with
nic
e or
gan
and
cat
chy
bas
slin
e.
“I‘m
in lo
ve -
dan
cing
!“B
right
org
an, b
ass
w/
octa
ve
shift
s, c
lean
gui
tar,
catc
hy fe
mal
e vo
cals
, con
gas
121
Bm
M F
Tube Tip
$
R ' z
/
D
Fant
astic
Voy
age
Lake
sid
eR
CA
1980
US
ALA
Dis
co-
Funk
Pro
to P
-Fun
k w
ith c
rank
y b
assl
ine
and
Dis
co-r
aps.
Ve
nice
Bea
ch h
it! C
atch
y ho
ok a
nd c
hees
y 80
s R
&B
b
ackg
roun
d v
ocal
s. C
oolio
mad
e a
cove
r ve
rsio
n.
“Hur
ry u
p p
ack
your
bag
s an
d ja
m y
‘all,
com
e on
and
rid
e on
the
funk
now
“
Syn
th &
sla
p b
ass,
Dis
co g
uita
r, cl
aps,
lead
voc
als
& fa
lset
to m
ale
choi
r
116
Em
M
Mar
gher
itaM
arg
ueri
tas
BM
G19
80Ita
lyM
aria
chi
Dis
coS
imp
le ‘A
zzur
ro’ m
eld
oy a
nd fu
ll p
ump
ing
bea
ts.
War
ning
: ver
y ca
tchy
! San
gria
sty
le.
-S
ynth
bas
s &
lead
, Mex
ican
sty
le
trum
pet
s, a
rtifi
cial
cla
ps
116
Gm
-
Ma
Qua
le
Idea
Pin
o
D‘A
ngio
Bel
la-
pho
ne19
80Ita
lyM
acho
D
isco
Italia
n m
ains
trea
m D
isco
, a b
eaut
iful c
liché
. Pin
o D
‘Ang
io
used
to
per
form
it w
ith a
lit
ciga
rett
e in
his
han
d.
“Bal
la!“
Dis
co g
uita
r, fu
nky
bas
s, p
iano
, cl
aps,
Dis
co t
om, r
aps
& fa
lset
to
mai
l cho
ir
115
G#m
M
Sha
ck U
pA
Cer
tain
R
atio
Fact
ory
1981
UK
MA
No
Wav
eD
isco
from
Man
ches
ter.
“Sha
ck U
p“
man
ages
to
be
one
of P
unk‘
s fu
nkie
st e
ver
dan
ceflo
or m
ater
ial.
“Sha
ck U
p!“
Dis
co g
uita
r, fu
nky
bas
slin
e,
Wav
ey v
ocal
s, t
rum
pet
s12
3E
mM
She
Can
‘t L
ove
You
Che
mis
eE
mer
g-en
cy19
81U
SA
LAC
utie
D
isco
One
of t
he s
wee
test
ad
vent
ures
of D
isco
mus
ic. P
last
ic
80s
soun
d -
yet
war
m. L
ight
and
ste
rile
- le
ss o
rgan
ic.
“She
can
‘t lo
ve y
ou li
ke I
coul
d“
Syn
th b
ass,
op
en h
ihat
, syn
th
vib
es &
piz
zica
to s
trin
gs11
4B
mF
Get
A L
ittle
Pat
rick
C
ow
ley
Uni
dis
c19
81U
SA
SF
Hi-
NR
GA
n un
der
grou
nd F
risco
Dis
co t
rack
, alm
ost
Hi-
NR
G, w
ith
over
ridin
g fe
mal
e le
ad v
ocal
- o
nly
for
club
use
.“I
wan
na s
how
you
wha
t I
got
for
you!
“D
isco
bea
t, s
ynth
bas
s w
/ oc
tave
sh
ifts,
fem
ale
choi
r, co
wb
ell,
shak
er
120
Em
F
Gen
ius
Of L
ove
Tom
To
m
Clu
bIs
land
R
ecor
ds
1981
Car
-ib
be-
an
Isla
nd
Dis
coN
aive
sum
mer
sou
nd, r
emin
ds
you
of t
hat
girl
you
had
ic
ecre
am w
ith in
5th
gra
de.
“Wha
tcha
gon
na d
o w
hen
you
get
outt
a ja
il? I‘
m g
onna
ha
ve s
ome
fun.
“
Slo
w b
eat,
Dis
co g
uita
r, si
gnat
ure
synt
h le
ad, D
ub e
ffect
s, c
hild
ish
fem
ale
rap
s &
sin
ging
103
GF
Firs
t Tr
ue L
ove
Affa
irJi
mm
y R
oss
BC
M
Rec
ord
s19
81U
SA
,N
YP
eakt
ime
Dis
coD
ance
floor
pul
ler:
Thi
s on
e is
str
ictly
for
the
lad
ys -
ro
man
tic ly
rics,
sin
g-a-
long
hoo
k. 2
yea
rs t
oo la
te?
“I n
ever
let
you
go!“
Syn
th /
rea
l bas
s, c
lap
s, fu
nky
guita
r, m
ale
choi
r, le
ad s
ynth
118
F/ Am
M
I.O.U
Free
ezS
tree
t-w
ise
1982
UK
/ U
SA
BM
X
Dis
coP
rese
t-P
arty
! Mus
ic fo
r B
MX
kid
s. O
ne o
f the
gre
ates
t hi
ts a
t Fu
nhou
se (N
Y).
“Tha
t‘s
how
I fe
el, I
wan
t it
to b
e re
al“
Syn
th b
ass,
dru
m m
achi
ne &
cl
aps,
fem
ale
voca
ls, b
ells
119
Dm
M
Hea
vy V
ibes
Mo
ntan
a S
exte
ttU
nid
isc
1982
US
AP
HD
isco
Fo
xTh
e w
arm
gro
ove
& ja
zzy
inst
rum
ents
mak
e th
is o
ne a
n ex
celle
nt h
ome-
liste
ning
Dis
co t
rack
. Cat
chy
vib
rap
hone
re
pla
ces
lead
voc
als.
-La
tin p
ercu
ssio
n, c
lap
s, s
imp
le
bas
s, w
arm
org
an, v
ibes
114
Cm
/G
#-
Unl
imite
d
Cap
acity
For
Lo
ve
Gra
ce J
one
sU
MG
1982
US
A,
NY
Ref
rig
e-ra
tor
War
mne
ss m
eets
coo
lnes
s -
an o
ut o
f sp
ace
exp
erie
nce.
In
dus
tria
l & W
ave
asso
siat
ion
“Thi
s co
uld
tur
n ou
t an
othe
r un
win
ning
war
“S
ynth
(arp
eggi
o /
strin
gs),
fem
ale
voic
e, c
horu
s gu
itar,
synt
h so
lo11
5A
mF
Forg
et M
e N
ots
Pat
rice
R
ushe
nE
lekt
ra19
82U
SA
,LA
Will
S
mis
co70
s m
eet
80s!
Dis
co o
ut o
f the
con
stru
ctio
n ki
t. G
reat
sa
xop
hone
pea
k...
“Was
it t
he s
imp
le t
hing
s th
at m
ade
me
so c
razy
ab
out
you?
“
Sla
p b
ass,
brig
ht s
trin
gs, d
oub
le-
clap
s, s
ax, e
-pia
no, f
emal
e ch
oir
115
F#m
F
Roc
k th
e C
asb
ahT
he C
lash
Ep
ic19
82U
KLO
Left
fiel
d
Dis
coD
id P
unk
only
sur
vive
by
Dis
co?
To il
lust
rate
thi
s as
sum
ptio
n th
is t
rack
is ju
st p
erfe
ct.
“By
ord
er o
f the
pro
phe
t -
we
ban
tha
t b
oogi
e so
und
.“
Hon
keyt
onk
pia
no, d
isto
rted
gu
itar,
bon
gos,
dou
ble
-cla
ps,
ro
ck v
oice
128
Dm
M
A D
ebris
of a
M
urd
erT
hro
bb
ing
G
rist
leP
ower
Fo
cus
1982
UK
LOD
arkr
oom
Dub
Slo
w, d
rugg
ed a
nd d
ubb
ed o
ut m
inim
alis
tic D
isco
with
ta
lkin
g an
d e
choe
d v
oice
s.-
Syn
th b
ass
& c
hord
s, o
pen
hih
at,
bon
gos,
Dis
co t
om, t
alki
ng10
2?
M
The
Dar
k S
ide
Of
The
Sp
oon
Ale
xand
er
Ro
bo
tnic
kC
rèm
e O
rg.
1982
Itlay
Pro
toty
pe
Ho
use
Ultr
a d
eep
& s
ynth
etic
Dis
co H
ouse
- w
ay a
head
of i
t‘s
time.
..-
Syn
th o
nly,
dou
ble
-cla
ps,
ar-
peg
giat
or, s
ound
laye
rs, 4
TTF
bd
128
C#m
-
€
T M
$
Tube
Flop
$
z
B
M D
z '
Tit
leA
rtis
tLa
bel
Year
Loca
.G
enre
Des
crip
tio
nLy
rics
Sig
nifi
cant
Ele
men
tsB
PM
KE
YV
Mon
eys
Too
Tigh
t To
Men
tion
Vale
ntin
e B
roth
ers
Brid
ge
Rec
ord
s19
82U
SA
,LA
E-D
isco
-S
oul
Slo
w m
oder
n E
lect
ro-S
oul t
rack
, goo
d fo
r ü3
0 P
artie
s.
Voca
ls r
emin
d o
f Bob
by
Wom
ack.
“My
rent
is d
ue, m
y ki
ds
all
need
bra
nd n
ew s
hoes
...“
Che
esy
synt
h b
assl
ine,
sax
, p
iano
, dou
ble
-cla
ps,
mal
e vo
cals
109
Bm
M
Voic
e O
f Q“Q
“P
hilly
W
orld
1982
US
A,
PH
Co
ld W
ar
Dis
coW
ho is
Q?
A c
rook
ed c
omp
uter
ora
cle?
Thi
s is
not
ha
pp
y no
r m
elan
chol
ic, a
sta
te o
f iso
latio
n an
d w
rong
id
eas
of h
uman
/mac
hine
inte
ract
ion.
“Fee
l the
gra
vity
- m
ove
to
anot
her
real
ity“
Sla
p b
ass,
dou
ble
-cla
p, s
poo
ky
pad
s, s
ynth
-flut
e, v
ocod
er v
oice
116
Cm
/G
#M
Bur
ning
Up
(12‘
‘ Ve
rsio
n)M
ado
nna
Sire
1983
US
AN
YS
tero
id
Dis
coTu
rbof
ast
wor
kout
pop
to
flex
a m
uscl
e! W
ithou
t a
dou
bt
Mad
onna
‘s b
est
Dis
co t
rack
...“Y
ou‘r
e al
way
s cl
osin
g yo
ur
doo
r, w
ell,
that
onl
y m
akes
m
e w
ant
you
mor
e.“
Dou
ble
-cla
ps,
syn
th b
ass,
dru
m
mac
hine
, e-g
uita
r rif
fs, f
emal
e vo
cals
139
Bb
mF
Sav
e O
ur L
ove
(inst
r.)E
scap
e Fr
om
New
Yo
rk
Pro
file
1983
US
A,
NY
Vern
is-
sag
e D
isco
Imag
ine
a hi
gh s
ocie
ty p
arty
in t
he 8
0s w
ith s
par
klin
g su
rrou
ndin
gs...
-S
low
sim
ple
dru
ms,
funk
y b
assl
ine,
syn
th p
ads
& la
yers
, cl
aps,
ech
o FX
106
Fm-
Ano
ther
Man
Bar
bar
a M
aso
nW
est
End
1983
US
AP
HS
low
D
isco
Slo
w P
arad
ise
Gar
age
hit
with
lam
ent
rap
ab
out
mis
beh
avin
g m
en. P
erfe
ct fo
r yo
ur c
ar r
adio
.“A
noth
er m
an is
bea
ting
my
time“
Syn
th la
yers
& b
ass,
1/1
6 hi
hat,
ar
tifici
al c
owb
ell,
fem
ale
talk
ing
113
Em
F
Chi
cago
Ro
y A
yers
Uno
M
elod
ic
1983
US
AN
YD
eep
D
isco
Ron
Aye
rs‘s
“C
hica
go“
is a
min
imal
, dee
p J
azzf
unk
groo
ve w
ith s
imp
le &
rep
ititio
us ly
rics.
Ear
ly D
eep
H
ouse
?!
“Chi
cago
Chi
cago
- U
uh“
Sla
p b
ass,
ste
ady
strin
gs, b
right
or
gan,
funk
gui
tar,
dou
ble
-cla
ps,
si
ngin
g/ta
lkin
g
115
Fm/
Em
M
Luck
yE
llie
Ho
pe
RFC
1983
UK
,LO
Sec
reta
ry
Dis
coS
ecre
tarie
s lis
ten
to t
his
whi
le g
ettin
g d
ress
ed in
the
m
orni
ngs.
Sty
le: N
o ca
lorie
s. C
ola
Ligh
t (D
iet
Cok
e)“L
. U. C
. K. Y
. - le
t m
e te
ll yo
u w
hy“
Sim
ple
bea
t, c
owb
ell,
light
syn
th
pad
s &
mel
odie
s, fe
mal
e vo
ice
116
Bb
mF
Pla
stic
Dol
lD
harm
aZ
YX
1983
Italy
Ital
o
Dis
co I
Is it
rea
lly a
dol
l? S
eem
s lik
e it.
Wor
st v
ocal
s ev
er -
Ital
o D
isco
at
it‘s
bes
t. T
he “
rem
ixed
inst
rum
enta
l“ v
ersi
on
mig
ht p
leas
e yo
u b
ette
r.
“Am
I cr
azy
or ju
st la
zy.
Wha
t is
for
me
true
rea
lity?
“O
pen
hih
ats,
fem
ale
voca
ls,
clap
s, s
ynth
bas
slin
e &
mel
odie
s12
0B
mF
Let
No
Man
Put
A
sund
erFi
rst
Cho
ice
Sal
soul
1983
US
A,
PH
Voca
l H
ous
eTh
is o
ne b
ecam
e a
pro
toty
pe
Voca
l Hou
se t
rack
with
fe
mal
e vo
cals
and
sto
mp
ing
bea
ts.
“It’s
not
ove
r d
on’t
wan
t to
b
e fr
ee“
Fem
ale
voca
ls /
cho
ir, s
trin
gs,
cong
as &
bon
gos,
cla
ps
& s
nap
s11
9C
#mF
Woo
dp
ecke
rs
From
Sp
ace
Vid
eo K
ids
Pol
ydor
1984
Net
h.W
oo
d-
pec
ker
Dis
co
Woo
dy
visi
ted
the
ear
thlin
gs a
nd b
roug
ht h
is
Cas
io k
eyb
oard
. Che
esy
& c
harm
ing.
“Lis
ten
ever
ybod
y to
the
w
ood
pec
ker
Boo
gie
- co
me
on le
t‘s
have
som
e fu
n.“
Syn
th b
ass
& le
ad, s
amp
le
trig
gerin
g, m
ale
voic
e /
fem
ale
choi
r
113
Am
M
I Wan
t To
Tha
nk
You
Alic
ia M
yers
MC
A19
84U
SA
DE
Rel
igio
us
/ O
ther
A m
oder
n S
oul t
rack
in D
isco
dis
guis
e w
ith G
osp
el
lyric
s.“I
wan
na t
hank
you
hea
venl
y fa
ther
“P
iano
, 4TT
F b
assd
rum
, fem
ale
voca
ls, w
arm
bas
s10
7A
mF
Prim
aver
a -
Sto
p
Baj
onTu
llio
de
Pis
cop
oZ
YX
1984
Italy
NA
Bal
eari
cTh
is d
ude
rap
s Ita
lian
dia
lect
ove
r an
org
anic
Jaz
zfun
k gr
oove
. Ita
lian
but
not
Ital
o. B
aler
aric
sty
le.
“Prim
aver
a!“
Org
an, r
ap, m
inim
al b
ass,
tr
ump
et, v
ibes
, dis
tort
ed g
uita
r10
8B
bm
M
Land
Of
Hun
ger
The
Ear
ons
Isla
nd
Rec
ord
s 19
84“E
ar-
on”
Dub
by
Dub
D
isco
Wor
ld-w
earin
ess
tran
slat
ed in
to D
isco
. Str
ange
mix
of
Wav
e an
d D
ub e
lem
ents
. Lea
d v
ocal
s so
und
like
Stin
g.“.
..the
land
of p
lent
y...“
E
cho
clap
s, d
rum
mac
hine
, mal
e vo
cals
& c
hoir,
cow
bel
l gal
lop
111
C#m
M
Sta
rsM
r. Fi
nger
sG
herk
in19
87U
SA
CH
Dis
co
Ho
use
Dre
amy
Dis
co H
ouse
by
vete
ran
Larr
y H
eard
, infl
uenc
ed
by
Chi
cago
Hou
se.
-A
rpeg
giat
or, d
rum
mac
hine
, lea
d
synt
h, b
ass
w/
octa
ve s
hift
s11
8C
#m-
Boy
s (S
umm
ertim
e Lo
ve)
Sab
rina
S
aler
noTe
ldec
1987
Italy
Ital
o
Dis
co II
1987
‘s c
heap
o su
mm
er h
it. C
rap
py
lyric
s, 8
0s E
uro
Pop
so
und
. To
be
hone
st w
e ju
st s
elec
ted
thi
s so
ng b
ecau
se
of it
s m
usic
vid
eo...
“Tak
e a
chan
ce w
ith lo
ve
rom
ance
hav
e so
me
fun
toni
ght!“
Syn
ths:
bas
s, fa
nfar
e, g
uita
r;
fem
ale
voca
ls, m
ale
voic
e (tr
igge
rs)
119
FmF
Tube Tip
K
$
Tube Tip
$
D
/
B B
z
M
NY
C S
mile
On
Me
Aq
ua R
egia
Irdia
l19
89U
K,
LOA
cid
D
isco
Min
imal
isiti
c ec
stat
ic A
cid
Dis
co w
ith v
ibes
, str
ings
and
m
oani
ng...
-80
8, s
trin
gs, v
ibes
, 303
, moa
ning
130
D
-
Thes
e S
ound
s Fa
ll In
to M
y M
ind
Buc
ket-
head
sU
MM
1995
US
AN
YH
ous
eK
enny
“D
ope“
Gon
zale
z sa
mp
led
Chi
cago
‘s
“Str
eetp
laye
r“ t
o m
ake
one
of t
he b
igge
st 9
0s-H
ouse
hi
ts.
“The
se S
ound
s fa
ll in
to m
y m
aiai
aind
“Fu
nky
bas
s, la
tin p
ercu
ssio
n,
4TTF
bas
s d
rum
, tru
mp
ets,
d
oub
le-c
lap
s, m
ale
voca
ls
125
Dm
M
Str
eet
Boy
sD
MX
Kre
wR
ephl
ex19
99U
KLO
Eur
oW
ave
Free
styl
e
A D
isco
pea
rl w
ith s
tron
g B
ritis
h in
fluen
ce (W
ave)
. Dow
n d
own
Und
ergr
ound
...“S
tree
t B
oys,
got
to
stru
ggle
so
har
d.“
Dru
m m
achi
ne, o
pen
hih
at,
chee
sy v
ocal
s, a
rpeg
gio
bas
s,
voco
der
128
C#m
M
From
Dis
co T
o D
isco
Les
Ryt
hmes
D
igit
ales
Wal
l Of
Sou
nd19
99Fr
a.PA
Dig
ital
D
isco
The
bet
ter
“Fro
m D
isco
to
Dis
co“!
? Ve
ry d
igita
l and
fu
nky.
Str
ong
rela
tion
to F
renc
h H
ouse
.“F
rom
Dis
co t
o D
isco
. W
aAaA
aAah
!“C
owb
ell,
clap
s, o
pen
hih
at, l
ead
sy
nth
& s
tacc
ato
chor
ds,
mal
e ho
ok
125
C#m
M
The
Rep
ublic
Leg
ow
elt
Bun
ker
2000
Net
h.D
HD
en H
aag
D
isco
Dirt
y d
utch
coc
aine
sou
nd -
an
exam
ple
for
the
new
b
reed
of D
ark
Ele
ctro
influ
ence
d D
isco
from
Hol
land
(B
unke
r/C
rem
e/C
lone
).
-C
atch
y sy
nth
bas
slin
e, c
hees
y sy
nth
lead
, 1/1
6 d
rum
mac
hine
128
Bb
m-
Jagu
ar (D
ance
O
f The
Cat
)D
J R
ola
ndo
ak
a A
ztec
M
ysti
c
430
Wes
t20
00U
SA
DE
Tran
ce-
Ho
use
Kill
er T
ranc
e H
ouse
ant
hem
tra
nsp
ortin
g D
isco
‘s e
csta
sy
and
gla
mou
r in
to a
Det
roit
Tech
no c
onte
xt. M
ade
for
the
hood
. Fas
t!
-90
9, la
tin p
ercu
ssio
n, o
pen
hih
at,
arp
eggi
ator
, cla
ps,
str
ings
137
Dm
-
24K
(Sup
er E
P)
Mo
rgan
G
eist
Env
iron
2001
US
AN
YN
ew
Dis
coS
igni
fican
t st
artin
g p
oint
of t
he N
Y “
New
Dis
co“
fad
. M
ood
: For
Clu
bs
with
car
pet
s on
the
dan
ceflo
or.
Che
esy
synt
h &
war
m e
-pia
no
chor
ds,
Dis
co b
ass,
str
ings
, zap
s12
4C
m-
Har
der
, Bet
ter,
Fast
er, S
tron
ger
Daf
t P
unk
Virg
in20
01Fr
a.PA
Syn
th-
Po
pR
etro
-fet
ish
by
Fren
ch H
ouse
pio
neer
s D
aft
Pun
k.
The
funk
y m
idte
mp
o d
ance
tra
ck m
ostly
con
sist
s of
a
sam
ple
from
“C
ola
Bot
tle B
aby“
. Kan
ye W
est
then
sa
mp
led
Daf
t P
unk.
“Wor
k it
hard
er m
ake
it b
ette
r, D
o it
fast
er m
akes
us
stro
nger
“
Sam
ple
, rid
e cy
mb
al, v
ocod
er,
clap
s, s
ynth
123
F#m
M
You‘
re S
o G
angs
taC
hro
meo
FAB
/
V2
2002
US
AN
YR
etro
H
ipst
er
Dis
co
Brin
g b
ack
the
80s.
Sim
ple
and
rep
etiti
ve t
rack
with
gr
eat
lyric
s.
“you
‘re
so g
ang-
gang
-gan
g-ga
ng-g
ang-
gang
-gan
g-ga
ng-g
angs
ter“
Che
esy
synt
h, fe
mal
e ho
ok
(trig
gerin
g), b
ongo
s, s
ax s
olo
110
Fm/
D#
F
Tunn
el M
usic
Zo
ngam
inX
L20
02U
KLO
New
New
D
isco
If To
m T
om C
lub
wou
ld h
ave
mad
e a
Dis
co s
ong
in 2
002
it w
ould
sou
nd li
ke t
his.
Cur
ious
hou
sy m
idd
le p
art.
-S
tacc
ato
synt
h le
ad, f
unky
slid
e b
ass,
cla
ps,
funk
y gu
itar,
D-t
om11
4C
m-
Sup
erfli
ght
(Mau
rice
Fulto
n R
emix
)
Cha
teau
Fl
ight
Vers
a-til
e20
05U
KS
HF
New
New
N
ew
Dis
co
Exc
elle
nt c
risp
y b
eats
and
ecs
tatic
xyl
opho
ne-
atm
osp
here
. Mirr
or b
all r
eflec
tions
in a
n em
pty
clu
b.
-S
lap
bas
s, v
ibes
, cla
ps,
syn
th
laye
rs &
mel
odie
s, fu
nky
guita
r12
0?
-
Por
ridge
For
age
Jasp
erA
udio
A
uber
g.20
07C
an.
VAN
erd
step
Gee
ky D
isco
with
Lofi
/ F
unk
elem
ents
.-
Vow
el-s
ynth
lead
, por
tam
ento
b
ass,
FM
mel
odie
s &
cho
rds
114
Em
-
Sha
dow
sH
ercu
les
&
Love
Aff
air
DFA
2008
Usa
NY
New
New
N
ew N
ew
Dis
co
Her
cule
s &
Lov
e A
ffair
seem
to
give
Dis
co y
et a
noth
er
new
sp
in: t
op-n
otch
pro
duc
ing
skill
s vs
. fra
gilit
y.“M
y he
art
shou
ld b
e a
save
ha
rbou
r -
all c
omfo
rt t
o yo
u“Tr
ump
et, f
emal
e vo
cals
, bas
s w
/ oc
tave
shi
fts,
pia
no, l
atin
p
ercu
ssio
n
117
Cm
F
Hap
py
Joy
The
D
isco
gho
sts
Up
itUp
R
ecor
ds
2008
Yaka
-m
ozS
lug
gis
hS
low
Dis
co s
poo
f with
cat
chy
lyric
s -
lad
ies
love
it.
“It‘
s a
hap
py
hap
py
joy
time
wou
ld y
ou p
leas
e b
e m
y Fr
äule
in“
Dis
co g
uita
r, sl
ow b
eat,
Dis
co
tom
, lat
in p
erc.
, war
m k
eyb
oard
ch
ord
s, k
idd
y &
low
-pitc
h ra
p
103
Cm
MjBO
NUS
Tube Tip
$M
B
z
D
/
z
Funk
y
a wormhole. One wonders why wun-derkind DJ Ron Hardy hadn´t just dismissed Disco completely after House music was born. From the view of a DJ or dance music pro-ducer, the focus on pure rhythm rather than on opulent orche-stration should be a logical consequence. However, the advent of programmable drummachines like the gritty sample-based Linn LM-1 and the Roland TR-808 and 909 with their archetypi-cal pounding bassdrum circuitry provided the necessary equipment to make the crowd ´́ jack´́ . Soon rhythmical paradigms were broken up and snares and handclaps were put all over the place while never loosing their quantized tightness.I feel that Acid House final-ly liberated dance music from individual-related live music and erased the reference to Disco music as far as possible. With Acid, atonality found its way into House and the snatchy rhythms coupled with the stacca-tos and portamentos of the 303 are a perfect match. I wouldn´t argue that Acid House is more intelligent than Disco - it might even be more stupid - but it´s surely closer to catharsis and much more funky!
I would have rather participa-ted in a fanzine about Acid than Disco. To me, Disco music beco-mes interesting by the late 70´s when producers started to tear down Dsico´s ´́ wall of sound´́ and got rid of all those sicke-ning orchestral sections, mostly made up of string and horn com-positions. Not only the reduc-tion to the bare musical essen-tials, but also the concept of automatization was necessary to help Disco become fresher. Back in 1975, during the production of Donna Summer´s ´́ Love To Love You Baby´́ , Giorgio Moroder advi-sed his drummer Keith Forseth to play the drums in perfect sync with a Wurlitzer Sideman - the first commercially available electronic drummachine, which was made in 1959. While the rat-her crappy Sideman sounds (cre-ated from vacuum tubes!) were not used in the song, Moroder´s approach was clear: to seek for Funk in a dry, steady machi-ne-like beat. The bassdrum was recorded very loud and with a distinct punch and although the track runs on only 96 bpm (a term that came up in the Disco era btw.) it might mark the be-ginning of a new technique that soon became essential for dance music production.
While House music adopted Disco´s 4-to-the-floor rhythm structure and thus created an apparent connection, the sound aesthetics slowly became more abstract and futuristic. A Ron Hardy Warehouse mix from the mid 80´s is loaded with edits of cheesy, ornamental Disco tracks, suddenly cut through by mini-mal pumping House rhythms that sound like they slipped in from
Suggested listening:
Chip E. “Time to Jack“ Gotta Dance Records, 1985Hercules “7 Ways“ Dance Mania, 1986Mr. Lee “House This House“ Trax Records, 1987Tyree “Acid Crash“ Rockin House Music, 1988Gherkin Jerks “Acid Ingestion“ Gherkin Records, 1988Armando “151“ Warehouse Records, 1988Mike Dunn “Magic Feet“ Westbrook Records, 1988Two Of A Kind “Acid Bitch“ West Madison Records, 1988Fast Eddie “Acid Thunder“ DJ International, 1988 Spanky “Acid Bass“ Trax Records, 1989
makesFu
nky
makes
Sour
Sour
Fortunately, I make
Acid music
by Roglok
“My name is Farivar and I‘m from Tehran/Iran and at the moment I live in Copenhagen/Denmark. I love all kind of music and as long as I remember, I’ve been interested in music, that‘s why (in 1988) togheder with one of my best friends (DJ/VJ A.A.) decided to open our own Club ”Acid House club” in a nice little town called Holbæk. Very soon we became one of the best clubs in the town...“
www.djfarivar.dk
“Some people ask of me:
What are you gonna be?
Why don‘t you go get a job?
All that I can say:I won‘t give up
my musicnot menot nowno way
no how.”
Lost In Music (I quit my nine to five) by Sister Sledge
IMP.´́ Best before´́ is a fanzine about Disco by Manuel Buerger, Dennis Knopf, Konrad Kuhn and Leo Merz
Chief Editor: Dennis KnopfArt Direction: Manuel BuergerDirector of Technology: Leo MerzStaff Writer: Konrad Kuhn
Guest contributions:´́ Disco Game´́ illustration by Bureau Baraque / www.fanzineno1.de´́ Total Eclipse´́ (Donna Summer) artwork by Christian Schiller / gold-wirtschaftswunder.de´́ Disco Worshippin Dice´́ artwork by Daniel v. Bernstorff´́ The Discoghosts´́ illustration by Florian Bayer / www.florianbayer.com´́ Bee Gees´́ artwork by c.coy / www.seecoy.com´́ The Art of Disco-Bashing´́ guest article by Martin Gossner´́ Earworm´́ illustration by Sebastian Haslauer / www.hasimachtsachen.com
please visit our website including enhanced TOP69 and DJ Mixes!www.dsico-fanzine.com
A Shake Your Tree & Up It Up Production, 2008
Special thanks to Xavier de Rosnay of Justice for his contribution (p.6):The labels you should have found are: DFA (flash), Permanent Vacation (blimp), Eskimo (hair clip), Tigersushi (head), Ed Banger (body), Gomma (bag), Environ (e) and Tirk (leaves).
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