Review: Stone cold New Jersey funk business; Calender's seminal "Hypertension" has been a waymark in dancefloor developments since '75 and its big strings, high energy and nagging vocals still have total resonance to this day as proved by this rolling, conga fuelled twist from Mexican maestro Hotmood. Flip for more relevance as "Ritmo Latino" (from Calender's '76 album "It's A Monster") gets a cheeky breakbeat facelift from Voodoocuts. Now there's no excuse not to get funky every single day of the year.
Review: Brazilian talent Rafael Cancian has grown in stature thanks to solid outings on the tasteful likes of Razor-N-Tape and Hot Pot Records. Now with that profile established, he heads out with a new label of his own in the form of About Disco. He inaugurates it with a quartet of edits that he has already been deploying to great effect on various dancefloors around the world. 'Sounds Chicago' does indeed with raw drums and great keys dancing over the beats. 'Ti Amo' has a more funky undercarriage and disco percussion, 'D'Afrique' again brings a funky bass riff to the fore with some psyched-out sounds for company and 'Opera' shuts down with some late-night and soul-drenched synths over intimate and stripped back house drums.
Review: The Carver Area High School Seniors' 'Get Live '83 (The Senior Rap)' is a stone cold party hip hop classic. It has been out of print for some four decades, however, and so has become a rather hard to find and expensive record. Thankfully, Soul Jazz Records have got the rights to this full reissue which was first pressed in 1982 on the private press label Challenger. The cut featured as the standout on Soul Jazz Records' recent 'Yo! Boombox' collection and now standalone as a seven minute stunner. It's an old school party disco delight with great rap and killer beats, all presented with the original artwork.
Review: Fresh from the Harlem hotpot, 1980: Harold Sargent's Chain Reaction teamed up with Sound Of New York's founder and producer Peter Brown for a star-lit, horn-baked, organ-licked disco creation that still funks hard 36 years down the line. With its maximal approach, disco bubbles and emphatic gutsy vocals, it could be argued that this funk even harder today due to it ticking every possible disco, boogie and funk box possible.
Review: Patrick Adams was responsible for producing tons of terrific disco records during the late 1970s and early '80s, but few are quite as dizzyingly good as Cloud One's 1976 cut 'Atmosphere Strut'. Created by Adams with the assistance of regular collaborator Peter Brown, the 9-minute plus track is notable for the extensive use of superbly spacey synthesizer lines, an infectious deep disco groove and a typically head-in-the-clouds lead vocal from Margo Williams. This reissue naturally offers-up Adams' original, must-have 12" club mix, but also a brand-new re-edit from disco rework specialist KON. He lengthens the intro, beefs up the bass and makes crafty use of some improvised vocals from Adams and Williams that were previously buried on the multi-track master tapes.
Review: Natalie Cole was an American singer-songwriter who excelled in soul, pop, and jazz. She was the daughter of the legendary Nat King Cole, and she had notable family ties including being the cousin of Eddie Cole and the niece of Freddy Cole. Early in her career, she was married to Marvin Yancy, who was part of the songwriting and producing duo Chuck Jackson & Marvin Yancy. Together, they contributed significantly to shaping her musical journey and initial successes and one of her standout jams is the title cut here 'Winner (Take All )' which is a low-slung 80s synth disco delight. 'Azz Iz' brings some boogie to the squelchy synth bass and 'Movin' On' brings horn-led joy. 'How Can You Stop' is a slower more sentimental end of the night closer.
Review: This latest is a reissue of a Congress Productions EP featuring their seminal 'Neptune'. The much-sampled early 80s jazz-funk classic comes in original form next to two unreleased cuts. The first is a rare boogie cut 'Live It Up' that has been extended for more dancefloor heft having first been dropped under the D'aile' alias as a B-side. Then comes 'Kevin's Funk' which is named in reference to Incognito trumpet player Kevin Robinson, who played as part of a Congress-associated line-up for this session.
Review: Legendary Harlem label Queen Constance brought the world the most raw and authentic disco direct from the source. Years later, collectors and dancers alike still fawn over plenty of its output and now two of its more notorious tracks get on-point edits by contemporary stars Kon and Moplen. With Kon at the buttons, High Voltage's "Rock Spank Freak" is tweaked and coerced, with extended funk breakdowns and heavier bottom ends. Moplen then adds some extra colour and pumps up the trumpet lines to make for an unabashedly glorious disco stomper. This is a 100% legit reissue with fresh remastering, so do not sleep.
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