Hordes of NYC hipsters already know that the "mutant disco" punk/dancehybrid sound of the early 80's is experiencing a major resurgence ofinterest. The original heroes of the genre—bands like Liquid Liquid, 23Skidoo, A Certain Ratio, and Gang of Four—are being excavated andre-released. Inevitably, a legion of new artists are having a lot offun rediscovering these sounds and making their own form of retrodance/punk, with uneven results. Trevor Jackson's Output Recordings,home to a cadre of retro-disco and new-new-wave artists, have jumped onthis bandwagon in a big way. Trying to make their own 21st centuryversion of the seminal Disco not Disco compilation, Output has assembled some of the best songs and 12" mixes on the label for their Channel 2comp. The disc opens with 7 Hurtz' "Malibu," a shimmering retro-housetrack which tries (and fails) to sound like FPU's "Ocean Drive."Manhead's "Doop" is a fantastically corny bebop jazz-disco hybrid thatrecalls Miles Davis' ill-advised foray into dance and hiphop.Blackstrobe's dancefloor-stormer "Me and Madonna" is on the verge ofsounding like Gina X Performance's "Nice Mover," but eventuallydeclines into electroclash cliches. Possibly the best reason to buythis compilation is the only appearance of LCD Soundsystem's "Losing MyEdge" on CD. For those who don't already know, "Losing My Edge" is thefunniest, most infectious 12" dance single to be released in recentmemory. Over retardedly low-fi beatbox and bass hits, the DFA's JamesMurphy does a Mark E. Smith-style monologue boasting all of his hipstercredentials: he was there at the first Can show, he was there at theParadise Garage with Larry Levan, he was the first to play Daft Punk atCBGB's. At the end of the song, he yells out a hilarious roll-call ofevery so-called "hip" artist from the past thirty years: "This Heat,Pere Ubu, The Human League, The Normal, Lou Reed..." and etc. adnauseum. By removing the minor-key bassline andupping the disco quotient for their 12" re-recording of "Olio," NYCpunk-disco band The Rapture manage to sound a little less like The Curethan the song's first appearance on their debut Mirror. TheZongamin remix of Playgroup's underground dance hit "Make it Happen" isawesome, pushing the intensely rhythmic ESG-style sassiness that theoriginal only hinted at. Dempsey's "ODB on the Run" is a chaoticallyfunny avant-dance track about Big Baby Jesus' run-in with the law andthe disc ends with a weirdly out-of-place, laptop-treated guitar balladby The Boy Lucas. Like most compilations of this sort, this is aninconsistent listen with a few gems that may or may not be worth theprice.- LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge
- The Rapture - Olio
- Playgroup - Make It Happen (Zongamin Remix)
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