Cover Me #4
Disco is not a dirty word#4
Remember this? #3
It's amazing what can happen when you reconnect with people.
I sent an old friend a quick email, asking what he was doing. Apparently he's doing covers of Xiu Xiu and recording under the name of Archivist. For this latest installment of Cover Me, here he is with his cover of Fabulous Muscles.
I felt like re-visiting a little disco for this week's edition of "Moody Morning Music" as well as a bit of early 90's dance. First the disco:
I discovered Kebekelektrik by accident. I was at a record convention in Montreal digging through a box of old 45's when I saw this 45:
It looked interesting. The name sounded vaguely disco so for I picked it up for a buck. When I got home, I was stunned, not by the title track, "Mirage", but by the minute and a half of the B-side, titled "Star Dance". A couple of months later, I came across a copy of their first album, a US issue on SalSoul. I took it home, put the needle on the record and was blown away by its deep cosmic disco beauty. The last track, War Dance included the piece known as "Star Dance". The track is nothing more than pure disco deliciousness.
Another record I picked up by sheer curiosity was The Crown Heights Affair's first release, Dreaming A Dream
The opening and title track is featured twice on the album, once as a vocal the second in an instrumental disco version, featuring a hook-laden "doot doot doot doot" and a sweet little synth that takes you the early glory days of disco.
As for the early 90's dance pieces, I was flipping through some old records and felt the need to play some of them on my show.
Soul II Soul's first album, "Keep on Movin'" was one of the first albums that I bought that made me go, "Wow, this is what dance music could and should be." Admittedly, I was only 12 at the time the album came out, but the album's sound played a huge influence upon me and what I later came to enjoy and seek out in terms of dance music, especially the music which came from the UK and the scene in which the members, especially Jazzy B. and Nellee Hooper were involved, namely, The Wild Bunch.
A few years later, after the sound system based grooves of Soul II Soul had left the clubs, the new inhabitants, hungover from the post summer of love rave daze, were going more and more underground, digging into different genres (and record crates) for new sounds. The Future Sound of London found that sound in an old Dead Can Dance record.
Papua New Guinea was considered by many to be a milestone in the development and growth of underground dance music, as well as the rising popularity and acceptance of this new genre of dance music. The song almost feels like an anomaly when listening to some of FSOL's later works, namely, "We Have The Explosive", a track which went on to have a life of it's own a few years later.
Enjoy the show as well as the video links in the tracklisting.
Gonzales, "Overnight"
Laura Nyro, "Brown Earth", Christmas and the beads of sweat
Archivist, "Fabulous Muscles (Xiu Xiu Cover)"
Jane Siberry, "Slow Tango", City
Jennifer Warnes, "Fanous Blue Raincoat", Famous Blue Raincoat
Sunset Rubdown, "Winged/Wicked Things", Random Spirit Lover
Born Ruffians, "Red, Yellow, Blue", Red, Yellow, Blue
Forest City Lovers, "At The Border"
Superfantastica, "Turn on me", Choose your destination
Immaclate Machine, "Jarhand", Fables
Dog Day, "Oh Dead Life", Oh Dead Life EP
Sugarcubes, "Hit", 12"
Portishead, "Smell", Third
Buck 65, "The abandoned cars of INverness County", Cretin Hip Hop Vol 1
Soul II Soul, "Jazzie's Groove', Keep On Movin'
Future Sound Of London, "Papua New Guinea"
Massive Attack, "Unfinished Sympathy", Blue Lines
Goldfrapp, "Cologne Cerrone Houdini", Seventh Tree
Crown Heights Affair, "Dreaming A Dream (Disco)", Dreaming A Dream
Kebekelektrik, "War Dance", Kebekelektrik
Feist, "My Moon My Man (Boys Noize Remix)"
Soul II Soul"Back To Life", from Keep On Movin'
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