Category Archives: Disco
CHANGE-REACH FOR THE SKY AN ANTHOLOGY.
CHANGE-REACH FOR THE SKY AN ANTHOLOGY. Part of the soundtrack to the disco era was recorded by studio bands. They featured mostly anonymous session musicians and unknown vocalists. Many of these musicians and vocalists were just at the start of their careers, including Luther Vandross. The twenty-eight year old backing vocalist had worked with everyone …
PSYCHEMAGIK PRESENTS MAGIK SUNSET-PART TWO.
PSYCHEMAGIK PRESENTS MAGIK SUNSET-PART TWO. Over the last two years, crate-diggers extraordinaire Psychemagik, have released a quartet of compilations. That takes some doing, as compiling compilation are fraught with difficulties. As a result, many compilers struggle for two years to get one compilation released. Especially, if it’s a compilation rarities. A multitude of problems await …
RIM AND KASA-TOO TOUGH.
RIM AND KASA-TOO TOUGH. Music was in Rim Kwaku Obeng’s blood. Both his father and uncle were master drummers. So it was no surprise when he followed in their footsteps. He started life as Samuel K. Mfojo, in Begoro, Ghana. However, when his career in music began, he adopted the name Rim Kwaku Obeng. He …
PRIVATE WAX VOLUME TWO.
PRIVATE WAX VOLUME TWO. Nowadays, when a record company releases a successful compilation, the followup follows hot on its heels. Sometimes, only six months or a year has passed. However, it’s a case of striking while the iron hot. After all, it’s not easy for record companies to make money nowadays. So a successful compilation …
RIM KWAKU OBENG-RIM ARRIVES.
RIM KWAKU OBENG-RIM ARRIVES. For collectors of Afro-funk and disco, many albums remain tantalisingly out of reach. This includes Ghanian drummer Rim Kwaku Obeng’s legionary lost debut album Rim Arrives. It was released in 1977, four years after a perilous time for Rim Kwaku Obeng. He found himself stranded in London, without money, documents or …
ISAAC HAYES MOVEMENT-DISCO CONNECTION.
ISAAC HAYES MOVEMENT-DISCO CONNECTION. Disco. Never has a musical genre divided opinion like the D word. It’s been described as musical Marmite. People either love disco, or they loathe it. There’s no in-between. However, forty years ago, in 1976, disco’s star was in the ascendancy. Artists were jumping onto the disco bandwagon. Especially artists …
DISCO 2: A FURTHER FINE SELECTION OF INDEPENDENT DISCO, MODERN SOUL AND BOOGIE 1976-80.
DISCO 2: A FURTHER FINE SELECTION OF INDEPENDENT DISCO, MODERN SOUL AND BOOGIE 1976-80. Just seven months after Soul Jazz Records released Disco: A Fine Selection of Independent Disco, Modern Soul and Boogie in November 2014, the London based label return with the sequel, Disco 2: A Further Fine Selection of Independent Disco, Modern Soul …
JOE HOUSTON-KICKIN’ BACK.
JOE HOUSTON-KICKIN’ BACK. Joe Houston’s career began in 1941. He was just fifteen. His breakthrough came when a saxophonist in a touring band never turned up. This presented the bandleader with a problem. However, he needn’t have worried. From an early age, Joe Houston was determined to make a career out of music. So much …
DON RAY-GARDEN OF LOVE.
DON RAY-GARDEN OF LOVE. Although Don Ray played an important role in European disco music, working with Marc Cerrone and Alec Constandinos, Don only ever released one solo album, Garden of Love, released in 1978. Garden of Love was co-produced by Marc Cerrone, who released albums like Love In C Minor, Cerrone’s Paradise and Supernature. …
AXEL KRYGIER-HOMBRE DE PIEDRA.
AXEL KRYGIER-HOMBRE DE PIEDRA. Axel Krygier’s career began thirty years ago, back in 1985. Since then, the Buenos Aries’ born multi-instrumentalist has established a reputation as a musical maverick, who continually, has pushed musical boundaries to their limits, and sometimes, beyond. That’s apparent on Axel Krygier’s genre-melting fifth album, Hombre De Piedra, (Man Of Stone), …
ATA KAK-OBAA SIMA.
ATA KAK-OBAA SIMA. Twenty-one years ago, back in 1994, Ata Kak originally released his debut album Obaa Sima. It was no ordinary album. Obaa Sima was released with the help of his college professor and Ata’s twin brother. His brother designed the artwork for the cassette, and Professor O.A. DeGraft Johnson, helped release Obaa Sima …
THE MANHATTANS-THERE’S NO ME WITHOUT YOU.
THE MANHATTANS-THERE’S NO ME WITHOUT YOU. Like so many other groups, success took time to come The Manhattans’ way. Indeed, The Manhattans released seven albums before making a commercial breakthrough with 1976s The Manhattans. It was certified gold, and 1977s It Feels So Good and 1980s After Midnight repeated the feat. However, before their 1976 …
CERRONE-LOVE IN C MINOR.
CERRONE-LOVE IN C MINOR. Recently, I wrote about Cerrone’s second album Cerrone’s Paradise, released in 1977. The album that inadvertently started Marc Cerrone’s solo career was Love In C Minor, released the year before, in 1976. After this, Marc Cerrone would go on to become one of the biggest selling artists of the disco era, …
CERRONE-CERRONE’S PARADISE.
CERRONE-CERRONE’S PARADISE. During the disco era, it wasn’t just American labels like Salsoul, Casablanca, SAM and TK that were producing disco music. Over in Europe, producers like Giorgio Moroder, Frank Farian, Claude Francois, Don Ray and Cerrone were releasing some of the most cutting-edge dance music. One of these producers, Marc Cerrone started releasing albums …
THE FIFTY BEST COMPILATIONS OF 2014-PART 5.
THE FIFTY BEST COMPILATIONS OF 2014-PART 5. STRANGE BREAKS AND MR. THING III. One of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed compilation series made a welcome return in May 2014. That’s Strange Breaks and Mr. Thing III. It’s been a long time coming. Five years in fact. So, after a five year back, Mr. …
BOMBAY DISCO VOLUME 2.
BOMBAY DISCO VOLUME 2. 1979 was a landmark year in the history of disco. Suddenly, after being the musical flavour of the month for several years, disco sucked. In the space of a year, disco went from hero to zero. Disco’s downfall started on Christmas Eve 1978, That’s when Steve Dahl was fired by Chicago …
DISCO: A FINE SELECTION OF INDEPENDENT DISCO, MODERN SOUL AND BOOGIE 1978-82.
DISCO: A FINE SELECTION OF INDEPENDENT DISCO, MODERN SOUL AND BOOGIE 1978-82. Never has a musical genre caused so much controversy as disco. It divided opinion back in the seventies. Even today, thirty-five years after disco survived a near death experience, disco continues to divide opinion. People seem to either love or loathe disco. There seems …
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