It’s a in-band joke that my goal in life (at least with regards to music) is to like everything by the time I die. I have ecclectic musical taste, and generally add more and more to my playlist as the years roll by. I’ll state my hatred for some artist or genre, and then a few months later extol the virtues to every person I talk to, email, or meet in a gas station bathroom. Well, if you had told adolescent Noam that in his thirties he’d be writing blog posts about his favorite Disco tracks, he would have said, ” What the fuck is blog posts?!?”
Well… anyways….. I got into circuit bending…. I got into synthesizers…. I got into disco. So here I am, talking about a few of my favorite Electro-Disco Tracks. Take that, “Noam-Practicing-For-His-Bar-Mitzvah” (by the way, you love country music too, dipshit)
Moroder! Moroder! Moroder!
Giorgio Moroder is one of the best. He’s an Italian who lives in Germany who produced some of America’s biggest Disco hits including Donna Sommers “Love to Love You Baby”. He’s credited (probably by himself) for producing the first dance track with a “four-on-the-floor” beat and the first extended dance single. He composed the music for many movie soundtracks most famously “Midnight Express” and “Scarface” (take it to the limit!)
What I really like are his electro-disco solo records. His use of vocoder is bar none. This music makes me giddy cause its so damn cheesy, silly, and just plain fun. This is the title track to his amazing record “E=MC2″ (later sampled by J Dilla).
This one really slays me, especially when he starts giving a vocoded recitation of the album credits. If you recognize the name Harold Faltermeyer, that’s because he was Moroder’s protege who went on to have a career rivaling the master’s, including the amazing themes from “Fletch”, “Top Gun”, and of course “Axel F” from “Beverly Hills Cop”
Here is a link to one of my favorite blogs’ Moroder discussion.
Next up is Cerrone’s Sci-fi Disco concept album, “SuperNature”. Cerrone is another amazing disco producer. Most of his work is very sensual and lush with elaborate string and vocal arrangements. This track however has bubbling and pulsating synths to give it that futuristic flair. The bass line will infect your soul. And the Lyrics! Creepy dystopian paranoia - I love it.
Once upon a time
Science opened up the door
We would feed the hungry fields
Till they could’nt eat no more
But the potion that we made
Touched the creatures down below
And they grow up in a way
That we’d never seen before
Supernature, supernature, supernature, supernature
Last, Black Devil. French duo who released one excellent LP in 1978, “Disco Club”. This album has gurgling synths and bouncy drums, plus really fun vocals affected just to the point of obfuscation. A treat for the ears and the booty. I really like playing this track to get excited before shows. LOUD! But the whole record is really amazing. They got back into the mix a few years ago, but their recent music really lacks the freshness and originality of this record.
