Disco Funk

2018 Repress Back again, in a fresh new sleeve. Invisible City Edition descend to even further depths and give us a fully re-mastered issue of this mythical treasure! BIG Limited Edition TIP! "For many this is the ultimate Disco Illusion; a record that should have been epoch making in its day, something that would have been a staple for David Mancuso, Larry Levan & Ron Hardy had it ever gotten distribution when it was originally released 34 years ago. Somehow time passed it by and it was only re-discovered in a warehouse in Trinidad last year. Since then it has been gaining momentum fast, with DJ support from Moodymann, MCDE, Floating Points & Kon, as well as original copies selling for four-digit sums. Part of the illusion is in the structure of the record. The A-side begins with beautiful, but relatively normal disco song, but suddenly an Egyptian sounding bridge turns the things inside out and the song opens up into a proto-house jam complete with bubbling Sun Ra synths and Black Ark tape delay action. The there�s the b-side, which sounds like Bob James after he had a taste of callaloo, with deep electronics and a mind-melting steel pan solo. Finally, thanks to Invisible City this record is getting the life it has always deserved. "

12" limited to 250 copies

Beware, Discomatin is back. In 2018, the Parisian crew originally known for their edits goes official with fully licensed and remastered reissues. For this new adventure, they chose an incredible in-demand French boogie EP from Diva, an eighties funk band from Bordeaux. Diva only released one EP with La Nuit, a sentimental, almost poetic boogie banger with great synth, guitar and vocal parts. The track could honestly have been a radio hit in the eighties with some real promotion. Today, it’s still time to make it right and it is already an anthem in the French underground disco scene. Originally on the B side of the 1985 original release on Cactus, « La Nuit » is here available with its two different versions (12’’ and 7’’ mix) and comes also with “Prise Au Piège”, a more synth-pop influenced funk track which gave its name to the original release. Thanks to Discomatin, it’s now available to the real connoisseurs and still with the fantastic illustrations of French artist Camille de Cussac on the back cover.

Chances are if you are reading this, you are probably already familiar with Dinosaur L's “Go Bang” and danced countless times to Loose Joints' "It's All Over My Face". A prolific musician, Arthur Russell produced an abundant amount of recordings over the course of his career. Although a classically trained cellist, he released a number of successful underground dance hits under various monikers and collaborations. As a solo artist however, his inability to complete projects resulted in a limited amount of official releases, World of Echo (1986) being his only full-length solo effort to see release in his lifetime. After releasing a number of Club singles on labels like West End & Sire, Russell went on to form Sleeping Bag Records with Will Socolov as an outlet for a sound not as restrictive as his "disco" material. The initial concept was that Russell would provide the musical direction while Socolov handled the business side. The label had huge success early on with Class Action’s “Weekend” remixed by Larry Levan, and Russell’s seminal “Go Bang,” credited to Dinosaur L and remixed by Francois Kevorkian. Although Russell and Socolov shared a lot of musical common ground, the difference in vision began to show. Russell’s avant-garde sensibilities and perfectionism were not compatible with an industry standard to release singles in quick succession, and his "work in progress" approach began to be financially draining, ultimately resulting in the dissolution of their partnership around 1983. With Arthur's departure, Sleeping Bag moved away from the experimental and towards a successful hip-hop route with the growing involvement of Kurtis Mantronik and leading to propel the careers of artists like Todd Terry, Just-Ice and EPMD.By the mid-80s, Russell’s health began to deteriorate after contracting HIV. Although the business partnership did not work out, Socolov and Russell maintained their friendship. Aware of the time he had left, Russell reached out to Socolov to record what was to become Indian Ocean, his last release on Sleeping Bag and the last great collaboration between Arthur and his old friend Walter Gibbons.Unlike the rest of Russell's Dance collaborations, “School Bell/Treehouse” is very intimate composition, putting to the forefront all the elements that defined him musically, with his own voice and cello as the anchors to a piece that keeps growing in intensity, melding the tribal rhythms of Mustafa Ahmed’s conga with percussions that sound like distorted drum machines. There is a lot of beauty in this piece, with Peter Zummo's melancholic trombone lines and Arthur's keyboard playing. Adequately "mixed with love" by Walter Gibbons, "School Bell/Treehouse" really synthesizes the energy and soundscapes of Arthur's dancefloor.

A long time in the making – Quare Groove Vol. 1 – Sounds of the Irish musical underground from the 70s & 80s..Spread across 2 12s with extensive liner notes on printed inner sleeves. Re-mastered with care by Shawn @ Optimum.Stating it softly..... Irish music of the 1970's was simply not synonymous with groove music in any way. Avid music aficionado's were totally 'rockist' then (to use an old tag from the same time!) That thread tends to follow with record collecting of vintage Irish music of that time, down to this day. We'll throw a little change into that narrative here - the groove is very rare, and not a little quare! We've looked at the entire recorded music picture of what happened here on this little island into the 1980's, and we're bringing back this ---We can't tell you that this music comes from a strange place - it comes from a steadily steep and VERY strange place! A small place that was not a little conflicted societally and politically back then - and in every way too, public and private. However it was also a time of great change. Living through it seemed like a rite of passage that moved off from some manner of dark age, and then over forward into a brighter light. Modernity beckoned, and not just with the technology!So what can you hear here? It's no coincidence that this music also makes a similar coming of age. Recording techniques were wholly embraced here, in this era. Late 1970's Irish music saw sound engineering and music production artistry advance from previous, and in a very big way. As studio's moved away from simple and straight audio captures, the music really benefitted. So what can you hear here? We're bringing you two sides of this story on two big black twelve inch slates. The first slate has an abundantly sweet clubbier sound of past-funk groove music. The second slate gives you an edgier angle of what the post-punkers got up to, after they too got their hands on the same danceflooring. This is really but only the beginning: There's so much more to come!