Mixmag's 15 recent dance music books you should read this summer

  

Thanks to Gemma Ross for including Futuromania in the Mixmag list of summer reading for dance music fiends 

The full list is here, a worthy bunch to sit alongside indeed 

Before the Deejay Was Cool (slight return)

 

From a 1971 issue of Melody Maker

Still, there are two turntables - plus bonus feature of a built-in cassette recorder!

This slight return is picking up on the earlier post about the extensive prehistory of discotheques and "disco music"  - prior to disco as we have come to misunderstand it. 

A time when the music was as likely to be some form of rockin' pop as it was soul. And deejays used a  a microphone more than a mixer, since patter was a big part of their performance. 

Trawling through a load of early '70s MM's, Sounds, NME's, it is striking how they increasingly have disco sections in the advertising pages, speaking to the burgeoning market for mobile discotheques and all the attendant gear. 

Peace Signs (Flash It)

Pure Gurley gorgeousness in this Rogue Unit mix

Such emotional subtlety to almost anything Steve Gurley touches

The other versions - nice 'n' slinky Ray Keith (+ Nookie) work-over

in two parts

and then the Shades of Rhythm version, the "Hard"

 

Halfway through  there's the pleasant surprise - what the Nuumologist lives for - of the Rufige Cru "Menace" diva  sample appearing. Here it's much closer to its original speed of the Urban Soul source track, rather than the ooh-oohing whipped-soulcream of "Menace", that gaseous bliss-overdose

Still pretty woozy bliss in the original but as the whisked-up tempo drops down, the Urban Soul diva is revealed to be a dude

Back to Shades of Rhythm - where oh where is the "Peace Sign (Classic Piano Mix)"?

Ah seems it was reissued by Kniteforce

At least you can hear the original demo version

Shades of Rhythm do have one other track that really does it for me, really sends me

It's the gaseous diva bliss-groan that is the Moment for me, as sublimely zoomed in on in this reversioning by Pseudo-3 

When Freaks Were Chic - Danceteria remembered

Fun and fascinating -  with fabulous fotos - Danceteria oral history by Joy Press, aka the missus, who was a regular at the legendary New York club in the 1980s. 

Everyone from Madonna and Fab 5 Freddy to Marc Almond and Johnny Rotten to Beastie Boys and Butthole Surfers (worth reading the whole article just for the "piss wand" story) makes an appearance. 

Something in the air clearly - in freaky synchrony the final Soft Cell album is titled Danceteria, while Madonna has a single out called "Danceteria". Joy was working on this story for months before discovering these unexpected pegs for the piece.

"John Sex was singing there..."

(and in reference to the late Anita Sarko who deejayed at Danceteria)

“I said to Anita, ‘Play me what I want to hear’ / She said, ‘Dear, I’m not a DJ I’m an atmosphere engineer.’”

"Everybody here is a work of art"

Here's a real-time tribute by Soft Cell, shaped by their New York clubland adventures, when they hooked up with a character called Cindy Ecstasy. She has a spoken-word on the re-recorded version of "Memorabilia" that appeared on Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing. This was one of the very first remix albums, alongside The Human League's Love and Dancing (released under the alias The League Unlimited Orchestra) and The B-52s Party Mix!

Really like the echo-chambered horn section on this, which reminds me a bit of "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone"

"Memorabilia" is much more in the zone of avant-funkers like 23 Skidoo and A Certain Ratio than the Northern Soul meets Suicide smashes that made Soft Cell pop stars. 

Later Almond -  veering away from the overlit pop world to the arty dark demimonde - would perform at Danceteria as part of the Immaculate Consumptive, an abject cabaret revue involving Lydia Lunch, Nick Cave, and Clint Ruin.