DISCO RECHARGE-COME INTO MY HEART AND USA-EUROPEAN CONNECTION-SPECIAL EDITION.

dereksmusicblog ♦ October 9, 2012 ♦ Leave a comment

DISCO RECHARGE-COME INTO MY HEART AND USA-EUROPEAN CONNECTION-SPECIAL EDITION.

For far too long, Boris Midney’s role in the development of Euro Disco has been overlooked. That is until now. Recently, the Disco Recharge label released a double-album of two of of Boris’ albums. This was Disco Recharge-Boris Midney Volume 1-Beautiful Blend and Caress. However, two of the albums that launched Boris Midney’s career as one of the founding fathers of Euro Disco were his two USA-European Connection albums Come Into My Heart and USA-European Connection. After being unavailable for far too long, Disco Recharge are rereleasing both albums, complete with bonus tracks on 15th October 2012 as Disco Recharge Come Into My Heart and USA-European Connection-Special Edition. This is another of Mr. Pinks lovingly compiled retrospectives that takes us back in time to 1978 and 1979, when disco provided the soundtrack to our lives. Before I tell you about the music on Disco Recharge Come Into My Heart and USA-European Connection-Special Edition, I’ll tell you the background to both Come Into My Heart and USA-European Conection.

Having defected to America and become part of the Russian Jazz Quartet. Gradually, each of the members of the Russian Jazz Quartet started working within the music industry. Boris Midney was a talented musician, a true multi-instrumentalist who could read and write music. By had 1976, Boris decided that the time was right for him to strike out on his own. Rather than work for anyone else, Boris decided to work for himself. 

When Boris Midney decided to start a career in music, disco was at the peak of its popularity. Boris decided to fuse genres and influences to create a disco sound. He’d built a studio in Princeton, New Jersey, and using session musicians, started combining funk with lush string and a disco sound. Although his unique sound was conceived in New York, it would be less than one-hundred miles away where it was born.

It was at Philadelphia’s Alpha International Studios that Boris Midney’s trademark sound was born. With session musicians accompanying Boris, he married Euro Disco with classic US disco, R&B and funk. What he came up with was one long track. People said that it was too long, it needed to be separated or else people would lose interest. Luckily, Boris had the conviction of his beliefs. Sticking with his initial idea, he created his debut album. When, his debut album was born, it contained just two tracks, nearly fifteen and thirteen minutes. When the album was finished, Boris needed a title for it. Then fate intervened. On his journey’s between his New York home and the studio in Philly, he noticed a sign with the words “ Connection to 95.” It was a eureka moment and USA-European Connection was born.

With USA-European Connection’s debut album Come Into My Heart completed, Boris started playing people the album. People didn’t understand the music. What they didn’t understand was that a new sound had been born. Then when one of New York’s most influential DJs played USA-European Connection, it was a game changer.

Boris took Come Into My Heart to David Mancuo at The Loft. When David played the album gradually, it cleared the dance-floor. People just wanted to listen to Come Into My Heart. When Boris didn’t get the reaction he wanted, he drove back to Philly and remixed Come Into My Heart. Then the next day, Boris received a phone call saying David played Come Into My Heart several times. Quickly, things moved fast. Promoters started calling Boris and then he was introduced to Henry Stone at T.K. Records. Henry decided to release USA-European Connection’s Come Into My Heart on his Marlin label. Soon, Boris had the first hit of his career.

Success came Boris’ way almost immediately. His debut album USA-European Connection’s Come Into My Heart, launched Boris career in 1978. It seemed a disco legend had been born when Come Into My Heart reached number one in the US Dance Charts. DJs everywhere loved USA-European Connection’s Come Into My Heart. For twenty-one weeks, it was a stalwart of DJ playlists. After the success of Come Into My Heart Henry Stone started asking Boris for a followup album. That would become USA-European Connection.

A year after the release of USA-European Connection’s debut album Come Into My Heart, USA-European Connection was released in 1979. It had been recorded at Boris new studio, which he’d christened Eras, as this was the dawn of a new era of music. By the time USA-European Connection was released, disco’s popularity was waning. Still the singles I’d Like To Get Closer and There’s A Way To My Heart proved popular. Sadly, USA-European Connection wasn’t as big a commercial success, but showed just innovative and creative a producer Boris Midney was. You’ll realize that when I tell you about Come Into My Heart and USA-European Connection.

USA-EUROPEAN CONNECTION-COME INTO MY HEART.

Opening USA-European Connection’s debut album Come Into My Heart are the song sthat took up Side One of the album Come Into My Heart and Good Loving. Thunderous drums drive the arrangement while strings, flourishes of piano and guitar before tight, soulful cascading harmonies from Leza Holmes, Renna Johnson and Sharon Williams combine. They provide a contrast to the thunderous drums and dramatic bursts of cinematic strings. Joining them are Celtic fiddles, slapped bass and chiming guitars. Soon there’s a real Euro Disco sound. It’s disco, but with drama. Everything is thrown into the mix, stirred by Boris and the incredibly it works. There’s everything you could think of, from space-age synths, percussion aplenty and sultry saxophones. Jazz, funk, Latin, disco and soulful harmonies are combined as a near fifteen journey unfolds. Throughout the track, Boris mixes a compelling combination of drama with a dance-floor friendly beat. It’s a glorious combination, with Boris relentlessly teasing and toying with the listener. Rather than let the track flow, he takes it on dramatic twists and turns. Then he unleashes dancing strings, soulful, soaring harmonies, rocky guitars and the ever-present pulsating beat as this epic journey closes, but what a glorious journey it’s been.

Side Two of Come Into My Heart featured a medley of Love’s Coming and Baby Love. From the get-go, Boris creates a dramatic, cinematic soundscape. Pounding beats, sassy harmonies, washes of synths and swirling strings. Gradually, with stabs of piano and percussion joining the strings the arrangement reveals its secrets and beauty. Impassioned harmonies are key to the track’s irresistible Euro Disco sound. There’s a funky side to the track, with a wah-wah guitar weaving its way across the arrangement. Strings dance joyously as the harmonies and warm, melodic combine. Then Boris adds a breakdown, he gradually strips the track down to just percussion and drums. He then rebuilds the track. From there on, it’s Euro Disco all the way, albeit with funk, Euro Pop and even classic music drifting in and out of the track. Again Boris teases and toys with the listener, creating a musical melting pop where innovations, idea and influences are fused. This results in a hook-laden, genre-sprawling and timeless dance track.

Although Come Into My Heart features only two two-track medleys, it’s an innovative, creative and imaginative take on Euro Disco, with Boris Midney rewriting the rules. He takes Euro Disco, adds elements of jazz, funk, Latin, rock, classic American disco and adds some of the most soulful harmonies you’ll hear in a long time. Thinks the Birds of Paradise meets the Sweethearts of Sigma and you’re getting the idea. This was accompanied by a pounding, pulsating beat. Alas, the musical journey is over in less than twenty-nine minutes, but Mr. Pinks has dug out four remixes, including the original single and twelve-inch versions. They allow you  to hear Boris two medleys in different ways, that breath new life and meaning into the tracks. By the next time Boris Midney entered a recording studio, it was with a different sound, one that’s variously elegant, graceful, beautiful, soulful and still dance-floor friendly.

USA-EUROPEAN CONNECTION-USA-EUROPEAN CONNECTION.

USA-European Connection was the followup to Come Into My Heart, which was released a year later in 1979. It opens with I’d Like To Get Closer, where rolls of drums are combined with dramatic, flourishes of strings, jazzy piano and a pulsating beat. This is typical Boris Midney, fusing genres and influences. A slapped bass, percussion and quivering strings drive the arrangement along. Straight away, funk, US disco and Euro Disco are fused. The Euro Disco influence is added to by the breathy harmonies. There’s an elegance to the music, with bursts of cascading strings key to the sound. Rocky guitar licks add a new dimension, while a healthy sprinkling of percussion is also key to this gorgeous, elegant track. Adding the finishing touch is a rasping horn that makes a brief and welcome appearance. Although quite different from the music on Come Into My Heart, it seems that in the post-disco landscape, Boris was reinventing disco and taking it in a new, innovative direction like only he could.

Latin percussion joins a funky rhythm section and quivering strings as Boris continues to take his music in a different direction with Do Me Good. Granted there’s still elements of Come Into My Heart present, but this is different. The drums aren’t as prominent, with the lush strings and funk-drenched rhythm section continuing to give the arrangement an elegant, almost classical influence. Strings float along, while chiming guitars, keyboards, percussion and the funky rhythm section provide the mainstay of the arrangement. Then at just the right moment Boris drops in understated, tender harmonies. By now you realize just how different this is from Come Into My Heart. Gone is the drama and twists and turns. Here, the music flows, although genres are fused. Wistful horns give the track a jazzy sound as one of the most beautiful tracks Boris ever produced reveals its secrets and subtleties as rock, funk, Latin, classical music and soulful harmonies are combined. 

Like the previous track, Join the Dance sees Boris fuse a combination of rock, funk, Latin, classical music and soulful harmonies. Percussion and a funky rhythm section are joined by dramatic flourishes of keyboards and rock guitar rifts. It’s as if Boris grabbing your attention. Having done so, he combines tender harmonies with graceful strings. The beat is more prominent, but not as much as on Come Into My Heart. This is a much more subtle beat. Bursts of rocky guitars reverberate, producing a contrast to the elegance of the strings, harmonies and thoughtful piano. You’re swept along atop the lushest of strings with harmonies whispering seductively in your ear. Truly, it’s another inventive, imaginative soundscape, sculpted by the Godfather of Euro Disco. By combining genres and influences he manages to produce his own unique brand of Euro Disco, one that’s both elegant and dramatic, and bold and beautiful.

Closing USA-European Connection is There’s A Way Into My Heart, a twelve-minute musical adventure. A combination of funky rhythm section, sweeping, swirling strings and tender, heartfelt harmonies sweep you along. It’s a really beautiful combination, with jazz-tinged piano and chiming guitars joining the mix. Again, it’s a much more subtle, elegant sound than many Euro Disco albums. Really, Boris has taken the best of US disco and Euro Disco, sprinkled some funk and jazz. That jazz influence manifests itself throughout the track. Rasping horns and piano are key to this jazzy sound. This is one of these tracks that you just loose yourself in. Much of that is down to the elegant, beautiful sound. Floaty shimmering, shivering strings, tender harmonies and the funk supplied by the rhythm section take you on a twelve-minutes graceful, elegant journey where Boris Midney ever the innovator, rewrites the ground rules to Euro Disco in the post-disco musical landscape.

USA-European Connection was a very different album to Come Into My Heart. It has a much more understated, subtle sound. The sound is elegant, graceful and beautiful, and you’re swept away atop the lushest of shimmering, shivering strings and the most soulful of harmonies. Giving USA-European Connection it’s much more understated sound is a much understated beat. Gone is the pounding, pulsating beat of Come Into My Heart, replaced by a beat that compliments the rest of the arrangement. This is unlike many other Euro Disco albums, where the beat constantly pulsates. Ironically, when USA-European Connection was released, disco was on its last legs. Its popularity was waning and USA-European Connection became another casualty of the Disco Sucks backlash. Thankfully, Harmless Records have rereleased USA-European Connection, complete with two bonus tracks and it’ll be released as Disco Recharge Come Into My Heart and USA-European Connection-Special Edition on 15th October 2012. This gives everyone the opportunity to reevaluate and rediscover the innovative, imaginative and creative side of Boris Midney who rewrote the rules of Euro Disco on Come Into My Heart and USA-European Connection. Standout Tracks: Come Into My Heart and Good Loving, Join the Dance, Do Me Good and There’s A Way Into My Heart. 

DISCO RECHARGE-COME INTO MY HEART AND USA-EUROPEAN CONNECTION-SPECIAL EDITION.