Best enjoyed in it's entire length. You could describe it as a voyage, a wholesome experience that takes you away. When listening to music in general, I'm real fascinated with the idea losing my expectations and just starting to really listen to all the little things that are happening within the framework of a beat - which is one of probably the biggest reason why I can't get that much kicks out of pop/rock, where it's mostly all about waiting for the chorus.
Here's a little confession: I've been overdosing on music since I was 18 or something. I've never really kept the thing under control since, listening music nearly all the time I've been awake. Of course, for me, music genres have come and go. Last year or so, I've been drawn more and more to disco - which seems to be the trend in modern dance music in general, as well.
And what is really strange: suddenly this music, a music that is nowhere near to being recognized as something other than a funny fad that your parents went through before settling down, seems like an endless well of good tracks. Every week I discover a few amazingly constructed, rhythmically sound and incredibly humorous/touching songs. It was a weird era, all the amazing jazz and soul players coming together to make extremely functional and liberating music. Of course, a lot of campy watered down pop with a disco beat was produced too, but you really can't play crappy stuff like that to a dancefloor. Maybe a dancefloor didn't make the distinctions between where the music came from, but it certainly did regarding to how good and danceable it was - if you feel it then you dance, simple as that, no excuses, no reasoning how respectable the artist was. People think doing disco gave a free pass to do crappy stuff with a monotonous beat, but that's faaar from the truth.
Here's a little rundown of late disco-veries:
And this last I just had to include here, for all the haters:
You get the mix of yesterday today, but that's part of the WTF-experience. I'm sorry if someone was really looking forward to this yesterday, but I had do relax after an exam and have quality time for myself.
Now, to the mix in question. The first thing I wanted to hear this morning was L.S.B's Locomotion (it's the first song on their myspace page), which is a weird coincidence since I wanted to post a Pete Herbert mix in our Mix Week. Maybe it was my subconscious side telling me it's about time, LOL.
If you don't know who Pete Herbert is, lemme break it down for you in a few sentences. He's one of the biggest and most trustworthy names in the nu-disco scene, both as a dj and as a producer/remixer, besides the likes of Greg Wilson or Ray Mang. He works under such projects as Reverso 68, L.S.B, Frontera... Check his myspace list to get the full coverage. As the edit market is swarming nowadays with all kinds of stuff, you really need guys like him to dig out the best of the crop and show how it works in the mix. As a remixer/producer he's always had a real good ear for light, but danceable beat patterns and groovy synth melodies. As far as I know this is the only video interview there is with him, check it out if you have time, from 4:30 and in English.
PETE HERBERT - COOL IN THE POOL PROMO MIX Download Tracklist unavailable, but hit me with a request - I know pretty much all those tracks!
Why this mix? I'll admit from the start that it's not filled with rare classics and it doesn't really build up an atmosphere, which I definately like to hear in a mix. Quite simply put, I love this because it sums up pretty much what's coming from the nu-disco scene, and it keeps things interesting beatwise through it's course. It gets me still: I lose myself to listening how the certain elements play around the basic beat pattern and how songs smoothly transcend to another.
There's always been this accusation of dull repetition against electronic/dance music in Finland. They say it - actually my mum said this particular mix was 'a bit dull' - is just the same beat all over again for minutes and minutes. But when you compare the things happening in a verse-chorus-verse song with a decent disco song which has a rich beat and bassline with elements constantly adding and substracting for minutes, I'd definately say it's nowhere near dull. I can't really imagine a disco song whose rhytmic structure couldn't keep on interest for at least the duration of a pop song.
That's actually the thing why I listen to disco-related music: listening to a pop song means following a formulated narrative, from start to finish, listening to a disco song that's in the mix, feels more like tuning into a receptable space and condition where interesting things are happening. This all sounds pretty over-the-top, but ask a dancer if she loses herself to the music and just feels present.
Apparently, I do also lectures on metaphilosophy of disco, too LOL
This one's one of my favorite PH production. He's got plenty of good ones to go around.
