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Showing posts from February, 2011

Discomania!

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A couple of weeks ago Alwin, a good friend of mine, asked me to go to a concert of The Sonnets. I never had heard any songs of them, so I searched for the band on YouTube. And I discovered a very nice single with the intro of Barry White’s ‘Love’s theme’, called ‘No Hollywood ending’. The concert was cancelled (one of the members was ill), so I haven’t seen them live yet, but I like their fresh eighties attitude. Check them out, if you can. Their album ‘Western Harbour Blue’ is very nice as well. Some of the tracks, like the ones from Teddy Pendergrass en Johnny Mathis can be found on the excellent Disco Discharge series, selected by the one and only Mr Pink. Thanks to Nicolas Drosos for sending me some of the songs in this mix! Tracklist: Bonnie Pointer – I Can’t Help Myself (Motown/1979) The Sonnets – No Hollywood Ending (Despotz/2010) Love Unlimited Orchestra – Love’s Theme (20th Century/1973) Heaven 'N' Hell Orchestra – Bitten By The Love Bug [Disco Mix] (MCA/1

Dance & Be Happy

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It’s a good motto for this weekend: dance and be happy! It's also the title of a song from the ‘Love man’ sessions from Marvin Gaye. Due to his difficulties with Motown the song never officially made it to an album, which is a pity. It has the same quality as the songs from his creative peak in the early and mid-1970s. Some of the songs appeared (in different versions) on 'In our lifetime' in 1981. In this mix I used a re-edit I made, ‘Move for me’ from Output. I left out a horrible rap and put in some extra instruments and vocals. It sounds a little bit Chic-ish now. Output was a project from Jerome Prister. Later on he was part of Secret Weapon (known for 'Must be the music'). A female vocalist that has a very nice ‘seventies vibe’ is Ntjam Rosie. Check out her latest album ‘Elle’ which is really nice! Tracklist: Lee Armstrong Express – Chicken N Waffles (2002) The Gap Band – Shake (1979) The Perfect Circle – The Hands Of Time (1977) Satisfaction Unl

Disco Diehards

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It’s disco time again! And some of the best disco comes from Germany, like the one in this mix from Su Kramer. The guy on drums is Keith Forsey. He played on records from Giorgio Moroder, Donna Summer and Sparks. Later on he produced the big hits for former punk rocker Billy Idol, like ‘Eyes without a face’. The song ‘Magic dance’ heavily borrows from ‘Was dog a doughnut’, the club classic from Cat Stevens. Sampling didn’t exist yet... A few years later the electro experiment from Cat Stevens was sampled by The Fearless Four ('It's magic' in 1982). Deichkind sampled 'Magic dance' for their hip hop track 'Bon voyage' in 2000. The remixed version of ‘My house’ from Hercules & Love Affair came out last week. It uses a few beats from ‘Let’s start II dance again’, the Bohannon disco track (with additional raps from Dr. Perri Johnson and some very cool breaks!). It was one of the first rap tracks on the Dutch pop charts. Hamilton Bohannon was the bandleader

Body Talk

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It’s really a coincidence, but two of the tracks in this mix were played by DJ Dazler on his show last week. The same taste in music, I guess… ;-) To be honest, the album ‘Destiny fulfilled’ from Destiny’s Child was quite dreadful. The track ‘Cater2you’ had the worst lyrics since ‘Stand by your man’… But I like ‘Is she the reason’, which is exceptionally good. They sample Melba Moore’s ‘I don’t know no one to turn to’ and their song is way better than the original (yes, it’s true!). The Human League song was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (Janet Jackson, SOS Band). Watch out for their super cool new single ' Never let me go ' that will be out soon! The lyrics are wonderful: 'a life alone is not a crying shame'. There’s a little bit of ‘body talk’ in this video as well (and don't forget to listen to ‘Shake it’ from Steffen Morrison !). Enjoy! Tracklist: Eddie Kendricks – Body Talk (Motown/1975) The Cruisers – Take A Chance (Gamble/1967) Bobby Gent