Archive for the disco category
Fox “S-s-single Bed”
by teabog on February 5th, 2007
Fox
S-s-single Bed
I downloaded this off of Fluxblog ages ago, and once I got past the fact that it was unapologetically a piece of sleazy 70’s dance music—free from any sign of kitsch or self-awareness—it became my campy anthem of the summer.
The key word is “camp,” not “kitsch.” I’ve read Susan Sontag’s half-coherent essay that tries to differentiate the two terms, and even though I found it very interesting I thought it was way too prolix and muddied the terms more than they needed to be. To little old simplistic me, the difference between the two terms is that “campy” things are good in spite of being campy, while kitschy things are only good within the context of being kitsch. Lime green stretch pants were never good, until they were worn by self-aware people who embraced and appropriated their badness to a new end. Campy things are good things that, for whatever reason, are grouped in with bad things. The films of John Waters and Douglas Sirk, for example, or the music of Girls Aloud or Annie.
Back to this song…this song is one that you probably shouldn’t play in front of new company for fear of getting dirty looks. When you first listen to it, it just feels wrong, like you’re listening to something you should hate. But then you start to realize how goddamn sexy it is, how it’s not the coked-out, superificial disco fantasies of some dumb cunt that you’re listening to, nor is it a run-of-the-mill 70’s psychedelic track. Instead, the blending of the two styles yields something that’s much filthier than you would expect, something that maintains its playfulness in spite of its sexiness. The end result is sounds like a blend of Cyndi Lauper, Goldfrapp, and Blondie, and I like it a whole bunch.
Buy Fox’s debut album at Amazon
Escort “Starlight”
by teabog on January 29th, 2007
Escort
“Starlight”
I don’t remember where I got this, as I downloaded it long before I ever bothered to listen to it. From what I’ve been able to piece together since actually playing the track and realizing that Escort rocks, here’s what I found out:
Escort are a modern day band that play music that your parents will fucking swear came out in the 70s. They are mostly white people and they use entirely live instrumentation, no samples. They have no official album aside from a vinyl EP with a bunch of remixes that you’ll only be interested in if you’re a DJ.
As for the track itself, it’s pure disco, but it’s disco in a good way. Like, disco that’s made to listen to first and dance to second. Disco that’s been written by Quincy Jones. Actually, it sounds an awful lot like a throwaway track recorded during the sessions Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall,” with only Michael’s backup singers on it.
Disco
Sounds like: Early Michael Jackson, only with different singers.