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Disco. So heisst man seit das mitende neunzehnjahr-ehundert der tunz-tanz vier-zu-den-boden samstags pimmelparty. Was ist mit den Disco passiert? Ist es wirklich passierte oder was? Die antwort ist nicht etwas anderes: tanzst du oder sonst? Dazu - seit ihr deutsch, fremd-deutsch oder was - ihr seit be-scheid wissen. Wenn sie ein leckerer Buerger maul-taschen paeckchen kaufen wollen, lesen sie den min-destenshaltbar oder nicht? Ich mach´s nicht und es schmeckt gut normaler-weise. Keine sorgen, die maultaschen sind immer das gute von menschen. Wie-so ist Disco? Siebzigste, Achtzigste oder Neun-zigste. Das war die zeit wo maenner ohne schamroe-te tanzen koennen. Aber heute, was steht mehr? Eine uebel faelschung von was war langjaehrig? Oder sonst etwas radioaktives heiss? Ihr seid hier um das zu erfinden.

Pierlo from Romelikes Germany and of course: Disco.

DSICODsico. A freeing of eit-her body and soul. Or is it only one music? Clear and hollow like plastic bottles on the mountain trashs? No sprite, no spi-rit. Seems like everynow like it anyhow and it`s assshaking danceable for all fags or faginas. Yes, yes. I heard some people say Disco is best. But thats we talk about. Talk about a music chan-ging generations. Talk about lightfigures. We got deep in it. Really deep - just touched the real. We asked the internet and our parents. And it´s annoying but more interesting. So just get inspired of this cool (the new meaning) fanzine. You will find out why you still dance to this music and whats the scence behind great tunes. Plus some great Top 69 list to checking out for, the dsico classics. Best before baby. If you like the zine just drop me some lines.

Mito from Tokyo is a DJ.

Disco. Non e solo un coso rotondo che si butta ma anche la musichetta. E vecchia ma funziona ancora abbastanze bene, dapper-tutto era morto. E di-ventata fiume principale (mainstream), poi sembrava merda! Meglio prima vuole dire che c´era un tempo quando la musica disco era fenomenale. Ma meglio prima anche sta scrit-to normalmente sobra il latte, ma per disco non esiste la data precisa. Non si sa quando il gusto sara burro; gli anni set-tanta gia sono passati, giovanotto. Negli anni ot-tanta Italia era il posto di nascita per un tipo di disco plastico ginnastico. Oggi, che bello, madonna mia, disco piace la gente si balla uno due. Questo fumetto tifoso (fan zine) scrive la storia di sabato notte febre, di nuovo. An-che la nonna quando balla in cucina dice che siamo bravi e ci da un extra poco di carna.

Harald from Germany is a friend of Pierlo and us.

Here´s what to expect on the following pages, translated into three different languages:

Sorry Hipsters,This fanzine doesn´tcontain triangles

Disco describes a musical style which became popular in the mid 1970s. Influ-enced by Funk and Soul, Disco music also includes Latin percussion and sym-phonic elements such as strings or horns. Most significant is the steady rhythm that makes it easi-ly danceable: a ´four-to-the-floor´ beat, often with an open hi-hat on the off-beat. Thanks to catchy melodies and re-petitive vocals the sound became popular extremely fast, and by the

end of the 1970s most of the Western world was in-fected with Disco fever.The Discotheque plays a key role in the movement; it´s where the music beca-me a life-style. Every-thing revolves around DJs and club culture - doing the hustle, doing the bus stop, doing the bump. Following planned steps doesn´t appear as cool nowadays, but it set the whole world dancing, and today Disco is still the best club music. Word!

Bert knows how to Disco.

8Eighth Notes

BASSDRUM

Snare

X

X

HiHATS (closed) X

HiHATS (open) X

Claps X

The use of the synthesizer created the sensual feel that is characteristic for Disco and paved the way for Donna Summer´s land-mark hit ´I Feel Love´ in 1977.

Stereotypical Disco Beat:

Legendary Minimoog

It´s time for the next prohibition: Disco. Guitars jitter in the background instead of wailing self-confidently, masculinity is a joke. But they get all the air-time on the radio! I can´t listen to those soft synthe-feizer sounds any more! Rock is bad-ass, Disco is just bad! And look at those sell-outs: Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Queen, KISS - they all made a Disco song!

Steve at work.

7654321

XX

XXX

X X X

X

X

Hi, my name is Anita Bry-ant. I would like to tell you the truth about Dis-co: it is a complete sin to live that hedonistic ´life-style´ as many call it, and god will never forgive you for listening to that sex music! It´s wrong to think Disco is fun. And by the way, as a mother I know that homose-xuals cannot biologically reproduce children; there-fore, they must recruit our children! That´s why I say: Ban Disco! Save our children.

Disco stamp, 1999

Hedonistic life style

Excerpt from ´Discotheque Rock 72: Paaaarty!´ by Vince Aletti, Rolling Stone Mag, 13.09.1973

Anita Bryant

The massive quantities of drugs ingested in discotheques produced the next cultural phe-nomenon of the disco era: rampant promiscuity and public sex. While the dance floor was the central arena of seduction, actual sex usually took place in the nether regions of the disco: bathroom stalls, exit stairwells, and so on.

„Paar-ty! Paar-ty! [...] You hear the chant at concerts, rising like a tribal rallying cry on a shrill wave of whistles and hard-bea-ten tambourines. It‘s at once a call to get down and party, a statement that there‘s a party going on and an indication that dis-cotheques, where the chant originated, are back in force...... in the last year they‘ve returned not only as a rapidly spreading social phenomenon (via juice bars, after-hours clubs, private lofts open on weekends to members only, floating groups of party-givers who take over the ballrooms of old hotels from mid-night to dawn) but as a strong influence on the music people listen to and buy.The best discotheque DJs are underground stars, discovering previously ignored al-bums, foreign imports, album cuts and obscure singles with the power to make the crowd scream and playing them overlap-ped, non-stop so you dance until you drop.One of the most spectacular discotheque records in recent months is a perfect exa-mple of the genre: Manu Dibango‘s „Soul Makossa. [...] its hypnotic beat and mys-terious African vocals drove people crazy. (Vince Aletti)

O

What a dif-ference a gay makes.

It´s not that I wouldn´t get in or anything, I just don´t wanna go. Disco-theques are for hypocrits, all that happy fuss is so superficial. Who cares if you can´t dance or how you look, I´m leading the Space Invaders highs-core in all Ohio. I heard they´re doing drugs like all the time; I once tried Champagne on New Year´s and it was aweful. Iuhhh.

Characterized by a strong bass, a simple

melody, and tense repe-titive lyrics. “Disco“, as this music is called...is becoming increasingly popular on AM and FM

radio stations. WPIX-FM recently switched several hours of its night-ly programming over to „Disco“ and leaned Disco the rest of the day. (1975)

Bill

DJ Nicky Siano (The Gallery) &DJ Larry Levan (Paradise Garage)

In 1969, American club DJ Francis Grasso popularized beatmatching at New York´s Sanctuary nightclub. Beat-matching is the technique of creating seamless tran-sitions between records with matching tempos. This allowed people to keep dancing without a break inbetween songs.

DJ Francis Grasso(Sanctuary)

The Diskjockey

Xavier of Justice made a collage out of his 8 favorite new Dsico labels - do you know them all? (p.49)

The first NY clubs in the early 70s must have been the shit! Electryfying temples of dancemusic: The Loft, The Gallery, Para-dise Garage or Studio 78. Larry Levan is one of my favorite DJs and Remixers; just bought his ´Ladybug´ Remix on Discogs for only $210. All my friends envy me for having it! My favo-rite artists of today are LCD Soundsystem, Hercules & LA and stuff by label Gomma. Nu Disco!

9

Hey Xavier. You forgot me: Jellybean. Famous Fun-house DJ and Madonna`s first lover.

John ´Jellybean´ Benitez

„records live and die in disco-

theques, like exotic hothouse

flowers.“ Vince Aletti,1973

8

Excerpt from „The Disco Handbook / Chapter 2 - Disco Lingo“ by Bruce Pollack:

„Any new craze worth the hysteria that disco has created must have its own specialized language–a slang vocabulary known only to insiders, making them feel more in. The disco craze is no exception, coming equipped with an assortment of colorful words and expres-sions to match the colorful, high-gloss fabrics worn at the discothèque.“

KINETIC ENERGY: A substance produced by the nervous system when it interacts with the myriad effects of the disco.

MOBILE DISCO: A commercial enterprise which comes to your house, school, or neighbor-hood arena equipped with records, lights, speakers, turntables, mixers, deejay, and good vibes, to set up a one-night disco extravaganza.

NERD: 1) Anyone who wears socks with cowboys and Indians on them.2) Someone whose mother takes them to the disco and then waits outside in the car with the motor running.

THE BOX STEP: 1) An old-fashioned notion of dancing which will only get you in trouble at the disco.2) That four-cornered signal you make over your shoulder to friends, to warn them that you‘re with the kind of square who is still hopelessly in the dark ages, at least as far as dancing is concerned.

HOT: Cool

COOL: Hot

BAD: Good

A

David Mancuso (The Loft)

BROTHER: 1) A kindred spirit in the night2) Anyone who can demonstrate a handshake of more than four separate movements.

CONVERSATION: An outmoded preoccupation at the dis-co, which many lead to things like ex-changing phone numbers or agreeing to meet outside for a breath of fresh air.

DISCOTHEQUE: What the French, who invented it, call the disco. Literally, a record library.

ROLLER DISCO: Disco on roller skates.

FOX: This year‘s version of the Old Lady, who was last year‘s edition of the Chick, who replaced Bird, who is a Chick or an Old Lady in England.

TURKEY: Anyone who refers to women as Foxes, Chicks, Old Ladies, Birds, or Broads.

FUNKY: 1) The kind of rhythm and blues designed to cause one to break out in cold sweats. 2) The collected aroma of the disco - with sweat, tears, makeup, hair-spray, and perfume mingling with the moisture of bodies all gasping for breath in the darkness.

KKpres.

Narrating It

A story featuring Charles Manson, Jimmy Carter, Timothy Leary, Michael Jackson, Zsa Zsa Gabor and many more

were strongly committed to their European origin, a conservative class-consciousness, and a rat-her strict dress code. It seems that such places could not provide what a thriving un-derground scene of gays, sla-ckers, bohemians, ex-hippies, young immigrants and notori-ous partyheads was looking for - unique celebration and exces-sive dancing. Many contemporary witnesses and music journalists stress that these desires im-plied much more than just the longing for a good party, name-ly, the shared desire to escape into an egalitarian, liberated space without sexual or racial discrimination. Even though this might sound like a stereotypical phrase from the fading decade of the highly politicized 60s, the tempting promise of Disco was certainly not the liberation of the masses but the liberation of the individual, instead. When teach-ins and demonstrations did not help, one could overcome the persistent social borders at least for a single night through the universal language of dan-cing. The decisive influence of the late 60s sociopolitical climate on the emergence of Disco is a fix part of its historiogra-phy. In his book ´́ Turn The Beat Around - The Secret History of Disco´́ Peter Shapiro describes its climate as an ideology hangover that was demonstrated through simple slogans like ´́ I´m OK, You´re OK´́ and a general return to rather individual concerns. Part of that setting is that many civil rights acti-vists, especially Afro-Ameri-cans, were frustrated and dis-illusioned because the liberal establishment didn´t seem to be capable or willing to grant the hard-won concessions, while the hippies had to face the fact that drugs could expand ones mind but not society. Only the gay community was en-couraged - by the Stonewall Riots. The Stonewall Inn was a

Disco is commonly associated with two different things: the location, discotheque, and Disco music. The term discotheque is a hybrid (neologism) between disc and bibliotheque, it was coi-ned in occupied Paris during the early 1940s by the pioneering nightclub ´́ La Discotheque´́ , whereas Disco music - as we know it today - first emerged in the early 1970s.

Forced by the official ban of so-called ´́ jungle music´́ and other restrictions during the Nazi-occupation, little Jazz clubs in France would no longer dare to set up a whole live band, so they were simply pla-ying recorded music via gramo-phones, instead. However, the crucial point is not just that the band was replaced by a gra-mophone but, as music journalist Peter Shapiro argues, ´́ that a disc jockey played music of his own choosing and not necessari-ly what was in the hit parade, tailored to a specific crowd of dancers in a nondomestic set-ting´́ . The first disc-jockeys appeared in conjunction with the new mass medium radio in the early 20th century, they quickly played an important and powerful role as style-innovators and promoters. While most clubs still had live music, piano rolls, or juke-boxes where the playlists were determined by the distributors, the concept of the disc jockey transferred into the club scene-ry enabled a more distinctive sound and interactive approach (at least in theory). Despite the end of the occupation and the associated repression after 1945, the discotheques remained very popular in France. Though, the formerly shady venues became glamorous celebrity hangouts for the likes of Zsa-Zsa Gabor, Omar Sharif or Louise Malle. Due to that prehistory, most clubs in NY (and elsewhere in the United States) that labeled themselves as discothèques in the 1960s

clandestine parties around that time, they were certainly not the only ones but they gained a legendary status due to their groundbreaking style. Mancuso, born 1944, was a runaway who stranded in NY in the mid 1960s. He was engaged with all kinds of scenes; the gay-rights mo-vement, LSD fueled hippie ga-therings with Timothy Leary, or Afro-American rent parties in Harlem. Mancuso, looking like Charles Manson after a wellness trip with his big beard, scrag-gly hair and piercing eyes, is often portrayed as the icon of the real Disco culture that is opposed to the greasy Tony Ma-nero, John Travolta´s character in Saturday Night Fever. Many of Disco´s legendary DJs like Frankie Knuckles, Francis Gras-so, or Larry Levan were regular guests at The Loft and they all acknowledged the unique inti-mate atmosphere which made the parties so different from the average uptown clubnight. Mancu-so tried to create a Disco lab with perfect conditions, he was concerned about everything from excellent sound over nutritious catering to an extravagant deco-ration, but the most important thing remained the music itself. Thanks to years of experience in the scene, he knew exactly what kind of music people would dance to. Mancuso recruited a crowd that was ambitious and willing at the same time. He reminis-ces; ´́ When a plane takes off there´s a moment when the pilot decides that the speed is right, he pulls back and - boom! - you leave the ground. The party was like that. There was a point at which it just went up. It didn´t happen right away. It took time. But it happened.´́ The first Loft party, set up at Valentine´s Day 1970, was entitled ´́ Love Saves The Day´́ , a title that illus-trates Mancuso´s escapist noti-on.

In 1970 there was no such thing as ´́ Disco music´́ , neither spe-

gay bar on Christopher Street in New York that was, like many other gay venues, raided by the police frequently because sel-ling alcohol to homosexuals was supposedly prohibited. In the night of June 17th, 1969, when 8 police officers entered to stop the party, the patrons and staff decided to finally stand up against the police harass-ment, which lead to a proper streetfight or as the New York Daily Mail put it; ´́ Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad´́ . Although it hardly put an end to the police harassment, this incident is considered to be the kick-start for the gay-rights movement, it stands for New York´s status as the gay metropolis where thousands of homosexuals from the US and the rest of the world came ´́ to learn how to live openly, honestly and without shame´́ . Although the precedent remarks might suggest so, Disco was not the inevitable consequence of social determinants or even cul-tural constraint. Critics stress that despite the chronological connection the linkage between nightlife and politics is rather overrated; ´́ I really don´t think that many of the activists went to the discotheques, and I don´t think many of the people going to discotheques were into the political thing´́ says sound-en-gineer and DJ Bob Casey, while the Stonewall regular Jorge La Torre frankly admits,´́ I wasn´t politically enlightened at the time. All I was interested in was having fun, going out dan-cing, and getting high´́ . They argue that Disco is the creative work of enthusiastic individuals who shared a passion for dance music and happened to live in the same town, NYC.

David Mancuso was one of those enthusiasts. He set up a loose series of semi-private house parties, later known as ´́ The Loft´́ . Mancuso´s events were part of a whole network of

I´m just an outlaw

my name is desire.

Tasha Thomas “Shoot Me“

minutes or more´́ . What appears as a commonplace to contemporary clubgoers was quite an advan-ced skill back then. Considering the fact that the record pla-yers at that time had no pitch function and the drumbeats on the records were played live, it seems almost impossible to keep two rhythms running with the

cific files in record shops, nor radio shows. Like in the pioneer period of Hip Hop a couple of years later, DJs were looking for suitable tracks on all kinds of records. The playlists of the early 1970s DJs featured songs that would hardly appear on any Time Life Double CD anthology among Donna Summer or the Bee Gees. Mancuso, for instance, played Babe Ruth´s ´́ The Mexi-can´́ (later a B-Boy classic) followed by Manu Dibango´s dri-ving afro-beat tune ´́ Soul Makos-sa´́ and Eddie Kendricks proto-Disco track ´́ Girl You Need a Change of Mind´́ , others blended Cymande´s percussive ´́ Bra´́ into The Door´s ´́ Roadhouse Blues´́ . As long as there was a steady and dominant groove, everything could be played, it was all up to the DJ. The trailblazing innovation of that time was certainly not fin-ding single tunes with driving beats, but to mix them into one steady flow. Beatmixing! While Mancuso was first of all famous for his selection, his mixing skills were rather poor, all he did was blending during the last fading seconds of a song. As claimed by popular history, Francis Grasso was the one who really enhanced this new tech-nique. He was the resident at the Sanctuary, a former bap-tist church that turned into a gay hot spot, where the DJ was placed in the pulpit. In this sinful setting, Grasso perfor-med his pioneering beat-mixing experiments: by using his head-phones, he cued the unheard track, let it go just in the right moment and then played the two records simultaneously with the beats synchronized ´́ for two

same tempo for such a long time, whereas Grasso simply boasted: ´́ to me it was like nature.I did it like I walk my dog´́ . In-terestingly enough, his signa-ture mix was not beat-matched. He layered Chicago´s ´́ I´m A Man´́ over the vocal break of Led Zeppelin´s ´́ Whole Lotta Love´́ , because ´́ You really couldn´t dance to the Zeppelin once it went into the orgasmic tripping stuff, but if you mixed it with Chicago you could.´́ The people went nuts. Supported by strobe light, massive sound, a passio-nate crowd and of course drugs, Grasso´s DJ sets created this unique atmosphere, that club culture since then is commit-ted to; a synergetic experience of ´́ call and response´́ that could not be reproduced anywhere else. It was especially the Sanctuary´s gay audience, often fueled with poppers, that was eager to follow the DJs journey and functioned as party cata-lyst.

Besides clubs like the Sanctua-ry and semi-private parties like The Loft, there was a third sort

David Mancuso„Godfather of Disco“

„Every man wants to be a macho macho man to have the kind of body, always in demand

Jogging in the mornings, go man go works out in the health spa, muscles glow

You can best believe that, he‘s a macho man ready to get down with, anyone he can“

Village People “Macho Man“

Whereas ´́ Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose´́ by James Brown and other rough funk tunes slowly disappeared from the playlists, DJs began to increasingly spin records by The O´Jays, MFSB and The Intruders, the so-called Phillysoul from Philadelphia In-ternational Records. It was cha-racterized by its highly-orche-strated sound; sweeping strings, rich instrumental arrangements and sweet horn sets. This cor-porate sound was the congenial cooperation of the innovative production teams Gamble & Huff and McFadden & Whitehead and the label´s house band, which consisted of creative session musicians such as the vibrapho-nist Vincent Montana Jr. and the Trammps´ drummer Earl Young. Thanks to his distinctive snare pattern and hi-hat work, Young is supposed to be the inventor of the stereotypical Disco drum, exemplified in the song ´́ Disco Inferno´́ by The Trammps. Ano-ther signature tune is MFSB´s epos ´́ Love Is The Message´́ that starts like a sleazy sitcom trailer and ends with Montana´s extensive vibraphone jamming. Besides the lush production and the uptempo drumbeat, it were the powerful but universal mes-sages that made Phillysoul the most influential aesthetic of Disco´s heyday. Everybody could easily appropriate and sing along phrases like ´́ Wake Up Eve-rybody´́ by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes or ´́ Ain´t No Stoppin Us Now´́ by McFadden & Whitehead, which became a gay anthem. By the summer of 1973 hundreds of discotheques popped up in the Big Apple. There, the DJs and dancers had developed a specific taste for dance music together and as a result the tunes that were played in clubs resembled each other increasingly. Once it became a corporate sound, record labels slowly started producing Disco music. Shapiro calls it ´́ the beginning of the codifica-tion of disco as a style rather than the taste of whatever DJ

of venue that played a crucial role in the early days of Disco, the baths. Some of New York´s bathhouses were no longer only dedicated to sexual interaction, they had become pleasure domes. The Continental Baths for in-stance featured a restaurant, private apartments and a dis-co, where the guys would wear nothing but a towel around the neck. Attracted by such a greco-roman spirit and a very sophi-sticated entertainment program (performances by Bette Middler& Barry Manilow, Patti LaBelle), more and more straight people wanted to join the party. And through the support of the two DJ rookies Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan, the Continental Baths became one of the hottest nightspots. They provided the pulsating rhythm for its x-ra-ted scenery that is probably the worst nightmare of Steve Dahl or any other Disco hater. Both had a strong preference for soulful music, but while Knuckles was more into mixing, Levan, in-spired by his Loft adventures, focused on the atmosphere. In 1974 Levan, who already had a name, left the Baths to spin at a black gay club called Read Street and from then on until the closure Knuckles was the resident. The Loft, The Sanctuary and The Continental Baths were only three of dozens of venues that were involved in the emergence of Disco culture in New York during the early 1970s, but they stand in an exemplary fashion for crucial contributions; the intimate atmosphere of a private party, the DJ as powerful master opposed to the insane crowd as willing servant and the club as an orgiastic setting. Although the DJs picked sever-al obscure & novelty records in the early 1970s, the predominant style was Soul & Funk music, anyway. Artists that appeared on almost every playlist were James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Booker T. & The M.G.´s or Diana Ross.

ming a dancing-star. By comple-tely ignoring the gay subtext of Manhattan´s club culture and de-picting Disco as a modern ball-room scenery, the movie visua-lized a family-friendly notion of Disco. A year later, however, the queer face returned to the public in a silly disguise, the Village People. Now, family-dads all over the country were dan-cing polonaise accompanied by the ridiculous lyrics of ´́ Macho Man´́ . Revenge? Maybe that was the last straw that led to the backlash of Steve Dahl´s Disco Demolition Day in 1979, where thousands of drunk troglodytes expressed their concern about the threat to real Rock music, gayness and superficiality by burning Disco records in a base-

happened to be playing at that time´́ . In order to match the sound that was demanded, Salsoul Records for instance drafted al-most the complete house band of Philadelphia International. Sal-soul was actually a Salsa label, but as the money-driven owners realized the financial poten-tial of the it-sound, they were looking for renowned professi-onals like Montana and Young, who could embed their Latin-in-fluenced style in proper Disco arrangements. The New York label marked its status with the release of Dou-ble Exposure´s ´́ Ten Percent´́ , the very first 12-inch single that was commercially available. It was remixed by the Ice Palace resident DJ Walter Gibbons, who deconstructed the three minute-original and extended it into a 10-minute percussive master-piece. Through that release, the world was introduced to two innovations that are crucial elements of modern DJ culture, the remix and the 12´́ .

In 1975, Van McCoy´s #1 hit ´́ The Hustle´́ with its earworm melody, lame rhythm, and sleazy sympho-nic arrangement introduced Disco to the masses. Via radio the new sound was transmitted into the living rooms from Charlotte to Seattle, to people who would probably never do the hustle. Anyway, Disco was already more than just a subcultural phenome-non of nightlife, it had become mainstream. Due to nationwi-de popularity, the term Disco turned into a universal promo-tional affix, which was attached to almost everything; Disco-bowling, Roller Disco, Kinder Disco... Even president Jimmy Carter´s inaugural ball at the White House had a mobile-Disco featuring two dancers in pea-nut costumes. The hype reached its peak by 1977, when Saturday Night Fever delivered the urban fairy tale of Tony Manero, the Italo-stud who tries to escape his frustrating 9 to 5 by beco-

BIRTH Of THe fIRST 12IncH SIngleTom Moulton, famous for his early Disco mix-tapes at Sandpiper Bar (Long Island, NY), started making remixes for the music industry in 1974. Club culture was growing and so was the demand for longer records with breaks and builds.Some time in 1975, Moulton took a mix for Al Dowing to New York Media Sound to have it mastered onto a seven-inch metal blank - which was the standard format for singles. But they were out. The engineer José Rodriguez used a ten-inch blank, instead. In order to avoid having it look like the rest of the record was blank, they spread the grooves apart. „Oh my God! Boy, was that hot“, Moulton says, „it just made the regular forty-five sound like such shit. The levels were incredible... the dynamics, the bass...“. Tom Moulton pressed a new, bigger, 12‘‘ promo (an edit of Moment of Truth‘s „So Much For Love“ ) to give it to DJ Richie Kaczor and DJ David Rodriguez. It was the very first 12inch single. Some months later in 1976, Walter Gibbon‘s remake for Double Exposure‘s „Ten Percent“ was the first commercially available twelve-inch single on Salsoul Records. „The Super Sound Single“ became a term in in-dustry/advertising. However, isn‘t it strange that they „invented“ it late in the 70s? Shouldn‘t the physical rules of „more space, more data/ran-ge“ be obvious to every soundengineer?!?

public intention. ´́ It was time to polish the fittings so the socie-ty folk felt comfortable jumping aboard´́ , and the club that paved the way for this new commitment was ´́ Le Jardin´́ . When Diana Ross´ appearance at the opening caused an enormous promotio-nal stir through the press, many clubowners tried to follow that simple but effective principle. Certainly, chatty socializing has always been a part of clubbing, but it now seemed that everything was about ´́ look who´s here´́ , big limousines, the guest list - and less the music. Welcome to the Studio54!

In contrast, a club that had nothing to do with celebrities riding on horses on the dance-floor was the ´́ Paradise Gara-ge´́ , home of DJ Larry Levan. It was dedicated to the underground spirit of The Loft, where the young Larry had been fascina-ted by Mancuso´s gift to create that certain intimacy. Neverthe-less, the former parking garage was ten times The Loft, it had a huge dancefloor and supposedly the best p.a. in town. The whole straightforward setting was fee-ding only one purpose - dancing. Levan was not very good at mi-xing, but he had an obsession to control all of his clubbers´ sen-ses. Therefore he personally took care of every medium in the Gara-ge; he screened movies (´́ Altered States´́ , ´́ The Wizard of OZ´́ ), he leveled the soundsystem during the day, he had his own control set for the light and eventually he played wonderful dance mu-sic. Like in the early days of Disco, the selection was very eclectic and featured all kinds of records; Grandmaster Flash, MFSB or the Talking Heads. Mel Cheren, the co-owner of the Gara-ge, remembers that once ´́ he had the whole club dancing to nothing more than a few keyboard doodles, unaware that the record he was accompanying had finished mi-nutes ago´́ . What gave Levan such an outstanding position apart

ball stadium. (More about Disco Demolition Day in the follow-ing article ´́ The Art of Disco-Bashing´́ )

With the mass-popularity of Disco since the mid 1970s, New York´s club culture changed and headed in two different direc-tions. While a lot of under-ground gay venues and shady clubs just continued business without being bothered by any celebrities or straight subur-bians, a few other places beca-me the glossy temples of eli-tism, which attracted all the

Welcome To The Studio54!Grace Jones arriving naked so many times it became tiresome; Margaret Trudeau, wife of the Canadian Prime Minister, caught on camera with her muff getting some air; a famous fashion designer buying sex from a busboy; Bianca Jagger riding in on a white stallion lead by a man wearing nothing more than a coat of paint; Liz Taylor photographed having something placed on her tongue; Liza Minelli chewing the fat (and her inner cheeks) on a banquette. Someone dying in an air vent trying to get inside; Sly Stallone ordering at the bar next to John Travolta while a child-like Michael Jackson sits on a sofa in between Woody Allen and Truman Capote, with Andy Warhol over to the side, Jerry Hall next to him deep-throating a bottle of Moet & Chandon...

The Clash showed Punks how to dance and Madonna made it Pop. While these derivates only refe-rred to the aesthetics of sound and ignored the indispensable setting of the nightclub, House music emerged from the same sy-nergetic energy of dance music and the dancefloor. So it´s no coincidence that the new sound was named after the club where it had been distilled ´́ the Ware-house´́ in Chicago (residency of Frankie Knuckles). Here, Frankie Knuckles and his audience redu-ced Disco to the max.

After the masses had already turned their back on Disco in 1979, the final death notice was announced when the HI vi-rus appeared on the set in 1981. Initially nicknamed the ´́ Saint´s Disease´́ - referring to a gay club that popularized the vo-cal-dominated subgenre Hi-NRG and whose members were about the first to die - the virus took the life of thousands of dance maniacs and many pioneers like Patrick Cowley (see our ´́ Dis-co Heaven´́ ). The impact on the clubscene was dramatic. In those days Disco might have lost its carelessness, but opposed to a popular narrative it didn´t die. It grew up!

from his atmospheric DJ skills, was the sort of cross-marketing process that was going on bet-ween him both as a DJ and remi-xer on one and the record labels on the other side. Thanks to the thousands of people (and espe-cially other DJs) dancing every weekend in the Paradise Garage, the ´́ Larry Levan Dance Mix´́ button on a sleeve could give a Disco record the final boost. Think of Gwen Guthries ´́ Ain´t Nothing Goin On But The Rent´́ or Tanaa Gardner´s ´́ Heartbeat´́ , both Garage classics. Since 1992 when Larry Levan died at the age of only 38, he was turned into a mythical figure of pop-history as a godlike DJ. Whether he was really that genius or he sim-ply ´́ had an attitude´́ is irre-levant. Fact is that Levan and the Paradise Garage, where he performed from 1977 until its closure in 1987, stand for the continuum of Disco.

The 1970s had already known subgenres of Disco, but the new decade marked a sweeping frag-mentation that brought out a vast variety of styles and even-tually fully emancipated descen-dants. The Sugarhill Gang rapped over the sample of Chic´s ´́ Good Times´́ and introduced Hip Hop,

Sesame Disco!The 70s kids‘ shows Sesame Street and The Muppet Show by Jim Henson had many sket-ches about Disco, a fact that perfectly reflects how omnipresent mainstream Disco was. Plus, the songs were easy to remember! Disco as a genre wasn‘t culturally challenging at all, and with its world of bizzare celebrity characters and comical glamor it seemed a suitable sub-ject for kids. Today, many new Disco musicians who probably watched the shows as kids are still inspired by the Muppet style. Andy of Hercules & Love Affair says he loves the Muppets, and that their song „True False / Fake Real“ is highly inspired by them. The Puppetmastaz are to HipHop what the Muppets were to Disco. When Gonzales raps he sounds like Mr. Snuf-fleupagus, and Escort just had a YouTube hit with their muppet Disco video „All Through The Night“.Check dsico-fanzine.com for some videos...

Bibliography:

- Brewster, Bill and Frank Broughton. ´´Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey´´. London: Headline, 1999.- Lawrence, Tim. ´´Love Saves The Day: A History of American Dance Music, 1970-1979´´. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2003.- Shapiro, Peter. ´´Turn the Beat Around: A Secret History of Disco´´. NY: Faber and Faber, 2005.

Gwen Guthrie

USA

Success in Million Dollars

Cup Size

Lovers

Gay-Diva Factor

Dance Moves

Lyrics

6C12

34%11

7/10

No romance without finance. (Ain‘t nothin‘ goin‘ on

but the rent)

1b

Grace Jones

USA

Success in Million Dollars

Cup Size

Lovers

Gay-Diva Factor

Dance Moves

Lyrics

41

<A51

93%

175

7/10

Pull up, to it, don‘t drive, through it. Back it, up

twice, now that, fit‘s nice. (Pull up to the bumper)

1a

MadonnaUSA

Success in Million DollarsCup SizeLoversGay-Diva FactorDance Moves

Lyrics

100000000C

243192%193

3/10Holiday, Celebrate, Holiday Celebrate! Holiday, Cele-

bration, Come together in every nation. (Holiday)

2a

Kathy SledgeUSA

Success in Million DollarsCup SizeLoversGay-Diva FactorDance MovesLyrics

29B

1439%

388/10Responsability to me is a tragedy, I‘ll get a job some

other time. (Lost in Music)

5a

Tina WeymouthUSA

Success in Million DollarsCup SizeLoversCutie FactorDance MovesLyrics

14B4

99%2

6/10We broke the rules but we won the game, Nothing to lose, everything to gain. (Pleasure of Love)

5c

Gloria Gaynor

USA

Success in Million Dollars

Cup Size

Lovers

Gay-Diva Factor

Dancing Moves

Lyrics

27C9

81%4

4/10

I don’t want pity, I bang my own drum, Some think

it’s noise I think it’s pretty. (I am what I am)

3a

Donna SummerUSA/Germany

Success in Million DollarsCup SizeLoversGay-Diva FactorDance MovesLyrics

28B5

66%28

6/10Do it to me again and again, You put me in such an awful spin. (Love to love you baby)

4c

Agnetha FältskogSweden

Success in Million Dollars

Cup SizeLoversGay-Diva Factor

Dance Moves

Lyrics

859B4

39%15

10/10

Friday night and the lights are low, Looking out for

the place to go. (Dancing Queen)

4b

Sabrina SalernoItaly

Success in Million Dollars

Cup SizeLoversGay-Diva FactorDance MovesLyrics

+-0D

7259%

12/10

Take a chance, With love romance, Have some fun

tonight. (Boys Boys Boys)

3b

WE WILL SURVIVE

DISCO DIVAS

Playing Cards

NEW!

Tina WeymouthUSA

14B4

99%2

6/10We broke the rules but we won the game, Nothing to lose, everything to gain. (Pleasure of Love)

Tina WeymouthUSA

14B4

99%2

6/10We broke the rules but we won the game, Nothing to lose, everything to gain. (Pleasure of Love)

We scrolled the the discography (productions, remixes, appearances) of super famous Disco producers on www.discogs.com and counted the time from top to button of each list (one scroll / second / Mac WheelMouse). See for example: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Giorgio+Moroder

1.PA

Patrick Adams produced:Musique ´Keep On Jumping´ or Bumblebee Unlimited ´Lady Bug´

Quincey Jones:Michael Jackson ´Thriller´ or Brothers Johnson ´Stomp´ Plus: ´We Are The World´

Ian Levine:Miquel Brown ´So Many Men So Little Time´ or Evelyn Thomas ´High Energy´.

Giorgio Moroder:Donna Summer ´Love To Love You Baby´ or filmmusic for Midnight Express ´Chase´ Plus: a lot of Italo Queens.

Nile Rogers (Chic):Sister Sledge ´We are family´ or David Bowie ´Let`s Dance´. Plus: Madonna ´Like A Virgin´

Dieter Bohlen:CC Catch ´I Can Loose My Heart Tonight´ or Modern Talking ´Cherie Lady´.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

6.DB

2.QJ

3.IL

4.GM

5.NR

14236 54 25 61 34 Scrolling Seconds

By the way: Dr. Dre is scrol-lable in 89 seconds. Just to inform the Hip Hoppers.

Research I: The Disco Producer

More cool words: Superman, Superstar, Heartbreaker, Skydiver, Drum-mer, Friday, Saturday, Disco Circus, Discolypso, Dynamite, Stimu-lation, Sensation, Space, Boogie, Baby, Fun, Magic, Ooh, Burning, Kiss, Touch, Moonlight, Moonboots, Fire, Flight, Bass, Busstop, Hustle, Nasty, Mad, Roller Skating, Waterbed, Lipstick, Celebrate

218

210

134

110

78

72

64

44

43

35

31

26

22

19

19

19

17

16

16

6

You

Love

I

Me

My

Dance

Your

Can

Is

Night

Up

Man

Keep

Body

Feel

Hot

Come

Down

Party

Together

We counted the most used words in song titles from 1127 Disco re-leases on Atlantic (346), Casablanca (135), Prelude (200), Salsoul (237) and T.K. Records (209). Range of release dates: 1974-1986

Uses of ´Up´ or ´Down´ in Song Titles

Up31

Down16

Uses of ´God´ or ´Devil´ in Song Titles

God3

Devil6

TOP NOUN:Love -> 210 Matches

TOP VERB:to can -> 44 Matches

Research II: Typical Disco Song Title

We counted the Disco releases of each year between 1974-1986. Based on 1127 Disco records (same as on the left side...)

1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986

2

18

48

129

173

116121

117

73

31

12

3

284

Examples from 1979: Kiss ´I Was Made For Lovin` You´, Lipps Inc. ´Funkytown´, Michael Jackson ´Don´t Stop ´Til You Get Enough´, Dan Hartman ´Relight My Fire´, Chicago ´Street Player´, Anita Ward ´Ring My Bell´. Danceclassics: Martin Circus ´Disco Circus´, Bumblebee Unlimited ´Lady Bug´, Inner Life ´I`m caught up´. Leftfielded: Telex ´Moskow Diskow´, James White & The Blacks ´Con-tort Yourself´, Dinosaur ´Kiss me again´, PIL ´Death Disco´

Research III: The Disco explosion

1

2

3

4

5

6

8

9

10

11

12

14

13

15

16

17

18

1920

7

1. Paradise Garage, Club by Michael Brody and Mel Cheren; 84 King St. 2. When hearing Barry White‘s „Love Theme“ at an exclusive party on a boat Aaron Spelling got the idea for the famous TV series „Love Boat“; West Pier 3. Neil Bogart of Casablanca Records met Paul Stanley and then signed KISS whose most succesful hit would later be the Disco song „I Was Made For Loving You Baby“; 5 Hudson St. 4. The Loft, Club by David Mancuso (first location); 147 Mercer St. 5. Greenwich Village, or just „The Village“ - gay quar-ter that gave the „Village People“ their name. 6. The Gallery, Club by Nicky Siano (second location);172 Mercer St 7. „Lombardi‘s“: John Travolta‘s favorite Pizza place. 32 Spring St. 8. In 1979 Harry „KC“ Way-ne Casey of KC & The Sunshine Band was beaten up by some anti-Disco kids in front of Katz Deli; 205 East

Houston St. 9. The Saint, Legendary Gay-Club; 2nd Ave & 6th St. 10. Besides Cheesburgers „Big-Q“ also sold Quaaludes Burgers; 52 East 10th St. 11. Dancete-ria, Club of Disco Punk; 30 East 30th St. (third location) 12. Office of Sal Soul Records; 240 Madison Avenue 13. Grace Jones walked down 5th Avenue complete-ly naked in 1983 14. Office of Prelude Records; 200 West 57 St. 15. Studio 54, Club by Steven Rubell & Ian Schrager; 254 West 54th St. 16. The Sanctuary, Club with Dj Francis Grasso; 407 West 43th St. 17. Funhouse, Club by Joe Monk; 526 West 26th St. 18. Roxy, originally Roller Disco; 515 West 18th St. 19. Village People‘s Victor Willis (the police officer) was found passed out in a monkey cage; NY Central Park Zoo 20. Legendary roof top pool party by „The Discog-hosts“; 702 Park Avenue

NEw YOrK CITY

90-minute-riot. Is it pure coincidence that disco was slaughtered in a baseball stadium, the traditional Ame-rican playground for proving one´s masculinity? Pro-bably not.This riot, though unintended, somehow resembled the fascist book burnings and marked the most violent expression of a widely spread antipathy towards dis-co-culture. In 1979 disco had turned into a four-bil-lion-dollar-industry and had dominated the mainstream culture. There were 20,000 discos all over the country and the commercial potential of disco was heavily ex-ploited. It was no surprise that Dahl didn´t remain the only persecutor of ´́wimpy´́ disco-culture: there were others like D.R.E.A.D. (Detroit Rockers Engaged in the Abolition of Disco), KGON-DJ Bob Anchetta, who sawed up stacks of disco records with a chainsaw, KROQ-DJ ´́In-sane´́ Darrell Wayne, who organized a disco funeral at Ventura Beach or Dennis Erectus, who destroyed disco records in his radio show ´́Erectus wrecks a record´́.According to Dahl´s imagery, disco did not just lose the battle, but the whole war. Disco was turned into dance-music and descended into oblivion. In the end, western masculinity had prevailed, thanks to Steve.

White three-piece-suits never seemed to fit Steve Dahl, a slightly overweight 24-year-old Radio-DJ from Chica-go. He also didn´t´t like pina coladas because he was allergic to coconut and, to top it all off, he couldn´t dance. This justification for his anti-disco-crusade, explained on the Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder in 1979, was actually more reasonable and less sarcastic than one might think in the first place. It actually sho-wed why the average white American guy seemed to pre-fer Kiss to Chic, because something deep inside of him couldn´t deal with this sexually explicit, too glamo-rous, too gay and maybe too black sort of subculture. Compared with Rock, disco simply didn´t have any balls!Dahl´s crusade, fueled by his offbeat and white trash sense of humor, resulted in the so-called Disco Demo-lition Night which took place on the 12th of July in 1979 and is usually referred to as ´́the day that disco died´́.After Dahl got sacked from his job at WDAI earlier in´79, because the radio station had switched it´s pro-gram from rock to disco, Dahl, now with WLUP, dedicated himself to wiping out disco. He founded his own army, the Insane Coho Lips (coho salmon had been released into the great lakes to kill the lamprey eel, a para-site), took over disco-clubs and produced the anti-disco-hymn ´́Do you think I´m disco?´́. And what was originally intended as promotion for a baseball match between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers at Chicago´s Comiskey Park, turned into a riot and a bea-con for the downfall of disco.The Disco Demolition Derby was a twi-night doublehea-der: two matches were set up on one evening. Since the White Sox had played a rather poor season, the idea was to let everybody in for only 98 cents, who showed up with a disco record to demolish. As a result the stadium was full packed with 50,000 fans and another 15,000 waiting outside. The atmosphere was heated up due to the aggressive promotion and people were chan-ting ´́disco sucks´́, starting fireworks and throwing their records like frisbees on the playing field. Beer consumption was three times higher than usual and when Dahl finally showed up in between the matches, fully

equipped with army outfit, army jeep and some blonde bombshells, the audi-ence was waiting for some blood to be spilled. After Dahl blew up a big box with 10,000 disco re-cords, hundreds of people star-

ted to make a run on the field and devastate the playing field, stea-

ling the bases and setting parts of the lawn on fire. Only massive police force ended the

DIS

CO

VS

RO

CK

Together they rocked every discothèque while Hihat just stood there in awe, with her mouth open...

Bass and snare used To Be BesT friends.

until, one day Bass would only hang out in the ViP area...

Bum Tsss Chack Tsss

...and Snare didn‘t seem to fit in any more.

she got very sad because nobody seemed to want her anymore (there`s no snare drum in most of Techno and House).

That‘s when she started taking drugs and got into Jungle, drum ‚n‘ Bass und ragga..

dumdumchack diggidiggibumchack! (Pitched up breakbeats)

...while Bass was sniffing snow at exclusive glam parties.

You‘re right! We invented the BPM! The beat is only com-plete with both of us! disco-jogging only works with Bum and Chack!

one day, snare had a vision:

By that time, Bass had also realized they can‘t live without each other...

...and so they got back to working the discothèques - together!

„snare, i am your great grandfather! stop embarassing yourself, where‘s your pride? When i was your age i was leading marches; the straight rythm was my idea! You gotta pull yourselves together, guys!“

Will Smith is performing ´And The Beat Goes On´

by The Whispers

Will Smith is performing´Forget Me Nots´ by Patrice Rushen

Will Smith is performing ´Greatest Dancer´ by Sister Sledge

Will Smith is performing ´Rock The Casbah´ by The Clash

[10:55] W1LLSM1TH: yo

[10:57] jamiroquai72: anybody in here?

[10:57] dftpunk: bonsoir

[10:57] †justice†: sup guise

[10:57] jamiroquai72: bonsoir!

[10:58] W1LLSM1TH: wheres kylie?

[10:58] †justice†: woah daft punk you are the greatest!

[10:58] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: i‘m here will

[10:58] dftpunk: merci

and we love justice too

[10:58] W1LLSM1TH: how ru kylie? say hi to olivier

[10:59] jamiroquai72: hate to say it mates, but all daft punk does is sample disco tracks

[10:59] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: olivier says hi big willie

[10:59] †justice†: jamiroquai is gealous theyre successful and hes not

[10:59] jamiroquai72: “he“ certainly neednt to be jealous....

[10:59] dftpunk: we also like jamiroquai ;)

[10:59] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: i thought jamiroquai is a band

[10:59] jamiroquai72: WE ARE A BAND!

[10:59] W1LLSM1TH: no beef in here lol

[10:59] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: yeah i know its like bon jovi is a band too.. but no need to yell at me

[10:59] jamiroquai72: all i said is that daft punk just take samples from old disco classics and

make millions... not very “creative“

[11:00] Madonna™: hey

[11:00] W1LLSM1TH: i didnt know dft punk was sampling i thought its all theirs

[11:00] †justice†: even if they do, its not like theyre the only ones sampling disco RIGHT

WILL!?!

[11:00] jamiroquai72: harder better faster stronger see: http://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=sklZ-f6Wstw

[11:00] dftpunk: hi Madonna™! how r u

[11:00] W1LLSM1TH: its the sound i grew up with thats why i like sampling it... what, you dont

like disco j?

[11:00] Madonna™: omg jamiroquai yur so hot#

[11:00] jamiroquai72: of course we like disco

[11:00] †justice†: duh will :D btw Madonna™ jamiroqueer is a band

[11:00] jamiroquai72: cheers Madonna™! btw we‘re a band...

[11:01] Madonna™: really? are the other members as cute as him?

[11:01] W1LLSM1TH: whats yer point jam? btw Madonna™ youre a milf

[11:01] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: LOL is there a disco song you havent sampled yet will

[11:01] jamiroquai72: we prefer to write our own songs instead of using other artists‘ music,

thats my point

[11:01] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: whats a milf?

[11:01] W1LLSM1TH: i love combining the old with the new, i think its artistic

[11:01] †justice†: jamiroguy we also write new disco songs so what

[11:01] jamiroquai72: ok lets see... those were will‘s hits:

“Summertime“ <– Kool & The Gang‘s “Summer Madness“

“Gettin‘ Jiggy Wit‘ It“ <– “Greatest Dancer“ by Sister Sledge

“Miami“ <– “And The Beat Goes On“ by The Whispers

“Men In Black“ <– Patrice Rushen‘s “Forget Me Nots“

“Will 2K“ <– “Rock The Casbah“ by The Clash

[11:02] dftpunk: jamiroquai doesnt use samples, but theyre sampling a certain style. we are

quoting great musique (no secret), they are pretending to invent an own style, but its just as

retro... which is worse, quoting or immitating?

[11:03] W1LLSM1TH: omg my willenium song is sampling the clash??? didnt even know... k-

ci hooked me up with that one

[11:03] Madonna™: i used to be a disco queen myself in the 80s... but i also remixed ABBA

[11:03] †justice†: thats not a remix thats sampling

[11:03] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: i just googled “milf“

[11:03] W1LLSM1TH: rofl

[11:03] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: hey where‘s that tracky guy? werent we all supposed to meet here and talk

to him

[11:04] jamiroquai72: so dftpunk does that mean anybody playing a bass is immitating?

who is tracky

[11:04] W1LLSM1TH: jamiro you consider kool & the gangs summer madness DISCO? btw

we won a grammy with dat one! at least all my songs are better than that staying alive cover

by the fugees

[11:04] Madonna™: sampling, immitating - whatevs, i think disco remains a popular genre

because it‘s danceable. it‘s accesible to anyone, it doesnt exclude anybody culturally. its the

perfect mainstream

[11:05] †justice†: i like wyclefs version of staying alive! we play it all the time... hey why is it ok

to you to sample, but not to pirate music Madonna™?

[11:05] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: tracky, the upitup guy who told us to come here at 11

[11:05] dftpunk: Madonna™, i partly agree with you; disco is raw material from a cultural point

of view, its not “owned“ by anyone like techno or hiphop

[11:05] Madonna™: †justice†: because i pay for the samples i use

[11:05] TheDiscoghosts: EEÖÖÖÖÖÖÖHH!!!

[11:05] dftpunk: hi discoghosts! we love you

[11:06] TheDiscoghosts: sorry daftpunkers but we love ladies only, no dudes!

[11:06] dftpunk: for your info: disco was made by mostly gay people

[11:06] W1LLSM1TH: what?!?

[11:06] TheDiscoghosts: but disco is dead and so are all the gay producers (aids). its very

heterosexual nowadays

[11:06] jamiroquai72: i cant believe im even reading this chat. you guys are all

unfuckingbelievable, sorry but im outta here

[11:06] W1LLSM1TH: does this make any of MY SONGS GAY THEN?!?!?

[11:06] †justice†: isnt tracky one of TheDiscoghosts?

[11:06] Madonna™: relax will youre still very masculine

[11:06] TheDiscoghosts: whats a tracky?

madonna youre also very masculine

[11:06] kylie=ˆ~ˆ=: LOL

[11:07] W1LLSM1TH: yo, honey i shrunk the kids is on tv, just started!

<you have been disconnected from the internet>

hey guys sorry i‘m late but i ha |

Now put small drops of glue on the backside of each mirror piece. Care-ful, it´s hot!

Planning a private party? It´s so easy making your own mirror ball, just follow these steps...

Cut little squared pieces out of some old CDs. Hardrock or Metal CDs re-flect the best.

Good work. Now start your hot-glue pi-stol. Smells yummie doesn´t it?

1 2

4

Arrange the pieces in rows around the styrofoam ball. Almost ready...

5

3

Deluxe Party Ball- styrofoam Ball- Crappy Cds- Hot-glue

- scissors

Wow!

Night Fever´́ ; at first Grover is dan-cing like Tony Manero (John Travolta) but soon gets out of breath while everybody keeps yelling at him ´́ dance!´́ . He keeps dancing until he finally faints. The BBC actually reports in an article titled ´́ Dancing Death´́ about an epidemic that broke out in mid-July 1518 in Strasbourg, France, where a woman stepped into the street and started to dance. ´́ She was still dancing several days later. Within a week about 100 people had been consumed by the same irresisti-ble urge to dance. The autho-rities were convinced that the afflicted would only recover if they danced day and night. So guildhalls were set aside for them to dance in, musicians were hired to play pipes and drums to keep them moving, and pro-fessional dancers were paid to keep them on their feet. Within days those with weak hearts started to die. By the end of August 1518 about 400 people had experienced the madness.´́ It´s still not clear today what made the patients dance day and night; some think they had ingested argot, a psychotro-pic mould that grows on stalks of rye, others say they were obsessed by a demon. According to the BBC article the dancers might have had entered a tran-ce state due to ´́ extreme psy-chological distress´́ caused by their poor living conditions.

Let‘s see if “Hasi Interna-tional“ is Disco infected?

An analogy which often appeared in mainstream Disco culture and its conquest was the Dis-co fever. The rapid success of the genre seemed like an epide-mic; Bruce Pollack wrote in ´́The Disco Handbook´́ from 1979: ´́By now you´ve heard the word and felt the fever. In newspapers and magazines, on radio and TV, in movies and advertisements, on city buses and airplanes buzzing the beach, the word is always the same - disco - and the fever is spreading.´́The 1977 movie ´́Saturday Night Fever´́ by Robert Stigwood and John Badham had ultimately popu-larized the music and its corre-sponding club scene all over the world. In the movie, the fever had an additional meaning: the urge to get out of every day life and become king at the local disco-theque on the weekends. The urge eventually became an addiction until one´s life completely re-volved around the weekly ritual of going out to dance. The Bee Gee´s ´́ Night Fever´́ from the movie soundtrack also describes the fever as the excitement for nightlife.

As a mass phenomenon mainstream Disco also exerted a certain peer pressure; having to know the right lingo, wear a fancy outfit, know the latest dance moves. The 1970s kids TV show ´́ Sesame Street´́ made fun of this fact in several sketches (you can watch them on www.dsi-co-fanzine.com). One sketch is spoofing a scene from ´́ Saturday

Fever

Dance Disease

Typical Earworm. Often transmitsDSI-79 virus

?

?

It‘S A peSt!

This throws another light on the story line of ´́ Saturday Night Fever´́ and the motifs of Tony Manero´s unhappy life (dead-end job, unsupportive parents, tensions in the local community, wrong friends) as the medical explaination for his dancing.

Germans have a special term for catchy tunes that get stuck in your head: earworms (Ohrwürmer). Once entered, the earworm re-peats the main melody of a song within your mind, over and over again. Disco songs often have such catchy melodies, that´s probably also a reason why they became popular so quickly. Who hasn´t found themselves sing-ing ´́ these sounds fall into my maiaiaind´́ or ´́ vamos a la playa oh ohohoh oh´́ all day? The big-gest producers of earworms were -without any doubt - ABBA. The Swedish group had one hit after another thanks to the signature harmony singing of female lead singers Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Faeltskog. This style of creating neat harmonics with two voices already helped The Bea-tles implant earworms with their music. And once it´s stuck in people´s heads it´s a guaranteed chart hit. Sometimes an Ohrwurm can be killed by listening to or singing another song, so the worm gets irritated and mixed up; during the Disco era, howe-ver, every other song was just another earworm...

More and more people (especial-ly Rock fans) got tired of the omnipresent Disco hype during the late

Ear Worm

Gay Cancer

Addiction

42

4140

3938

watch the music video to “Boys“ by Sabrina Salerno

watch the film “Maestro“ by Josell Ramos.

visit www.ebonycuts.com

watch the film “Paris Is Burning“ by Jennie Living-ston.

read the book “Turn The Beat Around“ by Peter Shapiro

watch Tracky‘s YouTube playlist “Sesame Disco“

The DSI-79 virus:Widespread, contagious virus in the western hemisphere. Transfused by air -> music. Causes several diseases - in some cases fatal!

70s/early 80s with its obtrusi-ve earworms. Hate arose agains annoying melodies and lowbrow lyrics, and the ´́ Disco Sucks´́ movement was started (as de-scribed earlier in this issue). Steve Dahl´s Disco Demolition Night, where thousands of Disco records were burned, is consi-dered ´́ the day Disco died´́ . But since it´s all about ´́ Staying Alive´́ , Disco coudn´t be killed. So god created a disease that killed a lot of Disco producers and DJs (many of them homosexu-al). At first the disease was called gay cancer until it later became known as AIDS...

And because of all of those sym-toms people needed good medici-ne. Some used methaqualone, a muscle relaxant also known as Quaaludes, others inhaled Pop-pers (amyl nitrite) to enhance sexual pleasure. The most po-pular medicine was cocaine, a stimulant of the central nervous system. However, most of the medicine used is addictive - a fact that caused more symtons to appear due to their regular use.

CONCLUSION: As a conclusion I can say Disco is a highly conta-gious, addictive, and deadly di-sease. In order not to catch any of the above symptoms make sure you NEVER:

listen to the song “Lady Bug“ by Bumblebee Unlimited, especially not the Larry Levan edit

Dr.DRE

During our research we´ve come across some great tunes, and we´ve decided to compile a list for you featuring our 69 favorite Disco tracks +1 bonustrack; the list also con-tains important milesto-nes of music history. We sorted them chronological-ly, determined their most significant elements, ana-lized their tempo (BPM), and guessed the tonal key - all to find musical si-milarities / differences.

It´s interesting how the list shows in what ways the genre developed. It also questions the musi-

cal cliches Disco is noted for, while drawing connec-tions to today´s dance mu-sic. Some sounds are still up to date while others seem antiquated... As a conclusion, we made a track with all the average values of the below songs (bpm, key, elements etc.) to create the ultimate Uberdisco track! Mwahaha!

Some musical elements are typical for Disco, be sure to know these: electric (often slap) bassline that alternates / slides between two octaves, funky guitar playing syncopa-ted chords (often with

the wah-wah effect), open hihat between bass and snare drum, latin per-cussion enhancing the rhythm, claps, cowbells, tom toms, and other rhyth-mical gadgets, a steady ´four-to-the-floor´ (FTTF) 4/4 bassdrum, uplifting strings creating a lush atmosphere, repetitive vocals and raps, falsetto (head voice) choir, qua-cky snythesizer basslines and melodies, and much more (vocoders, synthetic drums)...

You can listen to all songs (incl. Uberdisco) at www.dsico-fanzine.com

TOP 69

Signage of our TOP 69

$TubeTip

D

Favorite Disco Song of Daniel, M-Boy, Konrad, Roglok and Tracky

You Tube Hit / Flop

Hipsters, watch out!

€

Worst lyrics

MB

Romantic /can opener

D DJs favorite

Chart-breaker

LandmarkSong

/ Champagnetested.

z Catchy tune!

Duuuhh

Outta space' Rock?

No meaning

Average BPM: 116,64

Analysis of our TOP 69

Average Year of Release: 1984

Top Disco Nations:51% USA (35 songs of 69)13% UK 9% Italy 5% Germany 5% France17% Others

Top featured elements:59% Synthesizer40% Claps40% Funky guitar31% Strings 21% Choir21% Trumpet/sax/hornsection 19% Bass with octave shifts 19% Latin percussion

New York

Average Key: 16% C minor10% E minor 9% C#minor 9% D minor56% Others

Lead Vocal:53% Male45% Female 2% Chipmunk

The Disco City

27% New York10% London 9% Los Angeles 6% Philly 4% Paris 3% Frisco41% Others

London

Los AngelesPhilly

ParisFrisco

TOP 69T

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he 7

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k th

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achi

ne t

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l the

chi

cks?

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ir,

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t st

rings

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ntic

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g A

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ple

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ms

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mus

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hich

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rtifi

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w

arm

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lyric

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B

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n,

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ner

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d“

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heric

al la

yers

of a

nalo

g sy

nth,

m

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mal

e vo

cals

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ihat

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te n

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ms

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eak

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ack

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rny

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nH

orns

pla

y a

catc

hy t

une;

str

uctu

re r

athe

r m

inim

al

- ap

pea

rs q

uite

con

tem

por

ary.

“Let

the

dru

ms

spea

k“H

orn

lead

, fat

shu

ffle

dru

ms

with

p

artly

op

en h

ihat

s, c

onga

s, r

aps

107

GM

I Wou

ldn´

t C

hang

e A

Thi

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oke

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rett

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lyric

s th

at e

ncou

rage

th

e p

eop

le t

o w

aste

the

ir tim

e on

the

dan

ceflo

or, w

arm

at

mos

phe

re.

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ould

n´t

chan

ge a

thi

ng, I

f I h

ad t

o liv

e m

y lif

e al

l ove

r“C

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y b

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t d

rum

s, c

lean

gu

itar,

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pho

ne, c

hoir

117

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M

Paz

uzu

(The

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al fr

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Tony

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ylve

ster

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lax

2007

1976

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xplic

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coU

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his

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py

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co t

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rob

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use

d in

ton

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por

ns. G

allo

pin

g b

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lcan

o st

yle.

Har

ry fu

cks

Sal

ly...

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h ah

hhhh

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lyric

s. D

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as

a cu

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l lib

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, you

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hrou

gh li

fe

in n

atur

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ha

pp

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ga

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ouse

wife

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co

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the

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t iro

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of A

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udes

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dis

co d

rug:

futu

ristic

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tic, g

lam

orou

s, e

lect

roni

c D

isco

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mile

ston

e b

y sy

nth-

pio

neer

Gio

rgio

Mor

oder

.

“Ooh

I fe

el lo

ve, I

feel

love

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rpeg

gio

synt

h, d

rum

mac

hine

, lo

ng d

raw

n-ou

t fe

mal

e vo

cals

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Goo

d

For

The

Sou

l (W

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bon

s M

ix)

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soul

O

rche

stra

Sal

soul

1978

US

AN

YTr

ibal

D

isco

Sou

nds

like

the

craz

y rit

ual o

f som

e ab

orig

inal

Dis

co

trib

e. T

he fl

utes

cou

ld b

e th

e he

rold

of f

renz

y. T

hey

coul

d

also

be

bal

sam

- fo

r yo

ur s

oul.

“It‘

s -

good

- fo

r -

the

- so

ul

-- I

- lo

ve -

you

!“La

tin p

ercu

ssio

n, g

allo

pin

g hi

hats

, flut

es, c

hant

ing,

cla

ps

124

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-

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z M

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nifi

cant

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men

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PM

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YV

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eR

ick

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der

Li

nden

Sp

iege

l-ei

1978

Net

h.H

AR

Eur

oS

ynth

Nov

elty

slo

w E

uro

Dis

co! I

ncre

dib

ly fu

nky

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vis

iona

ry.

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duc

ed s

olel

y on

a Y

amah

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syn

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izer

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bas

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gh

the

two

genr

es w

ere

alw

ays

confl

ictiv

e. In

itial

ly t

his

song

was

fast

er, b

ut t

hen

reco

rded

with

slo

wer

tem

po

(pro

bab

ly in

ord

er n

ot t

o so

und

too

Dis

co..)

“I‘v

e b

een

hold

ing

out

so

long

, I‘v

e b

een

slee

pin

g al

l al

one,

Lor

d I

mis

s yo

u“

Str

aigh

t d

rum

s, p

artly

op

en

hiha

t, D

isco

bas

s w

/ oc

tave

sh

ifts,

con

tain

ed g

uita

r, or

gan,

ha

rmon

ica,

cat

chy

chor

us

110

Am

/D

mM

Rin

g M

y B

ell

Ani

ta W

ard

T.K

. D

isco

1979

US

AM

ED

isco

-S

oul

Cat

chy

sing

-alo

ng h

ook

that

mak

es t

his

song

an

all-

time

Rob

inso

n C

lub

ant

hem

. Tur

n on

the

ligh

ting

cons

ole!

“...l

ay b

ack

and

rel

ax w

hile

I p

ut a

way

the

dis

hes.

The

n yo

u an

d m

e ca

n ro

ck a

bel

l“

Str

aigh

t d

rum

s, in

fam

ous

Dis

co

Tom

s, c

lap

s, s

lap

bas

s w

ith

octa

ve s

hift

s, fu

nky

guita

r, ch

oir

126

Cm

F

Lad

y B

ugB

umb

leb

ee

Unl

imit

edR

CA

1979

US

AN

YC

hip

-m

unk

Dis

co

Cut

e ch

ipm

unk

voic

es o

ver

a fu

nky

groo

ve, a

Lar

ry

Leva

n C

lass

ic w

ith g

reat

pia

no c

hord

s. N

ovel

pro

duc

tion

aest

hetic

s; s

ober

and

tig

htly

arr

ange

d.

“Lov

e yo

u an

d k

iss

you

and

ki

ss y

ou a

nd h

ug y

ou“

Str

aigh

t b

eat,

latin

per

cuss

ion,

p

iano

, fun

ky b

ass

with

oct

ave

shift

s, p

itche

d-u

p s

ound

119

Bb

mC

Goo

d T

imes

Chi

cA

tlant

ic19

79U

SA

NY

Dis

co

Dis

coP

rob

ably

the

mos

t fa

mou

s b

assl

ine

ever

; Sug

arhi

ll G

ang

just

ap

pro

pria

ted

the

inst

rum

enta

l - “

Goo

d T

imes

“ he

lped

to

boo

t up

Hip

Hop

.

“Mus

t p

ut a

n en

d t

o th

is

stre

ss a

nd s

trife

, I t

hink

I w

ant

to li

ve t

he s

por

ting

life“

Funk

y b

ass,

ep

ic D

isco

-gui

tar,

pia

no, s

trin

gs, s

tacc

ato

choi

r11

3E

m/

AF

Ain

´t N

o S

top

pin

U

s N

owR

isco

C

onn

ecti

on

Bla

ck

Ros

e M

usic

1979

US

A,

NY

Aft

er

Ho

ur

Dis

co

This

Lof

t cl

assi

c is

a g

reat

aft

er-h

our

tune

due

to

its

Reg

gae/

Dub

ele

men

ts. T

he o

rigin

al b

y M

cFad

den

&

Whi

tehe

ad is

sup

pos

ed t

o b

e a

gay

prid

e an

them

.

“Don

‘t y

ou le

t no

thin

g,

noth

ing.

Not

hing

sta

nd in

yo

ur w

ay“

Reg

gae

dru

ms

(rim

shot

-sna

re),

filte

red

syn

th p

ads,

war

m

bas

slin

e, w

ah-g

uita

r w

/ re

verb

113

G#m

M

Gre

ates

t D

ance

rS

iste

r S

led

ge

Atla

ntic

1979

US

AN

YD

-I-

S-

C-O

Mai

nstr

eam

hit

with

gla

mou

rus

“Kin

g of

the

D

isco

thèq

ue“

as m

otif.

Sim

ilar

feel

ing

as S

atur

day

Nig

ht

Feve

r so

ngs

bec

ause

it g

lorifi

es D

isco

sta

rdom

.

“The

cha

mp

ion

of d

ance

hi

s m

oves

will

put

you

in a

tr

ance

“

Funk

y gu

itar,

1/16

hih

at, d

etun

ed

orga

n, s

trin

gs w

/ vi

bra

to11

6C

mF

NO

G.D

.M.

Gin

a X

EM

I19

79G

er.

CO

LD

isco

-W

ave

Slo

w D

isco

gro

ove,

als

o co

nsid

ered

gay

ant

hem

. Fu

turis

tic s

ynth

sou

nd m

akes

it “

wav

y“.

“Tha

t‘s

life

- on

e d

ive.

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ynth

bas

s, F

X &

pad

s, v

ocod

er,

non-

mel

odic

al “

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e“ s

tyle

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ngin

g, c

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ell

110

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F

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‘t S

top

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Get

Eno

ugh

Mic

hael

Ja

ckso

nE

pic

1979

US

ALA

Glit

ter

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coG

litte

r &

gla

mou

r fe

elin

g! M

icha

el J

acks

on a

pp

ears

m

ultip

lied

in b

oth

mus

ic v

ideo

and

son

g (m

ain

and

bg

voca

ls).

“Jus

t lo

ve m

e ‚t

il yo

u d

on‘t

kn

ow h

ow -

ooh

“E

xotic

per

cuss

ion,

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ps,

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ker,

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ouru

s st

rings

, fal

sett

o d

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l-ed

, hor

ns, o

rgan

, cle

an g

uita

r

119

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/B

mM

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cer

Gin

o S

occ

ioW

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1979

Can

.M

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Eur

o-i

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coTh

is r

epet

itive

gro

ove

bui

lds

up t

ranc

e, o

ut o

f sp

ace

feel

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ks t

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cts.

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y ca

tchy

ind

eed

.“D

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high

er.“

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ass

w/

octa

ve

shift

s, fu

nk g

uita

r, p

iano

, Wav

y ch

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s

122

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olle

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.“D

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ant

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ass

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110

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1980

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ele

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ae

sthe

tics

of s

ynth

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dru

m m

achi

ne m

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(Ele

ctro

).“S

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ing

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achi

ne

ever

y d

ay fo

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l my

life“

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l dru

ms

/ p

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imal

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121

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“ D

isco

cla

ssic

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nic

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gan

and

cat

chy

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e.

“I‘m

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cing

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right

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ass

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gas

121

Bm

M F

Tube Tip

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R ' z

/

D

Fant

astic

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age

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1980

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ALA

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to P

-Fun

k w

ith c

rank

y b

assl

ine

and

Dis

co-r

aps.

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hees

y 80

s R

&B

b

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d v

ocal

s. C

oolio

mad

e a

cove

r ve

rsio

n.

“Hur

ry u

p p

ack

your

bag

s an

d ja

m y

‘all,

com

e on

and

rid

e on

the

funk

now

“

Syn

th &

sla

p b

ass,

Dis

co g

uita

r, cl

aps,

lead

voc

als

& fa

lset

to m

ale

choi

r

116

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M

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imp

le ‘A

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eld

oy a

nd fu

ll p

ump

ing

bea

ts.

War

ning

: ver

y ca

tchy

! San

gria

sty

le.

-S

ynth

bas

s &

lead

, Mex

ican

sty

le

trum

pet

s, a

rtifi

cial

cla

ps

116

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-

Ma

Qua

le

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o

D‘A

ngio

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la-

pho

ne19

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acho

D

isco

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n m

ains

trea

m D

isco

, a b

eaut

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liché

. Pin

o D

‘Ang

io

used

to

per

form

it w

ith a

lit

ciga

rett

e in

his

han

d.

“Bal

la!“

Dis

co g

uita

r, fu

nky

bas

s, p

iano

, cl

aps,

Dis

co t

om, r

aps

& fa

lset

to

mai

l cho

ir

115

G#m

M

Sha

ck U

pA

Cer

tain

R

atio

Fact

ory

1981

UK

MA

No

Wav

eD

isco

from

Man

ches

ter.

“Sha

ck U

p“

man

ages

to

be

one

of P

unk‘

s fu

nkie

st e

ver

dan

ceflo

or m

ater

ial.

“Sha

ck U

p!“

Dis

co g

uita

r, fu

nky

bas

slin

e,

Wav

ey v

ocal

s, t

rum

pet

s12

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mM

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D

isco

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wee

test

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vent

ures

of D

isco

mus

ic. P

last

ic

80s

soun

d -

yet

war

m. L

ight

and

ste

rile

- le

ss o

rgan

ic.

“She

can

‘t lo

ve y

ou li

ke I

coul

d“

Syn

th b

ass,

op

en h

ihat

, syn

th

vib

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n un

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Dis

co t

rack

, alm

ost

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NR

G, w

ith

over

ridin

g fe

mal

e le

ad v

ocal

- o

nly

for

club

use

.“I

wan

na s

how

you

wha

t I

got

for

you!

“D

isco

bea

t, s

ynth

bas

s w

/ oc

tave

sh

ifts,

fem

ale

choi

r, co

wb

ell,

shak

er

120

Em

F

Gen

ius

Of L

ove

Tom

To

m

Clu

bIs

land

R

ecor

ds

1981

Car

-ib

be-

an

Isla

nd

Dis

coN

aive

sum

mer

sou

nd, r

emin

ds

you

of t

hat

girl

you

had

ic

ecre

am w

ith in

5th

gra

de.

“Wha

tcha

gon

na d

o w

hen

you

get

outt

a ja

il? I‘

m g

onna

ha

ve s

ome

fun.

“

Slo

w b

eat,

Dis

co g

uita

r, si

gnat

ure

synt

h le

ad, D

ub e

ffect

s, c

hild

ish

fem

ale

rap

s &

sin

ging

103

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t Tr

ue L

ove

Affa

irJi

mm

y R

oss

BC

M

Rec

ord

s19

81U

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eakt

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Dis

coD

ance

floor

pul

ler:

Thi

s on

e is

str

ictly

for

the

lad

ys -

ro

man

tic ly

rics,

sin

g-a-

long

hoo

k. 2

yea

rs t

oo la

te?

“I n

ever

let

you

go!“

Syn

th /

rea

l bas

s, c

lap

s, fu

nky

guita

r, m

ale

choi

r, le

ad s

ynth

118

F/ Am

M

I.O.U

Free

ezS

tree

t-w

ise

1982

UK

/ U

SA

BM

X

Dis

coP

rese

t-P

arty

! Mus

ic fo

r B

MX

kid

s. O

ne o

f the

gre

ates

t hi

ts a

t Fu

nhou

se (N

Y).

“Tha

t‘s

how

I fe

el, I

wan

t it

to b

e re

al“

Syn

th b

ass,

dru

m m

achi

ne &

cl

aps,

fem

ale

voca

ls, b

ells

119

Dm

M

Hea

vy V

ibes

Mo

ntan

a S

exte

ttU

nid

isc

1982

US

AP

HD

isco

Fo

xTh

e w

arm

gro

ove

& ja

zzy

inst

rum

ents

mak

e th

is o

ne a

n ex

celle

nt h

ome-

liste

ning

Dis

co t

rack

. Cat

chy

vib

rap

hone

re

pla

ces

lead

voc

als.

-La

tin p

ercu

ssio

n, c

lap

s, s

imp

le

bas

s, w

arm

org

an, v

ibes

114

Cm

/G

#-

Unl

imite

d

Cap

acity

For

Lo

ve

Gra

ce J

one

sU

MG

1982

US

A,

NY

Ref

rig

e-ra

tor

War

mne

ss m

eets

coo

lnes

s -

an o

ut o

f sp

ace

exp

erie

nce.

In

dus

tria

l & W

ave

asso

siat

ion

“Thi

s co

uld

tur

n ou

t an

othe

r un

win

ning

war

“S

ynth

(arp

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o /

strin

gs),

fem

ale

voic

e, c

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s gu

itar,

synt

h so

lo11

5A

mF

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ots

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R

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Will

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mis

co70

s m

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80s!

Dis

co o

ut o

f the

con

stru

ctio

n ki

t. G

reat

sa

xop

hone

pea

k...

“Was

it t

he s

imp

le t

hing

s th

at m

ade

me

so c

razy

ab

out

you?

“

Sla

p b

ass,

brig

ht s

trin

gs, d

oub

le-

clap

s, s

ax, e

-pia

no, f

emal

e ch

oir

115

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Roc

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Left

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Dis

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To il

lust

rate

thi

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sum

ptio

n th

is t

rack

is ju

st p

erfe

ct.

“By

ord

er o

f the

pro

phe

t -

we

ban

tha

t b

oogi

e so

und

.“

Hon

keyt

onk

pia

no, d

isto

rted

gu

itar,

bon

gos,

dou

ble

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ps,

ro

ck v

oice

128

Dm

M

A D

ebris

of a

M

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hro

bb

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G

rist

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cus

1982

UK

LOD

arkr

oom

Dub

Slo

w, d

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ed a

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ut m

inim

alis

tic D

isco

with

ta

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g an

d e

choe

d v

oice

s.-

Syn

th b

ass

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hord

s, o

pen

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at,

bon

gos,

Dis

co t

om, t

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ng10

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The

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k S

ide

Of

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Sp

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er

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bo

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kC

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rg.

1982

Itlay

Pro

toty

pe

Ho

use

Ultr

a d

eep

& s

ynth

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Dis

co H

ouse

- w

ay a

head

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t‘s

time.

..-

Syn

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rics

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nifi

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men

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s19

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, goo

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r ü3

0 P

artie

s.

Voca

ls r

emin

d o

f Bob

by

Wom

ack.

“My

rent

is d

ue, m

y ki

ds

all

need

bra

nd n

ew s

hoes

...“

Che

esy

synt

h b

assl

ine,

sax

, p

iano

, dou

ble

-cla

ps,

mal

e vo

cals

109

Bm

M

Voic

e O

f Q“Q

“P

hilly

W

orld

1982

US

A,

PH

Co

ld W

ar

Dis

coW

ho is

Q?

A c

rook

ed c

omp

uter

ora

cle?

Thi

s is

not

ha

pp

y no

r m

elan

chol

ic, a

sta

te o

f iso

latio

n an

d w

rong

id

eas

of h

uman

/mac

hine

inte

ract

ion.

“Fee

l the

gra

vity

- m

ove

to

anot

her

real

ity“

Sla

p b

ass,

dou

ble

-cla

p, s

poo

ky

pad

s, s

ynth

-flut

e, v

ocod

er v

oice

116

Cm

/G

#M

Bur

ning

Up

(12‘

‘ Ve

rsio

n)M

ado

nna

Sire

1983

US

AN

YS

tero

id

Dis

coTu

rbof

ast

wor

kout

pop

to

flex

a m

uscl

e! W

ithou

t a

dou

bt

Mad

onna

‘s b

est

Dis

co t

rack

...“Y

ou‘r

e al

way

s cl

osin

g yo

ur

doo

r, w

ell,

that

onl

y m

akes

m

e w

ant

you

mor

e.“

Dou

ble

-cla

ps,

syn

th b

ass,

dru

m

mac

hine

, e-g

uita

r rif

fs, f

emal

e vo

cals

139

Bb

mF

Sav

e O

ur L

ove

(inst

r.)E

scap

e Fr

om

New

Yo

rk

Pro

file

1983

US

A,

NY

Vern

is-

sag

e D

isco

Imag

ine

a hi

gh s

ocie

ty p

arty

in t

he 8

0s w

ith s

par

klin

g su

rrou

ndin

gs...

-S

low

sim

ple

dru

ms,

funk

y b

assl

ine,

syn

th p

ads

& la

yers

, cl

aps,

ech

o FX

106

Fm-

Ano

ther

Man

Bar

bar

a M

aso

nW

est

End

1983

US

AP

HS

low

D

isco

Slo

w P

arad

ise

Gar

age

hit

with

lam

ent

rap

ab

out

mis

beh

avin

g m

en. P

erfe

ct fo

r yo

ur c

ar r

adio

.“A

noth

er m

an is

bea

ting

my

time“

Syn

th la

yers

& b

ass,

1/1

6 hi

hat,

ar

tifici

al c

owb

ell,

fem

ale

talk

ing

113

Em

F

Chi

cago

Ro

y A

yers

Uno

M

elod

ic

1983

US

AN

YD

eep

D

isco

Ron

Aye

rs‘s

“C

hica

go“

is a

min

imal

, dee

p J

azzf

unk

groo

ve w

ith s

imp

le &

rep

ititio

us ly

rics.

Ear

ly D

eep

H

ouse

?!

“Chi

cago

Chi

cago

- U

uh“

Sla

p b

ass,

ste

ady

strin

gs, b

right

or

gan,

funk

gui

tar,

dou

ble

-cla

ps,

si

ngin

g/ta

lkin

g

115

Fm/

Em

M

Luck

yE

llie

Ho

pe

RFC

1983

UK

,LO

Sec

reta

ry

Dis

coS

ecre

tarie

s lis

ten

to t

his

whi

le g

ettin

g d

ress

ed in

the

m

orni

ngs.

Sty

le: N

o ca

lorie

s. C

ola

Ligh

t (D

iet

Cok

e)“L

. U. C

. K. Y

. - le

t m

e te

ll yo

u w

hy“

Sim

ple

bea

t, c

owb

ell,

light

syn

th

pad

s &

mel

odie

s, fe

mal

e vo

ice

116

Bb

mF

Pla

stic

Dol

lD

harm

aZ

YX

1983

Italy

Ital

o

Dis

co I

Is it

rea

lly a

dol

l? S

eem

s lik

e it.

Wor

st v

ocal

s ev

er -

Ital

o D

isco

at

it‘s

bes

t. T

he “

rem

ixed

inst

rum

enta

l“ v

ersi

on

mig

ht p

leas

e yo

u b

ette

r.

“Am

I cr

azy

or ju

st la

zy.

Wha

t is

for

me

true

rea

lity?

“O

pen

hih

ats,

fem

ale

voca

ls,

clap

s, s

ynth

bas

slin

e &

mel

odie

s12

0B

mF

Let

No

Man

Put

A

sund

erFi

rst

Cho

ice

Sal

soul

1983

US

A,

PH

Voca

l H

ous

eTh

is o

ne b

ecam

e a

pro

toty

pe

Voca

l Hou

se t

rack

with

fe

mal

e vo

cals

and

sto

mp

ing

bea

ts.

“It’s

not

ove

r d

on’t

wan

t to

b

e fr

ee“

Fem

ale

voca

ls /

cho

ir, s

trin

gs,

cong

as &

bon

gos,

cla

ps

& s

nap

s11

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#mF

Woo

dp

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rs

From

Sp

ace

Vid

eo K

ids

Pol

ydor

1984

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h.W

oo

d-

pec

ker

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co

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dy

visi

ted

the

ear

thlin

gs a

nd b

roug

ht h

is

Cas

io k

eyb

oard

. Che

esy

& c

harm

ing.

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ever

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y to

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w

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Funk

y

a wormhole. One wonders why wun-derkind DJ Ron Hardy hadn´t just dismissed Disco completely after House music was born. From the view of a DJ or dance music pro-ducer, the focus on pure rhythm rather than on opulent orche-stration should be a logical consequence. However, the advent of programmable drummachines like the gritty sample-based Linn LM-1 and the Roland TR-808 and 909 with their archetypi-cal pounding bassdrum circuitry provided the necessary equipment to make the crowd ´́ jack´́ . Soon rhythmical paradigms were broken up and snares and handclaps were put all over the place while never loosing their quantized tightness.I feel that Acid House final-ly liberated dance music from individual-related live music and erased the reference to Disco music as far as possible. With Acid, atonality found its way into House and the snatchy rhythms coupled with the stacca-tos and portamentos of the 303 are a perfect match. I wouldn´t argue that Acid House is more intelligent than Disco - it might even be more stupid - but it´s surely closer to catharsis and much more funky!

I would have rather participa-ted in a fanzine about Acid than Disco. To me, Disco music beco-mes interesting by the late 70´s when producers started to tear down Dsico´s ´́ wall of sound´́ and got rid of all those sicke-ning orchestral sections, mostly made up of string and horn com-positions. Not only the reduc-tion to the bare musical essen-tials, but also the concept of automatization was necessary to help Disco become fresher. Back in 1975, during the production of Donna Summer´s ´́ Love To Love You Baby´́ , Giorgio Moroder advi-sed his drummer Keith Forseth to play the drums in perfect sync with a Wurlitzer Sideman - the first commercially available electronic drummachine, which was made in 1959. While the rat-her crappy Sideman sounds (cre-ated from vacuum tubes!) were not used in the song, Moroder´s approach was clear: to seek for Funk in a dry, steady machi-ne-like beat. The bassdrum was recorded very loud and with a distinct punch and although the track runs on only 96 bpm (a term that came up in the Disco era btw.) it might mark the be-ginning of a new technique that soon became essential for dance music production.

While House music adopted Disco´s 4-to-the-floor rhythm structure and thus created an apparent connection, the sound aesthetics slowly became more abstract and futuristic. A Ron Hardy Warehouse mix from the mid 80´s is loaded with edits of cheesy, ornamental Disco tracks, suddenly cut through by mini-mal pumping House rhythms that sound like they slipped in from

Suggested listening:

Chip E. “Time to Jack“ Gotta Dance Records, 1985Hercules “7 Ways“ Dance Mania, 1986Mr. Lee “House This House“ Trax Records, 1987Tyree “Acid Crash“ Rockin House Music, 1988Gherkin Jerks “Acid Ingestion“ Gherkin Records, 1988Armando “151“ Warehouse Records, 1988Mike Dunn “Magic Feet“ Westbrook Records, 1988Two Of A Kind “Acid Bitch“ West Madison Records, 1988Fast Eddie “Acid Thunder“ DJ International, 1988 Spanky “Acid Bass“ Trax Records, 1989

makesFu

nky

makes

Sour

Sour

Fortunately, I make

Acid music

by Roglok

“My name is Farivar and I‘m from Tehran/Iran and at the moment I live in Copenhagen/Denmark. I love all kind of music and as long as I remember, I’ve been interested in music, that‘s why (in 1988) togheder with one of my best friends (DJ/VJ A.A.) decided to open our own Club ”Acid House club” in a nice little town called Holbæk. Very soon we became one of the best clubs in the town...“

www.djfarivar.dk

“Some people ask of me:

What are you gonna be?

Why don‘t you go get a job?

All that I can say:I won‘t give up

my musicnot menot nowno way

no how.”

Lost In Music (I quit my nine to five) by Sister Sledge

IMP.´́ Best before´́ is a fanzine about Disco by Manuel Buerger, Dennis Knopf, Konrad Kuhn and Leo Merz

Chief Editor: Dennis KnopfArt Direction: Manuel BuergerDirector of Technology: Leo MerzStaff Writer: Konrad Kuhn

Guest contributions:´́ Disco Game´́ illustration by Bureau Baraque / www.fanzineno1.de´́ Total Eclipse´́ (Donna Summer) artwork by Christian Schiller / gold-wirtschaftswunder.de´́ Disco Worshippin Dice´́ artwork by Daniel v. Bernstorff´́ The Discoghosts´́ illustration by Florian Bayer / www.florianbayer.com´́ Bee Gees´́ artwork by c.coy / www.seecoy.com´́ The Art of Disco-Bashing´́ guest article by Martin Gossner´́ Earworm´́ illustration by Sebastian Haslauer / www.hasimachtsachen.com

please visit our website including enhanced TOP69 and DJ Mixes!www.dsico-fanzine.com

A Shake Your Tree & Up It Up Production, 2008

Special thanks to Xavier de Rosnay of Justice for his contribution (p.6):The labels you should have found are: DFA (flash), Permanent Vacation (blimp), Eskimo (hair clip), Tigersushi (head), Ed Banger (body), Gomma (bag), Environ (e) and Tirk (leaves).

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