Disco Nouveau is Here and it's Time to Party

Disco fever is back

Sequins, satin, sparkle and glitter balls. Disco nouveau is here and it's time to party

This year will be remembered as the point when it all went a bit wrong, frankly. So it’s odd that for most of the year, the club scene has been dominated by the fingers-in-the-ears, hands-in-the-air decadence of disco.

After years of being relegated to the office party and hen nights, disco has shimmied her way back up to the top of the cool kids’ party playlist. Blanketed in glitzy memories of Studio 54, disco provides the perfect antidote to the all-pervading grimness of the life ahead. “When times are good, you could argue that people get turned on by darker, edgier music, such as drum’n’bass or electro,” says Jim Stanton, who started the iconic Horse Meat Disco in Vauxhall, south London. “As soon as life gets harder, people look for something more uplifting, which is where disco comes in — it’s an escape. The first big-haired disco moments happened in America during the 1970s, when there was a depression caused by an oil crisis.”

Many of the tunes played are comfortingly familiar from the first time around, which makes the trend much more accessible. Whereas “cool” music scenes are often the preserve of kids taking drugs in dark corners, disco is camp and bright and sparkly and opportunist. Anyone can shake a tail feather to the anti-ageist, happy-go-luckiness of a disco tune.

The revival started at Glastonbury, with Horse Meat Disco’s NYC Downlow bar in the Trash City field. The tent, which from the outside looked like a 1970s back-alley dive, had transvestites hanging out of the second-storey windows and commanded a three-hour queue to get in. Once inside, to a soundtrack of sparkly, hip-bumping disco, a giant mirror ball twirled as men, women, boys, girls and everybody in between channelled the spirit of the disco divas of old. Then a truly “Oh, my” moment, as the crowds parted and six trannies — in heels, in the mud — broke into a formation dance known as the electric slide. You don’t get that at your average German techno night.

Horse Meat Disco’s Glasto moment was proof that the glittery disco bandwagon is back in town. Fashion agreed, as the trends stomping down the A/W 2008 and S/S 2009 catwalks proved. Sequins, satin and sparkle, jump suits and hair you could hatch a mirror ball out of — they’re all there. As for the girls in the new Gucci perfume ad — these, ladies, are your dancefloor inspiration. Wear the look at Disco Bloodbath, in London, or Disco Friction, in Manchester, and you’re there.

While we’re all familiar with the works of Abba and the Village People, DJs Todd Hart, of Dalston Oxfam Shop, and Dan Beaumont, of Disco Bloodbath, are digging a little deeper in the record box. “People want something a bit more challenging, to be exposed to music they would never normally hear,” Beaumont says. “That electro sound that seemed so fresh at clubs such as Nag Nag Nag has now moved so far into the mainstream, a lot of people are looking for an alternative.” Enter the sounds of “disco nouveau”.

“Bands such as Glass Candy, Chromatics and Fan Death are seeing a surge in popularity,” Stanton says. “Their sound combines elements of pop and elements of disco — they are uber-cool and appeal to the masses.”

Fan Death are the Canadians Marta Jaciubek-McKeever and Dandilion Wind Opaine. With their music reworked by the producer and DJ Erol Alkan, they are styling it at the front of the disco-nouveau pack. Their debut single, Veronica’s Veil at Chanel’s S/S catwalk show in Paris.

As for the “everybody gets it” appeal of the sound, Andy Butler, from Hercules and Love Affair, the poster band for disco nouveau, explains: “Disco often flirts with other musical styles, so no matter what genre you’re into, there’s a disco song for you. If you rock, there is rock. If you like rap, you’ll find a disco rap track. If you like it a little bit Latin, there are some Latin monsters. And,” he concludes thoughtfully, “the best thing about all disco is that it makes you want to boogie.”

There’s the rub. Or should that be the bump? Despite the doom and gloom, the solution is out there in a nightclub near you this new year. Do a little dance, make a little love and get down tonight.

THE BEST DISCOS TO BRING IN THE NEW YEAR

London

- Horse Meat Disco at Cargo. Jonny Woo guests. cargo-london.com

- Good Times Live at the Forum. With disco-nouveau pioneers Crazy P. normanjay.com

- Wig Out! at the Royal Court. Cabaret with DJ Boogaloo Stu. royalcourttheatre.com

- Elton John at the O2 — 17,000 join Elt for this one-off. theo2.co.uk

Brighton

- Murderdisco at the Hope. Tiny venue, bumping and grinding obligatory. myspace.com/murderdisco

Manchester

- Disco Friction at Joshua Brooks. A disco DJ-off. joshuabrooks.co.uk

Liverpool

- Chibuku at the Barfly. Fancy dress and 1980s disco. chibuku.com

Nottingham

- Basement Boogaloo at the Canal House. Disco jock extraordinaire Greg Wilson graces this shindig. myspace.com/ basementboogaloo

[TimesOnline]

Vintage Disco

Gloria Gaynor - Honey Bee (NYC, 1975)

Alexander Robotnick new video

The legendary Maurizio Dami A.K.A. Alexander Robotnick just sent me his hot new video, "Obsession For The Disco Freaks" which is an Electro-High Energy track. This is Robotnick's ironic tribute to all lovers and vinyl collectors of the 80s Italo High Energy Disco music.

http://www.robotnick.it
http://www.myspace.com/alexanderrobotnick

Happy 80th Birthday Vincent Montana, Jr.

One of my all-time heros celebrates a birthday today. I wish Vincent Montana, Jr. the happiest and healthiest of birthdays. He's been a true inspiration to me and my passion and appreciation for music.

I just got this email from Vincent Montana, Jr.'s daughter:

Hi All
Just wanted to share VMJs Birthday Card.
We're celebrating 80
years on the 12th February, 2008.
Please feel free to pass it on.
Enjoy
and All the Best,
Eileen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgMZUK3P6rk

Vincent Montana Jr. (born February 12, 1928) is an American composer, arranger, and percussionist, most known as a member of MFSB and as the founder of the Salsoul Orchestra.

He is the spiritual father of the Salsoul Orchestra, the backing band for the many acts on Salsoul Records. The personnel of MFSB and the Salsoul orchestra overlapped substantially, and both groups were recorded at Philadelphia's famous Sigma Sound Studios.

In recent years Mr. Montana has worked with famed house music duo Masters at Work, which has rekindled interest in his work. Ken Cayre, founder of Salsoul Records, has praised Mr. Montana's skill at scoring strings, brass, and diverse percussion in such way that it all worked within a dance recording. As Mr. Montana was among the first with his considerable training and skill to apply such scoring technique to disco-oriented recordings, it is safe to say he is a true pioneer in the field.

You can view a decent discography on Discogs
Official Vince Montana Jr. Website At Philly Sound Works

Absolut celebrates DISCO with Limited Edition Bottle-Shaped Mirror Ball

I was in my liquor store earlier today and didn't notice the latest LIMITED EDITION Absolut Vodka promotion with the Absolut Bottle-shaped Disco Mirror Ball. I might have to go back again tomorrow.

Visit the cute webpage they have set up with interactive games and downloads. If you have a webcam and mic on your computer, get your Aunt Polly and Esther out on the dancefloor (a long as dey don't touch da hair). Games include fingering (not the NSFW-kinda fingering, you pigs). It's a keyboard integrated animation that makes you point your fingers to the music à la Tony Manero-style.

The one-liter Absolut Disco gift pack is built of exactly 1,000 reflecting prisms which serve as a bottle package and can be put into use as a disco ball. The Absolut Disco is a clamshell package that opens to reveal the bottle. The empty gift pack has a loop for hanging.

R.I.P. Mel Cheren (Paradise Garage / West End Records)

Very sad news with confirmed reports on the passing of Mel Cheren on December 7, 2007. Mel was an activist in the fight against AIDS and a music industry legend. He gave us the Paradise Garage (home of Larry Levan and some other great DJ's), West End Records, Colonial House, etc.

Mel Cheren passed away from AIDS complications. Having had health problems for several months, his HIV status was only confirmed last month, by which point it was evidently too late.

Mel was THE GODFATHER OF DISCO


Bio on Mel Cheren

Pioneer. Activist. Survivor. Mel Cheren is The Godfather of Disco. Based on Mel Cheren’s powerful autobiography, My Life and the Paradise Garage: Keep On Dancin’, The Godfather of Disco is a documentary about the man who envisioned the future of disco, and then made it happen. Through a series of interviews with the who’s who of the dance community, the film follows the arc of Cheren’s life to examine the early ‘70s musical and cultural currents that gave birth to disco. From his launch of West End Records, to his seminal role in the creation Paradise Garage, one of the most influential clubs of all time, Cheren was a man on the scene.

From that cultural heyday, the film then charts the onslaught of HIV/AIDS, its impact on New York City, and Cheren’s heroic efforts in the face of an epidemic through his work for Gay Men’s Health Crisis and 24hrs for Life/LIFEbeat. He has been there, done that, and lived to tell the tale.

The Godfather of Disco makes a compelling case for how one’s man’s musical vision and AIDS activism helped push gay sensibilities into the greater culture—and how our world is better for it.

Here's me and Mel at the Dance Music Hall Of Fame 2004 in NYC:

This video below was shot for Logo Channel/CBS two weeks after Mel Cheren found out that he was HIV+ while in a recent hospital stay for pneumonia. This video was released November 29, 2007, less than 2 weeks before his passing.

Amanda Lear - Alphabet (1977)