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Lots of peo­ple all over the world loved disco dur­ing its hey­day but few ever took it to their hearts the way the gay com­mu­nity did.  It was truly their music and they devoted them­selves to it with a fer­vor than no one else could match.  Thus, it was no sur­prise that when disco dis­ap­peared from the pop charts that it would find a wel­com­ing home in the gay clubs.  They con­tin­ued to nur­ture and develop the sound, soon spawn­ing its built-for-speed, elec­tronic vari­ant Hi-NRG, and they con­tinue to play a vital role in its success.

With this his­tory in mind, it should be no sur­prise that gay-disco com­pi­la­tions are plen­ti­ful in the disco music world.  A notable recent entry in the field is Pink Pounders, which was released as part of the ongo­ing Disco Discharge com­pi­la­tion series ear­lier this fall.  The intrigu­ing title is an English expres­sion that refers to the gay community’s will­ing­ness to sup­port the busi­nesses and artists that cre­ate the things tai­lored to their needs.  The music busi­ness is obvi­ously a favorite of these “Pink Pounders” and this 2-disc set fol­lows in the foot­steps of Disco Discharge’s ear­lier Gay Disco & Hi-NRG set to take the lis­tener deeper into this fas­ci­nat­ing sub­genre of dance music.

The first disc mixes pro­to­typ­i­cal gay dance fare from the late 1970’s/early 1980’s with more tra­di­tional instru­men­ta­tion  with full-on elec­tronic dance tracks from the glory days of Hi-NRG.  On the ear­lier tip, stand­outs include “Hot Leather” by the Passengers, a pulse-pounding Italian effort that off­sets its throb­bing elec­tronic rhythms and synth lines with chirpy girl-chorus vocals and caf­feinated horns, and “Boys Will Be Boys” by the Duncan Sisters, with the soar­ing vocals of the ladies cut­ting a swath through a densely-orchestrated stom­per of a back­ing track.  In the Hi-NRG arena, Patrick Cowley’s “Lift Off” com­bines trance-y synths and amus­ingly campy rock­et­ship sex-metaphor lyrics while Pia Zadora & Jermaine Jackson’s absurdly delight­ful “When The Rain Begins To Fall” is a new-wave-styled slice of dance fever that cranks the gaudy emo­tion­al­ism and BPM’s up to camp-classic levels.

The major­ity of disc two is devoted to 1980’s fare and is thus dom­i­nated by synth-driven fare.  That said, it never becomes dull because all good gay disco has a focus on melodic hooks and bright melodies: for instance, “My Forbidden Lover’ by Tapps milks a cou­ple of candy-coated synth hooks for all they are worth while Virgin’s “Only You” is the kind of effer­ves­cent hook-machine that would have made Stock Aitken and Waterman jeal­ous.  Other win­ners on the sec­ond disc include the daz­zling camp/sci-fi disco opus “The Ultimate Warlord” by The Immortals (dig that vocoder!) and Patsy Gallant’s “From New York To L.A.,” a glo­ri­ous high-camp melo­drama with a beat about a singer who for­sakes love for fame.

There’s much more going on in this set than can be dis­cussed in a con­cise review — like the pres­ence of “Shake It Up,” a fun bit of min­i­mal­ist synth disco by moon­light­ing John Waters star Divine — but lis­ten­ers can rest assured that remain­der of the selec­tions are thought­fully cho­sen and care­fully pro­grammed by series mas­ter­mind Mr. Pink.  As usual for this series, it sticks to 12-inch ver­sions and album-length cuts so fans don’t have to worry about being sub­jected to stingy single-edits of any tracks.  The infor­ma­tive liner notes from Alan Jones offer intrigu­ing info on every track, cap­ping things off in high (camp) style.

In short, Disco Discharge: Pink Pounders is a fun set and a must for any­one who wants to learn about this dis­tinc­tive sub­genre of disco.  Seriously, the Pia Zadora/Jermaine Jackson teamup alone makes it worthwhile.