DISCO DISCHARGE — DISCO FEVER U.S.A.: Deep In The Heart Of The Mirrorball Era

It’s impos­si­ble to overem­pha­size how much disco was pro­duced dur­ing the genre’s golden era.  Everyone from the major labels down to the tini­est indie com­pa­nies were crank­ing out disco albums and 12-inch sin­gles by the truck­load.   Thus, explor­ing the disco genre is not unlike dis­ap­pear­ing down the rab­bit hole in Alice In Wonderland.   Just when you think you’re done, there’s still more ahead — and it’s easy to get over­whelmed by the sheer mass of what is available.

Thankfully, there are ded­i­cated con­nois­seurs will­ing to do the explo­ration on behalf of the curi­ous lis­tener.  One of the best in recent mem­ory is Mr. Pink, the gen­tle­man behind the Disco Discharge com­pi­la­tion series.  For the last few years, he’s done a fan­tas­tic job of explor­ing disco in all its per­mu­ta­tions and cre­at­ing carefully-curated sets that dish up the tasti­est in rare grooves for fans and neo­phytes alike.

The begin­ning of 2011 brings the third wave of releases in this series and it gets off to a rous­ing start with the first in the new series, a 2-disc set enti­tled Disco Fever U.S.A. Don’t let the sub­ti­tle fool you — this is no generic hits pack.  It focuses on lesser known disco pro­duced and/or released by U.S.-based labels.  A few tracks stray into the early 1980’s but most come from the last few years of the 1970’s, thus allow­ing it to recre­ate the feel of what one might have heard when hit­ting the dis­cothe­ques dur­ing those golden years.  All the tunes are pre­sented in either album-length or orig­i­nal 12-inch mix ver­sions and the book­let fea­tures an infor­ma­tive, witty set of liner notes from expert Alan Jones.

The first disc hits a nice blend of high-production glossi­ness and funky grit.  Highlights in the orches­tral area include Dennis Parker’s “Like An Eagle,” a sleaze-disco mas­ter­piece full of swirling strings and breathy, soar­ing vocals by a moon­light­ing porn star (his nom de porn was Wade Nichols), and THP Orchestra’s “Too Hot For Love,” an ele­gantly arranged piece that drifts between ethe­real flights of fancy and earth­ier horn-driven parts.  On the funkier side, Fern Kinney’s synth-y redux of “Baby Let Me Kiss You” plays like Kraftwerk cov­er­ing a Stax tune (look out for its sur­pris­ing drum break) and Richard T. Bear’s “Sunshine Hotel” is accu­rately described in the liner notes as sound­ing like Dr. John doing a disco tune.

Things get even bet­ter on the sec­ond disc, which goes over the top in many won­der­ful ways.  In terms of straight­for­ward dance fare, the best track here is Celi Bee & The Buzzy Bunch’s “One Love,” a relent­less and fast-paced groover that off­sets her sweet alto vocals with a squelchy synth hook and some killer Latin per­cus­sion breaks.  There is also some choice exot­ica in the form of Ultimate’s “Ritmo De Brazil” and a killer swing-jazz trib­ute in Area Code 212’s “Duke’s Train.”  However, it’s the high-camp stuff that steals the show: Johnny Mathis’ epic rework­ing of “Begin The Beguine” soars to impos­si­bly grand heights on a lush Gene Page arrange­ment and the 12-inch mix of Linda Clifford’s cover of “If My Friends Could See Me Now” piles on all the bells and whis­tles, topped off with an operatic-intensity diva vocal from Clifford.

And those high­lights just scratch the sur­face of what’s going on in this set.  The biggest and most pleas­ant sur­prise is the inclu­sion of two tracks from the Nocturna sound­track, “Love Is Just A Heartbeat Away” by Gloria Gaynor and “Nighttime Fantasy” by Vicki Sue Robinson.  The movie is a noto­ri­ously lousy hor­ror com­edy that is famous for three things: star Nai Bonet’s nude scenes, Brother Theodore’s wild impro­vised mono­logues and an amaz­ing score of orig­i­nal disco tunes.  The two songs included here are clas­sic late-1970’s disco show-stoppers, with the Gaynor track offer­ing a roman­tic plea per­fect for her impas­sioned vocals and the Robinson track being a real get-down affair with a sing-along hook.

In short, Disco Discharge: Disco Fever U.S.A. is a great way for disco fans to begin the New Year and a fine way to kick off the lat­est wave of Disco Discharge albums.  If you’re won­der­ing how you can begin explor­ing classic-era disco beyond the obvi­ous hits, this set offers a good start­ing point.