Disco`s Not Dead.

Or Disco Nouveau as they are calling back in the UK. Disco fever is back in the article by Hanna Hanra, she interviews Jim Stanton, who started the iconic Horse Meat Disco in South London. Who says “When times are good, you could argue that people get turned on by darker, edgier music, such as drum’n’bass or electro. As soon as life gets harder, people look for something more uplifting, which is where disco comes in — it’s an escape....And i guess he could be right with all the huge uncertainties facing people all over the world.

But back in the late 70`s, when the times was so much harder, to us hip West End kids the dedicated followers of everything funky, we disliked the term disco. Disco was that light, cheesy, camp sound that we disliked, but disco also had a more harder percussive & edgier bass sound that was more to our taste, we called it Boogie.

At clubs like Crackers, Global Village - under the arches in Charing Cross, DJ Greg Edwards "The Best Disco in Town at the Lyceum, they played that sound. Import American 12" extended mixes, invented by Tom Moulton with longer instrumental beat sections especially for the DJ's to mix on their Technics SL-1200 , could be heard thumping around these dancefloors. From record labels like WestEnd, Prelude, SalSoul, T.K., AVI, Vanguard and Casablanca. From artists like Odyssey, Dynasty, Fat Back Band, Teena Marie, Brass Construction, Crown Heights Affair, Earth Wind and Fire, GQ, Shalamar, The SalSoul Orchestra, Chic, the list is endless!

So if this New Years Eve, your getting ready to glam & glitzy up to party, here`s a couple of tunes to bump too. One track that was massive on the Crackers dancefloor in `77 was this fine specimem of Boogie heaven. The name El Coco was in fact a cheeky drug reference to the stimulent of the time.

El Coco - cocomotion


And another outstanding track that is so very hard to find these days on Vigor records from `76, Rhythm Makers went on to become the band GQ. (shame it cuts off at the end)

Rhythm Makers - zone



Hope you all have a great time, and mytea@om wishes you all a very happy New Year....I`m off to the country for a few days, so see you all in 2009.

El Coco - 'cocomotion' (mp3 download)