Tags: Balearic Disco

Review: Best known for producing chart-topping disco anthems like the Sylvester-fronted 'Do You Wanna Funk?' - that still crop up in DJs like Juan Atkins' sets to this day, Cowley died in 1982 due to an AIDS-related illness. He left an incredible body of work but since 2009, the Dark Entries label has been working with Cowley's friends and family to uncover the singular artist's lesser-known sides such as his soundtracks for gay pornographic films. Malebox brings us six more recent discoveries from the hidden archives, very much in the churning disco-funk and hi-NRG areas that we've come to know and love as trademark Cowley. Recorded from 1979-1981, one of Patrick's most creatively exciting periods, this bumper pack includes early Paul Parker demos 'If You Feel It' and 'Love Me Hot', a demo version of 'Low Down Dirty Rhythm' with Jeanie Tracy's vocals, plus 'Floating', 'Love and Passion' and 'A Wicked Tool', all infectious and brimming with joyfulness and futuristic exploration. Also included is an air mail envelope containing a letter from Patrick Cowley to French disco producer Pierre Jaubert as well as liner notes and hand-written lyrics. Malebox will be released on November 12, the 40th anniversary of Patrick's passing.

Review: Eight years on from his last After Dark compilation for Late Night Tales, font of all musical knowledge Bill Brewster returns with a fourth instalment. According to the man himself, it's a 'freestyle' selection with 'low and slow' the overriding theme. That loose but logical concept allows Brewster to showcase a diverse range of selections that defy easy categorisation. Highlights come thick and fast throughout, with our current pics including the synth-heavy Balearic voodoo of 'Idle Hours' by Idle Band, the Weatherall-esque chug of Hotel Motel's terrific remix of Jeb Loy Nichols' 'Don't Drop Me', the dub disco-goes-cosmic disco squelch of Ray Mang remixing Khruangbin, the deep synth-pop sweetness of Debbie & The Code's 'Code of Love', a terrific Naill edit of Gilbert O'Sullivan's 'So What', and the deep electro of Carl Finlow.

Review: Under the Jaz alter-ego, John Zahl has been serving up laidback, Balaearic-minded edits of musical obscurities since the mid 2000s. Initially, that was for Claremont 56 offshoot Sixty Five, but in the last decade he's also appeared on Passport To Paradise, Rotating Souls and, most recently, Pinchy & Friends. Here he returns to the latter label with four more rubs of atmospheric cuts from the dusty corners of his record collection. He begins with the wonderfully throbbing, solo-heavy dancefloor synth-scape of 'Cloud Worship', before successfully tinkering with a tactile, semi-organic proto-house gem on 'Pick a Toy'. Over on side B, 'Puzzle' is a tidy revision of a cosmic-minded, French language Balearic synth-pop gem, while 'Friday Night' is an eccentric, off-kilter slab of new wave disco oddness.

Review: A strong, strong showing from Duca Bianco after a period of relative dormancy, teaming up with Manchester's Talking Drums for a musical culture clash with maximum impact. The four tracks see a wide palate of influences being mixed up, from the cheeky Afrobeat shuffle of 'Monkey Key' to the 80s electropop of 'Voice Of Omicron' and the Nico-esque vocal delivery on Balearic groover 'Dolce Julia'. This is an EP with lots of surprises, tons of originality and musical confidence brimming over its edges.

Review: Wrekin Havoc does just that with its second release from the artist of the same name. After a big first EP that really announced the label's arrival in style this one is another tasty disco collection. 'Heavy Breathing' has toting old school chords and Italo drums and 'Work It' bring glossy vocals, crashing hits and a libidinous vocal. Things get slow and seated but just as steamy on the flipside cut 'Dirty Devil' then last of all is the glorious bit of exotic and tropical, boogie tinged disco freshness that is 'That Is The Question.'

Review: Revisionist history is just as important for music as it is for geopolitics or economics, so we're more than happy to recognise this 'Alternative Vision Of Argentinian Music' throughout one of the most important decades in popular music history. Whereas popular thought tended towards Argentina being a hotbed for 'rock nacional' (national rock) music made in the post-dictatorship return to democracy, here Soundway focus on the more extreme ends of the experimental music fringes that cropped, thanks to the newfound freedoms allowed by neoliberal policies. Arthur Russell-esque disco, downtempo battle breaks, avant-garde obscurities - it's all there.

Review: After launching the Dance Masters series with a much-needed trawl through the remixography of the great Shep Pettibone, Arthur Baker has now turned his attention to his own sprawling catalogue of productions and remixes. Stretched over four discs in order to present full-length, DJ-friendly mixes, the collection does a great job in showcasing Baker's immense achievements in the 1980s and 90s. Naturally, his most celebrated productions and remixes are present - see his versions of Fleetwood Mac's 'Big Love', which became Balearic anthems, Afrika Bambaata and Soulsonic Force's genuinely game-changing 'Planet Rock', Freez's 'I.O.U', Rockers Revenge's 'Walking on Sunshine' and New Order's 'Confusion' - alongside a swathe of forgotten, overlooked and harder to find revisions.

Review: While he's used the NAD alias for numerous commissioned re-edits and reworks, it's been a decade since Idjut Boy and Record Mission co-founder Dan Tyler last released an EP under the alias. Given his track record as a dub delay and space echo living editor, this surprise outing in the excellent Duca Bianca imprint is a more than welcome development. He begins by dubbing out, extending and rearranging a Germanic new wave gem ('Dow Wordy', with its dead-eyed spoken word vocals), before showcasing a lower-tempo, French language obscurity on the Balearic-not-Balearic shuffle of 'Histoire De Cul'. 'Krapps Smack' sees the Oslo-based Brit add extra layers of echo-laden insanity to a low-slung, extra-percussive punk-funk number, while 'Release The Pigoen' is a spacey, slow-motion AOR gem drenched in effects and saucer-eyed intent.

Review: Rocksteady Disco has pressed up another tasty little hand-stamped 7" and it offers up another fine brace of Edits From Detroit on this third volume in the series. Eddie Logix is the man behind the buttons and he kicks off with 'BOSS' which has low-slung guitar sleaze and slow-motion groove rotations topped with sprinklings of percussion, angular rock riffs and guttural vocals. Flip it over and things get more smooth and seductive with 'FMPM' which has a dubbed-out disco feel, subtle cosmic chord work and bouncing bass that will keep any 'floor moving. Another great little 45.

Review: The Cuts label returns with another in its Guest Edits series. This third volume opens with he joyous and life-affirming string explosions of 'America's Insides' over nice instrumental funk and disco beats. 'Gobek Atmak' then takes on a slowly rhythm and is a more world groove with gypsy jazz and middle eastern string melodies bringing a nice cosmopolitain feel. It's off to the stars on 'Gobek Atmak', a playful and summery ready Italo disco cut with plenty of colourful pops and a nice twanging bassline. 'Orpheus' then shuts down with more ethno-grooves, this time they're slow, sentimental and steamy.

Review: Arthur Baker is an American producer and DJ known for his work with monumental dance acts such as New Order, Afrika Bambaataa and the Pet Shop Boys. While coming up as a DJ and studio producer, he also made a name for himself as a remixer over the years, and this box set, released by reissuing specialists Demon Music, goes the extra mile to do solid justice to his reinterpetive efforts. They're not the choices you'd expect, either, with the comp proving that Baker opted to remix the likes of Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen and Tina Turner, in among choices you might also expect like Huey Lewis, The Psychedelic Furs and The B-52's.

Review: Few electronic music producers can claim to have made quite as big an impact as Arthur Baker. During the 1980s the New Yorker was involved in creating (or mixing) a string of ground-breaking electro, freestyle and proto-house records, before becoming one of the most in-demand remixers on the planet. This vast box set, which includes six weighty slabs of vinyl and an informative insert, celebrates his legacy, offering up a mixture of pioneering productions (Afrika Bambaata and Soulsonic Force's 'Planet Rock', 'Walking On Sunshine' by Rockers Revenge, 'Confusion' by New Order), dancefloor anthems (Freez's 'I.O.U', his enormous rework of Fleetwood Mac's 'Big Love') and a string of essential but lesser-celebrated revisions - all presented in full-length, DJ-friendly form. In a word: essential.

Review: This new one from El Triangulo Records is the debut single from North Satellite's 2023 album, Past Life Half-Lived. It features several different and equally good versions including the original LP vision by the legendary Metro Area man Darshan Jesrani and alternate versions by Eugene Tambourine and Conrad McDonnell of Idjut Boys fame. The 12" is limited to 300 copies and for our money features some of the best cosmic disco and analogue drum grooves we've heard in a while. Of all the highlights, the opening Cosmic Freestyle is the one we love most.

Review: Intime Anthem is a new label that makes a suitable impressive debut here with a various artists offering that explores a leftfield disco sound. Ramozel's 'Nomentum' has deadpan indie vocals and stark mechanical drums with cold wave synths. Parker Bjoske wars monads with twisted synth modulations and slow, purposeful kicks on 'Tempo.' Naimer then switches the mood with a more playful and 80s-inspired sound, bright retro synths and euro-dance grooves on 'Wildejoe.' There is a supple acid-laced majesty to Ivaj Odnode's closer 'Atillol,' which makes this as vital as it as varied.

Review: Berlin-based Tom Bolas has long been one of the most reliable re-editors on the Duca Bianca roster, regularly delivering inspired reworks of Balearic obscurities, flea market record finds and under-appreciated gems. Predictably, there's a similar sonic aesthetic to his latest collection of re-cuts, his first for four years. Opener 'Pantera' is a delay and reverb-laden revision of an early house era synth-pop/indie-dance number that could possibly be filed under Italo-dance, while 'Spiel Mich, Fuel Mich' is a fine take on an odder German synth number. On side B, the Berlin-based producer re-cuts a shuffling and eccentric new wave track ('Lineas Blancas'), before excelling on a killer revision of an arpeggio-driven, dial tone-sporting Eastern European take on Italo-disco ('Czech My Machine').